16 Kislev, 5785

When Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the ornamented tunic that he was wearing,

and took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to a meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels bearing gum, balm, and ladanum to be taken to Egypt.

Then Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood?

Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed.

When Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up out of the pit. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who brought Joseph to Egypt.

When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he rent his clothes.

Returning to his brothers, he said, “The boy is gone! Now, what am I to do?”

Then they took Joseph’s tunic, slaughtered a kid, and dipped the tunic in the blood.

They had the ornamented tunic taken to their father, and they said, “We found this. Please examine it; is it your son’s tunic or not?”

He recognized it, and said, “My son’s tunic! A savage beast devoured him! Joseph was torn by a beast!”

Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and observed mourning for his son many days.

All his sons and daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.” Thus his father bewailed him.

The Midianites, meanwhile, sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward.

Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, published by JPS
Copyright: JPS, 1985

Psalms 79

A psalm of Asaph. O God, heathens have entered Your domain, defiled Your holy temple, and turned Jerusalem into ruins. They have left Your servants’ corpses as food for the fowl of heaven, and the flesh of Your faithful for the wild beasts. Their blood was shed like water around Jerusalem, with none to bury them. We have become the butt of our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. How long, O LORD, will You be angry forever, will Your indignation blaze like fire? Pour out Your fury on the nations that do not know You, upon the kingdoms that do not invoke Your name, for they have devoured Jacob and desolated his home. Do not hold our former iniquities against us; let Your compassion come swiftly toward us, for we have sunk very low. Help us, O God, our deliverer, for the sake of the glory of Your name. Save us and forgive our sin, for the sake of Your name. Let the nations not say, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes let it be known among the nations that You avenge the spilled blood of Your servants. Let the groans of the prisoners reach You; reprieve those condemned to death, as befits Your great strength. Pay back our neighbors sevenfold for the abuse they have flung at You, O Lord. Then we, Your people, the flock You shepherd, shall glorify You forever; for all time we shall tell Your praises.

Psalms 80

For the leader; on shoshannim, eduth. Of Asaph. A psalm. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel who leads Joseph like a flock! Appear, You who are enthroned on the cherubim, at the head of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh! Rouse Your might and come to our help! Restore us, O God; show Your favor that we may be delivered. O LORD, God of hosts, how long will You be wrathful toward the prayers of Your people? You have fed them tears as their daily bread, made them drink great measures of tears. You set us at strife with our neighbors; our enemies mock us at will. O God of hosts, restore us; show Your favor that we may be delivered. You plucked up a vine from Egypt; You expelled nations and planted it. You cleared a place for it; it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered by its shade, mighty cedars by its boughs. Its branches reached the sea, its shoots, the river. Why did You breach its wall so that every passerby plucks its fruit, wild boars gnaw at it, and creatures of the field feed on it? O God of hosts, turn again, look down from heaven and see; take note of that vine, the stock planted by Your right hand, the stem you have taken as Your own. For it is burned by fire and cut down, perishing before Your angry blast. Grant Your help to the man at Your right hand, the one You have taken as Your own. We will not turn away from You; preserve our life that we may invoke Your name. O LORD, God of hosts, restore us; show Your favor that we may be delivered.

Psalms 81

For the leader; on the gittith. Of Asaph. Sing joyously to God, our strength; raise a shout for the God of Jacob. Take up the song, sound the timbrel, the melodious lyre and harp. Blow the horn on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day. For it is a law for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob; He imposed it as a decree upon Joseph when he went forth from the land of Egypt; I heard a language that I knew not. I relieved his shoulder of the burden, his hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called and I rescued you; I answered you from the secret place of thunder I tested you at the waters of Meribah.Selah. Hear, My people, and I will admonish you; Israel, if you would but listen to Me! You shall have no foreign god, you shall not bow to an alien god. I the LORD am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide and I will fill it. But My people would not listen to Me, Israel would not obey Me. So I let them go after their willful heart that they might follow their own devices. If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My paths, then would I subdue their enemies at once, strike their foes again and again. Those who hate the LORD shall cower before Him; their doom shall be eternal. He fed them the finest wheat; I sated you with honey from the rock.

Psalms 82

A psalm of Asaph. God stands in the divine assembly; among the divine beings He pronounces judgment. How long will you judge perversely, showing favor to the wicked?Selah. Judge the wretched and the orphan, vindicate the lowly and the poor, rescue the wretched and the needy; save them from the hand of the wicked. They neither know nor understand, they go about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth totter. I had taken you for divine beings, sons of the Most High, all of you; but you shall die as men do, fall like any prince. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are Your possession.

Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, published by JPS
Copyright: JPS, 1985

but Yeshua went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Yeshua bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Yeshua was left alone with the woman standing before him. Yeshua stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Yeshua said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]

Again Yeshua spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Yeshua answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Yeshua answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Yeshua said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. So Yeshua said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

So Yeshua said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

Yeshua answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Yeshua said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” Yeshua said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Yeshua answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” Yeshua answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Yeshua hid himself and went out of the temple.

(ESV)