Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 83
A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Do not keep Your silence, O God;
do not hold Your peace or be still, O God.
2 For, look, Your enemies make an uproar,
and those who hate You have lifted up their heads.
3 They have given crafty counsel against Your people,
and have consulted against Your treasured ones.
4 They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
that the name of Israel may be no more remembered.”
13 O my God, make them like a tumbleweed,
as stubble before the wind.
14 As fire burns a forest,
and as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so pursue them with Your storm,
and make them afraid with Your hurricane.
16 Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be confounded and troubled forever;
yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
18 that they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.
Bricks Without Straw
5 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”
2 And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”
3 They said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go, we pray you, three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”
4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.” 5 Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land now are numerous, and you make them rest from their labor.”
6 Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, 7 “You shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 However, the quota of the bricks, which they were making previously, you shall lay upon them. You shall not diminish any of it. For they are idle. Therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let there be more work laid upon the men so that they may labor therein, and let them not regard deceptive words.”
10 The taskmasters of the people and their officers went out, and they spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11 Go, get straw where you can find it, yet nothing of your work shall be diminished.’ ” 12 So the people scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters pushed them, saying, “Fulfill your works, your daily tasks, just as when there was straw.” 14 The officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, and demanded, “Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as previously?”
15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants? 16 There is no straw being given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick.’ And indeed, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.”
17 But he said, “You are slackers! Slackers! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Go therefore now and work, for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall you deliver the quota of bricks.”
19 The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble, after it was said, “You shall not diminish anything from your bricks of your daily task.” 20 Then they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh. 21 And they said to them, “May the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made our scent stink in the estimation of Pharaoh and in the estimation of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.”
God Promises Deliverance
22 Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Lord, why have You caused trouble for this people? Why is it that You have sent me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”
6 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.”
2 Then God spoke to Moses, and said to him, “I am the Lord, 3 and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by My name, The Lord, I was not known to them. 4 I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they sojourned. 5 I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
6 “Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments. 7 And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land, which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for a heritage. I am the Lord.’ ”
9 Moses spoke so to the children of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.
10 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land.”
12 Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, “The children of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, as I am of uncircumcised lips?”
13 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a command for the children of Israel, and for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
The Message to Philadelphia
7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
“He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens, says these things: 8 I know your works. Look! I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 Listen! I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. Listen! I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept My word of patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation which shall come upon the entire world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11 “Look, I am coming quickly. Hold firmly what you have, so that no one may take your crown. 12 He who overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him 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 Spirit says to the churches.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.