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!
Joseph is Delivered to Potiphar
39 Meanwhile, Joseph had been delivered to Egypt and turned over to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s court officials and the Commander-in-Chief of the imperial guards. An Egyptian, he bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there.
2 But the Lord was with Joseph. He became a very prosperous man while in the house of his Egyptian master, 3 who could see that the Lord was with Joseph,[a] because the Lord made everything prosper that Joseph[b] did. 4 That’s how Joseph pleased Potiphar[c] as he served him. Eventually, Potiphar appointed Joseph as overseer of his entire household. Moreover, he entrusted everything that he owned into his care.[d] 5 From the time he appointed Joseph to be overseer over his entire household and everything that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The Lord’s blessing rested on Joseph,[e] whether in Potiphar’s household or in Potiphar’s fields. 6 Everything that he owned, he entrusted into Joseph’s care. He never concerned himself about anything, except for the food he ate.
Potiphar’s Wife Accuses Joseph
Now Joseph was well built and good looking. 7 That’s why, sometime later, Joseph’s master’s wife looked straight at Joseph and propositioned him: “Come on! Let’s have a little sex!”[f]
8 But he refused, telling his master’s wife, “Look! My master doesn’t have to worry about anything in the house with me in charge, and he has entrusted everything into my care. 9 No one has more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld nothing from me, except you, and that’s because you’re his wife. So how can I commit such a horrible evil? How can I sin against God?”
10 She kept on talking to him like this day after day, but he wouldn’t listen to her. Not only would he refuse to have sex with her, he refused even to stay around her. 11 One day, though,[g] he went into the house to do his work. None of the household servants[h] were inside, 12 so she grabbed Joseph[i] by his outer garment and demanded “Let’s have some sex!”
Instead, Joseph ran outside, leaving his outer garment still in her hand. 13 When she realized that he had left his outer garment right there in her hand, she ran outside 14 and yelled for her household servants. “Look!” she cried out. “My husband[j] brought in a Hebrew man to humiliate us. He came in here to have sex with me, but I screamed out loud! 15 When he heard me starting to scream, he left his outer garment with me and fled outside.” 16 She kept his outer garment by her side until Joseph’s master came home, 17 and then this is what she told him: “That Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came in here to rape[k] me. 18 But when I started to scream, he left his outer garment with me and ran outside.”
Joseph is Locked in Prison
19 When Joseph’s master heard his wife’s claim to the effect that “This is how your servant treated me,” he flew into a rage, 20 arrested Joseph, and locked him up in the same prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph remained there in prison.
21 But the Lord was with Joseph. He extended gracious love to him, causing the prison warden to be pleased with Joseph.[l] 22 So the prison warden entrusted into Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were confined in prison. Whatever they did, Joseph was in charge of the work detail.[m] 23 The prison warden did not have to worry about anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with him. That’s why Joseph prospered in everything he did.
14 What can we say, then? God is not unrighteous, is he? Of course not! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will be merciful to the person I want to be merciful to, and I will be kind to the person I want to be kind to.”[a] 16 Therefore, God’s choice[b] does not depend on a person’s will or effort, but on God himself, who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says about Pharaoh,
“I have raised you up for this very purpose,
to demonstrate my power through you
and that my name might be proclaimed
in all the earth.”[c]
18 Therefore, God[d] has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.
God Chose People who are Not Jewish
19 You may ask me, “Then why does God[e] still find fault with anybody?[f] For who can resist his will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you—mere man that you are—to talk back to God? Can an object that was molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 A potter has the right to do what he wants to with his clay, doesn’t he? He can make something for a special occasion or something for ordinary use from the same lump of clay.
22 Now if God wants to demonstrate his wrath and reveal his power, can’t he be extremely patient with the objects of his wrath that are made for destruction? 23 Can’t he also reveal his glorious riches to the objects of his mercy that he has prepared ahead of time for glory— 24 including us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but from the gentiles as well? 25 As the Scripture[g] says in Hosea,
“Those who are not my people
I will call my people,
and the one who was not loved
I will call my loved one.[h]
26 In the very place where it was told them,
‘You are not my people,’
they will be called children of the living God.”[i]
27 Isaiah also calls out concerning Israel,
“Although the descendants of Israel
are as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore,
only a few will be saved.
28 For the Lord[j] will carry out his plan decisively,
bringing it to completion on the earth.”[k]
29 It is just as Isaiah predicted:
“If the Lord of the Heavenly Armies
had not left us some descendants,
we would have become like Sodom
and would have been compared to Gomorrah.”[l]
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