Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
10-11 “I advise you, O daughter, not to fret about your parents in your homeland far away. Your royal husband delights in your beauty. Reverence him, for he is your lord. 12 The people of Tyre, the richest people of our day, will shower you with gifts and entreat your favors.”
13 The bride,[a] a princess, waits within her chamber, robed in beautiful clothing woven with gold. 14 Lovely[b] she is, led beside her maids of honor to the king! 15 What a joyful, glad procession as they enter in the palace gates! 16 “Your sons will some day be kings like their father. They shall sit on thrones around the world!
17 “I will cause your name to be honored in all generations; the nations of the earth will praise you forever.”
19 This is the story of Isaac’s children: 20 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram. Rebekah was the sister of Laban. 21 Isaac pleaded with Jehovah to give Rebekah a child, for even after many years of marriage[a] she had no children. Then at last she became pregnant. 22 And it seemed as though children were fighting each other inside her!
“I can’t endure this,” she exclaimed. So she asked the Lord about it.
23 And he told her, “The sons in your womb shall become two rival nations. One will be stronger than the other; and the older shall be a servant of the younger!”
24 And sure enough, she had twins. 25 The first was born so covered with reddish hair that one would think he was wearing a fur coat! So they called him “Esau.”[b] 26 Then the other twin was born with his hand on Esau’s heel! So they called him Jacob (meaning “Grabber”). Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.
27 As the boys grew, Esau became a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet sort who liked to stay at home.
7 Don’t you understand yet, dear Jewish brothers[a] in Christ, that when a person dies the law no longer holds him in its power?
2 Let me illustrate: when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, she is no longer bound to him; the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. 3 Then she can marry someone else if she wants to. That would be wrong while he was alive, but it is perfectly all right after he dies.
4 Your “husband,” your master, used to be the Jewish law; but you “died,” as it were, with Christ on the cross; and since you are “dead,” you are no longer “married to the law,” and it has no more control over you. Then you came back to life again when Christ did and are a new person. And now you are “married,” so to speak, to the one who rose from the dead, so that you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God. 5 When your old nature was still active, sinful desires were at work within you, making you want to do whatever God said not to and producing sinful deeds, the rotting fruit of death. 6 But now you need no longer worry about the Jewish laws and customs[b] because you “died” while in their captivity, and now you can really serve God; not in the old way, mechanically obeying a set of rules, but in the new way, with all of your hearts and minds.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.