Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Parashah 9: Vayeshev (He continued living) 37:1–40:23

37 Ya‘akov continued living in the land where his father had lived as a foreigner, the land of Kena‘an.

² Here is the history of Ya‘akov. When Yosef was seventeen years old he used to pasture the flock with his brothers, even though he was still a boy. Once when he was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, he brought a bad report about them to their father. ³ Now Isra’el loved Yosef the most of all his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long-sleeved robe. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they began to hate him and reached the point where they couldn’t even talk with him in a civil manner.

(ii) ¹² After this, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s sheep in Sh’khem, ¹³ Isra’el asked Yosef, “Aren’t your brothers pasturing the sheep in Sh’khem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” ¹⁴ He said to him, “Go now, see whether things are going well with your brothers and with the sheep, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him away from the Hevron Valley, and he went to Sh’khem, ¹⁵ where a man found him wandering around in the countryside. The man asked him, “What are you looking for?” ¹⁶ “I’m looking for my brothers,” he answered. “Tell me, please, where are they pasturing the sheep?” ¹⁷ The man said, “They’ve left here; because I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dotan.’” Yosef went after his brothers and found them in Dotan.

¹⁸ They spotted him in the distance, and before he had arrived where they were, they had already plotted to kill him. ¹⁹ They said to each other, “Look, this dreamer is coming! ²⁰ So come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these water cisterns here. Then we’ll say some wild animal devoured him. We’ll see then what becomes of his dreams!” ²¹ But when Re’uven heard this, he saved him from being destroyed by them. He said, “We shouldn’t take his life. ²² Don’t shed blood,” Re’uven added. “Throw him into this cistern here in the wilds, but don’t lay hands on him yourselves.” He intended to rescue him from them later and restore him to his father.

(iii) ²³ So it was that when Yosef arrived to be with his brothers, they stripped off his robe, the long-sleeved robe he was wearing, ²⁴ and took him and threw him into the cistern (the cistern was empty; without any water in it). ²⁵ Then they sat down to eat their meal; but as they looked up, they saw in front of them a caravan of Yishma‘elim coming from Gil‘ad, their camels loaded with aromatic gum, healing resin and opium, on their way down to Egypt. ²⁶ Y’hudah said to his brothers, “What advantage is it to us if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Yishma‘elim, instead of putting him to death with our own hands. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers paid attention to him. ²⁸ So when the Midyanim, merchants, passed by, they drew and lifted Yosef up out of the cistern and sold him for half a pound of silver shekels to the Yishma‘elim, who took Yosef on to Egypt.

⁵ For Moshe writes about the righteousness grounded in the Torah that the person who does these things will attain life through them.^{[a] 6} Moreover, the righteousness grounded in trusting says:

that is, the word about trust which we proclaim, namely, ⁹ that if you acknowledge publicly with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord and trust in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be delivered. ¹⁰ For with the heart one goes on trusting and thus continues toward righteousness, while with the mouth one keeps on making public acknowledgement and thus continues toward deliverance. ¹¹ For the passage quoted says that everyone who rests his trust on him will not be humiliated.^{[c] 12} That means that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile — Adonai is the same for everyone, rich toward everyone who calls on him, ¹³ since everyone who calls on the name of Adonai will be delivered.^[d]

¹⁴ But how can they call on someone if they haven’t trusted in him? And how can they trust in someone if they haven’t heard about him? And how can they hear about someone if no one is proclaiming him? ¹⁵ And how can people proclaim him unless God sends them? — as the Tanakh puts it, “How beautiful are the feet of those announcing good news about good things!”^[e]

²² Immediately he had the talmidim get in the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the crowds away. ²³ After he had sent the crowds away, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night came on, and he was there alone. ²⁴ But by this time, the boat was several miles from shore, battling a rough sea and a headwind. ²⁵ Around four o’clock in the morning, he came toward them, walking on the lake! ²⁶ When the talmidim saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said and screamed with fear. ²⁷ But at once Yeshua spoke to them. “Courage,” he said, “it is I. Stop being afraid.” ²⁸ Then Kefa called to him, “Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹ “Come!” he said. So Kefa got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Yeshua. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he became afraid; and as he began to sink, he yelled, “Lord! Save me!” ³¹ Yeshua immediately stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “Such little trust! Why did you doubt?” ³² As they went up into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³ The men in the boat fell down before him and exclaimed, “You really are God’s son!”