Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 130
Awaiting Redemption
A song of ascents.
1 Out of the depths I call to you, Lord!(A)
2 Lord, listen to my voice;
let your ears be attentive
to my cry for help.(B)
3 Lord, if you kept an account of iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?(C)
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you may be revered.(D)
Joseph’s Final Test
44 Joseph commanded his steward, “Fill the men’s bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each one’s silver at the top of his bag.(A) 2 Put my cup, the silver one, at the top of the youngest one’s bag, along with the silver for his grain.” So he did as Joseph told him.
3 At morning light, the men were sent off with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Get up. Pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? 5 Isn’t this the cup that my master drinks from and uses for divination?(B) What you have done is wrong!’”
6 When he overtook them, he said these words to them. 7 They said to him, “Why does my lord say these things? Your servants could not possibly do such a thing. 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found at the top of our bags. How could we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If it is found with one of us, your servants, he must die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”(C)
10 The steward replied, “What you have said is right, but only the one who is found to have it will be my slave, and the rest of you will be blameless.”
11 So each one quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 The steward searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes,(D) and each one loaded his donkey and returned to the city.
14 When Judah and his brothers reached Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell to the ground before him.(E) 15 “What have you done?” Joseph said to them. “Didn’t you know that a man like me could uncover the truth by divination?”
16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ iniquity. We are now my lord’s slaves—both we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”
17 Then Joseph said, “I swear that I will not do this. The man in whose possession the cup was found will be my slave. The rest of you can go in peace to your father.”
Judah’s Plea for Benjamin
18 But Judah approached him and said, “My lord, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.(F) 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 and we answered my lord, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age.(G) The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him to me so that I can see him.’(H) 22 But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave, his father would die.’ 23 Then you said to your servants, ‘If your younger brother does not come down with you, you will not see me again.’(I)
24 “This is what happened when we went back to your servant my father: We reported to him the words of my lord. 25 But our father said, ‘Go again, and buy us a little food.’(J) 26 We told him, ‘We cannot go down unless our younger brother goes with us. If our younger brother isn’t with us, we cannot see the man.’ 27 Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One is gone from me—I said he must have been torn to pieces—and I have never seen him again.(K) 29 If you also take this one from me and anything happens to him, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in sorrow.’(L)
30 “So if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us—his life is wrapped up with the boy’s life— 31 when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hairs of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow. 32 Your servant became accountable to my father for the boy, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will always bear the guilt for sinning against you, my father.’(M) 33 Now please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave, in place of the boy. Let him go back with his brothers. 34 For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the grief that would overwhelm my father.”
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am an apostle to the Gentiles,(A) I magnify my ministry, 14 if I might somehow make my own people[a](B) jealous and save some of them.(C) 15 For if their rejection brings reconciliation(D) to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?(E) 16 Now if the firstfruits are holy,(F) so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 Now if some of the branches were broken off,(G) and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them(H) and have come to share in the rich root[b] of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you.(I) 19 Then you will say,(J) “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith.(K) Do not be arrogant, but beware,[c](L) 21 because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness(M) toward you—if you remain in his kindness.(N) Otherwise you too will be cut off.(O) 23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief,(P) will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 I don’t want you to be ignorant(Q) of this mystery,(R) brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited:(S) A partial hardening has come upon Israel(T) until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.(U) 26 And in this way all[d] Israel will be saved, as it is written,
The Deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this will be my covenant with them[e](V)
when I take away their sins.[f](W)
28 Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage,(X) but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs,(Y) 29 since God’s gracious gifts and calling(Z) are irrevocable.[g](AA)
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