Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters.

³ He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff shall comfort me.

⁵ Thou shalt prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup is running over.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will rest in the house of the LORD for ever.

²⁵ ¶ And it came to pass when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, and I shall go unto my place and to my land.

²⁶ Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go, for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.

²⁷ And Laban said unto him, Let me now find grace in thine eyes, I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for thy sake.

²⁸ And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.

²⁹ And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee and how many livestock thou hast with me.

³⁰ For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude, and the LORD has blessed thee since my coming; and now when shall I provide for my own house also?

³¹ And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me anything; if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock.

³² I will pass through all thy flock today, setting apart all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown rams among the rams, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and of such shall be my hire.

³³ So shall my righteousness answer for me tomorrow, when my hire shall come before thy face; each one that is not speckled and spotted among my goats and brown among my sheep shall be counted stolen with me.

³⁴ And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.

³⁵ And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep and gave them into the hand of his sons.

³⁶ And he set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ ¶ And Jacob took rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut tree and peeled white strakes in them and made the white appear which was in the rods.

³⁸ And he set the rods which he had peeled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink that they should conceive when they came to drink.

³⁹ And the flocks conceived before the rods and brought forth ringstraked, speckled, and spotted sheep.

⁴⁰ And Jacob separated the lambs, and put with his flock the ringstraked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them together with Laban’s sheep.

⁴¹ And it came to pass, whenever the stronger sheep conceived, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the sheep in the gutters that they might conceive among the rods.

⁴² But when the sheep were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

⁴³ And the man increased exceedingly, and had many sheep, and maidslaves and menslaves, and camels, and asses.

¹⁷ And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it as did also your princes.

¹⁸ But God has thus fulfilled those things which he had showed in advance by the mouth of all his prophets, that his Christ should suffer.

¹⁹ Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, for the times of refreshing of the presence of the Lord are come;

²⁰ who has sent Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you,

²¹ whom it is certainly necessary that the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the age began.

²² For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things doing whatever he shall say unto you.

²³ And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.

²⁴ And all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

²⁵ Ye are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

²⁶ Unto you first, God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, that each one of you might turn from his iniquities.