Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Someone Saved from Death Praises God

¹⁰ The servant, who was in charge of Abraham's property, took ten of his master's camels and went to the city where Nahor had lived in northern Mesopotamia. ¹¹ When he arrived, he made the camels kneel down at the well outside the city. It was late afternoon, the time when women came out to get water. ¹² He prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today and keep your promise to my master. ¹³ Here I am at the well where the young women of the city will be coming to get water. ¹⁴ I will say to one of them, ‘Please, lower your jar and let me have a drink.’ If she says, ‘Drink, and I will also bring water for your camels,’ may she be the one that you have chosen for your servant Isaac. If this happens, I will know that you have kept your promise to my master.”

¹⁵ Before he had finished praying, Rebecca arrived with a water jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Abraham's brother Nahor and his wife Milcah. ¹⁶ She was a very beautiful young woman and still a virgin. She went down to the well, filled her jar, and came back. ¹⁷ The servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a drink of water from your jar.”

¹⁸ She said, “Drink, sir,” and quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and held it while he drank. ¹⁹ When he had finished, she said, “I will also bring water for your camels and let them have all they want.” ²⁰ She quickly emptied her jar into the animals' drinking trough and ran to the well to get more water, until she had watered all his camels. ²¹ The man kept watching her in silence, to see if the Lord had given him success.

²² When she had finished, the man took an expensive gold ring and put it in her nose and put two large gold bracelets on her arms. ²³ He said, “Please tell me who your father is. Is there room in his house for my men and me to spend the night?”

²⁴ “My father is Bethuel son of Nahor and Milcah,” she answered. ²⁵ “There is plenty of straw and fodder at our house, and there is a place for you to stay.”

²⁶ Then the man knelt down and worshiped the Lord. ²⁷ He said, “Praise the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has faithfully kept his promise to my master. The Lord has led me straight to my master's relatives.”

²⁸ The young woman ran to her mother's house and told the whole story. ²⁹ Now Rebecca had a brother named Laban, and he ran outside to go to the well where Abraham's servant was. ³⁰ Laban had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms and had heard her say what the man had told her. He went to Abraham's servant, who was standing by his camels at the well, ³¹ and said, “Come home with me. You are a man whom the Lord has blessed. Why are you standing out here? I have a room ready for you in my house, and there is a place for your camels.”

³² So the man went into the house, and Laban unloaded the camels and gave them straw and fodder. Then he brought water for Abraham's servant and his men to wash their feet. ³³ When food was brought, the man said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.”

Laban said, “Go on and speak.”

³⁴ “I am the servant of Abraham,” he began. ³⁵ “The Lord has greatly blessed my master and made him a rich man. He has given him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, silver, gold, male and female slaves, camels, and donkeys. ³⁶ Sarah, my master's wife, bore him a son when she was old, and my master has given everything he owns to him. ³⁷ My master made me promise with a vow to obey his command. He said, ‘Do not choose a wife for my son from the young women in the land of Canaan. ³⁸ Instead, go to my father's people, to my relatives, and choose a wife for him.’ ³⁹ And I asked my master, ‘What if she will not come with me?’ ⁴⁰ He answered, ‘The Lord, whom I have always obeyed, will send his angel with you and give you success. You will get for my son a wife from my own people, from my father's family. ⁴¹ There is only one way for you to be free from your vow: if you go to my relatives and they refuse you, then you will be free.’

⁴² “When I came to the well today, I prayed, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, please give me success in what I am doing. ⁴³ Here I am at the well. When a young woman comes out to get water, I will ask her to give me a drink of water from her jar. ⁴⁴ If she agrees and also offers to bring water for my camels, may she be the one that you have chosen as the wife for my master's son.’ ⁴⁵ Before I had finished my silent prayer, Rebecca came with a water jar on her shoulder and went down to the well to get water. I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ ⁴⁶ She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she watered the camels. ⁴⁷ I asked her, ‘Who is your father?’ And she answered, ‘My father is Bethuel son of Nahor and Milcah.’ Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms. ⁴⁸ I knelt down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me straight to my master's relative, where I found his daughter for my master's son. ⁴⁹ Now, if you intend to fulfill your responsibility toward my master and treat him fairly, please tell me; if not, say so, and I will decide what to do.”

⁵⁰ Laban and Bethuel answered, “Since this matter comes from the Lord, it is not for us to make a decision. ⁵¹ Here is Rebecca; take her and go. Let her become the wife of your master's son, as the Lord himself has said.” ⁵² When the servant of Abraham heard this, he bowed down and worshiped the Lord.

The Teaching of the Ancestors^(A)

7 Some Pharisees and teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. ² They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their food with hands that were ritually unclean—that is, they had not washed them in the way the Pharisees said people should.

(³ For the Pharisees, as well as the rest of the Jews, follow the teaching they received from their ancestors: they do not eat unless they wash their hands in the proper way; ⁴ nor do they eat anything that comes from the market unless they wash it first.^[a] And they follow many other rules which they have received, such as the proper way to wash cups, pots, copper bowls, and beds.^[b])

⁵ So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?”

^6 (B)Jesus answered them, “How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote:

⁸ “You put aside God's command and obey human teachings.”

⁹ And Jesus continued, “You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching. ^10 (C)For Moses commanded, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ and, ‘If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.’ ¹¹ But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, ‘This is Corban’ (which means, it belongs to God), ¹² they are excused from helping their father or mother. ¹³ In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God. And there are many other things like this that you do.”