Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Nations Conspire Against Israel
Psalm 83
1 A song: a psalm of Asaph.
2 God, do not keep silent.
Do not hold Your peace, O God.
Do not be still.
3 For look, Your enemies make an uproar.
Those who hate You lift up their head.
4 They make a shrewd plot against Your people,
conspiring against Your treasured ones.
13 who said,
“Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”
14 My God, make them like tumbleweed,
like chaff before the wind.
15 As a fire burns a forest,
and as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
16 so pursue them with Your tempest,
and terrify them with Your storm.
17 Cover their faces with shame,
so they may seek Your Name—Adonai.
18 Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever.
Let them be humiliated and perish.
Pharaoh Will Not Let Israel Go
5 Afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Adonai, God of Israel, says: Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast for Me in the wilderness.”
2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is Adonai, that I should listen to His voice and let Israel go? I do not know Adonai, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”
3 They answered, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so we may sacrifice to Adonai our God, or else He may strike us with pestilence or with the sword.”
4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Why do you, Moses and Aaron, make the people break loose from their work? Go to your labors!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now so numerous, yet you would have them rest from their labors?”
6 Then on the same day Pharaoh commanded the slave masters of the people and their foremen saying, 7 “You are not to give the people any more straw to make bricks, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 But impose on them the quota of bricks that they made previously; don’t reduce it. For they are lazy—that’s why they cry out saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let even heavier work be laid upon the men, so that they must labor, paying no attention to deceptive words.”
10 Then the slave masters of the people went out, along with their officers, and they spoke to the people saying: “This is what Pharaoh says: I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, for there will be no reduction of your work.” 12 So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 But the slave masters pressured, saying, “Fulfill your work, your daily amount, just as when there was straw.” 14 Moreover the foremen of Bnei-Yisrael, whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them, were beaten and asked, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks, both yesterday and today like before?”
15 The foremen of Bnei-Yisrael came and cried out to Pharaoh saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ and look, your servants are beaten. But it is your own people at fault.”
17 But he said, “Lazy! You’re lazy! That’s why you were saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to Adonai.’ 18 So go now and work! No straw will be given to you—but you must deliver the quota of bricks.”
19 So the foremen of Bnei-Yisrael saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks from day to day.” 20 Then they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them as they came from Pharaoh.
21 So they said to them, “May Adonai look on you and judge, because you have made us a stench in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants—putting a sword in their hand to kill us!”
22 So Moses returned to Adonai and said, “Adonai, why have You brought evil on these people? Is this why You sent me? 23 Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name, he has brought evil on these people. You have not delivered Your people at all.”
How Will Pharaoh Listen?
6 Adonai said to Moses, “Now you will see what I am going to do to Pharaoh. By way of a strong hand he will let them go, and drive them out of his land.”
Parashat Va’eira
2 God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am Adonai. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, as El Shaddai. Yet by My Name, Adonai, did I not make Myself known to them. 4 I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage where they journeyed. 5 Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of Bnei-Yisrael, whom the Egyptians are keeping in bondage. So I have remembered My covenant. 6 Therefore say to Bnei-Yisrael: I am Adonai, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 I will take you to Myself as a people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Adonai your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 So I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and give it to you as an inheritance. I am Adonai.”
9 Moses spoke this way to Bnei-Yisrael, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and cruel bondage. 10 So Adonai told Moses, 11 “Go, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that will he let Bnei-Yisrael go out of his land.”
12 But Moses said to Adonai, “Bnei-Yisrael have not listened to me. So how would Pharaoh listen to me—I, who have uncircumcised lips?”
13 Then Adonai spoke to Moses and to Aaron and gave to them a charge for Bnei-Yisrael and Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring Bnei-Yisrael out of the land of Egypt.
Philadelphia: I Have Loved You
7 To the angel of Messiah’s community in Philadelphia write: “Thus says the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens: [a] 8 I know your deeds. Behold, I have set before you an open door that no one is able to shut—because you have little power, but you have kept My word and have not denied My name. 9 Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of satan—who say they are Jewish and are not, but lie—behold, I will cause them to come and bow down before your feet,[b] so that they acknowledge that I have loved you!
10 “Because you have kept My word about patient endurance, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is coming upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon—hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. 12 The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of My God,[c] and he will never leave it. And on him I will write the name of My God and the name of the city of My God—the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God—and My own new Name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach is saying to Messiah’s communities.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.