How Long, O Lord?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

The Fool Says, There Is No God

To the choirmaster. Of David.

The Wilderness Years

2 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, ^(A)as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. ² Then the Lord said to me, ³ ‘You have been traveling around this mountain country ^(B)long enough. Turn northward ⁴ and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of ^(C)your brothers, the people of Esau, ^(D)who live in Seir; and ^(E)they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. ⁵ Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because ^(F)I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ^6 (G)You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. ^(H)He knows your going through this great wilderness. ^(I)These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ ⁸ So ^(J)we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from ^(K)the Arabah road from ^(L)Elath and ^(M)Ezion-geber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹ And the Lord said to me, ^(N)‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given ^(O)Ar to ^(P)the people of Lot for a possession.’ ¹⁰ (^(Q)The Emim formerly lived there, ^(R)a people great and many, and tall ^(S)as the Anakim. ¹¹ Like the Anakim they are also counted as ^(T)Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ^12 (U)The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^(V)as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³ ‘Now rise up and go over ^(W)the brook Zered.’ So we went over ^(X)the brook Zered. ¹⁴ And the time from our leaving ^(Y)Kadesh-barnea until we crossed ^(Z)the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, ^(AA)until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.

¹⁶ “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹ And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, ^(AB)do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^(AC)the sons of Lot for a possession.’ ²⁰ (It is also counted as a land of ^(AD)Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— ^21 (AE)a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites,^[a] and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²² as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed ^(AF)the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³ As for ^(AG)the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as ^(AH)Gaza, ^(AI)the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) ²⁴ ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and ^(AJ)go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of ^(AK)Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and ^(AL)contend with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put ^(AM)the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

The Defeat of King Sihon

²⁶ “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of ^(AN)Kedemoth to Sihon the king of ^(AO)Heshbon, ^(AP)with words of peace, saying, ^27 (AQ)‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. ^28 (AR)You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, ^29 (AS)as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ ³⁰ But ^(AT)Sihon the king of ^(AU)Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God ^(AV)hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. ³¹ And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ ³² Then ^(AW)Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. ³³ And ^(AX)the Lord our God gave him over to us, and ^(AY)we defeated him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴ And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction^[b] every ^(AZ)city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. ³⁵ Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured. ^36 (BA)From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from ^(BB)the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. ^(BC)The Lord our God gave all into our hands. ³⁷ Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river ^(BD)Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and ^(A)baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³ he left Judea and departed ^(B)again for Galilee. ^4 (C)And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field ^(D)that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, ^(E)wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.^[a]

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ^(F)“Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (^(G)For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you ^(H)living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ^12 (I)Are you greater than our father Jacob? ^(J)He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but ^(K)whoever drinks of the water that I will give him ^(L)will never be thirsty again.^[b] The water that I will give him will become ^(M)in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, ^(N)give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, ^(O)call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that ^(P)you are ^(Q)a prophet. ^20 (R)Our fathers worshiped on ^(S)this mountain, but you say that ^(T)in Jerusalem is ^(U)the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, ^(V)“Woman, believe me, ^(W)the hour is coming when ^(X)neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ^22 (Y)You worship what you do not know; ^(Z)we worship what we know, for ^(AA)salvation is ^(AB)from the Jews. ²³ But ^(AC)the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^(AD)in spirit and ^(AE)truth, for the Father ^(AF)is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that ^(AG)Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ^(AH)he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, ^(AI)“I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷ Just then ^(AJ)his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man ^(AK)who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ^(AL)“Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, ^(AM)“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, ^(AN)“My food is ^(AO)to do the will of him who sent me and ^(AP)to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^(AQ)the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^(AR)sower and ^(AS)reaper ^(AT)may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ^(AU)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap ^(AV)that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^(AW)and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans ^(AX)from that town believed in him ^(AY)because of ^(AZ)the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed ^(BA)because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, ^(BB)and we know that this is indeed ^(BC)the Savior ^(BD)of the world.”