Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁰ Listen, O daughter, hear my words and think about them. Forget your people and your father’s house. ¹¹ Then the King will desire your beauty. Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him. ¹² And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift. The rich people will ask for your favor.

¹³ The daughter of the King is beautiful within. Her clothes are made with gold. ¹⁴ She will be led to the King in clothes sewed for beauty. The young women who have never had men are her friends. They follow her and will be brought to You. ¹⁵ They will be led in with joy and happiness, because they will come into the King’s palace.

¹⁶ Instead of Your fathers, it will be Your sons whom You will make rulers over all the earth. ¹⁷ I will make Your name to be remembered to all the children-to-come. So that the nations will honor You forever and ever.

Isaac Prays for Good to Come to Jacob

27 Isaac was now old, and had become blind. He called to his older son Esau, saying, “My son.” And Esau answered, “Here I am.” ² Isaac said, “See, I am old. I do not know when I will die. ³ Take your bow and arrows, and go out to the field to get meat for me. ⁴ Get some food ready for me that I love. Bring it to me to eat, so that before I die I will pray that good will come to you.”

⁵ And Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for meat to bring home, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father talking to your brother Esau. He said, ⁷ ’Bring me some meat. Make good-tasting food for me to eat. And before I die I will pray to the Lord for good to come to you.’ ⁸ So now, my son, listen to what I tell you to do. ⁹ Go to the flock and bring me two fat young goats. I will cook them into good-tasting food, just what your father loves to eat. ¹⁰ Then you will take it to your father for him to eat. So before he dies he will pray for good to come to you.”

¹¹ Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau has much hair. And my skin is smooth. ¹² If my father touches me, he will think of me as one trying to fool him. Then he will bring a curse upon me instead of good.” ¹³ His mother said to him, “The curse will come upon me instead of you, my son. You do what I say, and go get them for me.” ¹⁴ So Jacob went and got them, and brought them to his mother. And his mother made good-tasting food, just what his father loved to eat. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best clothes that belonged to her older son Esau, that were with her in the house. And she put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶ She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ And she gave her son Jacob the bread and the good-tasting food she had made.

⁷ Then what are we saying? Is the Law sinful? No, not at all! But it was the Law that showed me what sin is. I did not know it was sin to follow wrong desires, but the Law said, “You must not follow wrong desires.” ⁸ The Law made me know how much I was sinning. It showed me how I had a desire for all kinds of things. For without the Law, sin is dead. ⁹ I was once alive. That was when I did not know what the Law said I had to do. Then I found that I had broken the Law. I knew I was a sinner. Death was mine because of the Law. ¹⁰ The Law was supposed to give me new life. Instead, it gave me death. ¹¹ Sin found a way to trap me by working through the Law. Then sin killed me by using the Law.

¹² The Law is holy. Each one of the Laws is holy and right and good. ¹³ Then does it mean that the Law, which is good, brought death to me? No, not at all! It was sin that did it. Sin brought death to me by the Law that is good. In that way, sin was shown to be what it is. So because of the Law, sin becomes much more sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the Law is right and good, but I am a person who does what is wrong and bad. I am not my own boss. Sin is my boss. ¹⁵ I do not understand myself. I want to do what is right but I do not do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ When I do the thing I do not want to do, it shows me that the Law is right and good. ¹⁷ So I am not doing it. Sin living in me is doing it. ¹⁸ I know there is nothing good in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do good but I do not. ¹⁹ I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I am always doing the sinful things I do not want to do. ²⁰ If I am always doing the very thing I do not want to do, it means I am no longer the one who does it. It is sin that lives in me.