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Psalm 80

1  Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, ♦︎
   you that led Joseph like a flock;
2  Shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim, ♦︎
   before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
3  Stir up your mighty strength ♦︎
   and come to our salvation.
4  Turn us again, O God; ♦︎
   show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
5  O Lord God of hosts, ♦︎
   how long will you be angry at your people’s prayer?
6  You feed them with the bread of tears; ♦︎
   you give them abundance of tears to drink.
7  You have made us the derision of our neighbours, ♦︎
   and our enemies laugh us to scorn.
8  Turn us again, O God of hosts; ♦︎
   show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.
9  You brought a vine out of Egypt; ♦︎
   you drove out the nations and planted it.
10  You made room around it, ♦︎
   and when it had taken root, it filled the land.
11  The hills were covered with its shadow ♦︎
   and the cedars of God by its boughs.
12  It stretched out its branches to the Sea ♦︎
   and its tendrils to the River.
13  Why then have you broken down its wall, ♦︎
   so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?
14  The wild boar out of the wood tears it off, ♦︎
   and all the insects of the field devour it.
15  Turn again, O God of hosts, ♦︎
   look down from heaven and behold;
16  Cherish this vine which your right hand has planted, ♦︎
   and the branch that you made so strong for yourself.
17  Let those who burnt it with fire, who cut it down, ♦︎
   perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
18  Let your hand be upon the man at your right hand, ♦︎
   the son of man you made so strong for yourself.
19  And so will we not go back from you; ♦︎
   give us life, and we shall call upon your name.
20  Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts; ♦︎
   show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

23 After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. ²⁴God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

Moses at the Burning Bush

3Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. ³Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ ⁴When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ⁵Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ ⁶He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ ¹¹But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ ¹²He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’

The Divine Name Revealed

13 But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ ¹⁴God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’^* He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’ ¹⁵God also said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “The Lord,^* the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”:
This is my name for ever,
and this my title for all generations.
¹⁶Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, “The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. ¹⁷I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” ¹⁸They will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.” ¹⁹I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.^{* 20}So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go.

15 For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.^{* 16}Where a will^* is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. ¹⁷For a will^* takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. ¹⁸Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. ¹⁹For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats,^* with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people, ²⁰saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.’ ²¹And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent^* and all the vessels used in worship. ²²Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Christ’s Sacrifice Takes Away Sin

23 Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. ²⁴For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; ²⁶for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgement, ²⁸so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.