Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
23 I will declare Your Name to my brothers.
I will praise You amid the congregation.[a]
24 You who fear Adonai, praise Him!
All Jacob’s descendants, glorify Him!
Revere Him, all you seed of Israel.
25 For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the lowly one.
Nor has He hidden His face from him,
but when he cried to Him, He heard.
26 From You is my praise in the great assembly.
I will fulfill my vows before those who fear Him.
27 Let the poor eat and be satisfied.
Let them who seek after Him praise Adonai.
May your hearts live forever!
28 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Adonai.
All the families of the nations will bow down before You.
29 For the kingdom belongs to Adonai,
and He rules over the nations.
30 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship.
Everyone who goes down to the dust will kneel before Him—
even the one who could not keep his own soul alive.
31 His posterity will serve him, telling
the next generation about my Lord.
Hagar and Ishmael
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not borne him children. But she had an Egyptian slave-girl—her name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, Adonai has prevented me from having children. Go, please, to my slave-girl. Perhaps I’ll get a son by her.”
Abram listened to Sarai’s voice. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her slave-girl Hagar the Egyptian—after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan—and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. 4 Then he went to Hagar and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, in her eyes her mistress was belittled.
5 So Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done to me is because of you! I myself placed my slave-girl in your embrace. Now that she saw that she became pregnant, so in her eyes I am belittled. May Adonai judge between you and me!”
6 Abram said to Sarai, “Look! Your slave-girl is in your hand. Do to her what is good in your eyes.”
So Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her presence.
Abraham Set Right by Faith
4 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was set right by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” [a] 4 Now to the one who works, the pay is not credited as a gift, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, his trust is credited as righteousness— 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man whose sin Adonai will never count against him.”[b]
9 Is this blessing then only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? For we say, “trust was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”[c]
10 In what state then was it credited? While circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised! 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the trust he had while he was uncircumcised, so he might be the father of all who are trusting while uncircumcised—that righteousness might be credited to them as well. 12 Also he is the father of the circumcised, to those not only circumcised but also walking in the footsteps of the trust of our father Abraham before his circumcision.[d]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.