A reading from the book of Exodus. But the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appear to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, Go in, tell Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me, how then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips. But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. These are the heads of their fathers' houses, the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel. Hainak, Pal-Yu, Hezron, and Karmai. These are the clans of Reuben, the sons of Simeon. Gemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jacob, Zohar, and Shal, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon. These are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations, Gershin, Kohath, and Morari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years. The sons of Gershin, Libni, and Shimei by their clans, the sons of Kohath. Amram, Izar, Hebron, and Uziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. The sons of Morari, Mali, and Mashi, these are the clans of the Levi, according to their generations. Amram took as his wife, Jacobed, his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of the life of Amram being 137 years. The sons of Izar, Korah, Nephag, and Zikrai. The sons of Uziel, Mishiel, El-Zafin, and Sithrai. Aaron took as his wife, Elishaba, the daughter of Amenadab, and the sister of Nation, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eliezer, and Nithamar, the sons of Korah, Asur, El-Kena, and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites. Eliezer, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Pudiel, and she bore him Phineas. These are the heads of the father's houses of the Levites by their clans. These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts. It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt, this Moses, and this Aaron. On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you, but Moses said to the Lord, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, how will Pharaoh listen to me? And the Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt, and bring my hosts, my people, the children of Israel. Out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment, the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them. Moses and Aaron did so. They did just as the Lord commanded them. Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, When Pharaoh says to you, Prove yourselves by working a miracle, then you shall say to Aaron, Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. When Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents, but Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Still, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water, and stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him. Take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent, and you shall say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews sent me to you, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. But so far you have not obeyed. Thus says the Lord, By this you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn to blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. Moses and Aaron did, as the Lord commanded, and the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants. He lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood, and the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt, but the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts, so Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them. The Lord had said, Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart, and all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile. A reading from the Book of Psalms of David. To you, O Lord, I call, My rock, be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. When I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands towards your most holy sanctuary, do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors, while evil is in their hearts. Give to them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds. Give to them according to the work of their hands. Render them their due reward. Because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the work of his hands, he will tear them down and build them up no more. He could be the Lord, for he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield, and him my heart trusts, and I am helped. My heart exalts, and with my song I give thanks to him. The Lord is the strength of his people. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. O, save your people and bless your heritage. Be their shepherd and carry them forever. A reading of the Gospel according to Mark. In the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? And he said to them, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written? This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching us doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother whatever you would have gained from me is Corbin, that is, given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down in many such things you do. And he called the people to him again and said to them, hear me. All of you and understand there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable, and he said to them, then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and is expelled. Thus he declared all foods clean, and he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him, for from within out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden, but immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast a demon out of her daughter, and he said to her, let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she answered him, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. And he said to her, for this statement, you may go your way, the demon has left your daughter. And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him, and taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears. And after spitting, touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Epitha, that is, be opened. And his ears were opened. His tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, he has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.
