Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

124 If the Lord had not been on our side (let all Israel admit it), if the Lord had not been on our side, ^2-3 we would have been swallowed alive by our enemies, destroyed by their anger. ^4-5 We would have drowned beneath the flood of these men’s fury and pride.

⁶ Blessed be Jehovah who has not let them devour us. ⁷ We have escaped with our lives as a bird from a hunter’s snare. The snare is broken and we are free!

⁸ Our help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

¹⁵ But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers were frightened.

“Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him,” they said. ^16-17 So they sent him this message: “Before he died, your father instructed us to tell you to forgive us for the great evil we did to you. We servants of the God of your father beg you to forgive us.” When Joseph read the message, he broke down and cried.

¹⁸ Then his brothers came and fell down before him and said, “We are your slaves.”

¹⁹ But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you? ²⁰ As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil, for he brought me to this high position I have today so that I could save the lives of many people. ²¹ No, don’t be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families.” And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them.

²² So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph was 110 years old when he died. ²³ He lived to see the birth of his son Ephraim’s children, and the children of Machir, Manasseh’s son, who played at his feet.

²⁴ “Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come and get you, and bring you out of this land of Egypt and take you back to the land he promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” ²⁵ Then Joseph made his brothers promise with an oath that they would take his body back with them when they returned to Canaan. ²⁶ So Joseph died at the age of 110, and they embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

⁵ Arriving across the lake, the disciples discovered they had forgotten to bring any food.

⁶ “Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

⁷ They thought he was saying this because they had forgotten to bring bread.

⁸ Jesus knew what they were thinking and told them, “O men of little faith! Why are you so worried about having no food? ⁹ Won’t you ever understand? Don’t you remember at all the five thousand I fed with five loaves, and the basketfuls left over? ¹⁰ Don’t you remember the four thousand I fed, and all that was left? ¹¹ How could you even think I was talking about food? But again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’”

¹² Then at last they understood that by yeast he meant the wrong teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.