Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.
A [a]Maskil of Asaph.
78 (A)Listen, O my people, to my [b]instruction;
(B)Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will (C)open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter (D)dark sayings of old,
3 Which we have heard and known,
And (E)our fathers have told us.
4 We will (F)not conceal them from their children,
But (G)tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
And His strength and His (H)wondrous works that He has done.
12 (A)He wrought wonders before their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the (B)field of Zoan.
13 He (C)divided the sea and caused them to pass through,
And He made the waters stand (D)up like a heap.
14 Then He led them with the cloud by (E)day
And all the night with a (F)light of fire.
15 He (G)split the rocks in the wilderness
And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.
16 He (H)brought forth streams also from the rock
And caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 Thus says the Lord, your (A)Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,
Who (B)leads you in the way you should go.
18 “If only you had (C)paid attention to My commandments!
Then your [a](D)well-being would have been like a river,
And your (E)righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 “Your [b](F)descendants would have been like the sand,
And [c]your offspring like its grains;
(G)Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”
20 (H)Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!
Declare with the sound of (I)joyful shouting, proclaim this,
(J)Send it out to the end of the earth;
Say, “(K)The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.”
21 They did not (L)thirst when He led them through the deserts.
He (M)made the water flow out of the rock for them;
He split the rock and (N)the water gushed forth.
11 (A)Do not speak against one another, (B)brethren. He who speaks against a brother or (C)judges his brother, speaks against (D)the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not (E)a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one (F)Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is (G)able to save and to destroy; but (H)who are you who judge your neighbor?
13 (I)Come now, you who say, “(J)Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 [a]Yet you do not know [b]what your life will be like tomorrow. (K)You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 [c]Instead, you ought to say, “(L)If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your [d]arrogance; (M)all such boasting is evil.
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