Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 86
A prayer by David.
1 Turn your ear toward me, O Yahweh.
Answer me, because I am oppressed and needy.
2 Protect me, because I am faithful to you.
Save your servant who trusts you. You are my Elohim.
3 Have pity on me, O Adonay,
because I call out to you all day long.
4 Give me joy, O Adonay,
because I lift my soul to you.
5 You, O Adonay, are good and forgiving,
full of mercy toward everyone who calls out to you.
6 Open your ears to my prayer, O Yahweh.
Pay attention when I plead for mercy.
7 When I am in trouble, I call out to you
because you answer me.
8 No god is like you, O Adonay.
No one can do what you do.
9 All the nations that you have made
will bow in your presence, O Adonay.
They will honor you.
10 Indeed, you are great, a worker of miracles.
You alone are Elohim.
11 Teach me your way, O Yahweh,
so that I may live in your truth.
Focus my heart on fearing you.
12 I will give thanks to you with all my heart, O Adonay my Elohim.
I will honor you forever
13 because your mercy toward me is great.
You have rescued me from the depths of hell.
14 O Elohim, arrogant people attack me,
and a mob of ruthless people seeks my life.
They think nothing of you.
15 But you, O Adonay, are a compassionate and merciful God.
You are patient, always faithful and ready to forgive.
16 Turn toward me, and have pity on me.
Give me your strength because I am your servant.
Save me because I am the son of your female servant.
17 Grant me some proof of your goodness
so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame.
You, O Yahweh, have helped me and comforted me.
Abram and Hagar
16 Sarai, Abram’s wife, was not able to have children. She owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Yahweh has kept me from having children. Why don’t you sleep with my slave? Maybe I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed with Sarai.
3 After Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Abram’s wife Sarai took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to be disrespectful to Sarai, her owner.
5 So Sarai complained to Abram, “I’m being treated unfairly! And it’s your fault! I know that I gave my slave to you, but now that she’s pregnant, she’s being disrespectful to me. May Yahweh decide who is right—you or me.”
6 Abram answered Sarai, “Here, she’s your slave. Do what you like with her.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar so much that she ran away.
7 The Messenger of Yahweh found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She answered, “I’m running away from my owner Sarai.” 9 The Messenger of Yahweh said to her, “Go back to your owner, and place yourself under her authority.” 10 The Messenger of Yahweh also said to her, “I will give you many descendants. No one will be able to count them because there will be so many.” 11 Then the Messenger of Yahweh said to her,
“You are pregnant,
and you will give birth to a son.
You will name him Ishmael [God Hears],
because Yahweh has heard your cry of distress.
12 He will be as free and wild as an untamed donkey.
He will fight with everyone, and everyone will fight with him.
He will have conflicts with all his relatives.”[a]
13 Hagar named Yahweh, who had been speaking to her, “You Are El Roi.” She said, “This is the place where I watched the one who watches over me.” 14 This is why the well is named Beer Lahai Roi [Well of the Living One Who Watches Over Me]. It is still there between Kadesh and Bered.
Jesus Blesses Children(A)
15 Some people brought infants to Yeshua to have him hold them. When the disciples saw this, they told the people not to do that.
16 But Yeshua called the infants to him and said, “Don’t stop the children from coming to me! Children like these are part of the kingdom of God. 17 I can guarantee this truth: Whoever doesn’t receive the kingdom of God as a little child receives it will never enter it.”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.