Abraham’s Death and His Descendants

1 ^zAbraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. 4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5 ^aAbraham gave all he had to Isaac. 6 But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he ^bsent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.

7 These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life, 175 years. 8 Abraham breathed his last and ^cdied in a good old age, an ^dold man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 9 Isaac and Ishmael ^ehis sons buried him ^fin the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10 the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife. 11 After the death of Abraham, ^gGod blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.

12 These are the generations of ^hIshmael, Abraham’s son, ⁱwhom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham. 13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16 These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, ^jtwelve princes according to their tribes. 17 (These are the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years. He breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.) 18 They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. ^kHe settled¹ over against all his kinsmen.

The Birth of Esau and Jacob

19 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the ^lAramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. 21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was ^mbarren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 The children ⁿstruggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?”² So she went to ^oinquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,

24 ^sWhen her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body like a ^thairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. 26 ^uAfterward his brother came out ^vwith his hand holding Esau’s heel, ^wso his name was called Jacob.⁴ Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a ^xskillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. 28 Isaac ^yloved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau Sells His Birthright

29 ^zOnce when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.⁵) 31 ^aJacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

God’s Promise to Isaac

1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides ^bthe former famine that was in the days of Abraham. ^cAnd Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2 And the Lord ^dappeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^edwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 ^fSojourn in this land, and ^gI will be with you and will ^hbless you, ⁱfor to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^jthe oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring ^kas the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And ^lin your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Isaac and Abimelech

6 ^mSo Isaac settled in Gerar. 7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, ⁿ“She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should ^okill me because of Rebekah,” because she was ^pattractive in appearance. 8 When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac ^qlaughing with¹ Rebekah his wife. 9 So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” 10 Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and ^ryou would have brought guilt upon us.” 11 So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, 13 and the man became ^srich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. 14 He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. 15 (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells ^tthat his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for ^uyou are much mightier than we.”

17 So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. 18 ^vAnd Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And ^whe gave them the names that his father had given them. 19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar ^xquarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek,² because they contended with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah.³ 22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth,⁴ saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be ^yfruitful in the land.”

23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, ^z“I am the God of Abraham your father. ^aFear not, for I am with you and will bless you and ^bmultiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So he ^cbuilt an altar there and ^dcalled upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

26 When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army, 27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28 They said, ^e“We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the ^fblessed of the Lord.” 30 So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 In the morning they rose early and ^gexchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. 32 That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” 33 He called it Shibah;^{5 h}therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

34 ⁱWhen Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, 35 and ^jthey made life ^kbitter⁶ for Isaac and Rebekah.

O Lord, Deliver My Life

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith.¹ A Psalm of David.

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two¹ others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, ^l“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of ^mwolves. 4 Carry ⁿno moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and ^ogreet no one on the road. 5 Whatever ^phouse you enter, first say, ^q‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for ^rthe laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, ^seat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ^t‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we ^uwipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be ^vmore bearable on that day for ^wSodom than for that town.

Woe to Unrepentant Cities

13 ^x“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be ^yexalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to ^zHades.

16 ^a“The one who hears you hears me, and ^bthe one who rejects you rejects me, and ^cthe one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

The Return of the Seventy-Two

17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the ^ddemons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan ^efall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to ^ftread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your ^gnames are written in ^hheaven.”

Jesus Rejoices in the Father’s Will

21 ⁱIn that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the ^jwise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.² 22 ^kAll things have been handed over to me by my Father, and ^lno one knows who the Son is except the Father, or ^mwho the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to ⁿreveal him.”

23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, ^o“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings ^pdesired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 ^qAnd behold, a lawyer stood up to ^rput him to the test, saying, “Teacher, ^swhat shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, ^t“You shall ^ulove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, ^vand your ^wneighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; ^xdo this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to ^yjustify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a ^zpriest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two ^adenarii³ and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Martha and Mary

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus⁴ entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But ^bMartha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, ^c“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but ^done thing is necessary.⁵ Mary has chosen the ^egood portion, which will not be taken away from her.”