Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Nations Conspire Against Israel
Psalm 83
1 A song: a psalm of Asaph.
2 God, do not keep silent.
Do not hold Your peace, O God.
Do not be still.
3 For look, Your enemies make an uproar.
Those who hate You lift up their head.
4 They make a shrewd plot against Your people,
conspiring against Your treasured ones.
5 “Come,” they say, “let’s wipe them out as a nation!
Let Israel’s name be remembered no more!”
6 For with one mind they plot together.
Against You do they make a covenant.
7 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
8 Gebal, Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre,
9 even Assyria has joined them,
becoming a strong arm for Lot’s sons. Selah
10 Do to them as You did to Midian,
to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River,
11 who perished at En-dor—
they became as dung for the ground.
12 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb—
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
13 who said,
“Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”
14 My God, make them like tumbleweed,
like chaff before the wind.
15 As a fire burns a forest,
and as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
16 so pursue them with Your tempest,
and terrify them with Your storm.
17 Cover their faces with shame,
so they may seek Your Name—Adonai.
18 Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever.
Let them be humiliated and perish.
19 Let them know that You alone
—whose Name is Adonai—
are El Elyon over all the earth.
17 Then Jacob got up and put his children and wives on camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock and all his possessions that he had acquired—the livestock in his possession that he acquired in Paddan-aram—to go to his father Isaac, to the land of Canaan.
19 But while Laban went to shear his flocks, Rachel stole the idols that belonged to her father, 20 while Jacob stole the heart from Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21 He himself fled with everything that belonged to him, and he got up and crossed the River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Confronts Jacob and Makes Covenant
22 When Laban was told on the third day after Jacob had fled, 23 he took his relatives with him and pursued him a seven days’ journey. Then he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Watch yourself—lest you say anything to Jacob, good or bad.”
25 So Laban caught up to Jacob. (Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, so Laban and his brothers pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead as well). 26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you’ve stolen my heart and have driven my daughters away like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you secretly flee away, and steal from me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and with songs, with tambourines and with lyres? 28 And you didn’t even let me kiss my sons and daughters!
“Now, you’ve behaved foolishly. 29 It is in the power of my hand to do evil with you, but yesterday the God of your fathers spoke to me, saying, ‘Watch yourself—lest you say anything to Jacob, good or bad.’ 30 So now, when you up and left because you really missed your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?”
31 In response, Jacob said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought, ‘Suppose you snatch your daughters away from me.’ 32 Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In front of our relatives, identify whatever is yours that is with me, and take it back.” (But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.)
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he found nothing. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. 34 (Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them in the camel’s saddlebag and sat on them.) So Laban felt around the entire tent but did not find them. 35 She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for I am having the way of women.” So he searched but did not find the idols.
By Deeds or by Faith?
3 O foolish Galatians, who cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Yeshua the Messiah was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I want to find out just one thing from you: did you receive the Ruach by deeds based on Torah, or by hearing based on trust? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Ruach, will you now reach the goal in the flesh? 4 Did you endure so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5 So then, the One who gives you the Ruach and works miracles among you—does He do it because of your deeds based on Torah or your hearing based on trust and faithfulness?
6 Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” [a] 7 know then that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 The Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the Good News to Abraham in advance, saying, “All the nations shall be blessed through you.” [b] 9 So then, the faithful are blessed along with Abraham, the faithful one.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.