emulation

²⁰the serving of idols, drug use, hostility, contentiousness, jealousy, wrath, quarrels, dissensions, divisions,

¹⁴in such a way that I might provoke to rivalry those who are my own flesh, and so that I may save some of them.

²⁴And let us be considerate of one another, so as to prompt ourselves to charity and to good works,

¹Then Rachel, discerning that she was infertile, envied her sister, and so she said to her husband, “Give me children, otherwise I will die.” ²Jacob, being angry, responded to her, “Am I in the place of God, who has deprived you of the fruit of your womb?” ³But she said: “I have a handmaid Bilhah. Go in to her, so that she may give birth upon my knees, and I may have sons by her.” ⁴And she gave him Bilhah in marriage. ⁵And when her husband had gone in to her, she conceived and bore a son. ⁶And Rachel said, “The Lord has judged for me, and he has heeded my voice, giving me a son.” And because of this, she called his name Dan.

¹My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart guard my precepts. ²For they shall set before you length of days, and years of life, and peace. ³Let not mercy and truth abandon you: encircle them around your throat, and inscribe them on the tablets of your heart. ⁴And so shall you discover grace and good discipline, in the sight of God and men. ⁵Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend upon your own prudence. ⁶In all your ways, consider him, and he himself will direct your steps.

¹¹Therefore, I say: Have they stumbled in such a way that they should fall? Let it not be so! Instead, by their offense, salvation is with the Gentiles, so that they may be a rival to them.

¹⁹But I say: Has Israel not known? First, Moses says: “I will lead you into a rivalry with those who are not a nation; in the midst of a foolish nation, I will send you into wrath.”

²¹They have provoked me with that which was not God, and they have angered me with their emptiness. And so, I will provoke them with that which is not a people, and I will anger them with a foolish nation.

⁴⁵Then the Jews, seeing the crowds, were filled with envy, and they, blaspheming, contradicted the things that were being said by Paul.

³And since there is still envy and contention among you, are you not carnal, and are you not walking according to man?

⁶And we each have different gifts, according to the grace that has been given to us: whether prophecy, in agreement with the reasonableness of faith;

¹⁶For wherever envy and contention is, there too is inconstancy and every depraved work.

¹³Let us walk honestly, as in the daylight, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and sexual immorality, not in contention and envy.

¹⁴But if you hold a bitter zeal, and if there is contention in your hearts, then do not boast and do not be liars against the truth.

⁶But Esau, seeing that his father had blessed Jacob and had sent him into Mesopotamia of Syria, to take a wife from there, and that, after the blessing, he had instructed him, saying: ‘You shall not accept a wife from the daughters of Canaan,’ ⁷and that Jacob, obeying his parents, had gone into Syria, ⁸having evidence also that his father did not look with favor upon the daughters of Canaan, ⁹he went to Ishmael, and he took as a wife, beside those he had before, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

²⁵For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery (lest you seem wise only to yourselves) that a certain blindness has occurred in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has arrived.