Genesis 32
Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau
1 So early in the morning, Laban arose, and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.
2 So Jacob went on his way, and saw the hosts of God encamped.
3 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s encampment”; and he called the name of that place Encampments.
4 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
5 And he commanded them, saying, “Speak thus to my lord Esau, ‘Thus your servant Jacob says, “I sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now. I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in your sight.” ’ ”
6 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him.”
7 So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people with him and the oxen and sheep into two companies.
8 Thus Jacob said, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the other company will escape.”
9 Again Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Return to the land of your nativity, and I will deal well with you,’
10 let me be satisfied with all the righteousness and all the truth You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.
11 Deliver me from the hand of my brother, Esau; for I am afraid of him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.
12 For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”†
13 So he lodged there that same night, and took some of the things he had brought as a present for Esau his brother:
14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred sheep and twenty rams,
15 thirty milk camels with their offspring, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals.
16 Then he delivered them to the hand of his servants, each flock by itself, and said to his servants, “Go on before me, and put some distance between successive droves.”
17 And he commanded the first one, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these going before you?’
18 Then you shall say, ‘Your servant Jacob’s. These things are a present sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he also is behind us.’ ”
19 So he commanded the first, the second, and the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, “In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him;
20 and also say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” For he said to himself, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”
21 So the present went on before him, but he himself lodged that night in the encampment.
Jacob Wrestles with God
22 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok.
23 He took them and crossed over the brook, and sent over what he had.
24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.†
25 Now when He saw He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him.
26 Then He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
27 So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.”
28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have prevailed with God and with men.”†
29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And he said, “Why do you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the name of that place, the Form of God: “For I saw God face to face, and my soul was saved.”†
31 When the Form of God passed by, the sun rose on him, but he limped on his hip.
32 Therefore to this day, the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, in the muscle that shrank.
Psalms 32
1 By David. †Rejoice greatly in the Lord, O righteous ones; Praise is fitting for the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord on the lyre; Sing praises to Him on a ten-stringed instrument.
3 Sing to Him a new song; Sing praises beautifully with a shout.
4 For the word of the Lord is right, And all His works are done in faithfulness.
5 He loves mercy and judgment; The earth is full of the Lord’s mercy.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth,
7 Who gathers the waters of the sea together as in a wineskin, Who put the abysses in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord, And let all the world’s inhabitants be shaken by Him;
9 For He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created.
10 The Lord scatters abroad the counsels of the nations, And He sets aside the reasoning of peoples; And He rejects the counsels of rulers.
11 The counsel of the Lord abides forever, The thoughts of His heart from generation to generation.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He chose as an inheritance for Himself.
Proverbs of Solomon 6
20 For he rejoices in everything the Lord hates, And he shall be broken because of his soul’s uncleanness:
21 A haughty eye, an unrighteous tongue, Hands that shed righteous blood,
22 A heart that devises evil thoughts, And feet that hasten to do evil;
23 As a false witness he kindles injustice And causes quarrels between brethren.
24 My son, guard the laws of your father, And do not depart from the rules of your mother.
25 But fasten them to your soul continually And wear them as a collar upon your neck.
Matthew 21
Palm Sunday: The Messianic King
1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,†
2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.†
3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.
8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.†
9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!”†
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Jesus Purifies the Temple
12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.†
13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant†
16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’? ”
17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.
Israel: The Withered Fig Tree
18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.†
20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”
21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.†
22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”