Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Lord the Shepherd of His People

A Psalm of David.

Jacob’s Agreement with Laban

²⁵ And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, ^(A)“Send me away, that I may go to ^(B)my own place and to my country. ²⁶ Give me my wives and my children ^(C)for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

²⁷ And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for ^(D)I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” ²⁸ Then he said, ^(E)“Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹ So Jacob said to him, ^(F)“You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. ³⁰ For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you ^[a]since my coming. And now, when shall I also ^(G)provide for my own house?”

³¹ So he said, “What shall I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: ³² Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and ^(H)these shall be my wages. ³³ So my ^(I)righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”

³⁴ And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” ³⁵ So he removed that day the male goats that were ^(J)speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. ³⁶ Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ Now ^(K)Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. ³⁸ And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. ³⁹ So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰ Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹ And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. ⁴² But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³ Thus the man ^(L)became exceedingly prosperous, and ^(M)had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

¹⁷ “Yet now, brethren, I know that ^(A)you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸ But ^(B)those things which God foretold ^(C)by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. ^19 (D)Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, ²⁰ and that He may send ^[a]Jesus Christ, who was ^[b]preached to you before, ^21 (E)whom heaven must receive until the times of ^(F)restoration of all things, ^(G)which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since ^[c]the world began. ²² For Moses truly said to the fathers, ^(H)‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. ²³ And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ ²⁴ Yes, and ^(I)all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also ^[d]foretold these days. ^25 (J)You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ^(K)‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶ To you ^(L)first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, ^(M)in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”