Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ Listen to my pleading, Lord! Be merciful and send the help I need.

⁸ My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me, O my people.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

⁹ Oh, do not hide yourself when I am trying to find you. Do not angrily reject your servant. You have been my help in all my trials before; don’t leave me now. Don’t forsake me, O God of my salvation. ¹⁰ For if my father and mother should abandon me, you would welcome and comfort me.

¹¹ Tell me what to do, O Lord, and make it plain because I am surrounded by waiting enemies. ¹² Don’t let them get me, Lord! Don’t let me fall into their hands! For they accuse me of things I never did, and all the while are plotting cruelty. ¹³ I am expecting the Lord to rescue me again, so that once again I will see his goodness to me here in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Don’t be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you! Be brave, stouthearted, and courageous. Yes, wait and he will help you.

49 Then Jacob called together all his sons and said, “Gather around me and I will tell you what is going to happen to you in the days to come. ² Listen to me, O sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father.

⁸ “Judah, your brothers shall praise you. You shall destroy your enemies. Your father’s sons shall bow before you. ⁹ Judah is a young lion that has finished eating its prey. He has settled down as a lion—who will dare to rouse him? ¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes,^[a] whom all people shall obey. ¹¹ He has chained his steed to the choicest vine and washed his clothes in wine.^{[b] 12} His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³ “Zebulun shall dwell on the shores of the sea and shall be a harbor for ships, with his borders extending to Sidon.

²¹ “Naphtali is a deer let loose, producing lovely fawns.

²² “Joseph is a fruitful tree beside a fountain. His branches shade the wall. ²³ He has been severely injured by those who shot at him and persecuted him, ²⁴ but their weapons were shattered by the Mighty One of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. ²⁵ May the God of your fathers, the Almighty, bless you with blessings of heaven above and of the earth beneath—blessings of the breasts and of the womb, ²⁶ blessings of the grain and flowers, blessings reaching to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. These shall be the blessings upon the head of Joseph who was exiled from his brothers.

⁶⁷ Then his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy:

⁶⁸ “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to visit his people and has redeemed them. ⁶⁹ He is sending us a Mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, ⁷⁰ just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago— ⁷¹ someone to save us from our enemies, from all who hate us.

^72-73 “He has been merciful to our ancestors, yes, to Abraham himself, by remembering his sacred promise to him, ⁷⁴ and by granting us the privilege of serving God fearlessly, freed from our enemies, ⁷⁵ and by making us holy and acceptable, ready to stand in his presence forever.

⁷⁶ “And you, my little son, shall be called the prophet of the glorious God, for you will prepare the way for the Messiah. ⁷⁷ You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. ⁷⁸ All this will be because the mercy of our God is very tender, and heaven’s dawn is about to break upon us, ⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, and to guide us to the path of peace.”