Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

17 A Prayer of David. Hear, O Jehovah, righteousness, attend my cry, Give ear [to] my prayer, without lips of deceit.

² From before thee my judgment doth go out; Thine eyes do see uprightly.

³ Thou hast proved my heart, Thou hast inspected by night, Thou hast tried me, Thou findest nothing; My thoughts pass not over my mouth.

⁴ As to doings of man, Through a word of Thy lips I have observed The paths of a destroyer;

⁵ To uphold my goings in Thy paths, My steps have not slidden.

⁶ I -- I called Thee, for Thou dost answer me, O God, incline Thine ear to me, hear my speech.

⁷ Separate wonderfully Thy kindness, O Saviour of the confiding, By Thy right hand, from withstanders.

¹⁵ I -- in righteousness, I see Thy face; I am satisfied, in awaking, [with] Thy form!

³ And Jacob sendeth messengers before him unto Esau his brother, towards the land of Seir, the field of Edom,

⁴ and commandeth them, saying, `Thus do ye say to my lord, to Esau: Thus said thy servant Jacob, With Laban I have sojourned, and I tarry until now;

⁵ and I have ox, and ass, flock, and man-servant, and maid-servant, and I send to declare to my lord, to find grace in his eyes.'

⁶ And the messengers turn back unto Jacob, saying, `We came in unto thy brother, unto Esau, and he also is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him;'

⁷ and Jacob feareth exceedingly, and is distressed, and he divideth the people who [are] with him, and the flock, and the herd, and the camels, into two camps,

⁸ and saith, `If Esau come in unto the one camp, and have smitten it -- then the camp which is left hath been for an escape.'

⁹ And Jacob saith, `God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Jehovah who saith unto me, Turn back to thy land, and to thy kindred, and I do good with thee:

¹⁰ I have been unworthy of all the kind acts, and of all the truth which Thou hast done with thy servant -- for, with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

¹¹ `Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I am fearing him, less he come and have smitten me -- mother beside sons;

¹² and Thou -- Thou hast said, I certainly do good with thee, and have set thy seed as the sand of the sea, which is not numbered because of the multitude.'

¹³ And he lodgeth there during that night, and taketh from that which is coming into his hand, a present for Esau his brother:

¹⁴ she-goats two hundred, and he-goats twenty, ewes two hundred, and rams twenty,

¹⁵ suckling camels and their young ones thirty, cows forty, and bullocks ten, she-asses twenty, and foals ten;

¹⁶ and he giveth into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and saith unto his servants, `Pass over before me, and a space ye do put between drove and drove.'

¹⁷ And he commandeth the first, saying, `When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and hath asked thee, saying, Whose [art] thou? and whither goest thou? and whose [are] these before thee?

¹⁸ then thou hast said, Thy servant Jacob's: it [is] a present sent to my lord, to Esau; and lo, he also [is] behind us.'

¹⁹ And he commandeth also the second, also the third, also all who are going after the droves, saying, `According to this manner do ye speak unto Esau in your finding him,

²⁰ and ye have said also, Lo, thy servant Jacob [is] behind us;' for he said, `I pacify his face with the present which is going before me, and afterwards I see his face; it may be he lifteth up my face;'

²¹ and the present passeth over before his face, and he hath lodged during that night in the camp.

³⁷ And having heard, they were pricked to the heart; they say also to Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, `What shall we do, men, brethren?'

³⁸ and Peter said unto them, `Reform, and be baptized each of you on the name of Jesus Christ, to remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,

³⁹ for to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all those afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.'

⁴⁰ Also with many more other words he was testifying and exhorting, saying, `Be saved from this perverse generation;'

⁴¹ then those, indeed, who did gladly receive his word were baptized, and there were added on that day, as it were, three thousand souls,

⁴² and they were continuing stedfastly in the teaching of the apostles, and the fellowship, and the breaking of the bread, and the prayers.

⁴³ And fear came on every soul, many wonders also and signs were being done through the apostles,

⁴⁴ and all those believing were at the same place, and had all things common,

⁴⁵ and the possessions and the goods they were selling, and were parting them to all, according as any one had need.

⁴⁶ Daily also continuing with one accord in the temple, breaking also at every house bread, they were partaking of food in gladness and simplicity of heart,

⁴⁷ praising God, and having favour with all the people, and the Lord was adding those being saved every day to the assembly.