Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 28
A Psalm of David.
1 To You, O Lord, will I cry;
my Rock, do not be silent to me;
lest if You were silent to me,
then I would become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications
when I cry to You,
when I lift up my hands
toward Your most holy place.
3 Do not draw me away with the wicked
and with the workers of iniquity,
who speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their deeds,
and according to the wickedness of their endeavors;
give them according to the work of their hands;
return to them what they deserve.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord,
nor the work of His hands,
He will destroy them
and not build them up.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
because He has heard the voice of my supplications.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusted in Him, and I was helped;
therefore my heart rejoices,
and with my song I will thank Him.
8 The Lord is the strength of His people,
and He is the saving strength of His anointed.
9 Save Your people,
and bless Your inheritance;
feed them and lift them up forever.
Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife
39 Now Joseph was brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.
2 The Lord was with Joseph, so that he became a prosperous man. He was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper. 4 Joseph found favor in his sight and served him. So he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put under his charge. 5 From the time that he had made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph. So the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and he had no concerns regarding anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was handsome and well-built. 7 After a time, his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”
8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “My master does not concern himself with anything concerning me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my charge. 9 There is none greater in this house than I. He has kept nothing back from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” 10 She spoke to Joseph every day, but he did not listen to her about lying with her or being with her.
11 But it happened one day that Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there. 12 She caught him by his clothing, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his clothing in her hand and fled and got outside.
13 When she saw that he had left his clothing in her hand and had fled outside, 14 she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew among us to humiliate us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 When he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his clothing with me, fled, and got outside.”
16 She laid up his clothing next to her until his master came home. 17 She spoke to him using these words, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought to us, came in to me to mock me. 18 When I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his clothing with me and fled outside.”
19 When his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, “This is what your servant did to me,” he became enraged. 20 Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined.
So he was there in the prison. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 The keeper of the prison committed all the prisoners that were in the prison to the charge of Joseph. So whatever they did there, he was the one responsible for it. 23 The keeper of the prison did not concern himself with anything that was under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it to prosper.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid! 15 For He says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[a]
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”[b] 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.
Wrath and Mercy of God
19 You will then say to me, “Why does He yet find fault? For who can resist His will?” 20 Rather, O man, who are you to answer back to God? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does the potter not have power over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He previously prepared for glory, 24 even us, whom He has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed He says in Hosea:
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
and her who was not beloved, ‘Beloved,’ ”[c]
26 and,
“In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
there they shall be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”[d]
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the children of Israel be like the sand of the sea,
a remnant shall be saved.[e]
28 For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness,
because the Lord will make a quick work upon the earth.”[f]
29 And as Isaiah previously said:
“Unless the Lord of Hosts
had left us a seed,
we would have become like Sodom,
and been made like Gomorrah.”[g]
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.