Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Request to Act against Israel’s Neighbors
A song. A psalm of Asaph.[a]
83 O God, do not rest silently.
Do not keep silent or be still, O God.
2 For look, your enemies roar,
and those who hate you have lifted their head.
3 They devise cunning schemes[b] against your people,
and consult together against your protected ones.[c]
4 They say, “Come, let us annihilate them from being a nation,
so that the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”
5 For they have consulted together with a unified purpose.[d]
They have made a covenant against you:
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre.
8 Assyria also has joined with them.
They provide help[e] to the children of Lot. Selah
9 Do to them as you did with Midian,
as with Sisera, as with Jabin at the wadi of Kishon.
10 They were destroyed at En-dor;
they became dung for the ground.
11 Make their leaders like Oreb and Zeeb,
and all their chiefs like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take as our possession
the pastures of God.”
13 O my God, make them like the tumbleweed,
like the chaff before wind.
14 As fire burns a forest,
and as a flame sets afire mountains,
15 so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O Yahweh.
17 Let them be ashamed and terrified forever,
and let them be humiliated and perish
18 that they may know that you,
whose name is Yahweh, you alone,
are the Most High over the whole earth.
17 Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on the camels. 18 And he drove all his livestock and his possessions that he had acquired, the livestock of his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, in order to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.
19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the idols[a] that belonged to her father. 20 And Jacob tricked[b] Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he intended to flee. 21 Then he fled with all that he had, and arose and crossed the Euphrates[c] and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. 22 And on the third day it was told to Laban that Jacob had fled. 23 Then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued after him, a seven-day journey, and he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Take care[d] that you not speak with Jacob, whether good or evil.” 25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his kinsmen pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead. 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done that you tricked me[e] and have carried off my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you hide your intention to flee and trick me,[f] and did not tell me so that I would have sent you away with joy and song and tambourine and lyre? 28 And why did you not give me opportunity to kiss my grandsons[g] and my daughters goodbye? Now you have behaved foolishly by doing this. 29 It is in my power[h] to do harm to you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, ‘Take care[i] from speaking with Jacob, whether good or evil.’ 30 Now, you have surely gone because you desperately longed for the house of your father, but why did you steal my gods?” 31 Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought, ‘Lest you take your daughters from me by force.’ 32 But with whomever you find your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of your kinsmen now identify what is with me that is yours and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33 Then Laban went into Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and the tent of the two female servants and did not find his gods. And he came out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them in the saddle bag of the camel and sat on them. And Jacob searched the whole tent thoroughly but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let there not be anger in the eyes of my lord, for I am not able to rise before you, for the way of women is with me. And he searched carefully and did not find the idols.
Justified by the Law, or Justified by Faith?
3 O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as having been crucified? 2 I want only to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now trying to be made complete by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things for nothing—if indeed also it was for nothing? 5 Therefore does the one who gives you the Spirit and who works miracles among you do so by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
6 Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, 7 then understand that the ones who have faith[a], these are sons of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the good news in advance to Abraham: “In you all the nations[b] will be blessed.”[c] 9 So then, the ones who have faith are blessed together with Abraham who believed.
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