Day 15 of 365

Gen 30:1–31:28

30:1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I will die."

30:2 Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

30:3 She said, "Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her."

30:4 She gave him Bilhah her handmaid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

30:5 Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

30:6 Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son." Therefore called she his name Dan.

30:7 Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

30:8 Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed." She named him Naphtali.

30:9 When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

30:10 Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a son.

30:11 Leah said, "How fortunate!" She named him Gad.

30:12 Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a second son.

30:13 Leah said, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy." She named him Asher.

30:14 Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

30:15 She said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes, also?" Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."

30:16 Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." He lay with her that night.

30:17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son.

30:18 Leah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband." She named him Issachar.

30:19 Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

30:20 Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him Zebulun.

30:21 Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

30:22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.

30:23 She conceived, bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach."

30:24 She named him Joseph, saying, "May the Lord add another son to me."

30:25 It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.

30:26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you."

30:27 Laban said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that the Lord has blessed me for your sake."

30:28 He said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it."

30:29 He said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.

30:30 For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. The Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"

30:31 He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.

30:32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.

30:33 So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen."

30:34 Laban said, "Behold, I desire it to be according to your word."

30:35 That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

30:36 He set three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

30:37 Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

30:38 He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.

30:39 The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

30:40 Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them into Laban's flock.

30:41 It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods;

30:42 but when the flock were feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

30:43 The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

31:1 He 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."

31:2 Jacob saw the expression on Laban's face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

31:3 The Lord said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you."

31:4 Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

31:5 and 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.

31:6 You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.

31:7 Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

31:8 If 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.

31:9 Thus God has taken away your father's livestock, and given them to me.

31:10 It 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.

31:11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.'

31:12 He 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.

31:13 I 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.'"

31:14 Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

31:15 Aren't we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money.

31:16 For 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."

31:17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,

31:18 and 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.

31:19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.

31:20 Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he was running away.

31:21 So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

31:22 Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.

31:23 He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

31:24 God 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."

31:25 Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

31:26 Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

31:27 Why 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;

31:28 and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.

Matt 11:1–18

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

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

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

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

5 the 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.

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

7 And 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?

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

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

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

11 Truly 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.

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

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

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

15 He 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

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

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

Ps 7:1–17

1 Lord, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,

2 lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

3 Lord, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,

4 if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, if I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),

5 let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

6 Arise, Lord, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.

7 Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high.

8 The Lord administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Lord, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.

9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.

10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

11 God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day.

12 If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow.

13 He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows.

14 Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

15 He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made.

16 The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

17 I will give thanks to the Lord according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.