Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁹ This is the ^(A)genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son. ^(B)Abraham begot Isaac. ²⁰ Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, ^(C)the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, ^(D)the sister of Laban the Syrian. ²¹ Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; ^(E)and the Lord granted his plea, ^(F)and Rebekah his wife conceived. ²² But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” ^(G)So she went to inquire of the Lord.

²³ And the Lord said to her:

²⁴ So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ And the first came out red. He was ^(K)like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name ^[a]Esau. ²⁶ Afterward his brother came out, and ^(L)his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so ^(M)his name was called ^[b]Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

²⁷ So the boys grew. And Esau was ^(N)a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was ^(O)a ^[c]mild man, ^(P)dwelling in tents.

Freed from the Law

7 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law ^[a]has dominion over a man as long as he lives? ² For ^(A)the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. ³ So then ^(B)if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ⁴ Therefore, my brethren, you also have become ^(C)dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should ^(D)bear fruit to God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law ^(E)were at work in our members ^(F)to bear fruit to death. ⁶ But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve ^(G)in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.