1 Then Jacob, lifting up his eyes, saw Esau arriving, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the sons of Leah and Rachel, and of both the handmaids.
2 And he placed the two handmaids and their children at the beginning. Truly, Leah and her sons were in the second place. Then Rachel and Joseph were last.
3 And advancing, he reverenced prostrate on the ground seven times, until his brother approached.
4 And so Esau ran to meet his brother, and he embraced him. And drawing him by his neck and kissing him, he wept.
5 And lifting up his eyes, he saw the women and their little ones, and he said: “What do these want for themselves?” and “Are they related to you?” He responded, “These are the little ones that God has given as a gift to me, your servant.”
6 Then the handmaids and their sons approached and bowed down.
7 Likewise Leah, with her sons, came near. And when they had reverenced similarly, last of all, Joseph and Rachel reverenced.
8 And Esau said, “What are these companies that I have been meeting?” He responded, “So may I find favor before my lord.”
9 But he said, “I have plenty, my brother; let these be for yourself.”
10 And Jacob said: “I beg you, let it not be so. But if I have found favor in your eyes, receive a small present from my hands. For I have looked upon your face as I would look upon the countenance of God. Be gracious to me,
11 and take the blessing which I have brought to you, and which God, who bestows all things, has given as a gift to me.” Accepting it reluctantly, at the insistence of his brother,
12 he said, “Let us go on together, and I will accompany you on your journey.”
13 And Jacob said: “My lord, you know that I have with me tender little ones, and sheep, and cows with young. If I cause these to labor too much in walking, all the flocks will die in one day.
14 May it please my lord to go before his servant. And I will follow gradually in his steps, as much as I see my little ones to be able, until I arrive to my lord in Seir.”
15 Esau responded, “I beg you, that at least some of the people who are with me may remain to accompany you on the way.” But he said, “There is no need. I have need of one thing only: to find favor in your sight, my lord.”
16 And so Esau returned that day, by the way that he had arrived, to Seir.
17 And Jacob went to Succoth, where, having built a house and pitched tents, he called the name of that place Succoth, that is, ‘Tents.’
18 And he crossed over to Salem, a city of the Shechemites, which is in the land of Canaan, after he returned from Mesopotamia of Syria. And he lived near the town.
19 And he bought the part of the field in which he had pitched his tents from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred lambs.
20 And erecting an altar there, he invoked upon it the most strong God of Israel.
1 Then Dinah, the daughter of Leah, went out to see the women of that region.
2 And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the leader of that land, had seen her, he fell in love with her. And so he seized her and slept with her, overwhelming the virgin by force.
3 And his soul was closely bound to her, and, since she was sorrowful, he soothed her with flattery.
4 And going on to Hamor, his father, he said, “Obtain this girl for me as a mate.”
5 But when Jacob had heard this, since his sons were absent and he was occupied in pasturing the cattle, he remained silent until they came back.
6 Then, when Hamor, the father of Shechem, had gone out to speak to Jacob,
7 behold, his sons arrived from the field. And hearing what had happened, they were very angry, because he had done a filthy thing in Israel and, in violating a daughter of Jacob, had perpetrated an unlawful act.
8 And so Hamor spoke to them: “The soul of my son Shechem has become attached to your daughter. Give her to him as a wife.
9 And let us celebrate marriages with one with another. Give us your daughters, and receive our daughters.
10 And live with us. The land is in your power: cultivate, trade, and possess it.”
11 And Shechem even said to her father and to her brothers: “May I find favor in your sight, and whatever you will appoint, I will give.
12 Increase the dowry, and request gifts, and I will freely bestow what you will ask. Only give me this girl as a wife.”
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father with deceit, being enraged at the rape of their sister:
14 We are not able to do what you ask, nor to give our sister to an uncircumcised man. For us, this is unlawful and abominable.
15 But we may succeed in this, so as to be allied with you, if you are willing to become like us, and if all the male sex among you will be circumcised.
16 Then we will mutually give and receive your daughters as well as ours; and we will live with you, and we will become one people.
17 But if you will not be circumcised, we will take our daughter and withdraw.”
18 Their offer pleased Hamor and his son Shechem.
19 Neither did the young man cause any delay; in fact he immediately fulfilled what was requested. For he loved the girl very much, and he was well-known throughout his father’s house.
20 And entering at the gate of the city, they spoke to the people:
21 These men are peaceful, and they want to live among us. Let them trade in the land and cultivate it, for, being spacious and broad, it is in need of cultivation. We will receive their daughters as wives, and we will give them ours.
22 There is one thing that prevents so great a good: whether we will circumcise our males, imitating the ritual of their nation.
23 And their substance, and cattle, and all that they possess, will be ours, if only we will acquiesce to this, and so, in living together, will form one people.”
24 And they all agreed to circumcise every one of the males.
25 And behold, on the third day, when the pain of the wound was greatest, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, boldly entered the city with swords. And they put to death all of the males.
26 They killed Hamor and Shechem together, taking their sister Dinah from the house of Shechem.
27 And when they had departed, the other sons of Jacob rushed over the slain, and they plundered the city in vengeance for the rape.
28 Taking their sheep, and herds, and donkeys, and laying waste to everything else that was in their houses and in their fields,
29 they also took their little ones and their wives captive.
30 When they had boldly completed these acts, Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: “You have troubled me, and you have made me hateful to the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the inhabitants of this land. We are few. They, gathering themselves together, may strike me down, and then both I and my house will be wiped away.”
31 They responded, “Should they abuse our sister like a prostitute?”
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1 The burden of the valley of vision. What does it mean to you, then, that each of you have even climbed to the rooftops?
2 Filled with clamor, a busy city, an exultant city: your dead have not been slain by the sword, nor did they die in battle.
3 All your leaders have fled together, and they have been bound by hardship. All who were found were chained together. They have fled far away.
4 For this reason, I said: “Depart from me. I will weep bitterly. Make no attempt to console me, over the devastation of the daughter of my people.”
5 For it is a day of death, and of trampling, and of weeping to the Lord, the God of hosts, in the valley of vision: examining the wall and the magnificence above the mountain.
6 And Elam took up the quiver and the chariot of the horseman; and he stripped the wall of the shield.
7 And your elect valleys will be filled with chariots, and the horsemen will position themselves at the gates.
8 And the covering of Judah will be exposed, and in that day, you will see the weaponry of the forest house.
9 And you will see breaches in the city of David, for these have been multiplied. But you have gathered together the waters of the lower fish-pool.
10 And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem. And you have destroyed the houses in order to fortify the wall.
11 And you have made a pit between two walls for the waters of the ancient fish-pool. But you have not gazed upward to him who made it, and you have not considered, even from a distance, its Maker.
12 And in that day, the Lord, the God of hosts, will call to weeping and mourning, to baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.
13 But behold: gladness and rejoicing, the killing of calves and the slaughter of rams, the eating of meat and the drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
14 And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you, until you die,” says the Lord, the God of hosts.
15 Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: Go forth and enter to him who lives in the tabernacle, to Shebna, who is in charge of the temple, and you shall say to him:
16 What are you here, or who are you claiming to be here? For you have hewn a sepulcher for yourself here. You have diligently hewn a memorial in a rock, as a tabernacle to yourself.
17 Behold, the Lord will cause you to be carried away, like a domesticated rooster, and he will remove you, like an outer garment.
18 He will crown you with a crown of tribulation. He will toss you like a ball into a broad and spacious land. There you will die, and there the chariot of your glory will be, for it is a shame to the house of your Lord.”
19 And I will expel you from your station, and I will depose you from your ministry.
20 And this shall be in that day: I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.
21 And I will clothe him with your vestment, and I will strengthen him with your belt, and I will give your authority to his hand. And he shall be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
22 And I will place the key of the house of David upon his shoulder. And when he opens, no one will close. And when he closes, no one will open.
23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a trustworthy place. And he will be upon a throne of glory in the house of his father.
24 And they will suspend over him all the glory of his father’s house: various kinds of vessels and every little article, from the vessels of bowls even to every instrument of music.
25 In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg which was fastened in a trustworthy place shall be taken away. And he will be broken, and he will fall, and he will perish, along with all that had depended upon him, because the Lord has spoken it.
1 Unto the end, a psalm for David. How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me unto the end? how long dost thou turn away thy face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsels in my soul, sorrow in my heart all the day?
3 How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
4 Consider, and hear me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death:
5 Lest at any time my enemy say: I have prevailed against him. They that trouble me will rejoice when I am moved:
6 But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: I will sing to the Lord, who giveth me good things: yea I will sing to the name of the Lord the most high.
42 And he shall cast them into the furnace of fire, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then the just ones shall shine like the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.
44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man finds it, he hides it, and, because of his joy, he goes and sells everything that he has, and he buys that field.
45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking good pearls.
46 Having found one pearl of great value, he went away and sold all that he had, and he bought it.
47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, which gathers together all kinds of fish.
48 When it has been filled, drawing it out and sitting beside the shore, they selected the good into vessels, but the bad they threw away.
49 So shall it be at the consummation of the age. The Angels shall go forth and separate the bad from the midst of the just.
50 And they shall cast them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 Have you understood all these things?” They say to him, “Yes.”
52 He said to them, “Therefore, every scribe well-taught about the kingdom of heaven, is like a man, the father of a family, who offers from his storehouse both the new and the old.”
53 And it happened that, when Jesus had completed these parables, he went away from there.
54 And arriving in his own country, he taught them in their synagogues, so much so that they wondered and said: “How can such wisdom and power be with this one?
55 Is this not the son of a workman? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude?
56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Therefore, from where has this one obtained all these things?”
57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and in his own house.”
58 And he did not work many miracles there, because of their unbelief.
