Joseph Interprets a Dream
1Then it came about after these things, the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. 3So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, in the jail, the same place where Joseph was imprisoned. 4The captain of the bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them, and he took care of them; and they were in confinement for some time. 5Then the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt, who were confined in jail, both had a dream the same night, each man with his own dream and each dream with its own interpretation. 6When Joseph came to them in the morning and observed them, behold, they were dejected. 7He asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in confinement in his master’s house, “Why are your faces so sad today?” 8Then they said to him, “We have had a dream and there is no one to interpret it.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please.”
9So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream, behold, there was a vine in front of me; 10and on the vine were three branches. And as it was budding, its blossoms came out, and its clusters produced ripe grapes. 11Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.” 12Then Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days; 13within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you will put Pharaoh’s cup into his hand according to your former custom when you were his cupbearer. 14Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house. 15For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon.”
16When the chief baker saw that he had interpreted favorably, he said to Joseph, “I also saw in my dream, and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head; 17and in the top basket there were some of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.” 18Then Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days; 19within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh off you.”
20Thus it came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand; 22but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Jeremiah Shares Israel’s Affliction
1I am the man who has seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
2He has driven me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
3Surely against me He has turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
4He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away,
He has broken my bones.
5He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.
6In dark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.
7He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
9He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
11He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12He bent His bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.
13He made the arrows of His quiver
To enter into my inward parts.
14I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
Their mocking song all the day.
15He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drunk with wormwood.
16He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.
17My soul has been rejected from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.
18So I say, “My strength has perished,
And so has my hope from the Lord.”
Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy
19Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
20Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.
21This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
23They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”
25The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
26It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
27It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
29Let him put his mouth in the dust,
Perhaps there is hope.
30Let him give his cheek to the smiter,
Let him be filled with reproach.
31For the Lord will not reject forever,
32For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
33For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.
34To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the land,
35To deprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,
36To defraud a man in his lawsuit—
Of these things the Lord does not approve.
37Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That both good and ill go forth?
39Why should any living mortal, or any man,
Offer complaint in view of his sins?
40Let us examine and probe our ways,
And let us return to the Lord.
41We lift up our heart and hands
Toward God in heaven;
42We have transgressed and rebelled,
You have not pardoned.
43You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and have not spared.
44You have covered Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.
45You have made us mere offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47Panic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
48My eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My eyes pour down unceasingly,
Without stopping,
50Until the Lord looks down
And sees from heaven.
51My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
52My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird;
53They have silenced me in the pit
And have placed a stone on me.
54Waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”
55I called on Your name, O Lord,
Out of the lowest pit.
56You have heard my voice,
“Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help.”
57You drew near when I called on You;
You said, “Do not fear!”
58O Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause;
You have redeemed my life.
59O Lord, You have seen my oppression;
Judge my case.
60You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.
61You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me.
62The lips of my assailants and their whispering
Are against me all day long.
63Look on their sitting and their rising;
I am their mocking song.
64You will recompense them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
65You will give them hardness of heart,
Your curse will be on them.
66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
From under the heavens of the Lord!
Jesus, the Example
1Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
1) How does the poet find hope while trapped and accused?
2) What fuels endurance according to Hebrews 12?
3) What weight do you need to lay aside to keep running?
PSALM 55
Prayer for the Destruction of the Treacherous.
For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
1Give ear to my prayer, O God;
And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.
2Give heed to me and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and am surely distracted,
3Because of the voice of the enemy,
Because of the pressure of the wicked;
For they bring down trouble upon me
And in anger they bear a grudge against me.
4My heart is in anguish within me,
And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5Fear and trembling come upon me,
And horror has overwhelmed me.
6I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
7Behold, I would wander far away,
I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah.
8I would hasten to my place of refuge
From the stormy wind and tempest.”
9Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues,
For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10Day and night they go around her upon her walls,
And iniquity and mischief are in her midst.
11Destruction is in her midst;
Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets.
12For it is not an enemy who reproaches me,
Then I could bear it;
Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me,
Then I could hide myself from him.
13But it is you, a man my equal,
My companion and my familiar friend;
14We who had sweet fellowship together
Walked in the house of God in the throng.
15Let death come deceitfully upon them;
Let them go down alive to Sheol,
For evil is in their dwelling, in their midst.
16As for me, I shall call upon God,
And the Lord will save me.
17Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur,
And He will hear my voice.
18He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me,
For they are many who strive with me.
19God will hear and answer them—
Even the one who sits enthroned from of old— Selah.
With whom there is no change,
And who do not fear God.
20He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him;
He has violated his covenant.
21His speech was smoother than butter,
But his heart was war;
His words were softer than oil,
Yet they were drawn swords.
22Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you;
He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
23But You, O God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction;
Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days.
But I will trust in You.
Pitfalls of Immorality
1My son, give attention to my wisdom,
Incline your ear to my understanding;
2That you may observe discretion
And your lips may reserve knowledge.
3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey
And smoother than oil is her speech;
4But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to death,
Her steps take hold of Sheol.
6She does not ponder the path of life;
Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.
7Now then, my sons, listen to me
And do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8Keep your way far from her
And do not go near the door of her house,
9Or you will give your vigor to others
And your years to the cruel one;
10And strangers will be filled with your strength
And your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien;
11And you groan at your final end,
When your flesh and your body are consumed;
12And you say, “How I have hated instruction!
And my heart spurned reproof!
13I have not listened to the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to my instructors!
14I was almost in utter ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
15Drink water from your own cistern
And fresh water from your own well.
16Should your springs be dispersed abroad,
Streams of water in the streets?
17Let them be yours alone
And not for strangers with you.
18Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love.
20For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
21For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord,
And He watches all his paths.
22His own iniquities will capture the wicked,
And he will be held with the cords of his sin.
23He will die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.
God’s Final Word in His Son
1God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
5For to which of the angels did He ever say,
“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You”?
And again,
“I will be a Father to Him
And He shall be a Son to Me”?
6And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says,
“And let all the angels of God worship Him.”
7And of the angels He says,
“Who makes His angels winds,
And His ministers a flame of fire.”
8But of the Son He says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.
9You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness above Your companions.”
10And,
“You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the works of Your hands;
11They will perish, but You remain;
And they all will become old like a garment,
12And like a mantle You will roll them up;
Like a garment they will also be changed.
But You are the same,
And Your years will not come to an end.”
13But to which of the angels has He ever said,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies
A footstool for Your feet”?
14Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?