Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Praise to the Lord for His Faithfulness to Israel.
99 (A)The Lord reigns, [a]the peoples tremble!
He (B)sits enthroned above the cherubim, [b]the earth quakes!
2 The Lord [c]is (C)great in Zion,
And He is (D)exalted above all the peoples.
3 May they praise Your (E)great and awesome name;
(F)Holy is [d]He.
4 The [e]strength of the King (G)loves [f]justice;
You have established [g](H)order;
You have (I)executed [h]justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 [i](J)Exalt the Lord our God
And (K)worship at His footstool;
(L)Holy is He.
6 (M)Moses and Aaron were among His (N)priests,
And (O)Samuel was among those who (P)called on His name;
They (Q)called upon the Lord and He answered them.
7 He (R)spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
They (S)kept His testimonies
And the statute that He gave them.
8 Lord our God, You (T)answered them;
You were a (U)forgiving God to them,
And yet an (V)avenger of their evil deeds.
9 Exalt the Lord our God
And worship at His holy hill,
For the Lord our God is holy.
11 Then Elkanah went to his home at (A)Ramah. (B)But the boy continued to attend to the service of the Lord before Eli the priest.
The Sin of Eli’s Sons
12 Now the sons of Eli were [a](C)useless men; they did not know the Lord. 13 (D)And this was the custom of the priests with the people: when anyone was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was cooking, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. 14 And he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; everything that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. They did so in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. 15 Also, before (E)they [b]burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat for roasting, as he will not take cooked meat from you, only raw.” 16 And if the man said to him, “They must [c]burn the fat [d]first, then take as much as [e]you desire,” then he would say, “No, but you must give it to me now; and if not, I am taking it by force!” 17 And so the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men (F)treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully.
19 (A)You will say to me then, “(B)Why does He still find fault? For (C)who has resisted His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, [a](D)you foolish person, who (E)answers back to God? (F)The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does the potter not have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one object [b]for honorable use, and another [c]for common use? 22 [d]What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with great (G)patience objects of wrath (H)prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known (I)the riches of His glory upon (J)objects of mercy, which He (K)prepared beforehand for glory, 24 namely us, whom He also (L)called, (M)not only from among Jews, but also from among Gentiles, 25 as He also says in Hosea:
“(N)I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”
26 “(O)And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of (P)the living God.”
27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “(Q)Though the number of the sons of Israel may be (R)like the sand of the sea, only (S)the remnant will be saved; 28 (T)for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, [e]thoroughly and [f]quickly.” 29 And just as Isaiah foretold:
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