Today's Reading

¹He heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken away all that was our father's. From that which was our father's, has he gotten all this wealth."

²Jacob saw the expression on Laban's face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

³The Lord said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you."

⁴Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

⁵and said to them, "I see the expression on your father's face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

⁶You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.

⁷Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

⁸If he said this, 'The speckled will be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, 'The streaked will be your wages,' then all the flock bore streaked.

⁹Thus God has taken away your father's livestock, and given them to me.

¹⁰It happened during mating season that I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled.

¹¹The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.'

¹²He said, 'Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

¹³I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.'"

¹⁴Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

¹⁵Aren't we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money.

¹⁶For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do."

¹⁷Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,

¹⁸and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.

¹⁹Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.

²⁰Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he was running away.

²¹So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

²²Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.

²³He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

²⁴God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Take heed to yourself that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad."

²⁵Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

²⁶Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

²⁷Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and did not tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;

²⁸and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.

²⁹It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Take heed to yourself that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.'

³⁰Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father's house, but why have you stolen my gods?"

³¹Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.'

³²Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he did not find them. He went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.

³⁴Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but did not find them.

³⁵She said to her father, "Do not let my lord be angry that I can't rise up before you; for the manner of women is on me." He searched, but did not find the teraphim.

³⁶Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, "What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?

³⁷Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.

³⁸These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven't eaten the rams of your flocks.

³⁹That which was torn of animals, I did not bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

⁴⁰This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.

⁴¹These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

⁴²Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."

⁴³Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?

⁴⁴Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you."

⁴⁵Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

⁴⁶Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.

⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

⁴⁸Laban said, "This heap is witness between me and you this day." Therefore it was named Galeed

⁴⁹and Mizpah, for he said, "The Lord watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.

⁵⁰If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you."

⁵¹Laban said to Jacob, "See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.

⁵²May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

⁵³The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.

⁵⁴Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.

⁵⁵Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

¹Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

²When he saw them, Jacob said, "This is God's army." He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

³Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.

⁴He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now.

⁵I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'"

⁶The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him."

⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;

⁸and he said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape."

⁹Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord, who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,'

¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.

¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.

¹²You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can't be numbered because there are so many.'"

¹³He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother:

¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

¹⁵thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals.

¹⁶He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd."

¹⁷He commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?'

¹⁸Then you shall say, 'They are your servant, Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.'"

¹⁹He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him.

²⁰You shall say, 'Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.'" For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."

²¹So the present passed over before him, and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

²²He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok.

²³He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.

²⁴Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day.

²⁵When he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled.

²⁶The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."

²⁷He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob."

²⁸He said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed."

²⁹Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him there.

³⁰Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

³¹The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh.

³²Therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.

¹Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two handmaids.

²He put the handmaids and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.

³He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

⁴Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.

⁵He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, "Who are these with you?" He said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."

⁶Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they bowed themselves.

⁷Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

⁸Esau said, "What do you mean by all this company which I met?" Jacob said, "To find favor in the sight of my lord."

⁹Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours."

¹⁰Jacob said, "Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.

¹¹Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." He urged him, and he took it.

¹²Esau said, "Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you."

¹³Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.

¹⁴Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir."

¹⁵Esau said, "Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me." He said, "Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."

¹⁶So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

¹⁷Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

¹⁸Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city.

¹⁹He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money.

²⁰He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.

¹And it happened that when Jesus had finished directing his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and proclaim in their cities.

²Now when John heard in the prison the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples

³and said to him, "Are you the One who is to come, or should we look for another?"

⁴And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:

⁵the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

⁶And blessed is he who is not offended by me."

⁷And as these went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?

⁸But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.

⁹But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet.

¹⁰This is the one of whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.'

¹¹Truly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

¹²And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

¹³For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.

¹⁴And if you are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come.

¹⁵He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

¹⁶"But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions

¹⁷and say, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'

¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.'

¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her actions."

²⁰Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

²¹"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

²²But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

²³And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, you will go down to hell. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have remained until this day.

²⁴But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, on the day of judgment, than for you."

²⁵At that time, Jesus answered, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.

²⁶Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight.

²⁷All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him.

²⁸"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.

³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

¹ In the Lord, I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain!"

²For, behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrows on the strings, that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.

³If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

⁴The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men.

⁵The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked and him who loves violence his soul hates.

⁶On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

⁷For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. The upright shall see his face.

¹A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but accurate weights are his delight.

²When pride comes, then comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom.

³The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them.

⁴Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

⁶The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but the unfaithful will be trapped by evil desires.

⁷When a wicked man dies, hope perishes, and expectation of power comes to nothing.

⁸A righteous person is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked takes his place.

⁹With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor, but the righteous will be delivered through knowledge.

¹⁰When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there is shouting.

¹¹By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

¹²One who despises his neighbor is void of wisdom, but a man of understanding holds his peace.

¹³One who brings gossip betrays a confidence, but one who is of a trustworthy spirit is one who keeps a secret.

¹⁴Where there is no wise guidance, the nation falls, but in the multitude of counselors there is victory.

¹⁵He who is collateral for a stranger will suffer for it, but he who refuses pledges of collateral is secure.

¹⁶A gracious woman obtains honor, but violent men obtain riches.

¹⁷The merciful man does good to his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.

¹⁸Wicked people earn deceitful wages, but one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.

¹⁹He who is truly righteous gets life. He who pursues evil gets death.

²⁰Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those whose ways are blameless are his delight.

²¹Most certainly, the evil man will not be unpunished, but the seed of the righteous will be delivered.

²²Like a gold ring in a pig's snout, is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.

²³The desire of the righteous is only good. The expectation of the wicked is wrath.

²⁴There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty.

²⁵The liberal soul shall be made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself.

²⁶People curse someone who withholds grain, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

²⁷He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but he who searches after evil, it shall come to him.

²⁸He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous shall flourish as the green leaf.

²⁹He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart.

³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He who is wise wins souls.

³¹Behold, the righteous shall be repaid in the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner!