Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A song of David.
28 Lord, you are my Rock.
I am calling to you for help.
Don’t close your ears to my prayers.
If you don’t answer me,
I will be counted among the dead.
2 I lift my hands and pray toward your Most Holy Place.
Hear me when I call to you.
Show mercy to me.
3 Don’t treat me like the evil people
who do wicked things.
They greet their neighbors like friends,
but secretly plan to hurt them.
4 They do bad things to others,
so make bad things happen to them.
Give them the punishment they deserve.
5 They don’t notice what the Lord does.
They ignore all the good things he has made.
So instead of building them up,
he will destroy them.
6 Praise the Lord!
He has heard my prayer for mercy.
7 The Lord is my strength and shield.
I trusted him with all my heart.
He helped me, so I am happy.
I sing songs of praise to him.
8 The Lord protects his chosen one.[a]
He saves him and gives him strength.
9 Save your people.
Bless those who belong to you.
Lead them and honor them[b] forever.
Joseph Is Sold to Potiphar in Egypt
39 The traders[a] who bought Joseph took him down to Egypt. They sold him to the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, Potiphar. 2 The Lord helped Joseph become a successful man. Joseph lived in the house of his master, Potiphar the Egyptian.
3 Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph and that the Lord helped Joseph be successful in everything he did. 4 So Potiphar was very happy with Joseph. He allowed Joseph to work for him and to help him rule the house. Joseph was the ruler over everything Potiphar owned. 5 After Joseph was made the ruler over the house, the Lord blessed the house and everything that Potiphar owned. The Lord also blessed everything that grew in Potiphar’s fields. The Lord did this because of Joseph. 6 So Potiphar allowed Joseph to take responsibility for everything in the house. Potiphar didn’t have to worry about anything except deciding what to eat.
Joseph Refuses Potiphar’s Wife
Joseph was a very handsome, good-looking man. 7 After some time, the wife of Joseph’s master began to pay special attention to him. One day she said to him, “Sleep with me.”
8 But Joseph refused. He said, “My master trusts me with everything in his house. He has given me responsibility for everything here. 9 My master has made me almost equal to him in his house. I cannot sleep with his wife! That is wrong! It is a sin against God.”
10 The woman talked with Joseph every day, but he refused to sleep with her. 11 One day Joseph went into the house to do his work. He was the only man in the house at the time. 12 His master’s wife grabbed his coat and said to him, “Come to bed with me.” But Joseph ran out of the house so fast that he left his coat in her hand.
13 The woman saw that Joseph had left his coat in her hand and had run out of the house. 14 She called to the men outside and said, “Look! This Hebrew slave was brought here to make fun of us. He came in and tried to attack me, but I screamed. 15 My scream scared him and he ran away, but he left his coat with me.” 16 Then she kept his coat until her husband, Joseph’s master, came home. 17 She told her husband the same story. She said, “This Hebrew slave you brought here tried to attack me! 18 But when he came near me, I screamed. He ran away, but he left his coat.”
19 Joseph’s master listened to what his wife said, and he became very angry. 20 So Potiphar put Joseph into the prison where the king’s enemies were held, and that is where Joseph remained.
Joseph in Prison
21 The Lord was with Joseph and continued to show his kindness to him, so the commander of the prison guards began to like Joseph. 22 The commander of the guards put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. Joseph was their leader, but he still did the same work they did. 23 The commander of the guards trusted Joseph with everything that was in the prison. This happened because the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord helped Joseph be successful in everything he did.
14 So what does this mean? That God is not fair? We cannot say that. 15 God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I want to show mercy to. I will show pity to anyone I choose.”[a] 16 So God will choose anyone he decides to show mercy to, and his choice does not depend on what people want or try to do. 17 In the Scriptures God says to Pharaoh: “I made you king so that you could do this for me. I wanted to show my power through you. I wanted my name to be announced throughout the world.”[b] 18 So God shows mercy to those he wants to show mercy to and makes stubborn those he wants to make stubborn.
19 So one of you will ask me, “If God controls what we do, why does he blame us for our sins?” 20 Don’t ask that. You are only human and have no right to question God. A clay jar does not question the one who made it. It does not say, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 The one who makes the jar can make anything he wants. He uses the same clay to make different things. He might make one thing for special purposes and another for daily use.
22 It is the same way with what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to let people see his power. But he patiently endured those he was angry with—people who were ready to be destroyed. 23 He waited with patience so that he could make known the riches of his glory to the people he has chosen to receive his mercy. God has already prepared them to share his glory. 24 We are those people, the ones God chose not only from the Jews but also from those who are not Jews. 25 As the Scriptures say in the book of Hosea,
“The people who are not mine—
I will say they are my people.
And the people I did not love—
I will say they are the people I love.” (A)
26 And,
“Where God said in the past,
‘You are not my people’—
there they will be called children of the living God.” (B)
27 And Isaiah cries out about Israel:
“There are so many people of Israel,
they are like the grains of sand by the sea.
But only a few of them will be saved.
28 Yes, the Lord will quickly finish judging the people on the earth.” (C)
29 It is just as Isaiah said:
“The Lord All-Powerful
allowed some of our people to live.
If he had not done that,
we would now be like Sodom,
and we would be like Gomorrah.” (D)
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International