Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
13 For You have created my conscience.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You, for I am awesomely, wonderfully made!
Wonderful are Your works—
and my soul knows that very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was unformed,
and in Your book were written the days that were formed—
when not one of them had come to be.
17 How precious are Your thoughts, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand!
When I awake, I am still with You.
3 Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp”, and he named that place Mahanaim.
Parashat Vayishlach
Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau
4 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. 5 He also commanded them saying, “This is what you should say to my lord, to Esau: ‘This is what your servant Jacob said: I’ve been staying with Laban, and have lingered until now. 6 Now I’ve come to possess oxen and donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants. I sent word to tell my lord, in order to find favor in your eyes.’”
7 The messengers returned to Jacob saying, “We went to your brother, to Esau, and he’s also coming out to meet you—and 400 men with him.”
8 So Jacob became extremely afraid and distressed. He divided the people with him, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 9 for he thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and strikes it, the camp that’s left will escape.”
10 Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Adonai, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will do good with you.’ 11 I am unworthy of all the proofs of mercy and of all the dependability that you have shown to your servant. For with only my staff I crossed over this Jordan, and now I’ve become two camps. 12 Deliver me, please, from my brother’s hand, from Esau’s hand, for I’m afraid of him that he’ll come and strike me—the mothers with the children. 13 You Yourself said, ‘I will most certainly do good with you, and will make your seed like the sand of the sea that cannot be counted because of its abundance.’”
14 So he stayed overnight there. Then from all that had come into his possession he took an offering for Esau his brother: 15 200 female goats, 20 billy goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 16 30 milking camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. 17 He put them in the hands of his servants, each herd by itself, and he said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put a gap between each of the herds.” 18 Then he commanded the first one saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do all these before you belong?’ 19 then you are to say, ‘To your servant, to Jacob—it’s an offering sent to my lord, to Esau. And look, he’s also behind us.’” 20 And he also commanded the second one, the third one, and all those who were going behind the flocks, saying, “Say the same exact thing to Esau when you find him. 21 Then you are to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is also behind us.’” For he thought, “Let me appease him with the offering that goes ahead of me, and afterward see his face, perhaps he’ll lift up my face.”
12 Here is the perseverance of the kedoshim—those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua.
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying,[a]
“Write: How fortunate are the dead—those who die in the Lord from now on!”
“Yes,” says the Ruach, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”
Time to Harvest the Earth
14 Then I looked, and behold, there was a white cloud—and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man.[b] He had a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the Temple, crying out with a loud voice to the One seated on the cloud,
“Put in your sickle and reap,
for the hour to reap has come,
because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”
16 So the One seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.[c]
17 Then another angel came out of the Temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. 18 Then another angel—the one who has authority over fire—came out from the altar; and he called out with a loud voice to the one holding the sharp sickle, saying, “Put in your sickle and gather the grape clusters from the vineyard of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the clusters from the vineyard of the earth and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was stomped on outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress as high as a horse’s bridle for 1,600 stadia.[d]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.