Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹² Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His heritage.

¹³ The Lord looks from heaven, He beholds all the sons of men;

¹⁴ From His dwelling place He looks [intently] upon all the inhabitants of the earth—

¹⁵ He Who fashions the hearts of them all, Who considers all their doings.

¹⁶ No king is saved by the great size and power of his army; a mighty man is not delivered by [his] much strength.

¹⁷ A horse is devoid of value for victory; neither does he deliver any by his great power.

¹⁸ Behold, the Lord’s eye is upon those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe], who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and loving-kindness,

¹⁹ To deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ Our inner selves wait [earnestly] for the Lord; He is our Help and our Shield.

²¹ For in Him does our heart rejoice, because we have trusted (relied on and been confident) in His holy name.

²² Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You.

⁴ This is the history of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens—

⁵ When no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not [yet] caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the ground,

⁶ But there went up a mist (fog, vapor) from the land and watered the whole surface of the ground—

⁷ Then the Lord God formed man from the ^[a]dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being.^(A)

⁴² So it is with the resurrection of the dead. [The body] that is sown is perishable and decays, but [the body] that is resurrected is imperishable (immune to decay, immortal).^(A)

⁴³ It is sown in dishonor and humiliation; it is raised in honor and glory. It is sown in infirmity and weakness; it is resurrected in strength and endued with power.

⁴⁴ It is sown a natural (physical) body; it is raised a supernatural (a spiritual) body. [As surely as] there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.

⁴⁵ Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life].^(B)

⁴⁶ But it is not the spiritual life which came first, but the physical and then the spiritual.

⁴⁷ The first man [was] from out of earth, made of dust (earthly-minded); the second Man [is] the Lord from out of heaven.^(C)

⁴⁸ Now those who are made of the dust are like him who was first made of the dust (earthly-minded); and as is [the Man] from heaven, so also [are those] who are of heaven (heavenly-minded).

⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the image [of the man] of dust, so shall we and so ^[a]let us also bear the image [of the Man] of heaven.