Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
13 For You have created my conscience.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You, for I am awesomely, wonderfully made!
Wonderful are Your works—
and my soul knows that very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was unformed,
and in Your book were written the days that were formed—
when not one of them had come to be.
17 How precious are Your thoughts, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand!
When I awake, I am still with You.
Jacob Meets Esau
33 Then Jacob glanced up and saw, behold, there was Esau coming—and 400 men with him. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two female servants. 2 He put the female servants and their children first, then Leah and her children behind them, then Rachel and Joseph behind them. 3 But he himself passed on ahead of them, and bowed to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, fell on his neck and kissed him—and they wept. 5 His eyes glanced up and he saw the women and the children, and said, “Who are these with you?”
“The children whom God has graciously given your servant,” he said. 6 Then the female servants approached, they and their children, and bowed down. 7 Leah also approached, along with her children, and they bowed down, and finally, Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
8 “What do you mean by this whole caravan that I’ve met?”
So he said, “To find favor in your eyes, my lord.”
9 But Esau said, “I have plenty! O my brother, do keep all that belongs to you.”
10 Yet Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor in your eyes, then you will take my offering from my hand. For this is the reason I’ve seen your face—it is like seeing the face of God—and you’ve accepted me! 11 Please, take my blessing that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me, and because I have everything.” So he kept urging him until he accepted.
12 Then he said, “Let’s journey and be on our way, and I’ll go ahead of you. 13 He continued, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and the cattle in my care are nursing. So if they were pushed hard just one day, all the flocks would die. 14 Please, let my lord pass on ahead of your servant, and I’ll move on further gradually, at a pace suited to the livestock that are before me and at a pace suited to the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
15 Then Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.”
But he said, “What’s this? Let me find favor in my lord’s eyes.”
16 So on that day Esau returned on his way to Seir, 17 but Jacob journeyed to Sukkot and built a house for himself, and for his livestock he made booths. That is the reason that place is called Sukkot.
Midrash on Abraham’s Two Sons
21 Tell me, you who want to be under Torah, don’t you understand[a] the Torah? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. [b] 23 But one—the son by the slave woman—was born naturally;[c] while the other—the son by the free woman—was through the promise. 24 Now these things are being treated allegorically, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, giving birth to slavery—this is Hagar. 25 But this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free—she is our mother. 27 For it is written:
“Rejoice, O barren woman
who bears no children.
Break forth and shout,
you who suffer no labor pains.
For more are the children of the desolate
than of the one who has a husband.”[d]
28 Now you, brothers and sisters—like Isaac, you are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Ruach, so it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son”[e] of the free woman. 31 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.
Freedom Based on Favor
5 For freedom, Messiah set us free—so stand firm, and do not be burdened by a yoke of slavery again.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.