Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 28
My Strength
Of David.
1 Lord, I call to you;
my rock, do not be deaf to me.(A)
If you remain silent to me,
I will be like those going down to the Pit.(B)
2 Listen to the sound of my pleading
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your holy sanctuary.(C)
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with the evildoers,
who speak in friendly ways with their neighbors
while malice is in their hearts.(D)
4 Repay them according to what they have done—
according to the evil of their deeds.
Repay them according to the work of their hands;
give them back what they deserve.(E)
5 Because they do not consider
what the Lord has done
or the work of his hands,
he will tear them down and not rebuild them.(F)
Joseph in Potiphar’s House
39 Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites(A) who had brought him there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph,(B) and he became a successful man, serving[a] in the household of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful,(C) 4 Joseph found favor(D) with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority.[b] 5 From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph.(E) The Lord’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. 6 He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority;[c] he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.(F) 7 After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”
8 But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority.[d] 9 No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?” (G)
10 Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her.[e] 11 Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there.[f] 12 She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. 13 When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could. 15 When he heard me screaming for help,[g] he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”
16 She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, 18 but when I screamed for help,[h] he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious 20 and had him thrown into prison,(H) where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.
Joseph in Prison
21 But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him.(I) He granted him favor with the prison warden.(J) 22 The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority,[i] and he was responsible for everything that was done there. 23 The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority,[j] because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.(K)
God’s Selection Is Just
14 What should we say then?(A) Is there injustice with God?(B) Absolutely not!(C) 15 For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.[a](D) 16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort(E) but on God who shows mercy.(F) 17 For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth.[b](G) 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.(H)
19 You will say to me,(I) therefore, “Why then does he still find fault?(J) For who resists his will?” (K) 20 On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?(L) Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” (M) 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay,(N) to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? 22 And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience(O) objects of wrath prepared for destruction?(P) 23 And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory(Q) on objects of mercy(R) that he prepared beforehand for glory(S)— 24 on us, the ones he also called,(T) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?(U) 25 As it[c] also says in Hosea,
I will call Not My People, My People,
and she who is Unloved, Beloved.[d](V)
26 And it will be in the place where they were told,
you are not my people,
there they will be called sons of the living God.[e](W)
27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,
Though the number of Israelites
is like the sand of the sea,(X)
only the remnant will be saved;(Y)
28 since the Lord will execute his sentence
completely and decisively on the earth.[f][g] (Z)
29 And just as Isaiah predicted:
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