Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 149
149 Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing God’s praise in the assembly of the faithful!
2 Let Israel celebrate its maker;
let Zion’s children rejoice in their king!
3 Let them praise God’s name with dance;
let them sing God’s praise with the drum and lyre!
4 Because the Lord is pleased with his people,
God will beautify the poor with saving help.
5 Let the faithful celebrate with glory;
let them shout for joy on their beds.[a]
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
7 to get revenge against the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 binding their rulers in chains
and their officials in iron shackles,
9 achieving the justice
written against them.
That will be an honor for all God’s faithful people.
Praise the Lord!
God announces the final disaster
11 The Lord said to Moses, “I’ll bring one more disaster on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he’ll let you go from here. In fact, when he lets you go, he’ll eagerly chase you out of here. 2 Tell every man to ask his neighbor and every woman to ask her neighbor for all their silver and gold jewelry.” 3 The Lord made sure that the Egyptians were kind to the Hebrew people. In addition, Pharaoh’s officials and the Egyptian people even came to honor Moses as a great and important man in the land.
4 Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: At midnight I’ll go throughout Egypt. 5 Every oldest child in the land of Egypt will die, from the oldest child of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the oldest child of the servant woman by the millstones, and all the first offspring of the animals. 6 Then a terrible cry of agony will echo through the whole land of Egypt unlike any heard before or that ever will be again. 7 But as for the Israelites, not even a dog will growl at them, at the people, or at their animals. By this, you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 Then all your officials will come down to me, bow to me, and say, ‘Get out, you and all your followers!’ After that I’ll leave.” Then Moses, furious, left Pharaoh.
9 The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh won’t listen to you so that I can perform even more amazing acts in the land of Egypt.” 10 Now Moses and Aaron did all these amazing acts in front of Pharaoh, but the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he didn’t let the Israelites go from his land.
29 “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 You say, ‘If we had lived in our ancestors’ days, we wouldn’t have joined them in killing the prophets.’ 31 You testify against yourselves that you are children of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, complete what your ancestors did. 33 You snakes! You children of snakes! How will you be able to escape the judgment of hell? 34 Therefore, look, I’m sending you prophets, wise people, and legal experts. Some of them you will kill and crucify. And some you will beat in your synagogues and chase from city to city. 35 Therefore, upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been poured out on the earth, from the blood of that righteous man Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. 36 I assure you that all these things will come upon this generation.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible