Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Lord's Goodness to Israel

⁸ The Lord said, “They are my people; they will not deceive me.” And so he saved them ⁹ from all their suffering. It was not an angel, but the Lord himself who saved them. In his love and compassion he rescued them. He had always taken care of them in the past,

A Call for the Universe to Praise God

¹⁰ It was only right that God, who creates and preserves all things, should make Jesus perfect through suffering, in order to bring many children to share his glory. For Jesus is the one who leads them to salvation.

¹¹ He purifies people from their sins, and both he and those who are made pure all have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his family. ^12 (A)He says to God,

^13 (B)He also says, “I will put my trust in God.” And he also says, “Here I am with the children that God has given me.”

¹⁴ Since the children, as he calls them, are people of flesh and blood, Jesus himself became like them and shared their human nature. He did this so that through his death he might destroy the Devil, who has the power over death, ¹⁵ and in this way set free those who were slaves all their lives because of their fear of death. ^16 (C)For it is clear that it is not the angels that he helps. Instead, he helps the descendants of Abraham. ¹⁷ This means that he had to become like his people in every way, in order to be their faithful and merciful High Priest in his service to God, so that the people's sins would be forgiven. ¹⁸ And now he can help those who are tempted, because he himself was tempted and suffered.

The Escape to Egypt

¹³ After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Herod will be looking for the child in order to kill him. So get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave.”

¹⁴ Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt, ^15 (A)where he stayed until Herod died. This was done to make come true what the Lord had said through the prophet, “I called my Son out of Egypt.”

The Killing of the Children

¹⁶ When Herod realized that the visitors from the East had tricked him, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were two years old and younger—this was done in accordance with what he had learned from the visitors about the time when the star had appeared.

¹⁷ In this way what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true:

The Return from Egypt

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go back to the land of Israel, because those who tried to kill the child are dead.” ²¹ So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Israel.

²² But when Joseph heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. He was given more instructions in a dream, so he went to the province of Galilee ^23 (C)and made his home in a town named Nazareth. And so what the prophets had said came true: “He will be called a Nazarene.”