Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 116
1 I love Yahweh because he hears my voice, my pleas for mercy.
2 I will call on him as long as I live
because he turns his ear toward me.
12 How can I repay Yahweh
for all the good that he has done for me?
13 I will take the cup of salvation
and call on the name of Yahweh.
14 I will keep my vows to Yahweh
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of Yahweh
is the death of his faithful ones.
16 O Yahweh, I am indeed your servant.
I am your servant,
the son of your female servant.
You have freed me from my chains.
17 I will bring a song of thanksgiving to you as a sacrifice.
I will call on the name of Yahweh.
18 I will keep my vows to Yahweh
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courtyards of Yahweh’s house,
in the middle of Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and left, taking with him all of his master’s best things. He traveled to Aram Naharaim, Nahor’s city.
Abraham’s Servant Finds a Wife for Isaac
11 The servant had the camels kneel down outside the city by the well. It was evening, when the women would go out to draw water. 12 Then he prayed, “Yahweh, Elohim of my master Abraham, make me successful today. Show your kindness to Abraham. 13 Here I am standing by the spring, and the girls of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 I will ask a girl, ‘May I please have a drink from your jar?’ If she answers, ‘Have a drink, and I’ll also water your camels,’ let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. This way I’ll know that you’ve shown your kindness to my master.”
15 Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. 16 The girl was a very attractive virgin. No man had ever had sexual intercourse with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came back.
17 The servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a drink of water.”
18 “Drink, sir,” she said. She quickly lowered her jar to her hand and gave him a drink. 19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I’ll also keep drawing water for your camels until they’ve had enough to drink.” 20 So she quickly emptied her jar into the water trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. 21 The man was silently watching her to see whether or not Yahweh had made his trip successful.
22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a fifth of an ounce and two gold bracelets weighing four ounces. 23 He asked, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me whether there is room in your father’s house for us to spend the night.”
24 She answered him, “I’m the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah and Nahor. 25 We have plenty of straw and feed for your camels and room for you to spend the night.”
26 The man knelt, bowing to Yahweh with his face touching the ground. 27 He said, “Praise Yahweh, the Elohim of my master Abraham. Yahweh hasn’t failed to be kind and faithful to my master. Yahweh has led me on this trip to the home of my master’s relatives.”
28 The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things. 29 Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban. 30 He saw the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists and heard her tell what the man had said to her. Immediately, Laban ran out to the man by the spring.[a] He came to the man, who was standing with the camels by the spring. 31 He said, “Come in, you whom Yahweh has blessed. Why are you standing out here? I have straightened up the house and made a place for the camels.”
32 So the man went into the house. The camels were unloaded and given straw and feed. Then water was brought for him and his men to wash their feet. 33 When the food was put in front of him, he said, “I won’t eat until I’ve said what I have to say.”
“Speak up,” Laban said.
34 “I am Abraham’s servant,” he said. 35 “Yahweh has blessed my master, and he has become wealthy. The Lord has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys. 36 My master’s wife Sarah gave him a son in her old age, and my master has given that son everything he has. 37 My master made me swear this oath: ‘Don’t get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I’m living. 38 Instead, go to my father’s home and to my relatives, and get my son a wife.’
39 “I asked my master, ‘What if the woman won’t come back with me?’
40 “He answered me, ‘I have been living the way Yahweh wants me to. The Lord will send his angel with you to make your trip successful. You will get my son a wife from my relatives and from my father’s family. 41 Then you will be free from your oath to me. You will also be free of your oath to me if my relatives are not willing to do this when you go to them.’
42 “When I came to the spring today, I prayed, ‘Yahweh Elohim of my master Abraham, please make my trip successful. 43 I’m standing by the spring. I’ll say to the young woman who comes out to draw water, “Please give me a drink of water.” 44 If she says to me, “Not only may you have a drink, but I will also draw water for your camels,” let her be the woman Yahweh has chosen for my master’s son.’
45 “Before I had finished praying, Rebekah came with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water.
“So I asked her, ‘May I have a drink?’ 46 She quickly lowered her jar and said, ‘Have a drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels.
47 “Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’
“She answered, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor and Milcah.’
“I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her wrists. 48 I knelt, bowing down to Yahweh. I praised Yahweh, the Elohim of my master Abraham. Yahweh led me in the right direction to get the daughter of my master’s relative for his son. 49 Tell me whether or not you’re going to show my master true kindness so that I will know what to do.”
50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from Yahweh. We can’t say anything to you one way or another. 51 Here’s Rebekah! Take her and go! She will become the wife of your master’s son, as Yahweh has said.”
52 When Abraham’s servant heard their answer, he bowed down to Yahweh.
Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ Traditions(A)
7 The Pharisees and some experts in Moses’ Teachings who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Yeshua. 2 They saw that some of his disciples were unclean[a] because they ate without washing their hands.
3 (The Pharisees, like all other Jewish people, don’t eat unless they have properly washed their hands. They follow the traditions of their ancestors. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they don’t eat unless they have washed first. They have been taught to follow many other rules. For example, they must also wash their cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.[b])
5 The Pharisees and the experts in Moses’ Teachings asked Yeshua, “Why don’t your disciples follow the traditions taught by our ancestors? They are unclean because they don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
6 Yeshua told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites in Scripture:
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship of me is pointless,
because their teachings are rules made by humans.’
8 “You abandon the commandments of God to follow human traditions.” 9 He added, “You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions! 10 For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a person tells his father or mother that whatever he might have used to help them is corban (that is, an offering to God), 12 he no longer has to do anything for his father or mother.’ 13 Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And you do many other things like that.”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.