Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Rejoicing in Answered Prayer
A Psalm of David.
28 To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock:
(A)Do not be silent to me,
(B)Lest, if You are silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications
When I cry to You,
(C)When I lift up my hands (D)toward Your holy sanctuary.
3 Do not [a]take me away with the wicked
And with the workers of iniquity,
(E)Who speak peace to their neighbors,
But evil is in their hearts.
4 (F)Give them according to their deeds,
And according to the wickedness of their endeavors;
Give them according to the work of their hands;
Render to them what they deserve.
5 Because (G)they do not regard the works of the Lord,
Nor the operation of His hands,
He shall destroy them
And not build them up.
29 Then Reuben returned to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit; and he (A)tore his clothes. 30 And he returned to his brothers and said, “The lad (B)is no more; and I, where shall I go?”
31 So they took (C)Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. 32 Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, “We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?”
33 And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A (D)wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.” 34 Then Jacob (E)tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and (F)mourned for his son many days. 35 And all his sons and all his daughters (G)arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, “For (H)I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
36 Now (I)the [a]Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.
Doom of False Teachers
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to [a]hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of (A)Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and (B)delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, (C)tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then (D)the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially (E)those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. (F)They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of [b]dignitaries,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.