Bible Society of South Africa

Season after Pentecost: Second Sunday after Pentecost

First reading and Psalm

God's Call to Abram

1The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. 2I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.

3I will bless those who bless you,

But I will curse those who curse you.

And through you I will bless all the nations.”

4When Abram was 75 years old, he started out from Haran, as the LORD had told him to do; and Lot went with him. 5Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in Canaan, 6Abram travelled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.) 7The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants.” Then Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshipped the LORD. 9Then he moved on from place to place, going towards the southern part of Canaan.

Genesis 12:1-9GNBOpen in Bible reader

A Song of Praise

1All you that are righteous,

shout for joy for what the LORD has done;

praise him, all you that obey him.

2Give thanks to the LORD with harps,

sing to him with stringed instruments.

3Sing a new song to him,

play the harp with skill, and shout for joy!

4The words of the LORD are true

and all his works are dependable.

5The LORD loves what is righteous and just;

his constant love fills the earth.

6The LORD created the heavens by his command,

the sun, moon, and stars by his spoken word.

7He gathered all the seas into one place;

he shut up the ocean depths in storerooms.

8Worship the LORD, all the earth!

Honour him, all peoples of the world!

9When he spoke, the world was created;

at his command everything appeared.

10The LORD frustrates the purposes of the nations;

he keeps them from carrying out their plans.

11But his plans endure for ever;

his purposes last eternally.

12Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD;

happy are the people he has chosen for his own!

Psalms 33:1-12GNBOpen in Bible reader
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