Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Let Us Go to the Country
The Woman
8 Listen! It’s my lover!
Look! Here he comes,
leaping on the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My lover is like a gazelle,
or like a young buck.
Look! There he is, standing behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peeking through the lattice.
10 My lover responded and said to me,
“Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
and come.”
The Man
11 Look! Winter is over.
The rainy season has come to an end.
12 Flowers appear in the land.
The season of singing has arrived.
The cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fruit of the fig tree is beginning to ripen.
The grapevines are in blossom.
They spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling.
My beautiful one, come.
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also prepared tasty food and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat his son’s wild game, so that you may bless me with all your soul.”
32 Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?”
He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33 Isaac trembled violently and said, “Then who was it that hunted wild game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him. And, yes, he will be blessed.”
34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he let out a very loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father.”
35 He said, “Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.”
36 Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has tripped me up these two times. He took away my birthright. And look, now he has taken away my blessing.” He also asked, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”
37 Isaac answered Esau, “You see, I have made him your lord, and I have given all his brothers to him as servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I do for you, my son?”
38 Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me—me too, my father.” And Esau wept loudly.
39 Isaac his father answered him,
Know this:
Your dwelling will be away from the richness of the earth
and away from the dew from the sky above.
40 By your sword you will live, but you will serve your brother.
Then when you break loose, you will shake his yoke off your neck.
41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 The words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is consoling himself in regard to you by planning to kill you. 43 Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice. Get up. Flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran. 44 Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away, 45 until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and get you from there. Why should I be deprived of both of you in one day?”
46 Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, these daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”
God’s Anger on All Who Reject Him
18 Indeed, God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who try to suppress the truth by unrighteousness. 19 This happens because what can be known about God is evident among them, because God made it evident among them. 20 In fact, his invisible characteristics—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, because they are understood from the things he made. As a result, people are without excuse, 21 because, even though they knew God, they did not honor him or give him thanks as God. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless heart was darkened.
22 Although they claim to be wise, they have become fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human, or like birds, four-footed animals, and crawling things. 24 So, as they followed the sinful desires of their hearts, God handed them over to the impurity of degrading their own bodies among themselves. 25 Such people have traded the truth about God for the lie, worshipping and serving the creation rather than the Creator, who is worthy of praise forever. Amen.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.