Scripture Reading for the
Common Calendar Year
(beginning January 1st)

February 7

Text taken from the
Third Millennium Bible^® (TMB^®)
(New Authorized Version^TM NAV^TM)

The Lectionary According to the Common Calendar

Psalm 35:1-21

1 Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me; 
fight against them that fight against me. 
2 Take hold of shield and buckler, 
and stand up for mine help. 
3 Draw out also the spear, and block the way against them that persecute me. 
Say unto my soul, "I am thy salvation." 
4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul; 
let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. 
5 Let them be as chaff before the wind, 
and let the angel of the LORD chase them. 
6 Let their way be dark and slippery, 
and let the angel of the LORD persecute them. 
7 For without cause they have hid their net for me in a pit, 
which without cause they have dug for my soul. 

8 Let destruction come upon him unawares; and let the net which he hath hidden catch himself; 
into that very destruction let him fall. 
9 Then my soul shall be joyful in the LORD; 
it shall rejoice in His salvation.
10 All my bones shall say, "LORD, who is like unto Thee, 
who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and needy from him that would plunder him?" 

11 False witnesses rose up; 
they laid to my charge things that I knew not. 
12 They rewarded me evil for good, 
to the grieving of my soul. 
13 But as for me, when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth; 
I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned unto mine own bosom. 
14 I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother; 
I bowed down in heaviness, as one that mourneth for his mother. 
15 But in mine adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together; 
yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they tore at me and ceased not. 
16 With hypocritical mockers at feasts 
they gnashed their teeth against me. 
17 Lord, how long wilt Thou look on? 
Rescue my soul from their destructions, my precious soul from the lions. 
18 I will give Thee thanks in the great congregation; 
I will praise Thee among many people. 
19 Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; 
neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
20 For they speak not peace, 
but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. 
21 Yea, they opened their mouths wide against me and said, 
"Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen it." 

Matthew 12:46-50

46 While He yet talked to the people, behold, His mother and His brethren stood outside, desiring to speak with Him. 47 Then one said unto Him, "Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand outside, desiring to speak with thee." 48 But He answered and said unto him that told Him,

"Who is My mother? And who are My brethren?"

49 And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples and said,

"Behold, My mother and My brethren! 50 For whosoever shall do the will of My Father who is in Heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother."

Acts 17:16-34

16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 17 Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the marketplace daily with those who met with him. 18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, "What will this babbler say?" And some others said, "He seemeth to be a proclaimer of strange gods," because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is whereof thou speakest? 20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, and we would know therefore what these things mean." 21 (For all the Athenians and strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else than either telling or hearing some new thing.)

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill and said, "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: `To the Unknown God'. Whom therefore ye worship in ignorance, Him I declare unto you. 24 God who made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. 25 Neither is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. 26 And He hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, 27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. 28 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as also certain of your own poets have said, `For we are also His offspring.'

29 "For inasmuch, then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and of man's devising. 30 The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He hath appointed a Day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained. Of this He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead."

32 But when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said, "We will hear thee again on this matter."

33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, certain men cleaved unto him and believed, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Genesis 50:1-22

1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 And forty days were fulfilled for him (for so are fulfilled the days of those who are embalmed), and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days. 

4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 `My father made me swear, saying, "Lo, I die; in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me." Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.'" 6 And Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear." 

7 And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house. Only their little ones, and their flocks and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company. 

10 And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning of the Egyptians." Therefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim [that is, The mourning of the Egyptians], which is beyond the Jordan. 12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them. 13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession as a burying place from Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren and all who went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. 

15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, "Joseph will perhaps hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him." 16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, "Thy father did command before he died, saying, 17 `So shall ye say unto Joseph, "Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto thee evil."' And now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father." And Joseph wept when they spoke unto him. 18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are thy servants." 19 And Joseph said unto them, "Fear not; for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day, to save many people alive. 21 Now therefore fear ye not; I will nourish you and your little ones." And he comforted them, and spoke kindly unto them. 

22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.

Words of Wisdom - Ecclesiasticus 3:19-20

Many are in high place and of renown,
but mysteries are revealed unto the meek.
For the power of the Lord is great,
and He is honored by the lowly.