Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 33^[a]

Praise of God’s Power and Providence

I

II

III

Chapter 13

Abram and Lot Part. ¹ From Egypt Abram went up to the Negeb with his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot went with him.^{(A) 2 [a]}Now Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.^{(B) 3} From the Negeb he traveled by stages toward Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly stood, ⁴ the site where he had first built the altar; and there Abram invoked the Lord by name.^(C)

⁵ Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, ⁶ so that the land could not support them if they stayed together; their possessions were so great that they could not live together. ⁷ There were quarrels between the herders of Abram’s livestock and the herders of Lot’s livestock. At this time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land.

⁸ So Abram said to Lot: “Let there be no strife between you and me, or between your herders and my herders, for we are kindred. ⁹ Is not the whole land available? Please separate from me. If you prefer the left, I will go to the right; if you prefer the right, I will go to the left.” ¹⁰ Lot looked about and saw how abundantly watered the whole Jordan Plain was as far as Zoar, like the Lord’s own garden, or like Egypt. This was before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. ¹¹ Lot, therefore, chose for himself the whole Jordan Plain and set out eastward. Thus they separated from each other. ¹² Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the Plain, pitching his tents near Sodom. ¹³ Now the inhabitants of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.^(D)

¹⁴ After Lot had parted from him, the Lord said to Abram: Look about you, and from where you are, gaze to the north and south, east and west;^{(E) 15} all the land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever.^{(F) 16} I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth; if anyone could count the dust of the earth, your descendants too might be counted.^{(G) 17} Get up and walk through the land, across its length and breadth, for I give it to you. ¹⁸ Abram moved his tents and went on to settle near the oak of Mamre, which is at Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.^(H)

¹⁷ These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a gale; for them the gloom of darkness has been reserved.^{(A) 18} For, talking empty bombast, they seduce with licentious desires of the flesh those who have barely escaped^[a] from people who live in error.^{(B) 19} They promise them freedom, though they themselves are slaves of corruption, for a person is a slave of whatever overcomes him.^{(C) 20} For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of [our] Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first.^{(D) 21} For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment handed down^[b] to them.^{(E) 22 [c]}What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them,^(F) “The dog returns to its own vomit,” and “A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire.”