Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 116
116 I love the Lord because he hears
my requests for mercy.
2 I’ll call out to him as long as I live,
because he listens closely to me.
12 What can I give back to the Lord
for all the good things he has done for me?
13 I’ll lift up the cup of salvation.
I’ll call on the Lord’s name.
14 I’ll keep the promises I made to the Lord
in the presence of all God’s people.
15 The death of the Lord’s faithful
is a costly loss in his eyes.
16 Oh yes, Lord, I am definitely your servant!
I am your servant and the son of your female servant—
you’ve freed me from my chains.
17 So I’ll offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to you,
and I’ll call on the Lord’s name.
18 I’ll keep the promises I made to the Lord
in the presence of all God’s people,
19 in the courtyards of the Lord’s house,
which is in the center of Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
Isaac marries Rebekah
24 As the days went by and Abraham became older, the Lord blessed Abraham in every way. 2 Abraham said to the oldest servant of his household, who was in charge of everything he owned, “Put your hand under my thigh. 3 By the Lord, God of heaven and earth, give me your word that you won’t choose a wife for my son from the Canaanite women among whom I live. 4 Go to my land and my family and find a wife for my son Isaac there.”
5 The servant said to him, “What if the woman doesn’t agree to come back with me to this land? Shouldn’t I take your son back to the land you left?”
6 Abraham said to him, “Be sure you don’t take my son back there. 7 The Lord, God of heaven—who took me from my father’s household and from my family’s land, who spoke with me and who gave me his word, saying, ‘I will give this land to your descendants’—he will send his messenger in front of you, and you will find a wife for my son there. 8 If the woman won’t agree to come back with you, you will be free from this obligation to me. Only don’t take my son back there.” 9 So the servant put his hand under his master Abraham’s thigh and gave him his word about this mission.
35 “This is the same Moses whom they rejected when they asked, ‘Who appointed you as our leader and judge?’ This is the Moses whom God sent as leader and deliverer. God did this with the help of the angel who appeared before him in the bush. 36 This man led them out after he performed wonders and signs in Egypt at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness. 37 This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’[a] 38 This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. He is the one who received life-giving words to give to us. 39 He’s also the one whom our ancestors refused to obey. Instead, they pushed him aside and, in their thoughts and desires, returned to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will lead us. As for this Moses who led us out of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him!’[b] 41 That’s when they made an idol in the shape of a calf, offered a sacrifice to it, and began to celebrate what they had made with their own hands. 42 So God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the stars in the sky, just as it is written in the scroll of the Prophets:
Did you bring sacrifices and offerings to me
for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?
43 No! Instead, you took the tent of Moloch with you,
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made in order to worship them.
Therefore, I will send you far away, farther than Babylon.[c]
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible