Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

124 “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side”—now may Israel say—

² “if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us,

³ then would they have swallowed us up alive when their wrath was kindled against us;

⁴ then would the waters have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;

⁵ then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.”

⁶ Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

⁷ Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

²⁹ And he charged them and said unto them, “I am to be gathered unto my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰ in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession as a burying place.

³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.

³² The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.”

³³ And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

50 And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.

² And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.

³ And forty days were fulfilled for him (for so are fulfilled the days of those who are embalmed), and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.

⁴ And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

⁵ ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Lo, I die; in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me.” Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.’”

⁶ And Pharaoh said, “Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.”

⁷ And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

⁸ and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, and their flocks and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.

⁹ And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company.

¹⁰ And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

¹¹ And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning of the Egyptians.” Therefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim [that is, The mourning of the Egyptians], which is beyond the Jordan.

¹² And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them.

¹³ For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession as a burying place from Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.

¹⁴ And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren and all who went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

¹² For we dare not number ourselves, or compare ourselves, with some who commend themselves. For in measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, they are not wise.

¹³ But we will not boast of things beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.

¹⁴ For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you. For we have come as far as to you also in preaching the Gospel of Christ,

¹⁵ not boasting of things beyond our own measure, that is, of other men’s labors; but having hope that, when your faith has increased, we shall be magnified in you according to our rule abundantly,

¹⁶ to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s rule, which he made ready for our hand.

¹⁷ But “he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

¹⁸ For it is not he that commendeth himself who is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.