Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

33 Rejoice in the LORD, O righteous! It becomes upright men to be thankful.

² Praise the LORD with harp! Sing to Him with viol and instrument of ten strings!

³ Sing to Him a new song! Sing cheerfully with a loud voice!

⁴ For the Word of the LORD is righteous; and all His works are faithful.

⁵ He loves righteousness and judgment. The Earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

⁶ By the Word of the LORD were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea together, as upon a heap, and lays up the depths in His treasures.

⁸ Let all the Earth fear the LORD. Let all those who dwell in the world, fear Him.

⁹ For He spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood.

¹⁰ The LORD breaks the counsel of the heathen and brings the devices of the people to nothing.

¹¹ The counsel of the LORD shall stand forever, and the thoughts of His heart throughout all ages.

¹² Blessed is that nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen for His inheritance.

13 Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, toward the south.

² And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold.

³ And he went on his journey from the south toward Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

⁴ to the place of the altar which he had made there at the beginning. And there, Abram called on the Name of the LORD.

⁵ And Lot, also, who went with Abram, had sheep and cattle and tents,

⁶ And the land could not bear them, so that they might dwell together. For their substance was great; and they could not dwell together.

⁷ Also, there was debate between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle. And the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelled in the land at that time.

⁸ Then Abram said to Lot, “I urge you, let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen. For we are brothers.

⁹ “Is not the whole land before you? I encourage you to depart from me. If you will take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or, if you go to the right hand, then I will take the left.”

¹⁰ So, when Lot lifted up his eyes, he saw that all the plain of Jordan was watered, everywhere (for before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was as the Garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar).

¹¹ Then Lot chose all the plain of Jordan and took his journey from the east; and they departed from each other.

¹² Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan; and Lot stayed in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

¹³ Now, the men of Sodom were wicked, and great sinners against the LORD.

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Abram (after Lot had departed from him), “Lift up your eyes now, and look from the place where you are—northward and southward and eastward and westward—

¹⁵ “for all the land which you see I will give to you and your seed, forever.

¹⁶ “And I will make your seed as the dust of the Earth (so that if a man could number the dust of the Earth, so shall your seed be numbered).

¹⁷ “Arise! Walk through the land, in the length thereof and breadth thereof. For I will give it to you.”

¹⁸ Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelled in the plain of Mamre (which is in Hebron) and built an altar to the LORD there.

¹⁷ These are wells without water - clouds carried about by the wind - to whom the black darkness is reserved forever.

¹⁸ For in speaking boastful words of frivolity, they allure (with lewdness and lusts of the flesh) those who had barely escaped from those walking in error;

¹⁹ promising them freedom, but themselves the servants of corruption. For by whomever one is overcome, to him also is he in bondage.

²⁰ For if they - after they have escaped from the filthiness of the world through the acknowledging of the Lord and the Savior Jesus Christ - are once again entangled in it and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

²¹ For it had been better for them not to have acknowledged the way of righteousness than to turn from the Holy Commandment given to them after they have acknowledged it.

²² But it has come to them according to the true proverb, “The dog has returned to his own vomit,” and “a sow, being washed, to wallowing in the mire.”