So we must not grow weary ¹  in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. ² 

So when he came into the world, he said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.

The Lord’s angelic messenger ¹  came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon ²  was threshing ³  wheat in a winepress ⁴  so he could hide it from the Midianites. ⁵ 

Therefore, as flaming fire ¹  devours straw, and dry grass disintegrates in the flames, so their root will rot, and their flower will blow away like dust. ²  For they have rejected the law of the Lord who commands armies, they have spurned the commands ³  of the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

“Be sure of this, ¹  the time is ²  coming,” says the Lord, “when the plowman will catch up to the reaper ³  and the one who stomps the grapes ⁴  will overtake ⁵  the planter. ⁶  Juice will run down the slopes, ⁷  it will flow down all the hillsides. ⁸ 

Then ¹  another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use ²  your sickle and start to reap, ³  because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!”

And the sound of the harpists, musicians, flute players, and trumpeters will never be heard in you ¹  again. No ²  craftsman ³  who practices any trade will ever be found in you again; the noise of a mill ⁴  will never be heard in you again.

At the time ¹  of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants ²  in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt. In this way the land will survive the famine.” ¹ 

Then the seven years of famine began, ¹  just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

When one of them ¹  opened his sack to get feed for his donkey at their resting place, ²  he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. ³ 

But bring your youngest brother back to me so I will know ¹  that you are honest men and not spies. ²  Then I will give your brother back to you and you may move about freely in the land.’” ³ 

Take double the money with you; ¹  you must take back ²  the money that was returned in the mouths of your sacks – perhaps it was an oversight.

So the men took these gifts, and they took double the money with them, along with Benjamin. Then they hurried down to Egypt ¹  and stood before Joseph.

But when we came to the place where we spent the night, we opened our sacks and each of us found his money – the full amount ¹  – in the mouth of his sack. So we have returned it. ² 

He instructed the servant who was over his household, “Fill the sacks of the men with as much food as they can carry and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.

But we replied, ‘We cannot go down there. ¹  If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go, ²  for we won’t be permitted to see the man’s face if our youngest brother is not with us.’

When you gather in the crop, ¹  give ²  one-fifth of it to Pharaoh, and the rest ³  will be yours for seed for the fields and for you to eat, including those in your households and your little children.”

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad ¹  on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there with very great and bitter sorrow. ²  There Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father.

and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh ¹  who sits on his throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.