Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Thanksgiving for Israel’s Deliverance

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

²⁹ Then he charged them, and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰ in the cave that is in the field at Mach-pe′lah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. ³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah— ³² the field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.” ³³ When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

50 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him, and kissed him. ² And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel; ³ forty days were required for it, for so many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

⁴ And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, 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 shall you bury me.’ Now therefore let me go up, I pray you, and bury my father; then I will return.” ⁶ And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.” ⁷ So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸ as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household; only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. ⁹ And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; it was a very great company. ¹⁰ When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days. ¹¹ When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named A′bel-mizraim;^[a] it is beyond the Jordan. ¹² Thus his 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 at Mach-pe′lah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite, to possess as a burying place. ¹⁴ After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

¹² Not that we venture to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

¹³ But we will not boast beyond limit, but will keep to the limits God has apportioned us, to reach even to you. ¹⁴ For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you; we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ We do not boast beyond limit, in other men’s labors; but our hope is that as your faith increases, our field among you may be greatly enlarged, ¹⁶ so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s field. ¹⁷ “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.” ¹⁸ For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends.