Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
(By David.)
A Prayer for Help
1 Only you, Lord,
are a mighty rock![a]
Don't refuse to help me
when I pray.
If you don't answer me,
I will soon be dead.
2 Please listen to my prayer
and my cry for help,
as I lift my hands
toward your holy temple.
3 Don't drag me away, Lord,
with those cruel people,
who speak kind words,
while planning trouble.
4 (A) Treat them as they deserve!
Punish them for their sins.
5 They don't pay any attention
to your wonderful deeds.
Now you will destroy them
and leave them in ruin.
6 I praise you, Lord,
for answering my prayers.
7 You are my strong shield,
and I trust you completely.
You have helped me,
and I will celebrate
and thank you in song.
8 You give strength
to your people, Lord,
and you save and protect
your chosen ones.
9 Come save us and bless us.
Be our shepherd and always
carry us in your arms.
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
39 The Ishmaelites took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, the king's[a] official in charge of the palace guard. 2-3 (A) So Joseph lived in the home of Potiphar, his Egyptian owner.
Soon Potiphar realized that the Lord was helping Joseph to be successful in whatever he did. 4 Potiphar liked Joseph and made him his personal assistant, putting him in charge of his house and all of his property. 5 Because of Joseph, the Lord began to bless Potiphar's family and fields. 6 Potiphar left everything up to Joseph, and with Joseph there, the only decision he had to make was what he wanted to eat.
Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 (B) and Potiphar's wife soon noticed him. She asked him to make love to her, 8 but he refused and said, “My master isn't worried about anything in his house, because he has placed me in charge of everything he owns. 9 No one in my master's house is more important than I am. The only thing he hasn't given me is you, and that's because you are his wife. I won't sin against God by doing such a terrible thing as this.” 10 She kept begging Joseph day after day, but he refused to do what she wanted or even to go near her.
11 One day, Joseph went to Potiphar's house to do his work, and none of the other servants were there. 12 Potiphar's wife grabbed hold of his coat and said, “Make love to me!” Joseph ran out of the house, leaving his coat there in her hands.
13 When this happened, 14 she called in her servants and said, “Look! This Hebrew has come just to make fools of us. He tried to rape me, but I screamed for help. 15 And when he heard me scream, he ran out of the house, leaving his coat with me.”
16 Potiphar's wife kept Joseph's coat until her husband came home. 17 Then she said, “That Hebrew slave of yours tried to rape me! 18 But when I screamed for help, he left his coat and ran out of the house.”
19 Potiphar became very angry 20 and threw Joseph in the same prison where the king's prisoners were kept.
While Joseph was in prison, 21 (C) the Lord helped him and was good to him. He even made the jailer like Joseph so much that 22 he put him in charge of the other prisoners and of everything that was done in the jail. 23 The jailer did not worry about anything, because the Lord was with Joseph and made him successful in all that he did.
14 Are we saying God is unfair? Certainly not! 15 (A) The Lord told Moses that he has pity and mercy on anyone he wants to. 16 Everything then depends on God's mercy and not on what people want or do. 17 (B) In the Scriptures the Lord says to the king of Egypt, “I let you become king, so that I could show you my power and be praised by all people on earth.” 18 Everything depends on what God decides to do, and he can either have pity on people or make them stubborn.
God's Anger and Mercy
19 Someone may ask, “How can God blame us, if he makes us behave in the way he wants us to?” 20 (C) But, my friend, I ask, “Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did? 21 (D) Doesn't a potter have the right to make a fancy bowl and a plain bowl out of the same lump of clay?”
22 (E) God wanted to show his anger and reveal his power against everyone who deserved to be destroyed. But instead, he patiently put up with them. 23 He did this by showing how glorious he is when he has pity on the people he has chosen to share in his glory. 24 Whether Jews or Gentiles, we are those chosen ones, 25 (F) just as the Lord says in the book of Hosea,
“Although they are not
my people,
I will make them my people.
I will treat with love
those nations
that have never been loved.
26 (G) “Once they were told,
‘You are not my people.’
But in that very place
they will be called
children of the living God.”
27 (H) And this is what the prophet Isaiah said about the people of Israel,
“The people of Israel
are as many
as the grains of sand
along the beach.
But only a few who are left
will be saved.
28 The Lord will be quick
and sure to do on earth
what he has warned
he will do.”
29 (I) Isaiah also said,
“If the Lord All-Powerful
had not spared some
of our descendants,
we would have been destroyed
like the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah.”[a]
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.