Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Beauty of the Bride
10 Hear, O daughter, look and listen.
Forget your people and your father’s house,
11 because the king desires your beauty.
Because he is your lord, bow down to him.
12 Then the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift.
The richest people will seek your favor.
13 The princess, who waits inside, is all glorious.
Her dress is interwoven with gold.
14 In embroidered garments she is led to the king.
Virgins who follow her as attendants are brought to you.
15 They are brought with joyful celebration.
They enter the palace of the king.
The Glory of the King’s Children
16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers.
You will make them princes in all the earth.
17 I will preserve the memory of your name through all generations.
Therefore peoples will praise you forever and ever.
27 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could hardly see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son?”
He said to him, “I am here.”
2 Isaac said, “Look, I am very old, and I do not know when I am going to die. 3 So please take your gear, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the open country, and get some wild game for me. 4 Make me tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me, so that I may eat and I may bless you with all my soul before I die.”
5 Rebekah had been listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. After Esau went to the open country to hunt for game and to bring it back, 6 Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son and said, “Listen, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother and tell him, 7 ‘Bring me some wild game and make tasty food for me, that I may eat and give you a blessing from the Lord before my death.’ 8 Therefore, my son, obey my voice and do what I am commanding you. 9 Go now to the flock, and get me two of the best young goats. I will make them into tasty food for your father, the kind he loves. 10 You will bring it to your father, so that he can eat it and bless you before his death.”
11 Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “But Esau my brother is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth. 12 What if my father touches me? I will be exposed to him as a deceiver, and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”
13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice, and go get them for me.”
14 He went and got them and brought them to his mother. His mother made tasty food, the kind his father loved. 15 Rebekah took the good clothing of Esau, her older son, which was with her in the house, and put it on Jacob, her younger son. 16 She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and forearms and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 She put the tasty food and the bread that she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.
The Law Stirs Up My Sinful Nature
7 What will we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have recognized sin except through the law. For example, I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[a] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity provided by this commandment, produced every kind of sinful desire in me.
For apart from the law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive without the law. But when this commandment came, sin came to life, 10 and I died. This commandment that was intended to result in life actually resulted in death for me. 11 You see, sin, seizing the opportunity provided by this commandment, deceived me and put me to death through it.
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. 13 Then did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it might be recognized as sin, brings about my death by this good thing, so that through this commandment sin might prove itself to be totally sinful.
My Constant Struggle With My Sinful Nature
14 Certainly we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 But now it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. 19 So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.