Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Lord Is Good to His People

106 Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His loving-kindness lasts forever. ² Who can put into words the great works of the Lord? Who can make known all His praise? ³ Happy are those who are faithful in being fair and who always do what is right and good!

⁴ O Lord, remember me when You show favor to Your people. Visit me also when You save them. ⁵ So I may share in the well-being of Your chosen ones. So I may share in the joy of Your nation, and be proud of Your people.

⁶ We have sinned like our fathers. We have done wrong. We have been sinful in our actions. ⁷ Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your powerful works. They did not remember how many times You showed Your loving-kindness. But they turned against You by the sea, the Red Sea. ⁸ Yet He saved them because of the honor of His name, and to make His great power known. ⁹ So He spoke sharp words to the Red Sea and it dried up. And He led them through the sea as through a desert. ¹⁰ He saved them from the hand of those who hated them. He set them free from the hand of those who went against them. ¹¹ And the waters covered those who hated them. Not one of them was left. ¹² Then they believed His promises. They sang His praise.

Zelophehad’s Daughters

27 Then came the daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, from the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. ² They stood in front of Moses and Eleazar the religious leader, and the leaders, and all the people at the door of the meeting tent. The daughters said, ³ “Our father died in the desert. He was not one of those who gathered together with Korah against the Lord. But he died for his own sin, and he had no sons. ⁴ Why should the name of our father be taken away from his family because he had no son? Give us land among our father’s brothers.”

⁵ Moses asked the Lord what should be done. ⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, ⁷ “The daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they say. Be sure to give them their own land among their father’s brothers. Give them what would have been given to their father. ⁸ And say to the people of Israel, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then give what belongs to him to his daughter. ⁹ If he has no daughter, then give what belongs to him to his brothers. ¹⁰ If he has no brothers, give what belongs to him to his father’s brothers. ¹¹ And if his father has no brothers, then you must give what belongs to him to the nearest person in his own family and it will be his. This will be a Law to the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Moses.’”

Jesus Teaches about Light

³³ “No man lights a lamp and then hides it under a pail. He puts the light on a lamp-stand so those who come in can see it. ³⁴ The eye is the light of the body. When your eye is good, your whole body is full of light. When your eye is sinful, your whole body is full of darkness. ³⁵ Be careful that the light in you is not dark. ³⁶ If your whole body is full of light, with no dark part, then it will shine. It will be as a lamp that gives light.”