Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God takes care of his people^[a]

³¹ The Lord saw that Jacob did not love Leah. So he let her become pregnant. But Rachel did not give birth to any children. ³² Leah became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. She called him Reuben. She said, ‘It is because the Lord has seen how sad I am. My husband will love me now because I have given birth to a son.’

³³ Leah became pregnant again. She gave birth to another son. She said, ‘The Lord has given me another son because he knows that I am not loved.’ She called this son Simeon.

³⁴ Leah became pregnant again. Later, she gave birth to another son. She said, ‘Now I have given my husband three sons, so he will want to stay with me.’ She called this son Levi.

³⁵ Leah became pregnant again. She gave birth to another son. She said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord.’ She called this son Judah. Then she stopped giving birth to children.

Jacob's family

30 Rachel now knew that she could not give birth to any children for Jacob. So she became jealous of her sister. Rachel said to Jacob, ‘Please give me children. If not, I will die.’^{[a] 2} Jacob became angry with Rachel. He said, ‘Am I God? God has stopped you from giving birth to children!’ ³ Rachel said, ‘Take my servant Bilhah and have sex with her. Then she can have children on my behalf. Through her, I can have a family.’^[b]

⁴ So Rachel gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob to become his wife. ⁵ Bilhah became pregnant and she gave birth to a son for Jacob. ⁶ Rachel said, ‘God has shown that I am right. He has listened to me and he has given a son to me.’ Because of this, she called the boy Dan. ⁷ Rachel's servant Bilhah became pregnant again. She gave birth to another son for Jacob. ⁸ Rachel said, ‘I have fought with my sister and I have won.’ She called this son Naphtali.

⁹ Leah saw that she had stopped having children. So she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰ Zilpah became pregnant and she gave birth to a son for Jacob. ¹¹ Leah said, ‘This is very good.’ She called the boy Gad. ¹² Leah's servant Zilpah gave Jacob another son. ¹³ Leah said, ‘I am very happy! Women will call me happy.’ So she called this boy Asher.

¹⁴ It was the time for the harvest of wheat. Reuben went out and he found some mandrake plants in a field. He took them to his mother, Leah. Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of the mandrakes that your son gave to you.’^{[c] 15} But Leah said to Rachel, ‘You took my husband from me. That was bad enough! Now you want to take my son's mandrakes too!’ Rachel said, ‘OK. If you give me some of your son's mandrakes, Jacob can sleep with you tonight.’

¹⁶ In the evening, Jacob came in from the fields. Leah went out to meet him. She said, ‘You must sleep with me tonight. I have paid for you with my son's mandrakes.’ So Jacob slept with Leah that night. ¹⁷ God listened to Leah and she became pregnant again. She gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. ¹⁸ Leah said, ‘God has helped me because I gave my servant to Jacob as a wife.’ She called her son Issachar.

¹⁹ Leah became pregnant again and she gave Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰ Leah said, ‘God has given me this valuable gift. Now my husband will respect me because I have given him six sons.’ She called this son Zebulun.

²¹ After some time, Leah became pregnant again. She gave birth to a daughter. She called her daughter Dinah.

²² Then God decided to help Rachel. He listened to her and he let her become pregnant. ²³ She became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. Rachel said, ‘I am not ashamed any longer, because God has given me a son.’ ²⁴ Rachel called her son Joseph. She said, ‘I pray that the Lord will give me another son.’

The Pharisees want to see Jesus do something powerful

³⁸ Then some teachers of God's Law and some Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we want to see you do something powerful. This will show us that God has really sent you.’

³⁹ Jesus replied, ‘The people who are alive today are very bad. They do not obey God, but they want God to show them something powerful. But God will not do this for them. They will only see the same powerful thing that God did for his prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ Jonah stayed inside a big fish for three days and three nights.^[a] In the same way, the Son of Man will remain in the ground for three days and three nights. ⁴¹ When God judges everyone, the people who lived in Nineveh will be there. They will stand up and they will speak against you. They will show that the people who are alive today are bad. When Jonah spoke to the people in Nineveh long ago, they stopped doing bad things. But look! There is someone here now who is greater than Jonah was.

⁴² Also, the Queen of Sheba travelled a long way to meet King Solomon. She wanted to hear his wise words. When God judges everyone, she will stand up. She will speak against you who are alive today. She will show that you are bad people. She listened to King Solomon. But look! There is someone here now who is greater than Solomon was. But you are not listening to me.’^[b]