Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²³ Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

²⁴ For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the poor in spirit; neither has he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard.

²⁵ My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before those that fear him.

²⁶ The poor shall eat and be satisfied: those that seek him shall praise the LORD; your heart shall live for ever.

²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the LORD; and all the families of the Gentiles shall worship before thee.

²⁸ For the kingdom is the LORD’s, and he shall have dominion over the Gentiles.

²⁹ All those that are fat upon earth shall eat and worship; all those that go down to the dust shall bow before him; and no one can keep his own soul alive.

³⁰ A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

³¹ They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he has done this.

16 ¶ Now Sarai Abram’s wife bore him no children; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

² And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing; I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

³ And Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar, her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

⁴ ¶ And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

⁵ Then Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee; I have given my maid into thy bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes; the LORD judge between me and thee.

⁶ But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleases thee. Then Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her face.

4 ¶ What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found?

² For if Abraham were justified by works, he has reason to glory in himself, but not before God.

³ For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

⁴ But unto him that works, the reward is not reckoned as grace, but as debt.

⁵ But to him that does not work, but believes in him that justifies the ungodly, the faith is counted as righteousness.

⁶ Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God doth attribute righteousness without works,

⁷ saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

⁸ Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin.

⁹ ¶ Is this blessedness, therefore, only upon the circumcision or also upon the uncircumcision? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.

¹⁰ How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

¹¹ And he received the circumcision as a sign, as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all the uncircumcised believers, that it might be counted unto them also as righteousness,

¹² that he be the father of the circumcision: not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also unto those who walk in the steps of the faith that was in our father Abraham before he was circumcised.