Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ “Ah, I hear him—my beloved! Here he comes, leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills. ⁹ My beloved is like a gazelle or young deer. Look, there he is behind the wall, now looking in at the windows.

¹⁰ “My beloved said to me, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. ¹¹ For the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. ¹² The flowers are springing up and the time of the singing of birds has come. Yes, spring is here.^{[a] 13} The leaves are coming out,^[b] and the grapevines are in blossom. How delicious they smell! Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.’

29 Jacob traveled on, finally arriving in the land of the East. ² He saw in the distance three flocks of sheep lying beside a well in an open field, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well. ³ (The custom was that the stone was not removed until all the flocks were there. After watering them, the stone was rolled back over the mouth of the well again.) ⁴ Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked them where they lived.

“At Haran,” they said.

⁵ “Do you know a fellow there named Laban, the son of Nahor?”

“We sure do.”

⁶ “How is he?”

“He’s well and prosperous. Look, there comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

⁷ “Why don’t you water the flocks so they can get back to grazing?” Jacob asked. “They’ll be hungry if you stop so early in the day!”

⁸ “We don’t roll away the stone and begin the watering until all the flocks and shepherds are here,” they replied.

⁹ As this conversation was going on, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. ¹⁰ And because she was his cousin—the daughter of his mother’s brother—and because the sheep were his uncle’s, Jacob went over to the well and rolled away the stone and watered his uncle’s flock. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and started crying! ^12-13 He explained about being her cousin on her father’s side, and that he was her Aunt Rebekah’s son. She quickly ran and told her father, Laban, and as soon as he heard of Jacob’s arrival, he rushed out to meet him and greeted him warmly and brought him home. Then Jacob told him his story.

¹⁴ “Just think, my very own flesh and blood,” Laban exclaimed.

After Jacob had been there about a month,

3 Then what’s the use of being a Jew? Are there any special benefits for them from God? Is there any value in the Jewish circumcision ceremony? ² Yes, being a Jew has many advantages.

First of all, God trusted them with his laws so that they could know and do his will.^{[a] 3} True, some of them were unfaithful, but just because they broke their promises to God, does that mean God will break his promises? ⁴ Of course not! Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is not. Do you remember what the book of Psalms says about this?^[b] That God’s words will always prove true and right, no matter who questions them.

⁵ “But,” some say, “our breaking faith with God is good, our sins serve a good purpose, for people will notice how good God is when they see how bad we are. Is it fair, then, for him to punish us when our sins are helping him?” (That is the way some people talk.) ⁶ God forbid! Then what kind of God would he be, to overlook sin? How could he ever condemn anyone? ⁷ For he could not judge and condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty brought him glory by pointing up his honesty in contrast to my lies. ⁸ If you follow through with that idea you come to this: the worse we are, the better God likes it! But the damnation of those who say such things is just. Yet some claim that this is what I preach!