Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This is a special song for the music leader. The sons of Korah wrote it.

A prayer when you are away from home^[a]

A prayer when you are in trouble^[a]

A wife for Isaac

24 Abraham was now a very old man. The Lord had blessed him in every way. ² Abraham had an important servant in his house. He had authority over everything that belonged to Abraham. Abraham said to him, ‘Come here and make a promise to me. Put your hand between my legs to show that I can trust you.^{[a] 3} You must make a serious promise to me in front of the Lord. He is the God who rules both heaven and earth. I am living among the Canaanite people, but you must promise this to me: Do not get a Canaanite woman to be a wife for my son. ⁴ Instead, you must go to my own country. Go to my family there to find a wife for my son Isaac.’

⁵ The servant asked Abraham, ‘What should I do if the woman will not agree? Maybe she will not come back with me to this land? Must I then take your son to the country that you came from?’

⁶ Abraham replied, ‘No! You must never take my son back there. ⁷ The Lord, the God of heaven, took me away from there. He took me out of my father's house. He took me away from the land where my family lives. God made a serious promise to me. He said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” Because God has promised this, he will send his angel to go in front of you. When you arrive there, you will find a woman to marry my son. ⁸ But perhaps the woman will not agree to come back here with you. If that happens, you do not have to keep this promise. But do not take my son back to that land.’ ⁹ So the servant put his hand between Abraham's legs. The servant promised that he would do everything that Abraham had told him.

¹⁰ After that, Abraham's servant left to go on his journey. He took with him ten of his master's camels. He also took many different kinds of valuable gifts that Abraham had given to him.^[b] He travelled towards Aram Naharaim. He arrived in the town of Nahor.^[c]

¹¹ Abraham's servant stopped outside the town. He made the camels go down on their knees near a well. It was the evening time, when women came to the well to get water. ¹² The servant prayed to God. He prayed, ‘Lord, God of Abraham, my master, please be my guide today. Be kind to my master Abraham, as you have promised him. ¹³ See, I am standing here near this well. The daughters of the people who live in the town will come to get water from the well. ¹⁴ I will say to one of the young women, “Please let me have a drink of water from your pot.” If she is the right woman for your servant Isaac to marry, please may she say, “Yes, drink. Then I will give water to your camels also”. If that happens, then I will know that you have kept your promise to my master.’

¹⁵ The servant was still praying when Rebekah came to the well. She had her pot on her shoulder. Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Milcah. Milcah was the wife of Abraham's brother, Nahor. ¹⁶ The young woman was very beautiful. She had not had sex with any man. She went down to the well. She filled her pot with water and she came back up again. ¹⁷ Abraham's servant hurried to meet her. He said, ‘Please give me a little water to drink from your pot.’ ¹⁸ She replied, ‘Yes sir, please drink.’ She quickly took the pot down from her shoulders. She held the pot with her hands and gave him a drink. ¹⁹ After she had done that, she said, ‘Now I will get some water for your camels too. I will do this until they have drunk as much water as they want.’ ²⁰ So Rebekah quickly poured the water from her pot into the place where the animals drank. She ran back to the well to get more water. She did this until the camels had drunk enough. ²¹ Abraham's servant watched the girl, but he did not say anything. He wanted to know if the Lord had helped him to find a wife for Isaac.

The Jews and God's Law

¹⁷ Do you say that you are a Jew? Maybe you trust in the Law that God gave to Moses. You are proud that you belong to God. ¹⁸ You know what God wants people to do. His Law teaches you what is good and right. ¹⁹ You are sure that you yourself can teach other people about God. You think that you can be like a guide to blind people. You think that you can be like a light to people who are in the dark. ²⁰ You are sure that you can teach fools and people who do not know very much. You know that God's Law tells you everything about what is true. Because it helps you to know so much, you think that you can be a great teacher!

²¹ So you teach other people, do you? But do you teach yourself? You tell other people, ‘Do not rob anyone.’ But maybe you yourself rob other people. ²² You say, ‘People must not have sex with anyone who is not their wife or their husband.’ But maybe you yourself have sex in a wrong way. You say that you hate idols. But do you rob places where people worship idols? ²³ You are proud that you know God's Law. But you do not obey that Law. As a result, you cause other people to speak against God. ²⁴ This is written in the Bible:

²⁵ As a Jewish man, you are proud that someone has circumcised you.^[a] That is a help to you, if you obey God's Law in your life. But if you do not obey God's Law, then it is worth nothing. You have become like a Gentile that nobody has ever circumcised. ²⁶ But a Gentile may obey what God's Law teaches. Then he has shown that he belongs to God even though nobody has circumcised him. ²⁷ In that way, even Gentiles will show that you who are Jews are wrong. God's Law was written to help you Jews. They circumcised you to show that you belong to God. But if you refuse to obey God's Law, then God will punish you. The Gentiles who do obey God's Law will show that God is right to punish you.

²⁸ Not everyone who seems to be a Jew is really a Jew who belongs to God. God does not accept a man just because someone has circumcised that man's body. ²⁹ No! A true Jew is someone who belongs to God in his spirit. He belongs to God because God's Spirit has changed his life. It is like God has circumcised him in his spirit, not in his body. The rules in God's Law cannot do that work in a person. Other people may not praise a person like that, but God will praise him.