Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
91 We live within the shadow of the Almighty, sheltered by the God who is above all gods.
2 This I declare, that he alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I am trusting him.
9 For Jehovah is my refuge! I choose the God above all gods to shelter me. 10 How then can evil overtake me or any plague come near? 11 For he orders his angels to protect you wherever you go. 12 They will steady you with their hands to keep you from stumbling against the rocks on the trail. 13 You can safely meet a lion or step on poisonous snakes, yes, even trample them beneath your feet!
14 For the Lord says, “Because he loves me, I will rescue him; I will make him great because he trusts in my name. 15 When he calls on me, I will answer; I will be with him in trouble and rescue him and honor him. 16 I will satisfy him with a full life[a] and give him my salvation.”
10-11 So the taskmasters and officers informed the people: “Pharaoh has given orders to furnish you with no more straw. Go and find it wherever you can; but you must produce just as many bricks as before!” 12 So the people scattered everywhere to gather straw.
13 The taskmasters were brutal. “Fulfill your daily quota just as before,” they kept demanding. 14 Then they whipped the Israeli work-crew bosses. “Why haven’t you fulfilled your quotas either yesterday or today?” they roared.
15 These foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. “Don’t treat us like this,” they begged. 16 “We are given no straw and told to make as many bricks as before, and we are beaten for something that isn’t our fault—it is the fault of your taskmasters for making such unreasonable demands.”
17 But Pharaoh replied, “You don’t have enough work, or else you wouldn’t be saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah.’ 18 Get back to work. No straw will be given you, and you must deliver the regular quota of bricks.”
19 Then the foremen saw that they were indeed in a bad situation. 20 When they met Moses and Aaron waiting for them outside the palace, as they came out from their meeting with Pharaoh, 21 they swore at them. “May God judge you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his people,” they said, “and for giving them an excuse to kill us.”
22 Then Moses went back to the Lord. “Lord,” he protested, “how can you mistreat your own people like this? Why did you ever send me if you were going to do this to them? 23 Ever since I gave Pharaoh your message, he has only been more and more brutal to them, and you have not delivered them at all!”
30 “Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an Angel appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 Moses saw it and wondered what it was, and as he ran to see, the voice of the Lord called out to him, 32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors—of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with terror and dared not look.
33 “And the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground. 34 I have seen the anguish of my people in Egypt and have heard their cries. I have come down to deliver them. Come, I will send you to Egypt.’
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.