Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Book II: Psalms 42–72

24 By now Avraham was old, advanced in years; and Adonai had blessed Avraham in everything. ² Avraham said to the servant who had served him the longest, who was in charge of all he owned, “Put your hand under my thigh; ³ because I want you to swear by Adonai, God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from among the women of the Kena‘ani, among whom I am living; ⁴ but that you will go to my homeland, to my kinsmen, to choose a wife for my son Yitz’chak.” ⁵ The servant replied, “Suppose the woman isn’t willing to follow me to this land. Must I then bring your son back to the land from which you came?” ⁶ Avraham said to him, “See to it that you don’t bring my son back there. ⁷ Adonai, the God of heaven — who took me away from my father’s house and away from the land I was born in, who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘I will give this land to your descendants’ — he will send his angel ahead of you; and you are to bring a wife for my son from there. ⁸ But if the woman is unwilling to follow you, then you are released from your obligation under my oath. Just don’t bring my son back there.” ⁹ The servant put his hand under the thigh of Avraham his master and swore to him concerning the matter.

(iii) ¹⁰ Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and all kinds of gifts from his master, got up and went to Aram-Naharayim, to Nachor’s city. ¹¹ Toward evening, when the women go out to draw water, he had the camels kneel down outside the city by the well. ¹² He said, “Adonai, God of my master Avraham, please let me succeed today; and show your grace to my master Avraham. ¹³ Here I am, standing by the spring, as the daughters of the townsfolk come out to draw water. ¹⁴ I will say to one of the girls, ‘Please lower your jug, so that I can drink.’ If she answers, ‘Yes, drink; and I will water your camels as well,’ then let her be the one you intend for your servant Yitz’chak. This is how I will know that you have shown grace to my master.”

¹⁵ Before he had finished speaking, Rivkah the daughter of B’tu’el son of Milkah the wife of Nachor Avraham’s brother, came out with her jug on her shoulder. ¹⁶ The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, never having had sexual relations with any man. She went down to the spring, filled her jug and came up. ¹⁷ The servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a sip of water from your jug to drink.” ¹⁸ “Drink, my lord,” she replied, and immediately lowered her jug onto her arm and let him drink. ¹⁹ When she was through letting him drink, she said, “I will also draw water for your camels until they have drunk their fill.” ²⁰ She quickly emptied her jug into the trough, then ran again to the well to draw water, and kept on drawing water for all his camels. ²¹ The man gazed at her in silence, waiting to find out whether Adonai had made his trip successful or not.

¹⁷ But if you call yourself a Jew and rest on Torah and boast about God ¹⁸ and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from the Torah; ¹⁹ and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness, ²⁰ an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in the Torah you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth; ²¹ then, you who teach others, don’t you teach yourself? Preaching, “Thou shalt not steal,”^[a] do you steal? ²² Saying, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,”^[b] do you commit adultery? Detesting idols, do you commit idolatrous acts? ²³ You who take such pride in Torah, do you, by disobeying the Torah, dishonor God? — ²⁴ as it says in the Tanakh, “For it is because of you that God’s name is blasphemed by the Goyim.”^{[c] 25} For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision! ²⁶ Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Torah, won’t his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? ²⁷ Indeed, the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys the Torah will stand as a judgment on you who have had a b’rit-milah and have Torah written out but violate it! ²⁸ For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical. ²⁹ On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.