Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
13 who boasted, “Let us seize for ourselves
the pastures of God.”
14 [a]O my God, treat them like tumbleweed,
like chaff blown before the wind.
15 As a fire rages through a forest,
as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
16 so hound them with your tempests
and terrify them with your stormwinds.[b]
17 Fill their faces with shame
so that they will seek your name,[c] O Lord.
18 [d]Let them be humiliated and terrified forever;
let them be disgraced and perish.
14 First Plague: Water Turned into Blood.[a] The Lord said to Moses, “The heart of Pharaoh is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes out to the water and stand in front of him on the Nile riverbank and take the staff in your hand that was changed into a serpent. 16 Then you will tell him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you, ‘Let my people go so that they can serve me in the desert. Up to now you have not obeyed.’ 17 The Lord says, ‘By this you will know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike the waters of the Nile with the staff that I have in my hand, and they will change into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the Nile will become putrid so that the Egyptians will not be able to drink from the Nile.” ’ ”
19 The Lord said to Moses, “Command Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, their ponds, and over all their supplies of water. They will turn into blood and there will be blood in all of the land of Egypt, even in their wood and stone jars.’ ”
20 Moses and Aaron did what the Lord had commanded. Aaron raised his staff and struck the waters of the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants. All the waters of the Nile changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile became putrid, so that the Egyptians could not drink the water. There was blood in the entire land of Egypt. 22 But the magicians of Egypt, with their magic, did the same thing. The heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.[b] 23 Pharaoh turned his back on them and went into his house and did not even pay attention to these things. 24 All the Egyptians dug along the Nile to find water to drink because they could not drink the water in the Nile.
25 Second Plague: The Frogs. Seven days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.
22 Whoever Is Not with Me Is against Me.[a] Then they brought to him a man who was unable to either see or speak and who was possessed by a demon. He cured him, so that the man who was mute both spoke and saw. 23 All the people were astonished, and they said, “Is this not the Son of David?”[b] 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul,[c] the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”
25 He knew what they were thinking, and he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and every city or household divided against itself cannot survive. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom survive? 27 If it is by Beelzebul that I cast out demons, by whom do your own children cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
29 “Or again, how can anyone break into a strong man’s house and steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then indeed he can ransack the house.
30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 Therefore, I tell you that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.[d]
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