Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 50
A psalm of Asaph.
1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord,(A)
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to where it sets.(B)
2 From Zion,(C) perfect in beauty,(D)
God shines forth.(E)
3 Our God comes(F)
and will not be silent;(G)
a fire devours(H) before him,(I)
and around him a tempest(J) rages.
4 He summons the heavens above,
and the earth,(K) that he may judge his people:(L)
5 “Gather to me this consecrated people,(M)
who made a covenant(N) with me by sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens proclaim(O) his righteousness,
for he is a God of justice.[a][b](P)
18 Surely wickedness burns like a fire;(A)
it consumes briers and thorns,(B)
it sets the forest thickets ablaze,(C)
so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.
19 By the wrath(D) of the Lord Almighty
the land will be scorched(E)
and the people will be fuel for the fire;(F)
they will not spare one another.(G)
20 On the right they will devour,
but still be hungry;(H)
on the left they will eat,(I)
but not be satisfied.
Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring[a]:
21 Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh;(J)
together they will turn against Judah.(K)
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.(L)
10 Woe(M) to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,(N)
2 to deprive(O) the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,(P)
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.(Q)
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,(R)
when disaster(S) comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?(T)
Where will you leave your riches?
4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives(U)
or fall among the slain.(V)
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,(W)
his hand is still upraised.
Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin
7 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”
2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers,(A) listen to me! The God of glory(B) appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.(C) 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’[a](D)
4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.(E) 5 He gave him no inheritance here,(F) not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land,(G) even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.(H) 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’[b](I) 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.(J) And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth.(K) Later Isaac became the father of Jacob,(L) and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.(M)
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