Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 124^[a]

Thanksgiving for the Lord’s Help

¹ A song of ascents. Of David.

²⁹ The Death of Jacob. Then he gave this command: “I am about to be reunited with my ancestors. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰ in the cave that is found in the field of Machpelah facing Mamre in the land of Canaan. This is the cave that Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite, as his burial ground. ³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there they buried Leah. ³² The field and the cave in it used to belong to the Hittites.”

³³ When Jacob had finished giving this command to his sons, he drew back his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was reunited with his ancestors.

Chapter 50

¹ Joseph threw himself on the face of his father. He wept upon him and kissed him. ² Then Joseph ordered his doctors to embalm Israel. ³ This took forty days, the time it takes to embalm. The Egyptians mourned for him for seventy days.

⁴ When the days of mourning were over, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh. He said, “If I have found favor in your sight, I wish to speak these words into the ears of Pharaoh: ⁵ My father made me take an oath: ‘Behold, I am about to die. Bury me in the tomb I prepared for myself in the land of Canaan.’ May I go to bury my father and return?”

⁶ Pharaoh answered, “Go and bury your father as you have vowed to do.”

⁷ Joseph went to bury his father, and all the ministers of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, ⁸ as well as the household of Joseph and his brothers and the household of his father went with him. Only the children, flocks, and herds were left in the land of Goshen. ⁹ Even the war chariots and the charioteers formed an imposing caravan.

¹⁰ When they arrived at the threshing floor of Atad, which is on the other side of the Jordan, they performed a great and solemn ritual mourning, and Joseph did seven days of mourning for his father. ¹¹ The Canaanites living in that land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad and said, “It is a solemn funeral for the Egyptians.” Because of this they called the place Abel-mizraim, and it is on the other side of the Jordan.

¹² Jacob’s sons did what he had commanded them to do for him. ¹³ They brought him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, the field that Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite to be his burial place and that faces Mamre. ¹⁴ After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt together with his brothers and those who had gone with him to bury his father.

¹² We do not dare to rank ourselves or to compare ourselves with any of those who commend themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they only demonstrate their ignorance. ¹³ In contrast, we will not boast beyond the proper limits. Rather, we will measure ourselves according to the standard that God laid down for us, which enabled us to reach out all the way to you.

¹⁴ We are not overreaching ourselves as we would be if we had not come to you; indeed, we came to you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ Neither are we boasting immoderately of the labors of others. Our hope is rather that, as your faith increases, our influence among you will be greater than ever, ¹⁶ so that we may preach the gospel to regions beyond you, rather than boasting about work already done in someone else’s region.

¹⁷ If anyone would boast, let him boast in the Lord.^{[a] 18} For it is not the one who commends himself who is really approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.