Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!(A)
8 “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, do I seek.(B)
9 Do not hide your face from me.
Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off; do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!(C)
10 If my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me up.(D)
Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons
49 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather around, that I may tell you what will happen to you in days to come.(A)
2 Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob;
listen to Israel your father.
8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.(A)
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?(B)
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him,[a]
and the obedience of the peoples is his.(C)
11 Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he washes his garments in wine
and his robe in the blood of grapes;
12 his eyes are darker than wine
and his teeth whiter than milk.
13 Zebulun shall settle at the shore of the sea;
he shall be a haven for ships,
and his border shall be at Sidon.(D)
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough,[b]
a fruitful bough by a spring;
his branches run over the wall.[c](B)
23 The archers fiercely attacked him;
they shot at him and pressed him hard.(C)
24 Yet his bow remained taut,
and his arms[d] were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,(D)
25 by the God of your father, who will help you,
by the Almighty[e] who will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.(E)
26 The blessings of your father
are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains,
the bounties[f] of the everlasting hills;
may they be on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.(F)
Zechariah’s Prophecy
67 Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:(A)
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on[a] his people and redeemed them.(B)
69 He has raised up a mighty savior[b] for us
in the house of his child David,(C)
70 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,(D)
71 that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
72 Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors
and has remembered his holy covenant,(E)
73 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us 74 that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,(F) 75 in holiness and righteousness
in his presence all our days.(G)
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,(H)
77 to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.(I)
78 Because of the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break[c] upon[d] us,
79 to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”(J)
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.