Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Young Woman Remembers One Spring Day with Her Beloved
[Bride]
8 I hear my beloved’s voice.
Look! Here he comes,
sprinting over the mountains,
racing over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look! There he stands behind our wall,
peeking through the window,
looking through the lattice.
10 My beloved said to me,
“Get up, my true love, my beautiful one, and come with me.
11 Look! The winter is past.
The rain is over and gone.
12 Blossoms appear in the land.
The time of the songbird has arrived.
The cooing of the mourning dove is heard in our land.
13 The green figs ripen.
The grapevines bloom and give off a fragrance.
Get up, my true love, my beautiful one, and come with me.
30 Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Jacob had barely left when his brother Esau came in from hunting. 31 He, too, prepared a good-tasting meal and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Please, Father, eat some of the meat I’ve hunted for you so that you will bless me.”
32 “Who are you?” his father Isaac asked him.
“I’m your firstborn son Esau,” he answered.
33 Trembling violently all over, Isaac asked, “Who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it before you came in. I blessed him, and he will stay blessed.”
34 When Esau heard these words from his father, he shouted out a very loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!”
35 Isaac said, “Your brother came and deceived me and has taken away your blessing.”
36 Esau said, “Isn’t that why he’s named Jacob? He’s cheated me twice already: He took my rights as firstborn, and now he’s taken my blessing.” So he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”
37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him your master, and I have made all his brothers serve him. I’ve provided fresh grain and new wine for him. What is left for me to do for you, Son?”
38 Esau asked, “Do you have only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” And Esau sobbed loudly.
39 His father Isaac answered him,
“The place where you live will lack the fertile fields of the earth
and the dew from the sky above.
40 You will use your sword to live,
and you will serve your brother.
But eventually you will gain your freedom[a]
and break his yoke[b] off your neck.”
41 So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing that his father had given him. Esau said to himself, “The time to mourn for my father is near. Then I’ll kill my brother Jacob.”
42 When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Watch out! Your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you.[c] 43 So now, Son, obey me. Quick! Run away to my brother Laban in Haran. 44 Stay with him awhile, until your brother’s anger cools down. 45 When your brother’s anger is gone and he has forgotten what you did to him, I’ll send for you and get you back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46 Rebekah said to Isaac, “I can’t stand Hittite women! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of those from around here, I might as well die.”
God’s Anger against Sinful Humanity
18 God’s anger is revealed from heaven against every ungodly and immoral thing people do as they try to suppress the truth by their immoral living. 19 What can be known about God is clear to them because he has made it clear to them. 20 From the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what he made. As a result, people have no excuse. 21 They knew God but did not praise and thank him for being God. Instead, their thoughts were pointless, and their misguided minds were plunged into darkness. 22 While claiming to be wise, they became fools. 23 They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for statues that looked like mortal humans, birds, animals, and snakes.
24 For this reason God allowed their lusts to control them. As a result, they dishonor their bodies by sexual perversion with each other. 25 These people have exchanged God’s truth for a lie. So they have become ungodly and serve what is created rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen!
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.