Genesis 49; Genesis 50; Matthew 13:31-58

Genesis 49

1 Then Jacob called his sons, and said: "Gather around, that I may tell you what will happen to you in days to come.

2 Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father.

3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the first fruits of my vigor, excelling in rank and excelling in power.

4 Unstable as water, you shall no longer excel because you went up onto your father's bed; then you defiled it—you went up onto my couch!

5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords.

6 May I never come into their council; may I not be joined to their company— for in their anger they killed men, and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.

7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you.

9 Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?

10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.

11 Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes;

12 his eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

13 Zebulun shall settle at the shore of the sea; he shall be a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon.

14 Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds;

15 he saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant; so he bowed his shoulder to the burden, and became a slave at forced labor.

16 Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan shall be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider falls backward.

18 I wait for your salvation, O Lord.

19 Gad shall be raided by raiders, but he shall raid at their heels.

20 Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall provide royal delicacies.

21 Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears lovely fawns.

22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall.

23 The archers fiercely attacked him; they shot at him and pressed him hard.

24 Yet his bow remained taut, and his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

25 by the God of your father, who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

26 The blessings of your father are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills; may they be on the head of Joseph, on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey, and at evening dividing the spoil."

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, blessing each one of them with a suitable blessing.

29 Then he charged them, saying to them, "I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my ancestors—in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30 in the cave in the field at Machpelah, near Mamre, in the land of Canaan, in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried; there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried; and there I buried Leah—

32 the field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites."

33 When Jacob ended his charge to his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 50

1 Then Joseph threw himself on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him.

2 Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel;

3 they spent forty days in doing this, for that is the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

4 When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph addressed the household of Pharaoh, "If now I have found favor with you, please speak to Pharaoh as follows:

5 My father made me swear an oath; he said, "I am about to die. In the tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.' Now therefore let me go up, so that I may bury my father; then I will return."

6 Pharaoh answered, "Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear to do."

7 So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.

9 Both chariots and charioteers went up with him. It was a very great company.

10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed a time of mourning for his father seven days.

11 When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning on the part of the Egyptians." Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan.

12 Thus his sons did for him as he had instructed them.

13 They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, the field near Mamre, which Abraham bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.

14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

15 Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers said, "What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?"

16 So they approached Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this instruction before he died,

17 "Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.' Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

18 Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, "We are here as your slaves."

19 But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?

20 Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.

21 So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones." In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.

22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's household; and Joseph lived one hundred ten years.

23 Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children of Machir son of Manasseh were also born on Joseph's knees.

24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die; but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

25 So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, "When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here."

26 And Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Matthew 13:31-58

31 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;

32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

33 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.

35 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world."

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field."

37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;

38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one,

39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers,

42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;

46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind;

48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.

49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous

50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes."

52 And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

54 He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power?

55 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?"

57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house."

58 And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.