Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Destiny of the Wicked and of the Good^[a]

Judah Pleads for Benjamin

¹⁸ Judah went up to Joseph and said, “Please, sir, allow me to speak with you freely. Don't be angry with me; you are like the king himself. ¹⁹ Sir, you asked us, ‘Do you have a father or another brother?’ ²⁰ We answered, ‘We have a father who is old and a younger brother, born to him in his old age. The boy's brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's children still alive; his father loves him very much.’ ²¹ Sir, you told us to bring him here, so that you could see him, ²² and we answered that the boy could not leave his father; if he did, his father would die. ²³ Then you said, ‘You will not be admitted to my presence again unless your youngest brother comes with you.’

²⁴ “When we went back to our father, we told him what you had said. ²⁵ Then he told us to return and buy a little food. ²⁶ We answered, ‘We cannot go; we will not be admitted to the man's presence unless our youngest brother is with us. We can go only if our youngest brother goes also.’ ²⁷ Our father said to us, ‘You know that my wife Rachel bore me only two sons. ²⁸ One of them has already left me. He must have been torn to pieces by wild animals, because I have not seen him since he left. ²⁹ If you take this one from me now and something happens to him, the sorrow you would cause me would kill me, as old as I am.’

^30-31 “And now, sir,” Judah continued, “if I go back to my father without the boy, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with me, he will die. His life is wrapped up with the life of the boy, and he is so old that the sorrow we would cause him would kill him. ³² What is more, I pledged my life to my father for the boy. I told him that if I did not bring the boy back to him, I would bear the blame all my life. ³³ And now, sir, I will stay here as your slave in place of the boy; let him go back with his brothers. ³⁴ How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I cannot bear to see this disaster come upon my father.”

Settle with Your Opponent^(A)

⁵⁷ “Why do you not judge for yourselves the right thing to do? ⁵⁸ If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, do your best to settle the dispute before you get to court. If you don't, you will be dragged before the judge, who will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail. ⁵⁹ There you will stay, I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine.”