Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 36

To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David the servant of the Lord.

¹ Transgression [like an oracle] speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear or dread of God before his eyes.^(A)

² For he flatters and deceives himself in his own eyes that his iniquity will not be found out and be hated.

³ The words of his mouth are wrong and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.

⁴ He plans wrongdoing on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject or despise evil.

⁵ Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies, and Your faithfulness to the clouds.

⁶ Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgments are like the great deep. O Lord, You preserve man and beast.

⁷ How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.

⁸ They relish and feast on the abundance of Your house; and You cause them to drink of the stream of Your pleasures.

⁹ For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.^(B)

¹⁰ O continue Your loving-kindness to those who know You, Your righteousness (salvation) to the upright in heart.

¹¹ Let not the foot of pride overtake me, and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.

¹² There the workers of iniquity fall and lie prostrate; they are thrust down and shall not be able to rise.

45 Then Joseph could not restrain himself [any longer] before all those who stood by him, and he called out, Cause every man to go out from me! So no one stood there with Joseph while he made himself known to his brothers.

² And he wept and sobbed aloud, and the Egyptians [who had just left him] heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard about it.

³ And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph! Is my father still alive? And his brothers could not reply, for they were distressingly disturbed and dismayed at [the startling realization that they were in] his presence.

⁴ And Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, I pray you. And they did so. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt!

⁵ But now, do not be distressed and disheartened or vexed and angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

⁶ For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years more in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

⁷ God sent me before you to preserve for you a posterity and to continue a remnant on the earth, to save your lives by a great escape and save for you many survivors.

⁸ So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and tell him, Your son Joseph says this to you: God has put me in charge of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay.

¹⁰ You will live in the land of Goshen, and you will be close to me—you and your children and your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and all you have.

¹¹ And there I will sustain and provide for you, so that you and your household and all that are yours may not come to poverty and want, for there are yet five [more] years of [the scarcity, hunger, and starvation of] famine.

¹² Now notice! Your own eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin can see that I am talking to you personally [in your language and not through an interpreter].

¹³ And you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.

¹⁴ And he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

¹⁵ Moreover, he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers conversed with him.

⁹ And the patriarchs [Jacob’s sons], boiling with envy and hatred and anger, sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt; but God was with him,^(A)

¹⁰ And delivered him from all his distressing afflictions and won him goodwill and favor and wisdom and understanding in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house.^(B)

¹¹ Then there came a famine over all of Egypt and Canaan, with great distress, and our forefathers could find no fodder [for the cattle] or vegetable sustenance [for their households].^(C)

¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our forefathers [to go there on their] first trip.^(D)

¹³ And on their second visit Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh and his origin and race.^(E)

¹⁴ And Joseph sent an invitation calling to himself Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.^(F)

¹⁵ And Jacob went down into Egypt, where he himself died, as did [also] our forefathers;^(G)

¹⁶ And their ^[a]bodies [Jacob’s and Joseph’s] were taken back to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of [silver] money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.^(H)