Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

37 Never envy the wicked! ² Soon they fade away like grass and disappear. ³ Trust in the Lord instead. Be kind and good to others; then you will live safely here in the land and prosper, feeding in safety.

⁴ Be delighted with the Lord. Then he will give you all your heart’s desires. ⁵ Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him to help you do it, and he will. ⁶ Your innocence will be clear to everyone. He will vindicate you with the blazing light of justice shining down as from the noonday sun.

⁷ Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for him to act. Don’t be envious of evil men who prosper.

⁸ Stop your anger! Turn off your wrath. Don’t fret and worry—it only leads to harm. ⁹ For the wicked shall be destroyed, but those who trust the Lord shall be given every blessing. ¹⁰ Only a little while and the wicked shall disappear. You will look for them in vain. ¹¹ But all who humble themselves before the Lord shall be given every blessing and shall have wonderful peace.

³⁹ The Lord saves the godly! He is their salvation and their refuge when trouble comes. ⁴⁰ Because they trust in him, he helps them and delivers them from the plots of evil men.

44 When his brothers were ready to leave,^[a] Joseph ordered his household manager to fill each of their sacks with as much grain as they could carry—and to put into the mouth of each man’s sack the money he had paid! ² He was also told to put Joseph’s own silver cup at the top of Benjamin’s sack, along with the grain money. So the household manager did as he was told. ³ The brothers were up at dawn and on their way with their loaded donkeys.

⁴ But when they were barely out of the city, Joseph said to his household manager, “Chase after them and stop them and ask them why they are acting like this when their benefactor has been so kind to them? ⁵ Ask them, ‘What do you mean by stealing my lord’s personal silver drinking cup, which he uses for fortune-telling? What a wicked thing you have done!’” ⁶ So he caught up with them and spoke to them along the lines he had been instructed.

⁷ “What in the world are you talking about?” they demanded. “What kind of people do you think we are, that you accuse us of such a terrible thing as that? ⁸ Didn’t we bring back the money we found in the mouth of our sacks? Why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? ⁹ If you find his cup with any one of us, let that one die. And all the rest of us will be slaves forever to your master.”

¹⁰ “Fair enough,” the man replied, “except that only the one who stole it will be a slave, and the rest of you can go free.”

¹¹ They quickly took down their sacks from the backs of their donkeys and opened them. ¹² He began searching the oldest brother’s sack, going on down the line to the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s! ¹³ They ripped their clothing in despair, loaded the donkeys again, and returned to the city. ¹⁴ Joseph was still home when Judah and his brothers arrived, and they fell to the ground before him.

¹⁵ “What were you trying to do?” Joseph demanded. “Didn’t you know such a man as I would know who stole it?”

¹⁶ And Judah said, “Oh, what shall we say to my lord? How can we plead? How can we prove our innocence? God is punishing us for our sins. Sir, we have all returned to be your slaves, both we and he in whose sack the cup was found.”

¹⁷ “No,” Joseph said. “Only the man who stole the cup, he shall be my slave. The rest of you can go on home to your father.”

¹² I am writing these things to all of you, my little children, because your sins have been forgiven in the name of Jesus our Savior. ¹³ I am saying these things to you older men because you really know Christ, the one who has been alive from the beginning. And you young men, I am talking to you because you have won your battle with Satan. And I am writing to you younger boys and girls because you, too, have learned to know God our Father.

¹⁴ And so I say to you fathers who know the eternal God, and to you young men who are strong with God’s Word in your hearts, and have won your struggle against Satan: ¹⁵ Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God; ¹⁶ for all these worldly things, these evil desires—the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance—these are not from God. They are from this evil world itself. ¹⁷ And this world is fading away, and these evil, forbidden things will go with it, but whoever keeps doing the will of God will live forever.