Saturday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. “Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand? 2Verse 2. Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hireling he waits for his wages. 3Verse 3. So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed to me. 4Verse 4. When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn. 5Verse 5. My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering. 6Verse 6. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. 7Verse 7. Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness. 8Verse 8. The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more. 9Verse 9. As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up. 10Verse 10. He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more. 11Verse 11. Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12Verse 12. Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard? 13Verse 13. When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, 14Verse 14. then You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 15Verse 15. so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body. 16Verse 16. I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. 17Verse 17. What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him, 18Verse 18. that You attend to him every morning, and test him every moment? 19Verse 19. Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle? 20Verse 20. If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You ? 21Verse 21. Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”

1Verse 1. Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old. 2Verse 2. She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her. 3Verse 3. Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and said to the Hittites, 4Verse 4. “I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.” 5Verse 5. The Hittites replied to Abraham, 6Verse 6. “Listen to us, sir. You are God’s chosen one among us. Bury your dead in the finest of our tombs. None of us will withhold his tomb for burying your dead.” 7Verse 7. Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. 8Verse 8. “If you are willing for me to bury my dead,” he said to them, “listen to me, and approach Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf 9Verse 9. to sell me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence for full price, so that I may have a burial site.” 10Verse 10. Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. So in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city, Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham, 11Verse 11. “No, my lord. Listen to me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.” 12Verse 12. Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land 13Verse 13. and said to Ephron in their presence, “If you will please listen to me, I will pay you the price of the field. Accept it from me, so that I may bury my dead there.” 14Verse 14. Ephron answered Abraham, 15Verse 15. “Listen to me, my lord. The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” 16Verse 16. Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants. 17Verse 17. So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre, the cave that was in it, and all the trees within the boundaries of the field were deeded over 18Verse 18. to Abraham’s possession in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. 19Verse 19. After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20Verse 20. So the field and its cave were deeded by the Hittites to Abraham as a burial site.