Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹³ For thou hast possessed my kidneys: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and that, my soul knows right well.

¹⁵ My body was not hid from thee, even though I was made in secret and brought together in the lowest parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which were then formed, without lacking one of them.

¹⁷ ¶ Therefore, how precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

¹⁸ If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with thee.

33 ¶ And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, Esau came and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah and unto Rachel and unto the two handmaids.

² And he put the handmaids and their children in front, and Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.

³ And he passed over in front of them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.

⁴ And Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

⁵ ¶ And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children whom God hath graciously given thy slave.

⁶ Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.

⁷ And Leah also with her children came near and bowed themselves; and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they also bowed themselves.

⁸ And he said, What meanest thou by all these droves which I met? And he said, To find grace in the sight of my lord.

⁹ And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep what thou hast unto thyself.

¹⁰ And Jacob said, No, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present from my hand, that for this I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God; and do me the pleasure.

¹¹ Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee because God has dealt graciously with me, and all that is here is mine. And he urged him, and he took it.

¹² And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee.

¹³ And he said unto him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and the sheep and cows with young are with me; and if men should overdrive them, in one day all the sheep will die.

¹⁴ Let my lord, I pray thee, pass before his slave; and I will lead on softly, according as the property that goes before me and the children are able to endure until I come unto my lord unto Seir.

¹⁵ And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What for? Let me find grace in the sight of my lord.

¹⁶ ¶ So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.

¹⁷ And Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

²¹ ¶ Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, have ye not heard the law?

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

²³ But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, but he of the freewoman was born through the promise.

²⁴ Which things are an allegory; for these women are the two covenants: the one from the Mount Sinai, which begat unto slavery, which is Hagar.

²⁵ For this Hagar or Sinai is a mount in Arabia, which corresponds to the one that is now Jerusalem, which together with her children is in slavery.

²⁶ But the Jerusalem of above is free, which is the mother of us all.

²⁷ For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth into praise and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.

²⁸ So that we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

²⁹ But as then he that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.

³⁰ Nevertheless what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

³¹ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

5 ¶ Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of slavery.