Book of Common Prayer

Book IV: Psalms 90–106

²⁷ Isra’el lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. They acquired possessions in it and were productive, and their numbers multiplied greatly.

Haftarah Vayigash: Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) 37:15–28

B’rit Hadashah suggested reading for Parashah Vayigash: Acts 7:9–16 (specifically vv. 13–15)

Parashah 12: Vayechi (He lived) 47:28–50:26

²⁸ Ya‘akov lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; thus Ya‘akov lived to be 147 years old. ²⁹ The time came when Isra’el was approaching death; so he called for his son Yosef and said to him, “If you truly love me, please put your hand under my thigh and pledge that, out of consideration for me, you will not bury me in Egypt. ³⁰ Rather, when I sleep with my fathers, you are to carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.” He replied, “I will do as you have said.” ³¹ He said, “Swear it to me,” and he swore to him. Then Isra’el bowed down at the head of his bed.

48 Awhile later someone told Yosef that his father was ill. He took with him his two sons, M’nasheh and Efrayim. ² Ya‘akov was told, “Here comes your son Yosef.” Isra’el gathered his strength and sat up in bed. ³ Ya‘akov said to Yosef, “El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Kena‘an and blessed me, ⁴ saying to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and numerous. I will make of you a group of peoples; and I will give this land to your descendants to possess forever.’ ⁵ Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Efrayim and M’nasheh will be as much mine as Re’uven and Shim‘on are. ⁶ The children born to you after them will be yours, but for purposes of inheritance they are to be counted with their older brothers.

⁷ “Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died suddenly, as we were traveling through the land of Kena‘an, while we were still some distance from Efrat; so I buried her there on the way to Efrat (also known as Beit-Lechem).”

10 For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea, ² and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe, ³ also they all ate the same food from the Spirit, ⁴ and they all drank the same drink from the Spirit — for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Messiah. ⁵ Yet with the majority of them God was not pleased, so their bodies were strewn across the desert.

⁶ Now these things took place as prefigurative historical events, warning us not to set our hearts on evil things as they did. ⁷ Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were — as the Tanakh puts it, “The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to indulge in revelry.”^{[a] 8} And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, with the consequence that 23,000 died in a single day. ⁹ And let us not put the Messiah to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. ¹⁰ And don’t grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the Destroying Angel.

¹¹ These things happened to them as prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us who are living in the acharit-hayamim. ¹² Therefore, let anyone who thinks he is standing up be careful not to fall! ¹³ No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.

7 The P’rushim and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua ² and saw that some of his talmidim ate with ritually unclean hands, that is, without doing n’tilat-yadayim. ³ (For the P’rushim, and indeed all the Judeans, holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless they have given their hands a ceremonial washing. ⁴ Also, when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed their hands up to the wrist; and they adhere to many other traditions, such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.)

⁵ The P’rushim and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” ⁶ Yeshua answered them, “Yesha‘yahu was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites — as it is written,

⁸ “You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition. ⁹ Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moshe said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’^[b] and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’^{[c] 11} But you say, ‘If someone says to his father or mother, “I have promised as a korban” ’ ” (that is, as a gift to God) “ ‘ “what I might have used to help you,” ’ ¹² then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. ¹³ Thus, with your tradition which you had handed down to you, you nullify the Word of God! And you do other things like this.”

¹⁴ Then Yeshua called the people to him again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand this! ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!” ^16 [d]

¹⁷ When he had left the people and entered the house, his talmidim asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ He replied to them, “So you too are without understanding? Don’t you see that nothing going into a person from outside can make him unclean? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine.” (Thus he declared all foods ritually clean.) ²⁰ “It is what comes out of a person,” he went on, “that makes him unclean. ²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness…. ²³ All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean.”