Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God the Righteous Judge
A Psalm of Asaph.
50 The (A)Mighty One, God the Lord,
Has spoken and called the earth
From the rising of the sun to its going down.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
(B)God will shine forth.
3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent;
(C)A fire shall devour before Him,
And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him.
18 For wickedness (A)burns as the fire;
It shall devour the briers and thorns,
And kindle in the thickets of the forest;
They shall mount up like rising smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts
(B)The land is burned up,
And the people shall be as fuel for the fire;
(C)No man shall spare his brother.
20 And he shall [a]snatch on the right hand
And be hungry;
He shall devour on the left hand
(D)And not be satisfied;
(E)Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.
21 Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;
Together they shall be (F)against Judah.
(G)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.
Assyria Shall Be Broken
10 “Woe to those who (H)decree unrighteous decrees,
Who write misfortune,
Which they have prescribed
2 To rob the needy of justice,
And to take what is right from the poor of My people,
That widows may be their prey,
And that they may rob the fatherless.
3 (I)What will you do in (J)the day of punishment,
And in the desolation which will come from (K)afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your glory?
4 Without Me they shall bow down among the (L)prisoners,
And they shall fall [b]among the slain.”
(M)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.
Stephen’s Address: The Call of Abraham
7 Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And he said, (A)“Brethren and fathers, listen: The (B)God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in (C)Haran, 3 and said to him, (D)‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ 4 Then (E)he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was (F)dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. 5 And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, (G)He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. 6 But God spoke in this way: (H)that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into (I)bondage and oppress them four hundred years. 7 (J)‘And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will (K)judge,’ said God, (L)‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’ 8 (M)Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; (N)and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; (O)and Isaac begot Jacob, and (P)Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.