Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

17 ¶ And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect.

² And I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly.

³ And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,

⁴ ¶ Behold my covenant with thee: Thou shalt be a father of many Gentiles.

⁵ Neither shall thy name any longer be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many Gentiles have I made thee.

⁶ And I will multiply thee exceeding, and I will make Gentiles of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

⁷ ¶ And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.

¹⁵ ¶ And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

¹⁶ And I will bless her and give thee a son also of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of Gentiles; kings of peoples shall be of her.

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.

¹³ For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴ For if those who are of the law are the heirs, faith is in vain, and the promise annulled,

¹⁵ because the law works wrath; for where there is no law, there is no rebellion either.

¹⁶ Therefore by faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to that which is of the law, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

¹⁷ ¶ as it is written, As a father of many Gentiles have I placed thee before God, whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which are not as those that are.

¹⁸ Who believed to wait against all hope, that he might become the father of many Gentiles, according to that which had been spoken unto him, So shall thy seed be.

¹⁹ And he did not weaken in faith: he considered not his own body now dead when he was about one hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb;

²⁰ he doubted not the promise of God, with unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,

²¹ being fully persuaded that he was also powerful to do all that he had promised;

²² therefore, his faith was also attributed unto him as righteousness.

²³ ¶ Now it is not written for his sake alone that it was so reckoned to him,

²⁴ but for us also to whom it shall be so reckoned, that is, to those that believe in him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,

²⁵ who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

³¹ And he began to teach them that it was convenient that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the princes of the priests and of the scribes, and be killed and after three days rise again.

³² And he spoke this word clearly. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him.

³³ And he, turning about and looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, Get thyself from me, Satan, for thou knowest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.

³⁴ And calling the multitude unto him with his disciples, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross {Gr. stauros – stake} and follow me.

³⁵ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.

³⁶ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

³⁷ Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

³⁸ Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

² And six days afterwards Jesus took Peter and James and John, and separated them apart by themselves unto a high mountain; and he was transfigured before them.

³ And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them.

⁴ And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.

⁵ Then Peter answering, said unto Jesus, Master, it shall be good for us to remain here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for thee, and another for Moses, and another for Elijah.

⁶ For he knew not what he was saying, for he was beside himself.

⁷ And a cloud came that overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son; hear ye him.

⁸ And suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one any more, except Jesus only with themselves.

⁹ And as they came down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen until the Son of man was risen from the dead.