The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday January 17, 2020 (NIV)

Return to Bethel

35 God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there.^(A) Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”^(B)

² So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.^(C) Purify yourselves and change your clothes.^{(D) 3} We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress.^(E) He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”^(F)

⁴ Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem. ⁵ When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.^{(G) 6} So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel^(H)) in the land of Canaan. ⁷ Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel^[a] because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

⁸ Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah,^[b](I) died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.^[c]

⁹ God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him. ¹⁰ God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be named Jacob, but your name will be Israel.”^(J) So he named him Israel. ¹¹ God also said to him, “I am God Almighty.^(K) Be fruitful and multiply.^(L) A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you,^(M) and kings will descend from you.^{[d](N) 12} I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac.^(O) And I will give the land to your future descendants.” ¹³ Then God withdrew^[e](P) from him at the place where he had spoken to him.

¹⁴ Jacob set up a marker at the place where he had spoken to him—a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.^{(Q) 15} Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

Rachel’s Death

¹⁶ They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult. ¹⁷ During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.”^{(R) 18} With her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni,^[f] but his father called him Benjamin.^{[g] 19} So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem^(S)). ²⁰ Jacob set up a marker on her grave; it is the marker at Rachel’s grave still today.

Israel’s Sons

²¹ Israel set out again and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.^{[h] 22} While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.^(T)

Jacob had twelve sons:^(U)

These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

Isaac’s Death

²⁷ Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre^(V) in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron^(W)), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. ²⁸ Isaac lived 180 years. ²⁹ He took his last breath and died, and was gathered to his people,^(X) old and full of days. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Esau’s Family

36 These are the family records^(Y) of Esau (that is, Edom^(Z)). ² Esau took his wives from the Canaanite women: Adah daughter of Elon the Hethite,^(AA) Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter^[i] of Zibeon the Hivite, ³ and Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.^{(AB) 4} Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel, ⁵ and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were Esau’s sons, who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Esau took his wives, sons, daughters, and all the people of his household, as well as his herds, all his livestock, and all the property he had acquired in Canaan; he went to a land away from his brother Jacob. ⁷ For their possessions were too many for them to live together,^(AC) and because of their herds, the land where they stayed could not support them.^{(AD) 8} So Esau (that is, Edom) lived in the mountains of Seir.^(AE)

⁹ These are the family records of Esau, father of the Edomites in the mountains of Seir.

Seir’s Family

Rulers of Edom

Lord of the Sabbath

12 At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath.^(A) His disciples^(B) were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is not lawful^(C) to do on the Sabbath.”

³ He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry: ⁴ how he entered the house of God, and they ate^[a] the bread of the Presence—which is not lawful for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests?^{(D) 5} Or haven’t you read in the law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent?^{(E) 6} I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.^{(F) 7} If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice,^[b](G) you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”^(H)

The Man with the Shriveled Hand

⁹ Moving on from there, he entered their synagogue.^{(I) 10} There he saw a man who had a shriveled hand, and in order to accuse him they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” ^(J)

¹¹ He replied to them, “Who among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and lift it out?^{(K) 12} A person is worth far more than a sheep; ^(L) so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath.”

¹³ Then he told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored,^(M) as good as the other. ¹⁴ But the Pharisees went out and plotted against him, how they might kill him.^(N)

The Servant of the Lord

¹⁵ Jesus was aware of this and withdrew. Large crowds^[c] followed him, and he healed them all.^{(O) 16} He warned them not to make him known,^{(P) 17} so that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

Psalm 15

A Description of the Godly

A psalm of David.