Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Davidic
A Prayer for Help
28 To you, Lord, I cry out!
My Rock, do not refuse to answer me.[a]
If you remain silent,
I will become like those who descend into the Pit.[b]
2 Hear the sound of my supplications when I cry to you for help,
as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who practice iniquity,
who speak peace to their neighbors
while harboring evil in their hearts.
4 Reward them according to their deeds;
according to the evil of their actions.
Reward them based on what they do;[c]
give them what they deserve.
5 Because they do not understand the deeds of the Lord
or the work of his hands,
He will tear them down and never build them up.
6 Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the sound of my supplications.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him,
and I received help.
My heart rejoices,
and I give thanks to him with my song.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people;[d]
he is a refuge of deliverance for his anointed.
9 Deliver your people
and bless your inheritance!
Shepherd them
and lift them up forever!
29 Later, when Reuben returned to the cistern, Joseph wasn’t there! In mounting panic, he tore his clothes, 30 returned to his brothers, and shouted, “He’s[a] not there! Now what? Where am I to go?”
31 So they took Joseph’s coat, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. 32 Then they stretched out the richly-embroidered[b] tunic to dry,[c] and brought it to their father.
“We’ve found this,” they reported. “Look at it and see if this is or isn’t your son’s tunic.”
33 Examining it, he cried out, “It’s my son’s tunic! A wild animal has no doubt torn Joseph to pieces.”
34 So Jacob tore his clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and then mourned many days for his son. 35 All his sons and daughters showed[d] up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He kept saying, “Leave me alone! I’ll go down to the next world,[e] still mourning for my son.” So Joseph’s father wept for him.
Joseph is Enslaved to Potiphar
36 Meanwhile, down in Egypt, the Midianites sold Joseph[f] to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s court officials, who was also Commander-in-Chief of the imperial guards.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into the lowest hell[a] and imprisoned them in chains[b] of deepest darkness, holding them for judgment; 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world but protected Noah, a righteous preacher, along with seven others when he brought the flood on the world of ungodly people; 6 and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them by burning them to ashes, making them an example to ungodly people of what is going to happen to them; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was greatly distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless people— 8 for as long as that righteous man lived among them, day after day he was being tortured in his righteous soul by what he saw and heard in their lawless actions— 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and to hold unrighteous people for punishment on the day of judgment, 10 especially those who satisfy their flesh by indulging in its passions and who despise authority.
Being bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to slander glorious beings.
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