Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 89
A Contemplative Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
1 I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever;
with my mouth I will make known Your faithfulness to all generations.
2 For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever;
Your faithfulness shall be established in the heavens.”
3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
4 ‘Your offspring I will establish forever,
and build up your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah
19 Long ago You spoke in a vision
to Your godly one and said:
“I have given help to one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found David, My servant;
with My holy oil I have anointed him:
21 By whom My hand shall be established;
My arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not take tribute from him,
nor the wicked humiliate him.
23 I will beat down his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him,
and in My name his horn shall be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on the sea
and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He shall cry unto Me, ‘You are my Father, my God,
and the Rock of my salvation.’
2 There was a certain man from Zorah, from the tribe of Dan. His name was Manoah. His wife was infertile and had borne no children. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Indeed, you are infertile and have borne no children, yet you will conceive and bear a son. 4 Now be careful, I pray, that you drink no wine or strong drink and that you do not eat anything ritually unclean. 5 For you will conceive and bear a son. No razor may touch his head, for the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb. He will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
6 Then the woman went to her husband and said, “A man of God came to me. He looked like a very fearsome angel of God. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. 7 He said to me, ‘You will conceive and bear a son. So now, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything ritually unclean, for the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day he dies.’ ”
8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, “O my Lord, let the man of God whom You sent come again to us, so that he can teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born.”
9 God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman hurried and ran to tell her husband, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.”
11 So Manoah got up and went after his wife. He came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
He said, “I am.”
12 Then Manoah said, “Now may your words come true! What will be the boy’s way of life and his work?”
13 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Your wife must observe everything that I said to her. 14 She must not consume anything that grows on the vine. She must not drink wine or strong drink, and she must not eat anything ritually unclean. She must observe everything that I commanded her.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you, and let us prepare a young goat for you.”
16 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If I stay, I will not eat your food, but if you want to make an offering to the Lord, you should offer it.” (For Manoah did not know that he was an angel of the Lord.)
17 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we can honor you when your words come true?”
18 The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.” 19 Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering and offered them to the Lord upon a rock. Then he did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife watched. 20 When the flame went up from the altar toward the heavens, the angel of the Lord went up in the flames from the altar. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell face down on the ground. 21 The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord.
22 Manoah said to his wife, “We are certainly going to die, for we have seen God.”
23 Yet his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, He would not have taken the burnt offering and grain offering from us. He would not have shown us these things, nor let us hear things such as these at this time.”
24 So the woman bore a son, and she called him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.
Division Among the People
40 Therefore when they heard these words, many of the people said, “Truly, this is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “This is the Christ.”
But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Has the Scripture not said that the Christ comes from the seed of David, out of the town of Bethlehem where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people because of Him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
The Unbelief of Those in Authority
45 Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?”
46 The officers answered, “No man has ever spoken like this Man.”
47 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 49 Not at all. This crowd who does not know the law is accursed.”
50 Nicodemus, being one of them who came to Jesus by night, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”
52 They answered him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.