Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 36

For the music leader. Of the Lord’s servant David.

Joseph’s brothers return with Benjamin

43 The famine was severe in the land, ² and when they had eaten all the grain that they brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little food.”

³ Judah said to him, “The man was absolutely serious when he said, ‘You may not see me again without your brother with you.’ ⁴ If you agree to send our brother with us, then we will go down and buy you food. ⁵ But if you don’t agree to send him, then we can’t go down because the man said to us, ‘You may not see me again without your brother with you.’”

⁶ Israel said, “Why have you caused me such pain by telling the man you had another brother?”

⁷ They said, “The man asked us pointedly about our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?’ So we told him just what we’ve said. How were we to know he’d say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”

⁸ Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the young man with me. Let’s get ready to leave so that we can stay alive and not die—we, you, and our children. ⁹ I will guarantee his safety; you can hold me responsible. If I don’t bring him back to you and place him here in front of you, it will be my fault forever. ¹⁰ If we hadn’t waited so long, we would’ve returned twice by now.”

¹¹ Their father Israel said to them, “If it has to be, then do this. Take in your bags some of the land’s choice produce, and bring it down to the man as a gift: a little medicinal resin, a little honey, gum, resin, pistachios, and almonds. ¹² Take twice as much silver with you, and take back the silver returned in the top of your sacks. It might have been a mistake. ¹³ And take your brother, get ready, and go back to the man. ¹⁴ May God Almighty^[a] make the man compassionate toward you so that he may send back your other brother and Benjamin with you. But me, if I’m left childless, then I’m left childless.”

¹⁵ So the men took this gift. They took twice as much silver with them, together with Benjamin. They left, traveled down to Egypt, and received an audience with Joseph.

Selection of seven to serve

6 About that time, while the number of disciples continued to increase, a complaint arose. Greek-speaking disciples accused the Aramaic-speaking disciples because their widows were being overlooked in the daily food service. ² The Twelve called a meeting of all the disciples and said, “It isn’t right for us to set aside proclamation of God’s word in order to serve tables. ³ Brothers and sisters, carefully choose seven well-respected men from among you. They must be well-respected and endowed by the Spirit with exceptional wisdom. We will put them in charge of this concern. ⁴ As for us, we will devote ourselves to prayer and the service of proclaiming the word.” ⁵ This proposal pleased the entire community. They selected Stephen, a man endowed by the Holy Spirit with exceptional faith, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. ⁶ The community presented these seven to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. ⁷ God’s word continued to grow. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased significantly. Even a large group of priests embraced the faith.