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Psalm 6

1  O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath; ♦︎
   neither chasten me in your fierce anger.
2  Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak; ♦︎
   Lord, heal me, for my bones are racked.
3  My soul also shakes with terror; ♦︎
   how long, O Lord, how long?
4  Turn again, O Lord, and deliver my soul; ♦︎
   save me for your loving mercy’s sake.
5  For in death no one remembers you; ♦︎
   and who can give you thanks in the grave?
6  I am weary with my groaning; ♦︎
   every night I drench my pillow
      and flood my bed with my tears.
7  My eyes are wasted with grief ♦︎
   and worn away because of all my enemies.
8  Depart from me, all you that do evil, ♦︎
   for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
9  The Lord has heard my supplication; ♦︎
   the Lord will receive my prayer.
10  All my enemies shall be put to shame and confusion; ♦︎
   they shall suddenly turn back in their shame.

6 Now Joseph was governor over the land; it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. ⁷When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them. ‘Where do you come from?’ he said. They said, ‘From the land of Canaan, to buy food.’ ⁸Although Joseph had recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. ⁹Joseph also remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them. He said to them, ‘You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land!’ ¹⁰They said to him, ‘No, my lord; your servants have come to buy food. ¹¹We are all sons of one man; we are honest men; your servants have never been spies.’ ¹²But he said to them, ‘No, you have come to see the nakedness of the land!’ ¹³They said, ‘We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of a certain man in the land of Canaan; the youngest, however, is now with our father, and one is no more.’ ¹⁴But Joseph said to them, ‘It is just as I have said to you; you are spies! ¹⁵Here is how you shall be tested: as Pharaoh lives, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here! ¹⁶Let one of you go and bring your brother, while the rest of you remain in prison, in order that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you; or else, as Pharaoh lives, surely you are spies.’ ¹⁷And he put them all together in prison for three days.

The Allegory of Hagar and Sarah

21 Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. ²³One, the child of the slave, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise. ²⁴Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. ²⁵Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia^* and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷For it is written,
‘Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children,
   burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs;
for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous
   than the children of the one who is married.’
²⁸Now you,^* my friends,^* are children of the promise, like Isaac. ²⁹But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. ³⁰But what does the scripture say? ‘Drive out the slave and her child; for the child of the slave will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman.’ ³¹So then, friends,^* we are children, not of the slave but of the free woman. 5¹For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.