Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
10 Bride of the king, listen to what I say—
forget your people and your relatives.
11 Your beauty will make the king desire you;
he is your master, so you must obey him.
12 The people of Tyre will bring you gifts;
rich people will try to win your favor.
13 The princess is in the palace—how beautiful she is!
Her gown is made of gold thread.
14 In her colorful gown she is led to the king,
followed by her bridesmaids,
and they also are brought to him.
15 With joy and gladness they come
and enter the king's palace.
16 You, my king, will have many sons
to succeed your ancestors as kings,
and you will make them rulers over the whole earth.
17 My song will keep your fame alive forever,
and everyone will praise you for all time to come.
Isaac Blesses Jacob
27 Isaac was now old and had become blind. He sent for his older son Esau and said to him, “Son!”
“Yes,” he answered.
2 Isaac said, “You see that I am old and may die soon. 3 Take your bow and arrows, go out into the country, and kill an animal for me. 4 Cook me some of that tasty food that I like, and bring it to me. After I have eaten it, I will give you my final blessing before I die.”
5 While Isaac was talking to Esau, Rebecca was listening. So when Esau went out to hunt, 6 she said to Jacob, “I have just heard your father say to Esau, 7 ‘Bring me an animal and cook it for me. After I have eaten it, I will give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ 8 Now, son,” Rebecca continued, “listen to me and do what I say. 9 Go to the flock and pick out two fat young goats, so that I can cook them and make some of that food your father likes so much. 10 You can take it to him to eat, and he will give you his blessing before he dies.”
11 But Jacob said to his mother, “You know that Esau is a hairy man, but I have smooth skin. 12 Perhaps my father will touch me and find out that I am deceiving him; in this way, I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”
13 His mother answered, “Let any curse against you fall on me, my son; just do as I say, and go and get the goats for me.” 14 So he went to get them and brought them to her, and she cooked the kind of food that his father liked. 15 Then she took Esau's best clothes, which she kept in the house, and put them on Jacob. 16 She put the skins of the goats on his arms and on the hairless part of his neck. 17 She handed him the tasty food, along with the bread she had baked.
Law and Sin
7 (A)Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire. 8 But by means of that commandment sin found its chance to stir up all kinds of selfish desires in me. Apart from law, sin is a dead thing. 9 I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, 10 and I died. And the commandment which was meant to bring life, in my case brought death. 11 (B)Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.
12 So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. 13 But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.
The Conflict in Us
14 We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a mortal, sold as a slave to sin. 15 (C)I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate. 16 Since what I do is what I don't want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right. 17 So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me. 18 I know that good does not live in me—that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. 19 I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. 20 If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.