Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

113 Hallelujah! O servants of Jehovah, praise his name. ² Blessed is his name forever and forever. ³ Praise him from sunrise to sunset! ⁴ For he is high above the nations; his glory is far greater than the heavens.

⁵ Who can be compared with God enthroned on high? ⁶ Far below him are the heavens and the earth; he stoops to look, ⁷ and lifts the poor from the dirt and the hungry from the garbage dump, ⁸ and sets them among princes! ⁹ He gives children to the childless wife, so that she becomes a happy mother.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.

24 Abraham was now a very old man, and God blessed him in every way. ² One day Abraham said to his household administrator, who was his oldest servant,

³ “Swear by Jehovah, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not let my son marry one of these local girls, these Canaanites. ⁴ Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife for him there.”

⁵ “But suppose I can’t find a girl who will come so far from home?” the servant asked. “Then shall I take Isaac there, to live among your relatives?”

⁶ “No!” Abraham warned. “Be careful that you don’t do that under any circumstance. ⁷ For the Lord God of heaven told me to leave that land and my people, and promised to give me and my children this land. He will send his angel on ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a girl from there to be my son’s wife. ⁸ But if you don’t succeed, then you are free from this oath; but under no circumstances are you to take my son there.”

⁹ So the servant vowed^[a] to follow Abraham’s instructions.

¹⁰ He took with him ten of Abraham’s camels loaded with samples of the best of everything his master owned and journeyed to Iraq, to Nahor’s village.

5 Never speak sharply to an older man, but plead with him respectfully just as though he were your own father. Talk to the younger men as you would to much-loved brothers. ² Treat the older women as mothers, and the girls as your sisters, thinking only pure thoughts about them.

³ The church should take loving care of women whose husbands have died if they don’t have anyone else to help them. ⁴ But if they have children or grandchildren, these are the ones who should take the responsibility, for kindness should begin at home, supporting needy parents. This is something that pleases God very much.

⁵ The church should care for widows who are poor and alone in the world if they are looking to God for his help and spending much time in prayer; ⁶ but not if they are spending their time running around gossiping, seeking only pleasure and thus ruining their souls. ⁷ This should be your church rule so that the Christians will know and do what is right.

⁸ But anyone who won’t care for his own relatives when they need help, especially those living in his own family, has no right to say he is a Christian. Such a person is worse than the heathen.