Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

44 Then he ordered the manager of his household, “Fill the men’s packs with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money just inside his pack. ² And put my goblet, the silver one, just inside the pack of the youngest, along with his grain money.” He did what Yosef told him to do.

³ At daybreak the men were sent off with their donkeys; ⁴ but before they were far from the city Yosef said to his manager, “Up, go after the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? ⁵ Isn’t this the goblet my lord drinks from, indeed the one he uses for divination? What you have done is evil!’” ⁶ So he caught up with them and said these words to them. ⁷ They replied, “Why does my lord speak this way? Heaven forbid that we should do such a thing! ⁸ Why, the money we found inside our packs we brought back to you from the land of Kena‘an! So how would we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? ⁹ Whichever one of us the goblet is found with, let him be put to death — and the rest of us will be my lord’s slaves!” ¹⁰ He replied, “Fine; let it be as you have said: whichever one it is found with will be my slave. But the rest of you will be blameless.” ¹¹ Then each hurried to put his pack down on the ground, and each one opened his pack. ¹² He searched, starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest; and the goblet was found in the pack belonging to Binyamin. ¹³ At this, they tore their clothes from grief. Then each man loaded up his donkey and returned to the city.

(A: Maftir) ¹⁴ Y’hudah and his brothers arrived at Yosef’s house. He was still there, and they fell down before him on the ground. (S: Maftir) ¹⁵ Yosef said to them, “How could you do such a thing? Don’t you know that a man such as myself can learn the truth by divination?” ¹⁶ Y’hudah said, “There’s nothing we can say to my lord! How can we speak? There’s no way we can clear ourselves! God has revealed your servants’ guilt; so here we are, my lord’s slaves — both we and also the one in whose possession the cup was found.” ¹⁷ But he replied, “Heaven forbid that I should act in such a way. The man in whose possession the goblet was found will be my slave; but as for you, go in peace to your father.”

Haftarah Mikketz: M’lakhim Alef (1 Kings) 3:15–4:1

B’rit Hadashah suggested reading for Parashah Mikketz: Acts 7:9–16 (specifically vv. 11–12)

Parashah 11: Vayigash (He approached) 44:18–47:27

¹⁸ Then Y’hudah approached Yosef and said, “Please, my lord! Let your servant say something to you privately; and don’t be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. ¹⁹ My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father? or a brother?’ ²⁰ We answered my lord, ‘We have a father who is an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one whose brother is dead; so that of his mother’s children he alone is left; and his father loves him.’ ²¹ But you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, so that I can see him.’ ²² We answered my lord, ‘The boy can’t leave his father; if he were to leave his father, his father would die.’ ²³ You said to your servants, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ ²⁴ We went up to your servant my father and told him what my lord had said; ²⁵ but when our father said, ‘Go again, and buy us some food,’ ²⁶ we answered, ‘We can’t go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go down, because we can’t see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons: ²⁸ the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I haven’t seen him since. ²⁹ Now if you take this one away from me too, and something happens to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sh’ol with grief.’ ³⁰ So now if I go to your servant my father, and the boy isn’t with us — seeing how his heart is bound up with the boy’s heart — (ii) ³¹ when he sees that the boy isn’t with us, he will die; and your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sh’ol with grief. ³² For your servant himself guaranteed his safety; I said, ‘If I fail to bring him to you, then I will bear the blame before my father forever.’ ³³ Therefore, I beg you, let your servant stay as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go up with his brothers. ³⁴ For how can I go up to my father if the boy isn’t with me? I couldn’t bear to see my father so overwhelmed by anguish.”

¹³ However, to those of you who are Gentiles I say this: since I myself am an emissary sent to the Gentiles, I make known the importance of my work ¹⁴ in the hope that somehow I may provoke some of my own people to jealousy and save some of them! ¹⁵ For if their casting Yeshua aside means reconciliation for the world, what will their accepting him mean? It will be life from the dead!

¹⁶ Now if the hallah offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole loaf. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷ But if some of the branches were broken off, and you — a wild olive — were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, ¹⁸ then don’t boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you. ¹⁹ So you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰ True, but so what? They were broken off because of their lack of trust. However, you keep your place only because of your trust. So don’t be arrogant; on the contrary, be terrified! ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly won’t spare you! ²² So take a good look at God’s kindness and his severity: on the one hand, severity toward those who fell off; but, on the other hand, God’s kindness toward you — provided you maintain yourself in that kindness! Otherwise, you too will be cut off! ²³ Moreover, the others, if they do not persist in their lack of trust, will be grafted in; because God is able to graft them back in. ²⁴ For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree!

²⁵ For, brothers, I want you to understand this truth which God formerly concealed but has now revealed, so that you won’t imagine you know more than you actually do. It is that stoniness, to a degree, has come upon Isra’el, until the Gentile world enters in its fullness; ²⁶ and that it is in this way that all Isra’el will be saved. As the Tanakh says,

²⁸ With respect to the Good News they are hated for your sake. But with respect to being chosen they are loved for the Patriarchs’ sake, ²⁹ for God’s free gifts and his calling are irrevocable.