Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
149 Praise the Lord!
Sing a new song[a] to the Lord!
Sing his praise in the assembly of his followers.
2 Let Israel be happy with their Maker.
Let the people of Zion rejoice with their King.
3 Let them praise him by dancing
and playing their tambourines and harps.
4 The Lord is happy with his people.
He did a wonderful thing for his humble people.
He saved them!
5 Let his followers rejoice in this victory!
Let them sing for joy, even in their beds!
6 Let the people shout praise to God.
And with a sharp sword in their hand,
7 let them take revenge on the other nations.
Let them go punish those people.
8 They will put their kings in chains
and their leaders in chains of iron.
9 They will punish those nations as God commanded.
This is an honor for all his followers.
Praise the Lord!
The Death of the Firstborn
11 Then the Lord told Moses, “I have one more disaster to bring against Pharaoh and Egypt. After this, he will ask you to leave Egypt. In fact, he will force you to leave this country. 2 You must give this message to the Israelites: ‘Men and women, you must ask your neighbors to give you things made of silver and gold.’” 3 The Lord caused the Egyptians to be kind to the Israelites. The Egyptians, even Pharaoh’s own officials, already considered Moses to be a great man.
4 Moses said to the king, “The Lord says, ‘At midnight tonight, I will go through Egypt, 5 and every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, to the firstborn son of the slave girl grinding grain. Even the firstborn animals will die. 6 The crying in Egypt will be worse than at any time in the past or any time in the future. 7 But none of the Israelites or their animals will be hurt—not even a dog will bark at them.’ Then you will know that the Lord has treated Israel differently from Egypt. 8 All these officials of yours will come down and bow to me. They will say, ‘Leave and take all your people with you.’ Only then will I leave!” Then in anger, Moses left the meeting with Pharaoh.
9 Then the Lord told Moses, “The reason Pharaoh did not listen to you is so that I could show my great power in Egypt.” 10 That is why Moses and Aaron did all these great miracles in front of Pharaoh. And that is why the Lord made Pharaoh so stubborn that he would not let the Israelites leave his country.
29 “It will be bad for you teachers of the law and you Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets. And you show honor to the graves of the godly people who were killed. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived during the time of our ancestors, we would not have helped them kill these prophets.’ 31 So you give proof that you are descendants of those who killed the prophets. 32 And you will finish the sin that your ancestors started!
33 “You are snakes! You are from a family of poisonous snakes! You will not escape God. You will all be judged guilty and go to hell! 34 So I tell you this: I send to you prophets and teachers who are wise and know the Scriptures. You will kill some of them. You will hang some of them on crosses. You will beat some of them in your synagogues. You will chase them from town to town.
35 “So you will be guilty for the death of all the good people who have been killed on earth. You will be guilty for the killing of that godly man Abel. And you will be guilty for the killing of Zechariah[a] son of Berachiah. He was killed between the Temple and the altar. You will be guilty for the killing of all the good people who lived between the time of Abel and the time of Zechariah. 36 Believe me when I say that all these things will happen to you people who are living now.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International