Genesis 25 - 26, Matthew 18:15-19:30, Psalms 14 - 15

The Death of Abraham

25Now Abraham took another wife, ¹whose name was Keturah. ²^aAnd she bore to him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. ³Now Jokshan ¹was the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim. ⁴And the sons of Midian were Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah. ⁵^aAnd Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; ⁶but to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and he ^asent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east.

⁷These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, ^a175 years. ⁸And Abraham breathed his last and died ^ain a good old age, an old man and full of days; and he was ^bgathered to his people. ⁹Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in ^athe cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, ¹⁰^athe field which Abraham bought from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife. ¹¹Now it happened after the death of Abraham, that ^aGod blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac ¹lived by ^bBeer-lahai-roi.

The Generations of Ishmael

¹²Now these are the generations of ^aIshmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant-woman, bore to Abraham; ¹³and these are the names of ^athe sons of Ishmael, by their names, ¹in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam ¹⁴and Mishma and Dumah and Massa, ¹⁵Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages, and by their camps; ^atwelve princes according to their ¹tribes. ¹⁷These are the years of the life of Ishmael, ^a137 years; and he breathed his last and died and was ^bgathered to his people. ¹⁸And they dwelt from ^aHavilah to ^bShur which is ¹east of Egypt ²as one goes toward Assyria; ^che ³settled in the face of all his brothers.

The Generations of Isaac

¹⁹Now these are ^athe generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham ¹became the father of Isaac; ²⁰and Isaac was forty years old when he took ^aRebekah, the ^bdaughter of Bethuel the ¹Aramean of Paddan-aram, the ^csister of Laban the ²Aramean, to be his wife. ²¹And Isaac entreated Yahweh on behalf of his wife because she was barren; and ^aYahweh ¹was moved by his entreaty. So Rebekah his wife ^bconceived. ²²But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why then am I this way?” So she went to ^ainquire of Yahweh. ²³And Yahweh said to her, “^aTwo nations are in your womb;^bAnd two peoples will be separated from your body;And one people shall be stronger than the other;And ^cthe older shall serve the younger.”

²⁴And her days to give birth were fulfilled, and behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵And the first came forth red, ^aall over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. ²⁶Afterward his brother came forth with ^ahis hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so ^bhis name was called ¹Jacob; and Isaac was ^csixty years old when she gave birth to them.

Esau Sells His Birthright

²⁷And the boys grew up; Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a ¹peaceful man, ²^,^aliving in tents. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau because ¹he had ^aan appetite for hunted game, ^bbut Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹And Jacob had cooked ^astew. And Esau came in from the field, and he was ¹famished. ³⁰Then Esau said to Jacob, “Please give me a swallow from the red stuff—¹this red stuff, for I am ²famished.” Therefore his name was called ³Edom. ³¹But Jacob said, “¹First sell me your ^abirthright.” ³²And Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” ³³And Jacob said, “¹First swear to me”; so he swore to him and ^asold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴So Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank and rose and went away. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Yahweh Establishes the Oath with Isaac

26Now there was ^aa famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to ^bAbimelech king of the Philistines. ²And Yahweh ^aappeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^bdwell in the land of which I shall tell you. ³“Sojourn in this land, and ^aI will be with you and ^bbless you, for ^cto you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^dthe oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴“^aAnd I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and I will give your seed all these lands; and ^bby your seed all the nations of the earth ¹shall be blessed; ⁵because Abraham ^alistened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

Isaac and Abimelech

⁶So Isaac ¹lived in Gerar. ⁷Then the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “^aShe is my sister,” for he was ^bafraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is ^cbeautiful in appearance.” ⁸Now it happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was ¹caressing his wife Rebekah. ⁹Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” ¹⁰^aAnd Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” ¹¹So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who ^atouches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

¹²And Isaac sowed in that land and ¹reaped in the same year one hundredfold. And ^aYahweh blessed him, ¹³and the man ^abecame great and continued to grow greater until he became very great; ¹⁴and ^ahe had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and many servants, so that the Philistines were jealous of him. ¹⁵Now ^aall the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up ¹by filling them with earth. ¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are ¹^,^atoo mighty for us.” ¹⁷And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and ¹settled there.

The Quarrel over the Wells

¹⁸Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which ¹had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he ²called them by the same names by which his father had called them. ¹⁹Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of ¹flowing water. ²⁰And the herdsmen of Gerar ^acontended with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well ¹Esek, because they quarreled with him. ²¹Then they dug another well, and they contended over it also, so he called it ¹Sitnah. ²²Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not contend over it; so he named it ¹Rehoboth, and he said, “²^,^aAt last Yahweh has made ³room for us, and we will be ^bfruitful in the land.”

²³And he went up from there to ^aBeersheba. ²⁴And Yahweh ^aappeared to him that night and said, “^bI am the God of your father Abraham;^cDo not fear, for I am with you.I ^dwill bless you and multiply your seed,For the sake of My servant Abraham.”

²⁵So he built an ^aaltar there and called upon the name of Yahweh and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug out a well.

Isaac’s Oath with Abimelech

²⁶Now ^aAbimelech came to him from Gerar ¹with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army. ²⁷And Isaac said to them, “^aWhy have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” ²⁸Then they said, “We see plainly ^athat Yahweh has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us—between ¹you and us—and let us cut a covenant with you, ²⁹that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you ¹and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the ^ablessed of Yahweh.’” ³⁰Then ^ahe made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹In the morning they arose early, and ^aeach swore to ¹the other; then Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. ³²Now it happened on that day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” ³³So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is ^aBeersheba to this day.

³⁴And Esau was forty years old, ^aand he took as a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; ³⁵and ^athey ¹brought bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah.

If Your Brother Sins

¹⁵“^aNow if your brother sins¹, go and ²show him his fault, between you and him alone; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. ¹⁶“But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that ^aby the mouth of two or three witnesses every ¹fact may be confirmed. ¹⁷“And if he refuses to listen to them, ^atell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, ^blet him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector. ¹⁸“Truly I say to you, ^awhatever you ¹bind on earth ²shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you ³loose on earth ⁴shall have been loosed in heaven.

¹⁹“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, ^ait shall be done for them ¹by My Father who is in heaven. ²⁰“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, ^aI am there in their midst.”

Forgiveness

²¹Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, ^ahow often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to ^bseven times?” ²²Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to ^aseventy times seven.

²³“For this reason ^athe kingdom of heaven ¹may be compared to a king who wished to ^bsettle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴“When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand ¹talents was brought to him. ²⁵“But since he ¹^,^adid not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him ^bto be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. ²⁶“Therefore, the slave fell to the ground and ^awas prostrating himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ ²⁷“And feeling compassion, the lord of that slave released him and ^aforgave him the ¹debt. ²⁸“But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him one hundred ¹denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ ²⁹“So, his fellow slave fell to the ground and was pleading with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ ³⁰“But he was unwilling ¹and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. ³¹“So, when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. ³²“Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³‘^aShould you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴“And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. ³⁵“^aMy heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your hearts.”

Teaching About Divorce

19¹^,^aNow it happened that when Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and ^bcame into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; ²and ¹large crowds followed Him, and ^aHe healed them there.

³And some Pharisees came to ¹Jesus, testing Him and saying, “^aIs it lawful for a man to ²divorce his wife for any reason at all?” ⁴And He answered and said, “Have you not read ^athat He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘^aFor this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and ^bthe two shall become one flesh’? ⁶“So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” ⁷They *said to Him, “^aWhy then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” ⁸He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to ¹divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. ⁹“And I say to you, ^awhoever ¹divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman ²commits adultery³.”

¹⁰The disciples *said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.” ¹¹But He said to them, “^aNot all men can accept this statement, but ^bonly those to whom it has been given. ¹²“For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”

Jesus Blesses Children

¹³^aThen some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴But Jesus said, “¹^,^aLet the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for ^bthe kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” ¹⁵And after laying His hands on them, He departed from there.

The Rich Young Ruler

¹⁶^aAnd behold, someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have ^beternal life?” ¹⁷And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but ^aif you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸Then he *said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “^aYou shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; ¹⁹^aHonor your father and mother; and ^bYou shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁰The young man *said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” ²¹Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be ¹complete, go and ^asell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have ^btreasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” ²²But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.

²³And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, ^ait is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴“And again I say to you, ^ait is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁵And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁶And looking at them Jesus said to them, “^aWith people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Many Who Are First Will Be Last

²⁷Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” ²⁸And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when ^athe Son of Man will sit on ¹His glorious throne, ^byou also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹“And ^aeveryone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother ¹or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive ²one hundred times as much, and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰“^aBut many who are first will be last; and the last, first.

There Is No One Who Does Good

For the choir director. Of David.

The ¹wicked fool ^asays in his heart, “There is no God.”They act corruptly, they commit abominable ²deeds;There is ^bno one who does good.²Yahweh ^alooks down from heaven upon the sons of menTo see if there is anyone who ¹^,^bhas insight,Anyone who ^cseeks after God.³They have all ^aturned aside, altogether they have become ¹worthless;There is ^bno one who does good, not even one.⁴Do all the workers of iniquity ^anot know,Who ^beat up my people as they eat bread,And ^cdo not call upon Yahweh?⁵There they are in great dread,For God is with the ^arighteous generation.⁶You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted,But Yahweh is his ^arefuge.⁷Oh, that ^athe salvation of Israel ¹would come out of Zion!When Yahweh ²^,^brestores His captive people,May Jacob rejoice, may Israel be glad.

Who May Dwell on Your Holy Mountain?

A Psalm of David.

O Yahweh, who may ¹sojourn ^ain Your tent?Who may dwell on Your ^bholy mountain?²He who ^awalks blamelessly, and works righteousness,And ^bspeaks truth in his heart.³He ^adoes not slander ¹with his tongue,Nor ^bdoes evil to his neighbor,Nor ^ctakes up a reproach against his friend;⁴In ¹whose eyes a reprobate is despised,But ²who ^ahonors those who fear Yahweh;He ^bswears to his own hurt and does not change;⁵He ^adoes not put out his money ¹at interest,Nor ^bdoes he take a bribe against the innocent.^cHe who does these things will never be shaken.