Genesis 24:29-67
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
29 Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban, and Laban ran out to the man, to the spring.(A) 30 As soon as he had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister’s arms and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah, “Thus the man spoke to me,” he went to the man, and there he was, standing by the camels at the spring. 31 He said, “Come in, O blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside when I have prepared the house and a place for the camels?”(B) 32 So the man came into the house, and Laban unloaded the camels and gave him straw and fodder for the camels and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.(C) 33 Then food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told my errand.” He said, “Speak on.”
34 So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. 35 The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys.(D) 36 And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old, and he has given him all that he has.(E) 37 My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I live, 38 but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’(F) 39 I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’(G) 40 But he said to me, ‘The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you and make your way successful. You shall get a wife for my son from my kindred, from my father’s house.(H) 41 Then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my kindred; even if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’(I)
42 “I came today to the spring and said, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going!(J) 43 I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,”(K) 44 and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also”—let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’
45 “Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’(L) 46 She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels.(M) 47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms.(N) 48 Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son.(O) 49 Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.”(P)
50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered, “The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you anything bad or good.(Q) 51 Look, Rebekah is before you, take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has spoken.”
52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the Lord.(R) 53 And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and of gold and garments and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments.(S) 54 Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank, and they spent the night there. When they rose in the morning, he said, “Send me back to my master.”(T) 55 Her brother and her mother said, “Let the young woman remain with us a while, at least ten days; after that she may go.” 56 But he said to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my journey successful; let me go that I may go to my master.” 57 They said, “We will call the young woman and ask her.” 58 And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” 59 So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men.(U) 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
“May you, our sister, become
thousands of myriads;
may your offspring gain possession
of the gates of their foes.”(V)
61 Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man, and the servant took Rebekah and went his way.
62 Now Isaac had come from[a] Beer-lahai-roi and was settled in the Negeb.(W) 63 Isaac went out in the evening to walk[b] in the field, and, looking up, he saw camels coming.(X) 64 And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel 65 and said to the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67 Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.(Y)
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Matthew 21:23-46
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Authority of Jesus Questioned
23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”(A) 24 Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for all regard John as a prophet.”(B) 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
The Parable of the Two Sons
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’(C) 29 He answered, ‘I will not,’ but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father[a] went to the second and said the same, and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.(D) 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him, and even after you saw it you did not change your minds and believe him.(E)
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away.(F) 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.(G) 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.(H) 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. 37 Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’(I) 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”(J)
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[b]
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?(K)
43 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits.(L) 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”[c]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.(M)
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Genesis 25:7-11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Death of Abraham
7 This is the length of Abraham’s life, one hundred seventy-five years. 8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, old and full of years, and was gathered to his people.(A) 9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10 the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah.(B) 11 After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.(C)
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Genesis 25:7-11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Death of Abraham
7 This is the length of Abraham’s life, one hundred seventy-five years. 8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, old and full of years, and was gathered to his people.(A) 9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10 the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah.(B) 11 After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.(C)
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Romans 9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
God’s Election of Israel
9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit(A)— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.(B) 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;(C) 5 to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.[a] Amen.(D)
6 It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites,(E) 7 and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”(F) 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9 For the word of the promise is this: “About this time I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”(G) 10 Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac:(H) 11 even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, 12 not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.”(I) 13 As it is written,
“I have loved Jacob,
but I have hated Esau.”(J)
14 What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!(K) 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”(L)
16 So it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I may show my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”(M) 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.
God’s Wrath and Mercy
19 You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”(N) 20 But who indeed are you, a human, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”(O) 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?(P) 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction,(Q) 23 and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the gentiles? 25 As he also says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”(R)
26 “And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they shall be called children of the living God.”(S)
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,(T) 28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”[b] 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left descendants to us,
we would have fared like Sodom
and been made like Gomorrah.”(U)
Israel’s Unbelief
30 What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith,(V) 31 but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.(W) 32 Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,(X) 33 as it is written,
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.