Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 103[a]
By David.
103 Praise the Lord, O my soul.
With all that is within me, praise[b] his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Do not forget all his kind deeds.[c]
3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,
who heals all your diseases,[d]
4 who delivers[e] your life from the Pit,[f]
who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your life with good things,[g]
so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.[h]
6 The Lord does what is fair,
and executes justice for all the oppressed.[i]
7 The Lord revealed his faithful acts[j] to Moses,
his deeds to the Israelites.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;
he is patient[a] and demonstrates great loyal love.[b]
9 He does not always accuse,
and does not stay angry.[c]
10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve;[d]
he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve.[e]
11 For as the skies are high above the earth,
so his loyal love towers[f] over his faithful followers.[g]
12 As far as the eastern horizon[h] is from the west,[i]
so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions[j] from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,[k]
so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers.[l]
12 When his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, 13 Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers[a] are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.” “I’m ready,”[b] Joseph replied.[c] 14 So Jacob[d] said to him, “Go now and check on[e] the welfare[f] of your brothers and of the flocks, and bring me word.” So Jacob[g] sent him from the valley of Hebron.
15 When Joseph reached Shechem,[h] a man found him wandering[i] in the field, so the man asked him, “What are you looking for?” 16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Please tell[j] me where they are grazing their flocks.” 17 The man said, “They left this area,[k] for I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18 Now Joseph’s brothers[l] saw him from a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this master of dreams![m] 20 Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild[n] animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!”[o]
21 When Reuben heard this, he rescued Joseph[p] from their hands,[q] saying,[r] “Let’s not take his life!”[s] 22 Reuben continued,[t] “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.”[u] (Reuben said this[v] so he could rescue Joseph[w] from them[x] and take him back to his father.)
23 When Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him[y] of his tunic, the special tunic that he wore. 24 Then they took him and threw him into the cistern. (Now the cistern was empty;[z] there was no water in it.)
25 When they sat down to eat their food, they looked up[aa] and saw[ab] a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh down to Egypt.[ac] 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not lay a hand on him,[ad] for after all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed.[ae] 28 So when the Midianite[af] merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled[ag] him[ah] out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites[ai] then took Joseph to Egypt.
29 Later Reuben returned to the cistern to find that Joseph was not in it![aj] He tore his clothes, 30 returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy isn’t there! And I, where can I go?” 31 So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a young goat,[ak] and dipped the tunic in the blood. 32 Then they brought the special tunic to their father[al] and said, “We found this. Determine now whether it is your son’s tunic or not.”
33 He recognized it and exclaimed, “It is my son’s tunic! A wild animal has eaten him![am] Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” 34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth,[an] and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters stood by[ao] him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.”[ap] So Joseph’s[aq] father wept for him.
36 Now[ar] in Egypt the Midianites[as] sold Joseph[at] to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.[au]
God Is Love, So We Must Love One Another
11 For[a] this is the gospel[b] message[c] that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another,[d] 12 not like Cain[e] who was of the evil one and brutally[f] murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.
13 Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters,[g] if the world hates you.[h] 14 We know that[i] we have crossed over[j] from death to life[k] because[l] we love our fellow Christians.[m] The one who does not love remains in death.[n] 15 Everyone who hates his fellow Christian[o] is a murderer,[p] and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing[q] in him. 16 We have come to know love by this:[r] that Jesus[s] laid down[t] his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.
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