Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Prayer of David.

¹ ¶ Hear righteousness, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that does not go out of feigned lips.

² Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold uprightness.

³ Thou hast proved my heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast refined me and hast found no iniquity; that which I thought did not pass through my mouth.

⁴ Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have observed the ways of the violent.

⁵ Sustain my steps in thy ways that my footsteps not slip.

⁶ I have called upon thee, because thou dost hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech.

⁷ Show thy mercy to be marvellous, O Saviour of those who put their trust in thee, from those that rise up against thy right hand.

¹⁵ As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

31 ¶ And he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying, Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father’s, he has gotten all this glory.

² And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

³ Also the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

⁴ And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his sheep

⁵ and said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

⁶ And ye know that with all my strength I have served your father.

⁷ And your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

⁸ If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the sheep bore speckled; and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then all the sheep bore ringstraked.

⁹ Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

¹⁰ And it came to pass at the time that the sheep conceived, that I lifted up my eyes and saw in dreams, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the females were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled.

¹¹ And the angel of God spoke unto me in dreams, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.

¹² And he said, Lift up now thine eyes and see, all the rams which leap upon the sheep are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled; for I have seen all that Laban has done unto thee.

¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where thou didst anoint the pillar and where thou didst vow a vow unto me. Now arise, go out from this land and return unto the land of thy nature.

¹⁴ And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?

¹⁵ Are we not counted of him strangers? For he has sold us and has even devoured all our price.

¹⁶ For all the riches which God has taken from our father, is ours and our son’s; now then, whatever God has said unto thee, do.

¹⁷ ¶ Then Jacob rose up and set his sons and his wives upon the camels;

¹⁸ and he carried away all his livestock and all his goods which he had gotten, the livestock of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, to return unto Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ And Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the idols of her father.

²⁰ And Jacob stole away the heart of Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he fled.

²¹ So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up and passed the river and set his face toward Mount Gilead.

⁷ ¶ Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;

⁸ for every one that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

⁹ Or what man is there of you, whom, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone?

¹⁰ Or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent?

¹¹ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in the heavens give good things to those that ask him?