Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Thanksgiving for Yahweh’s Help

A song of ascents. Of David.^[a]

²⁹ Then he instructed them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me among my ancestors^[a] in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰ in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah that is before^[b] Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. ³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. And there I buried Leah— ³² the purchase of the field and the cave which was in it from the Hittites.” ³³ When Jacob finished instructing his sons he drew his feet up to the bed. Then he took his last breath and was gathered to his people.

Jacob’s Funeral and Joseph’s Remaining Time in Egypt

50 Then Joseph fell on the face of his father and wept upon him and kissed him. ² And Joseph instructed his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. ³ Forty days were required for it,^[c] for thus are the days required for^[d] embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. ⁴ When the days of his weeping had passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, ⁵ ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am about to die. In the tomb that I have hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan—there you must bury me.” So then, please let me go up and let me bury my father; then I will return.’” ⁶ Then Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father as he made you swear.” ⁷ So Joseph went up to bury his father. And all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, went up with him, ⁸ with all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and the household of his father. They left only their little children and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen. ⁹ And there also went up with him chariots and horsemen. The company was very great. ¹⁰ When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which was beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful wailing. And he made a mourning ceremony for his father seven days. ¹¹ And when the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, saw the mourning ceremony at the threshing floor of Atad they said, “This is a severe mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel-Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. ¹² Thus his sons did to him just as he had instructed them. ¹³ And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which field Abraham had bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite before^[e] Mamre. ¹⁴ And after burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

¹² For we do not dare to classify or to compare ourselves with some who commend themselves, but they themselves, when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, do not understand. ¹³ But we will not boast beyond limits^[a], but according to the measure of the assignment that God has assigned to us as a measure to reach even as far as you. ¹⁴ For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we^[b] had not reached you, because we have reached even as far as you with the gospel of Christ, ¹⁵ not boasting beyond limits^[c] in the labors of others, but having hope that as your faith is growing to be enlarged greatly by you according to our assignment, ¹⁶ so that we may proclaim the gospel in the regions that lie beyond you, and not boast in the things accomplished in the area assigned to someone else. ¹⁷ But “the one who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”^{[d] 18} For it is not the one commending himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.