Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²⁵ After Rachel had given birth to Yosef, Ya‘akov said to Lavan, “Send me on my way, so that I can return to my own place, to my own country. ²⁶ Let me take my wives, for whom I have served you, and my children; and let me go. You know very well how faithfully I have served you.” ²⁷ Lavan answered him, “If you regard me favorably, then please listen: I have observed the signs that Adonai has blessed me on account of you. (v) ²⁸ Name your wages,” he said; “I will pay them.” ²⁹ Ya‘akov replied, “You know how faithfully I have served you and how your livestock have prospered under my care. ³⁰ The few you had before I came have increased substantially; Adonai has blessed you wherever I went. But now, when will I provide for my own household?” ³¹ Lavan said, “What should I give you?” “Nothing,” answered Ya‘akov, “just do this one thing for me: once more I will pasture your flock and take care of it. ³² I will also go through the flock and pick out every speckled, spotted or brown sheep, and every speckled or spotted goat; these and their offspring will be my wages. ³³ And I will let my integrity stand as witness against me in the future: when you come to look over the animals constituting my wages, every goat that isn’t speckled or spotted and every sheep that isn’t brown will count as stolen by me.” ³⁴ Lavan replied, “As you have said, so be it.”

³⁵ That day Lavan removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted and all the female goats that were speckled or spotted, every one with white on it, and all the brown sheep; turned them over to his sons; ³⁶ and put three days’ distance between himself and Ya‘akov. Ya‘akov fed the rest of Lavan’s flocks.

³⁷ Ya‘akov took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white streaks on them by peeling off the bark. ³⁸ Then he set the rods he had peeled upright in the watering troughs, so that the animals would see them when they came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, ³⁹ the animals mated in sight of the rods and gave birth to streaked, speckled and spotted young. ⁴⁰ Ya‘akov divided the lambs and had the animals mate with the streaked and the brown in the flock of Lavan. He also kept his own livestock separate and did not have them mix with Lavan’s flock. ⁴¹ Whenever the hardier animals came into heat, Ya‘akov would set up the rods in the watering troughs; so that the animals would see them and conceive in front of them; ⁴² but he didn’t set up the rods in front of the weaker animals. Thus the more feeble were Lavan’s and the stronger Ya‘akov’s. ⁴³ In this way the man became very rich and had large flocks, along with male and female slaves, camels and donkeys.

¹⁷ “Now, brothers, I know that you did not understand the significance of what you were doing; neither did your leaders. ¹⁸ But this is how God fulfilled what he had announced in advance, when he spoke through all the prophets, namely, that his Messiah was to die.

¹⁹ “Therefore, repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be erased; ²⁰ so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord’s presence; and he may send the Messiah appointed in advance for you, that is, Yeshua. ²¹ He has to remain in heaven until the time comes for restoring everything, as God said long ago, when he spoke through the holy prophets. ²² For Moshe himself said, ‘Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You are to listen to everything he tells you. ²³ Everyone who fails to listen to that prophet will be removed from the people and destroyed.’^{[a] 24} Indeed, all the prophets announced these days, starting with Sh’mu’el and continuing through all who followed.

²⁵ “You are the sons of the prophets; and you are included in the covenant which God made with our fathers when he said to Avraham, ‘By your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.’^{[b] 26} So it is to you first that God has sent his servant whom he has raised up, so that he might bless you by turning each one of you from your evil ways.”