Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹³ For Thou -- Thou hast possessed my reins, Thou dost cover me in my mother's belly.

¹⁴ I confess Thee, because that [with] wonders I have been distinguished. Wonderful [are] Thy works, And my soul is knowing [it] well.

¹⁵ My substance was not hid from Thee, When I was made in secret, Curiously wrought in the lower part of earth.

¹⁶ Mine unformed substance Thine eyes saw, And on Thy book all of them are written, The days they were formed -- And not one among them.

¹⁷ And to me how precious have been Thy thoughts, O God, how great hath been their sum!

¹⁸ I recount them! than the sand they are more, I have waked, and I am still with Thee.

33 And Jacob lifteth up his eyes, and looketh, and lo, Esau is coming, and with him four hundred men; and he divideth the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two maid-servants;

² and he setteth the maid-servants and their children first, and Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last.

³ And he himself passed over before them, and boweth himself to the earth seven times, until his drawing nigh unto his brother,

⁴ and Esau runneth to meet him, and embraceth him, and falleth on his neck, and kisseth him, and they weep;

⁵ and he lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the women and the children, and saith, `What [are] these to thee?' And he saith, `The children with whom God hath favoured thy servant.'

⁶ And the maid-servants draw nigh, they and their children, and bow themselves;

⁷ and Leah also draweth nigh, and her children, and they bow themselves; and afterwards Joseph hath drawn nigh with Rachel, and they bow themselves.

⁸ And he saith, `What to thee [is] all this camp which I have met?' and he saith, `To find grace in the eyes of my lord.'

⁹ And Esau saith, `I have abundance, my brother, let it be to thyself that which thou hast.'

¹⁰ And Jacob saith, `Nay, I pray thee, if, I pray thee, I have found grace in thine eyes, then thou hast received my present from my hand, because that I have seen thy face, as the seeing of the face of God, and thou art pleased with me;

¹¹ receive, I pray thee, my blessing, which is brought to thee, because God hath favoured me, and because I have all [things];' and he presseth on him, and he receiveth,

¹² and saith, `Let us journey and go on, and I go on before thee.'

¹³ And he saith unto him, `My lord knoweth that the children [are] tender, and the suckling flock and the herd [are] with me; when they have beaten them one day, then hath all the flock died.

¹⁴ Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant, and I -- I lead on gently, according to the foot of the work which [is] before me, and to the foot of the children, until that I come unto my lord, to Seir.'

¹⁵ And Esau saith, `Let me, I pray thee, place with thee some of the people who [are] with me;' and he said, `Why [is] this? I find grace in the eyes of my lord.'

¹⁶ And turn back on that day doth Esau on his way to Seir;

¹⁷ and Jacob hath journeyed to Succoth, and buildeth to himself a house, and for his cattle hath made booths, therefore hath he called the name of the place Succoth.

²¹ Tell me, ye who are willing to be under law, the law do ye not hear?

²² for it hath been written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the maid-servant, and one by the free-woman,

²³ but he who [is] of the maid-servant, according to flesh hath been, and he who [is] of the free-woman, through the promise;

²⁴ which things are allegorized, for these are the two covenants: one, indeed, from mount Sinai, to servitude bringing forth, which is Hagar;

²⁵ for this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and doth correspond to the Jerusalem that now [is], and is in servitude with her children,

²⁶ and the Jerusalem above is the free-woman, which is mother of us all,

²⁷ for it hath been written, `Rejoice, O barren, who art not bearing; break forth and cry, thou who art not travailing, because many [are] the children of the desolate -- more than of her having the husband.'

²⁸ And we, brethren, as Isaac, are children of promise,

²⁹ but as then he who was born according to the flesh did persecute him according to the spirit, so also now;

³⁰ but what saith the Writing? `Cast forth the maid-servant and her son, for the son of the maid-servant may not be heir with the son of the free-woman;'

³¹ then, brethren, we are not a maid-servant's children, but the free-woman's.

5 In the freedom, then, with which Christ did make you free -- stand ye, and be not held fast again by a yoke of servitude;