Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Song of degrees.

¹ ¶ I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence cometh my help.

² My help comes from the LORD, who made the heavens and earth.

³ He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keeps thee will not slumber.

⁴ Behold, he that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

⁶ The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

⁷ The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.

⁸ The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

³ ¶ And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

⁴ And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau: Thy slave Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now;

⁵ and I have oxen and asses, flocks, and menslaves, and womenslaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.

⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he comes to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

⁷ Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that were with him, and the sheep and the cows and the camels, into two bands

⁸ and said, If Esau comes to the one company and smites it, then the other company which is left shall escape.

⁹ ¶ And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said unto me, Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.

¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy slave; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands.

¹¹ Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him lest he come and smite me and the mother with the children.

¹² And thou hast said, I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

¹³ ¶ And he lodged there that same night and took of that which came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother:

¹⁴ two hundred she goats and twenty he goats, two hundred sheep and twenty rams,

¹⁵ thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.

¹⁶ And he delivered them into the hand of his slaves, every drove by themselves and said unto his slaves, Pass before me and put a space between drove and drove.

¹⁷ And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau, my brother, meets thee and asks thee, saying, Whose art thou? And where goest thou? And for whom are these before thee?

¹⁸ Then thou shalt say, They are thy slave Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau; and, behold, also he is behind us.

¹⁹ And so commanded he the second and the third and all that followed those droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau when ye find him.

²⁰ And ye shall also say, Behold, thy slave Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will reconcile his wrath with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept me.

²¹ So the present went over before him, and he lodged that night in the company.

⁴⁶ ¶ And so they come to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.

⁴⁷ And hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

⁴⁸ And many told him to be silent, but he cried even more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

⁴⁹ Then Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Have confidence, rise; he calls thee.

⁵⁰ He, therefore, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus.

⁵¹ And Jesus, answering, said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man said unto him, Master, that I might receive my sight.

⁵² And Jesus said unto him, Go; thy faith has saved thee. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way.