Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 113

The Mighty Deliverer

Invitation to Praise

The Basis for Praise

²⁸ The young lady ran and told her mother’s household about these things. ²⁹ Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban. Laban ran out to the spring to meet the man. ³⁰ When he saw the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and after he heard the words from Rebekah his sister, who said, “This is what the man said to me,” he went to find the man. And there he was, standing next to the camels by the spring. ³¹ Laban said, “Come with me, you who are blessed by the Lord. Why are you standing outside when I have prepared the house and a place for the camels?”

³² The man came to the house and unloaded the camels. Laban gave him straw and feed for the camels and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. ³³ Food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have delivered my message.”

Laban said, “Tell us.”

³⁴ He said, “I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵ The Lord has blessed my master greatly. He has become great. The Lord has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys. ³⁶ Sarah, my master’s wife, bore a son for my master when she was old. My master has given him everything that he owns. ³⁷ My master made me take an oath. He said, ‘You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I am living. ³⁸ Instead, you shall go to my father’s house and to my relatives and acquire a wife for my son.’ ³⁹ I asked my master, ‘What if the woman will not follow me?’ ⁴⁰ He said to me, ‘The Lord, in whose presence I walk, will send his angel with you and give your journey success, and you will acquire a wife for my son from my relatives and from my father’s house. ⁴¹ But you will be released from my oath, if, when you have come to my relatives, they do not give her to you—then you will be released from my oath.’ ⁴² Today I came to the spring and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if you now will bless my journey with success,

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. ¹⁷ The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

²⁰ He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

²² They all spoke well of him and were impressed by the words of grace that came from his mouth. And they kept saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

²³ He told them, “Certainly you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ Do here in your hometown everything we heard you did in Capernaum.” ²⁴ And he said, “Amen^[b] I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ But truly I tell you: There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. ²⁶ Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ All those who were in the synagogue were filled with rage when they heard these things. ²⁹ They got up and drove him out of the town. They led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he passed through the middle of them and went on his way.