Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ The voice of my darling; lo! this darling cometh leaping in mountains, and skipping over little hills. (The voice of my darling; lo! my darling cometh leaping over the mountains, and skipping over the little hills.)

⁹ My darling is like a capret, and a calf of harts; lo! he standeth behind our wall, and beholdeth by the windows, and looketh through the lattice. (My darling is like a gazelle, or like a hart calf; lo! he standeth behind our wall, and seeth in through the windows, and looketh through the lattice.)

¹⁰ Lo! my darling speaketh to me, My love, my culver, my fair spousess, rise thou, haste thou, and come thou; (Lo! my darling speaketh to me, and saith, My love, my dove, my beautiful spousess, rise thou up, hasten thou, and come thou away;)

¹¹ for winter is passed now, rain is gone, and is departed away. (for the winter is now passed, finally the rains have gone away, yea, they have departed at last.)

¹² Flowers have appeared in our land, and the time of cutting is come; the voice of a turtle is heard in our land (the song of a turtledove is heard in our land),

¹³ the fig tree hath brought forth his buds; the vineries flowering have given their odour. My love, my fair spousess, rise thou, haste thou, and come thou. (the fig tree hath brought forth its buds; the flowering vines have given forth their aroma. My love, my beautiful spousess, rise thou up, hasten thou, and come thou away.)

29 Therefore Jacob passed forth, and came into the east land;

² and he saw a well in the field, and three flocks of sheep resting beside it, for why (the) sheep were watered thereof, and the mouth thereof was closed with a great stone.

³ And the custom was that when all the sheep were gathered together, they should turn away the stone, and when the flocks were watered, they should put it (back) again on the mouth of the well.

⁴ And Jacob said to the shepherds, Brethren, of whence be ye? Which answered, Of Haran (And they answered, We come from Haran).

⁵ And he asked them and said, Whether ye know Laban, the son of Nahor? (And) They said, We know him.

⁶ Jacob said, Is he whole? (Jacob asked, Is he well?) (And) They said, He is in (a) good state; and lo! Rachel, his daughter, cometh with his flock.

⁷ And Jacob said, Yet much of the day is to come, and it is not (the) time that the flocks be led again to the folds; soothly give ye drink to the sheep, and so lead ye them again to meat (and then take ye them back to the pasture).

⁸ Which answered, We may not till all the sheep be gathered together, and till we remove the stone from the mouth of the well, to water the flocks (then we shall water the flocks).

⁹ Yet (while) they spake, and lo! Rachel came with the sheep of her father.

¹⁰ And when Jacob saw her, and knew (her to be) the daughter of (Laban,) his mother’s brother, and the sheep (to be) of Laban his uncle, he removed the stone with which the well was closed; and when the flock was watered,

¹¹ he kissed her, and he wept with voice raised (and with his voice raised up, he wept for joy).

¹² And Jacob showed to her that he was the brother of her father, and the son of Rebecca; and she hasted, and told to her father. (And Jacob told her that he was her father’s kinsman, and Rebecca’s son; and she hastened home, and told her father.)

¹³ And when he had heard, that Jacob, the son of his sister, came, he ran to meet him, and he embraced Jacob, and kissed him, and led him into his house. Forsooth when the causes of the journey were heard,

¹⁴ Laban answered, Thou art my bone and my flesh. And after that the days of a month were filled,

3 What then is more to a Jew, or what profit of circumcision?

² Much by all wise [Much by all manner]; first, for the speakings of God were betaken to them.

³ And what if some of them believed not? Whether the unbelief of them hath voided the faith of God?

⁴ God forbid [Far be it]. For God is soothfast [Forsooth God is true, or soothfast], but each man a liar; as it is written, That thou be justified in thy words, and overcome, when thou art deemed.

⁵ But if our wickedness [Forsooth if our wickedness, or unequity,] commend the rightwiseness of God, what shall we say? Whether God is wicked, that bringeth in wrath? After man I say.

⁶ God forbid [Far be it]. Else how shall God deem this world?

⁷ For if the truth of God hath abounded in my lying, into the glory of him, what [and] yet am I deemed as a sinner?

⁸ And not as we be blasphemed, and as some say that we say, Do we evil things, that good things come. Whose damnation is just.