Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Had He Not Been on Our Side

Psalm 124

²⁹ Then he charged them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers 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 next to Mamre in the land of Canaan—the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a property for burial. ³¹ There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, and there I buried Leah. ³² The field was purchased along with the cave in it from the sons of Het.”

³³ When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, then breathed his last and was gathered to his peoples.

Lamentation for Jacob

50 Joseph fell upon his father’s face, wept over him and kissed him. ² Then Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. ³ They took 40 days for him, because that is how long embalming takes, and Egypt wept 70 days.

⁴ When the days of formal weeping passed, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s house saying, “If I’ve found favor in your eyes, please say in Pharaoh’s ears, ⁵ “My father made me take an oath saying, ‘Behold, I am about to die. In my tomb—which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan—there you must bury me.’ So now, please allow me to go up and bury my father, and then return.”

⁶ Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father just as he made you swear on oath.”

⁷ So Joseph went up to bury his father. Also all of Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt went up with him, ⁸ along with all of Joseph’s house, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children and their flocks and cattle were left in the land of Goshen. ⁹ Chariots and horsemen also went up with him—it was a very impressive company.

¹⁰ When they came to the threshing floor of the bramble on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there—a very great and solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. ¹¹ When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning ritual at the threshing floor of the prickly bush, they said, “A solemn mourning ritual this is for the Egyptians.” That is why it is named Abel-Mizraim, which is on the other side of the Jordan.

¹² So Jacob’s sons did for him just as he commanded them. ¹³ His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, the field that Abraham bought as a property for burial from Ephron the Hittite, next to Mamre.

¹⁴ After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all those who went up with him to bury his father.

¹² For we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they have no understanding. ¹³ But we will not boast beyond limits, but within the limits of the area that God has assigned to us—to reach even as far as you. ¹⁴ We are not extending ourselves too far, as if we did not reach you—for we did come even as far as to you with the Good News of Messiah. ¹⁵ Neither are we boasting beyond limits based on the labors of others, but we have hope while your faith is growing for our area among you to be greatly enlarged— ¹⁶ so that we may proclaim the Good News even to regions beyond you, not boasting about what has been accomplished in another’s area. ¹⁷ But “let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” ^{[a] 18} For it Is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.