Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Praise to God for His Salvation and Judgment
149 Praise[a] the Lord!
(A)Sing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise in the assembly of saints.
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
Let the children of Zion be joyful in their (B)King.
3 (C)Let them praise His name with the dance;
Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.
4 For (D)the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
(E)He will beautify the [b]humble with salvation.
5 Let the saints be joyful in glory;
Let them (F)sing aloud on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And (G)a two-edged sword in their hand,
7 To execute vengeance on the nations,
And punishments on the peoples;
8 To bind their kings with chains,
And their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 (H)To execute on them the written judgment—
(I)This honor have all His saints.
[c]Praise the Lord!
Death of the Firstborn Announced(A)
11 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. (B)Afterward he will let you go from here. (C)When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether. 2 Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, (D)articles of silver and articles of gold.” 3 (E)And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man (F)Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.
4 Then Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: (G)‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; 5 and (H)all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. 6 (I)Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, (J)such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. 7 (K)But against none of the children of Israel (L)shall a dog [a]move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’ 8 And (M)all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will go out.” (N)Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger.
9 But the Lord said to Moses, (O)“Pharaoh will not heed you, so that (P)My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” 10 So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; (Q)and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.
29 (A)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and [a]adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that (B)you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 (C)Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33 Serpents, (D)brood[b] of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 (E)Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: (F)some of them you will kill and crucify, and (G)some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 (H)that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, (I)from the blood of righteous Abel to (J)the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.