Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
20 (19) He brought me out to an open place;
he rescued me, because he took pleasure in me.
21 (20) Adonai rewarded me for my uprightness,
he repaid me because my hands were clean.
22 (21) “For I have kept the ways of Adonai,
I have not done evil by leaving my God;
23 (22) for all his rulings were before me,
I did not distance his regulations from me.
24 (23) I was pure-hearted with him
and kept myself from my sin.
25 (24) “Hence Adonai repaid me for my uprightness,
according to the purity of my hands in his view.
26 (25) With the merciful, you are merciful;
with a man who is sincere, you are sincere;
27 (26) with the pure, you are pure;
but with the crooked you are cunning.
28 (27) People afflicted, you save;
but haughty eyes, you humble.
29 (28) “For you, Adonai, light my lamp;
Adonai, my God, lights up my darkness.
30 (29) With you I can run through a whole troop of men,
with my God I can leap a wall.
3 Na‘omi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I should be seeking security for you; so that things will go well with you. 2 Now there’s Bo‘az our relative — you were with his girls. He’s going to be winnowing barley tonight at the threshing-floor. 3 So bathe, anoint yourself, put on your good clothes, and go down to the threshing-floor; but don’t reveal your presence to the man until he’s finished eating and drinking. 4 Then, when he lies down, take note of where he’s lying; later, go in, uncover his feet, and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” 5 She responded, “I will do everything you tell me.”
6 She went down to the threshing-floor and did everything as her mother-in-law had instructed her. 7 After Bo‘az was through eating and drinking and was feeling good, he went to lie down at the end of the pile of grain. She stole in, uncovered his feet and lay down.
17 “As the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise God had made to Avraham, the number of our people in Egypt increased greatly, 18 until there arose another king over Egypt who had no knowledge of Yosef.[a] 19 With cruel cunning this man forced our fathers to put their newborn babies outside their homes, so that they would not survive.
20 “It was then that Moshe was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. For three months he was reared in his father’s house; 21 and when he was put out of his home, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 So Moshe was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became both a powerful speaker and a man of action.
23 “But when he was forty years old, the thought came to him to visit his brothers, the people of Isra’el. 24 On seeing one of them being mistreated, he went to his defense and took revenge by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed his brothers would understand that God was using him to rescue them, but they didn’t understand. 26 When he appeared the next day, as they were fighting, and tried to make peace between them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why do you want to hurt each other?’ 27 the one who was mistreating his fellow pushed Moshe away and said, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me, the way you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’[b] 29 On hearing this, Moshe fled the country and became an exile in the land of Midyan, where he had two sons.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.