Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Servant Relates His Adventures
34 “I’m Abraham’s servant,” he said. 35 “The Lord has greatly blessed my master, so that he has become wealthy. He has provided him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, camels and donkeys. 36 My master’s wife Sarah gave birth to my master’s son in her old age, and Abraham[a] has given him everything that belongs to him. 37 My master made me swear this oath: ‘You are not to select a wife for my son from among the daughters of the Canaanites in this land where I live. 38 Instead, you are to go to my father’s household, to my relatives, and choose a wife for my son there.’
42 “So today I arrived at the spring and prayed, ‘Lord God of my master Abraham, if you wish to make the journey that I have traveled successful, 43 here I am standing by the spring. May it be that the young woman who comes out to draw water, from whom I request a little water from her[a] jug to drink, 44 if she tells me to drink and also draws water for the[b] camels, may she be the woman that the Lord has chosen for my master’s son.’
45 “Before I had finished praying, along came Rebekah with her jug on her shoulder! She went to the spring and drew some water. I asked her to please let me have a drink. 46 She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder[c] and told me, ‘Have a drink while I also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also gave my camels water[d] to drink.
47 “That’s when I asked, ‘Whose daughter are you?’
“She replied, ‘I’m the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore for him.’
“So I gave her a ring for her nose and bracelets for her wrists. 48 I bowed down and worshipped the Lord, and I praised the Lord God of my master Abraham, who led me on the true way to request[e] the daughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 So now, if you wish to show gracious love and truth toward my master, tell me so. But if not, tell me, so that I may go elsewhere.”[f]
58 So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Do you want to go with this man?”
“I will go,” she replied.
59 So they sent off their sister Rebekah, along with her personal assistant,[a] Abraham’s servant, and his men. 60 As they were leaving, they all blessed Rebekah by[b] saying,
“Our sister, may you become the mother of tens of millions![c]
May your descendants take over
the city gates[d] of those who hate them.”[e]
61 Then Rebekah and her young servant women got up, mounted their camels, and followed Abraham’s servant, who took Rebekah and went on his way.
Isaac Marries Rebekah
62 Later on, as Isaac was returning one evening from Beer-lahai-roi[f] (he had been living in the Negev[g]), 63 Isaac[h] went out walking[i] in a field. He looked up, and all of a sudden there were some camels coming. 64 Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she quickly dismounted from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man coming in the field to meet us?”
“That’s my master,” the servant told her. So she reached for a veil and covered herself. 66 Then the servant informed Isaac about everything he had done. 67 Later, Isaac brought Rebekah into the tent that had belonged to his mother Sarah and married her. Isaac loved her, and that’s how he was comforted following the loss of[j] his mother.
10 Listen, daughter! Consider and pay attention.
Forget your people and your father’s house,
11 and the king will greatly desire your beauty.
Because he is your lord, you should bow in respect before him.
12 The daughter[a] of Tyre will come with[b] a wedding gift;
wealthy people will entreat your favor.
13 In her chamber,[c] the king’s daughter is glorious;
her clothing is embroidered with gold thread.
14 In embroidered garments
she is presented to the king.
Her virgin companions who follow her train
will be presented to you.
15 Filled with joy and gladness, they are presented
when they enter the king’s palace.
16 Your sons will take the place of your ancestors,
and you will set them up as princes in all the earth.
17 From generation to generation,
I will cause your name to be remembered.
Therefore people will thank you forever and ever.
8 The voice of my beloved!
Look! He’s coming,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look, there he stands behind our wall,
looking through the windows,
gazing through the lattice.
The Lover
10 My beloved spoke to me:
“Get up, my darling, my beautiful one, and come on.
11 Look! Winter is past.
The rain is over and gone.
12 Blossoms have appeared in the land.
The season of songbirds[a] has arrived,
and cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree has produced its fruit,[b]
the grapevines have blossomed and exude their fragrance.
“Get up, my darling, my beautiful one, and come on.
15 I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I want to do, but instead do what I hate. 16 Now if I practice what I don’t want to do, I am admitting that the Law is good. 17 As it is, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me.
18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I don’t do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don’t want to do. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me.
21 So I find this to be a principle:[a] when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. 22 For I delight in the Law of God in my inner being, 23 but I see in my body[b] a different principle[c] waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my body.[d] 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is infected by[e] death? 25 Thank God through Jesus the Messiah,[f] our Lord, because with my mind I myself can serve the Law of God, even while with my human nature[g] I serve the law of sin.
16 “To what can I compare the people living today? They’re[a] like little children who sit in the marketplaces and shout to each other,
17 ‘A wedding song we played for you,
the dance you all did scorn.
A woeful dirge we chanted, too,
but then you would not mourn.’
18 Because John didn’t come eating or drinking, yet people[b] say, ‘He has a demon!’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
Absolved from every act of sin,
is wisdom by her kith and kin.”[c]
Jesus Praises the Father and Invites the Disciples to Come to Him(A)
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from wise and intelligent people and have revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, because this is what was pleasing to you. 27 All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one fully knows the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows the Father except the Son and the person to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Place my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble,[a] and you will find rest for your souls,[b] 30 because my yoke is pleasant,[c] and my burden is light.”
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