Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of degrees.

¹ ¶ I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence cometh my help.

² My help comes from the LORD, who made the heavens and earth.

³ He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keeps thee will not slumber.

⁴ Behold, he that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

⁶ The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

⁷ The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.

⁸ The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

¹⁴ And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it as a feast unto the LORD throughout your ages; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.

¹⁵ Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶ And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, except that which every person must eat, that only may be done of you.

¹⁷ And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for in this same day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore, shall ye observe this day for your ages by an ordinance forever.

¹⁸ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.

¹⁹ For seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or born in the land.

²⁰ Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations ye shall eat unleavened bread.

²¹ ¶ Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, Draw out and take lambs according to your families and sacrifice the passover.

²² And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and touch the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

²³ For the LORD will pass through smiting the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

²⁴ And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever.

²⁵ And it shall come to pass, when ye have entered into the land which the LORD will give you, according as he has promised, that ye shall keep this service.

²⁶ And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What do you mean by this service?

²⁷ That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. Then the people bowed and worshipped.

²⁸ And the sons of Israel went away, and as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

¹¹ Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from the carnal desires which war against the soul

¹² and have your honest conversation among the Gentiles, so that, in that which they murmur about you as of evildoers, having witnessed your good works, they may glorify God in the day of visitation.

¹³ ¶ Therefore, be subject to every human ordinance that is of the Lord, whether it be to a king or to a superior,

¹⁴ and unto governors as unto those that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those that do well.

¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that in well doing ye may silence the ignorance of vain men,

¹⁶ as being free, yet not using your liberty to cover maliciousness, but as slaves of God.

¹⁷ Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.