Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 124

A Song of ^[a]Ascents. Of David.

¹ If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side—now may Israel say—

² If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side when men rose up against us,

³ Then they would have quickly swallowed us up alive when their wrath was kindled against us;

⁴ Then the waters would have overwhelmed us and swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;

⁵ Then the proud waters would have gone over us.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth!

⁷ We are like a bird escaped from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!

⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

²⁹ He charged them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my [departed] people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰ In the cave in the field at Machpelah, east of Mamre in the land of Canaan, that Abraham bought, along with the field of Ephron the Hittite, to possess as a cemetery.^(A)

³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.

³² The purchase of the field and the cave that is in it was from the sons of Heth.

³³ When Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his [departed] people.

50 Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him.

² And Joseph ordered his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

³ Then forty days were devoted [to this purpose] for him, for that is the customary number of days required for those who are embalmed. And the Egyptians wept and bemoaned him [as they would for royalty] for seventy days.

⁴ And when the days of his weeping and deep grief were past, Joseph said to [the nobles of] the house of Pharaoh, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, to Pharaoh [for Joseph was dressed in mourning and could not do so himself], saying,

⁵ My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die; in my tomb which I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me. So now let me go up, I pray you, and bury my father, and I will come again.

⁶ And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.

⁷ And Joseph went up [to Canaan] to bury his father; and with him went all the officials of Pharaoh—the nobles of his court, and the elders of his house and all the nobles and elders of the land of Egypt—

⁸ And all the household of Joseph and his brethren and his father’s household. Only their little ones and their flocks and herds they left in the land of Goshen.

⁹ And there went with [Joseph] both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company.

¹⁰ And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond [west of] the Jordan, and there they mourned with a great lamentation and extreme demonstrations of sorrow [according to Egyptian custom]; and [Joseph] made a mourning for his father seven days.

¹¹ When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians. Therefore the place was called Abel-mizraim [mourning of Egypt]; it is west of the Jordan.

¹² Thus [Jacob’s] sons did for him as he had commanded them.

¹³ For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, which Abraham bought, along with the field, for a possession as a burying place from Ephron the Hittite.

¹⁴ After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brethren and all who had gone up with him.

¹² Not that we [have the audacity to] venture to class or [even to] compare ourselves with some who exalt and furnish testimonials for themselves! However, when they measure themselves with themselves and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding and behave unwisely.

¹³ We, on the other hand, will not boast beyond our legitimate province and proper limit, but will keep within the limits [of our commission which] God has allotted us as our measuring line and which reaches and includes even you.

¹⁴ For we are not overstepping the limits of our province and stretching beyond our ability to reach, as though we reached not (had no legitimate mission) to you, for we were [the very first] to come even as far as to you with the good news (the Gospel) of Christ.

¹⁵ We do not boast therefore, beyond our proper limit, over other men’s labors, but we have the hope and confident expectation that as your faith continues to grow, our field among you may be greatly enlarged, still within the limits of our commission,

¹⁶ So that [we may even] preach the Gospel in lands [lying] beyond you, without making a boast of work already done in another [man’s] sphere of activity [before we came on the scene].

¹⁷ However, let him who boasts and glories boast and glory in the Lord.^(A)

¹⁸ For [it is] not [the man] who praises and commends himself who is approved and accepted, but [it is the person] whom the Lord accredits and commends.