Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
12 Blessed is the nation whose Elohim is Yahweh.
Blessed are the people he has chosen as his own.
13 Yahweh looks down from heaven.
He sees all of Adam’s descendants.
14 From the place where he sits enthroned,
he looks down upon all who live on earth.
15 The one who formed their hearts
understands everything they do.
16 No king achieves a victory with a large army.
No warrior rescues himself by his own great strength.
17 Horses are not a guarantee for victory.
Their great strength cannot help someone escape.
18 Yahweh’s eyes are on those who fear him,
on those who wait with hope for his mercy
19 to rescue their souls from death
and keep them alive during a famine.
20 We wait for Yahweh.
He is our help and our Magen.
21 In him our hearts find joy.
In his holy name we trust.
22 Let your mercy rest on us, O Yahweh,
since we wait with hope for you.
16 On the morning of the second day, there was thunder and lightning with a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud blast from a ram’s horn was heard. All the people in the camp shook with fear. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with Elohim, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because Yahweh had come down on it in fire. Smoke rose from the mountain like the smoke from a kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, Moses was speaking, and the voice of Elohim answered him.
20 Yahweh came down on top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up. 21 Yahweh said to him, “Go down and warn the people not to force their way through the boundary to see Yahweh, or many of them will die. 22 Even the priests who are allowed to come near Yahweh must set themselves apart as holy, or Yahweh will violently kill them.”
23 Moses said to Yahweh, “The people can’t come up Mount Sinai, because you warned us yourself to mark off a boundary around the mountain and consider it holy.”
24 Yahweh said to him, “Go down, and bring Aaron back with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through the boundary to come up to Yahweh, or he will violently kill them.”
25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.
14 Certainly, all who are guided by God’s Spirit are God’s children. 15 You haven’t received the spirit of slaves that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the spirit of God’s adopted children by which we call out, “Abba![a] Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 If we are his children, we are also God’s heirs. If we share in Christ’s suffering in order to share his glory, we are heirs together with him.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.