Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Praise for Rescue from Enemies.

A Song of Ascents, of David.

The Flood Subsides

8 But ^(A)God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and ^(B)God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. ² Also ^(C)the fountains of the deep and the ^[a]floodgates of the sky were closed, and ^(D)the rain from the sky was restrained; ³ and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end ^(E)of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased. ⁴ In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, ^(F)the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶ Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the ^(G)window of the ark which he had made; ⁷ and he sent out a raven, and it ^[b]flew here and there until the water was dried up ^[c]from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; ⁹ but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the ^[d]surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself. ¹⁰ So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ The dove came to him toward ^[e]evening, and behold, in her ^[f]beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth. ¹² Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out ^(H)the dove; but she did not return to him again.

¹³ Now it came about in the ^(I)six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up ^[g]from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the ^[h]surface of the ground was dried up. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. ¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may ^[i](J)breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out ^[j]by their families from the ark.

Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 ^(A)What shall we say then? Are we to ^(B)continue in sin so that grace may increase? ^2 (C)May it never be! How shall we who ^(D)died to sin still live in it? ³ Or do you not know that all of us who have been ^(E)baptized into ^(F)Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we have been ^(G)buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was ^(H)raised from the dead through the ^(I)glory of the Father, so we too might walk in ^(J)newness of life. ⁵ For ^(K)if we have become ^[a]united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be ^[b]in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our ^(L)old ^[c]self was ^(M)crucified with Him, in order that our ^(N)body of sin might be ^[d]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷ for ^(O)he who has died is ^[e]freed from sin.

⁸ Now ^(P)if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been ^(Q)raised from the dead, ^[f]is never to die again; ^(R)death no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Even so consider yourselves to be ^(S)dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.