Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

My Help Comes from the Lord

A Song of ^(A)Ascents.

³ And Jacob sent^[a] messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of ^(A)Seir, the country of Edom, ⁴ instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. ⁵ I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that ^(B)I may find favour in your sight.’”

⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and ^(C)he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” ⁷ Then Jacob was ^(D)greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, ⁸ thinking, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

⁹ And Jacob said, ^(E)“O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who ^(F)said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ ^10 (G)I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for ^(H)I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. ¹² But ^(I)you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

¹³ So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took ^(J)a present for his brother Esau, ¹⁴ two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵ thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶ These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” ¹⁷ He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ ¹⁸ then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” ¹⁹ He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, ²⁰ and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him^[b] with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”^{[c] 21} So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus

^46 (A)And they came to Jericho. And ^(B)as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, ^(C)a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. ⁴⁷ And when he heard that it was ^(D)Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸ And many ^(E)rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹ And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, ^(F)“Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” ⁵⁰ And throwing off his ^(G)cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. ⁵¹ And Jesus said to him, ^(H)“What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, ^(I)“Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” ⁵² And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; ^(J)your faith has ^(K)made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.