Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This is a song that David wrote.

God answers prayer

²⁹ Later, Reuben returned to the dry well. He saw that Joseph was not there. He tore his clothes because he was very upset. ³⁰ Reuben went back to his brothers. He said to them, ‘The boy is not in the well! What can I do now?’^[a]

³¹ Then the brothers killed a goat. They took its blood and they put the blood all over Joseph's special coat. ³² They took the coat back to their father and they told him, ‘We found this coat. Look at it. Tell us if it is your son's coat.’ ³³ Jacob saw that it was Joseph's coat. He said, ‘It is my son's coat! A wild animal must have eaten him! The animal has torn Joseph's body into pieces.’

³⁴ Jacob was so upset that he tore his own clothes. He put on clothes made from sackcloth to show how sad he was. He wept for many days because his son had died.

³⁵ All Jacob's sons and daughters came to comfort him. But Jacob was very sad, so they could not make him happy. Jacob said, ‘I will be sad until the day that I die, because my son is dead.’ Jacob wept because Joseph was dead.

³⁶ While this was happening, the Midianites took Joseph into Egypt. They sold him to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officers. Potiphar had authority over all of Pharaoh's guards.

⁴ God even punished the angels who refused to obey him. He threw them down into the deep hole of hell. He tied them up and he kept them in that completely dark place. They will remain there until the day when God will judge them.^[a]

⁵ Also, a long time ago, God punished all the bad people who lived in the world. He sent water to cover over all the earth. All the people who had turned away from him drowned in the water. But God kept Noah safe. Noah had told people God's message that they should do right things. So God saved Noah, and seven other people, from the water.^[b]

⁶ Later, God punished the people who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because they did bad things, God decided to destroy them. He burned those cities completely, so that only ashes remained. When God did that, he showed what will happen to all people who refuse to obey him. ⁷ But God saved Lot from danger. Lot was a good man. He was very sad because the people in Sodom did not obey God's laws. They lived in a very bad way. ⁸ Lot lived among those bad people. Every day, he saw the bad things that they did. Every day, he heard the bad things that they said. As a result, Lot had much trouble in his mind, because he was a good man.^[c]

⁹ We know that the Lord God has done all these things in past times. He knows how to save people who respect him from their troubles. But he will continue to punish the people who refuse to obey him. He will keep them until the day when he will judge them. ¹⁰ God will certainly punish those people who want bad things for themselves. They do the wrong things that their bodies want to do. They do not want to obey anyone's authority.

These false teachers are not afraid of what other people think about them. They think that they themselves are very important. They are not afraid to say many bad things against the great angels in heaven.^[d]