Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
10 I thought that I might die in the middle of my life.
I thought that I would go into the deep hole of death,
before I had lived all the years of my life.
11 I thought, ‘I will not see the Lord again,
while I live in this world.
I will no longer see the people who live in the world.
I will no longer live among them.’
12 My home here has gone,
as easily as they pull down a shepherd's tent.
God has cut off my life,
like a piece of cloth that they have just made.
They cut it off and they roll it up.
As quickly as day becomes night,
God brings my life to an end.
13 I waited until morning would come.
It seemed like God was breaking all my bones,
like a lion does.
As quickly as day becomes night,
God brings my life to an end.
14 I cry like a swallow.
I make a sad noise like a dove.
My eyes are weak as I look up to heaven for help.
Lord God, save me from my trouble!
15 I do not know what I can say.
The Lord has told me what must happen.
He has done what he decided to do.
I will live quietly for the rest of my life,
because I am very sad and upset.
16 Lord God, your promises give life to people.
May they give life to my spirit.
Please make me well again and let me live.
17 Yes, it was good for me to have this trouble.
You rescued me from the deep hole of death.
You removed my sins,
and you put them behind your back.
18 Dead people in their graves cannot praise you.
They cannot sing to thank you.
People who go down into the deep hole of death
cannot trust you to help them.
19 It is those people who are alive that can thank you.
And I am doing it today.
Fathers tell their children that they can trust you.
20 The Lord will now save me from death.
We will sing to thank the Lord in his temple.
We will sing with happy music every day of our lives.
Jericho city falls
6 The people of Jericho had shut the gates of their city to make it safe. No one could go in or out of the city. 2 The Lord said to Joshua, ‘I will soon give Jericho to you. I will put its king and all its brave soldiers under your power. 3 You and all your soldiers must march round the city once each day, for six days. 4 Seven priests will walk in front of the Covenant Box. They will carry trumpets as they walk. On the seventh day, you and your soldiers must march round the city seven times. At the same time, the priests will blow into their trumpets. 5 Then they will make one long loud noise with their trumpets. As soon as you hear this, all the soldiers must give a loud shout. Then the city walls will fall down. The whole army will go straight into the city.’
6 Joshua called the priests to come to him. He told them, ‘Pick up the Lord's Covenant Box. Seven priests must march in front of it. They must hold seven trumpets, one each.’
7 Then Joshua told the people to start marching round the city. A group of soldiers should march in front of the Lord's Covenant Box.
8 Joshua finished speaking to the people. Then the seven priests carrying their trumpets marched in front of the Covenant Box. They made a noise on their trumpets as the Covenant Box followed them. 9 While the priests made a noise on the trumpets, some soldiers marched in front of them. Another group of soldiers followed behind the Covenant Box. The trumpets were making a noise all this time. 10 But Joshua had said to the people, ‘Do not shout or speak aloud. Do not say anything until I tell you. When the right day comes, I will tell you, “Now shout aloud to attack!” When I tell you that, then shout!’
11 Joshua made them march round the city once with the Lord's Covenant Box. Then they returned to their tents, and slept there that night.
12 Joshua got up early the next morning, and the priests picked up the Lord's Covenant Box again. 13 The seven priests who carried the trumpets marched in front of the Covenant Box. They were making a noise with their trumpets. One group of soldiers marched in front of the priests. Another group of soldiers marched behind the Covenant Box. The trumpets made a noise all the time. 14 That is how they marched round the city on the second day. They marched round once and then they returned to their tents. They did the same thing for six days.
15 On the seventh day, they got up at dawn again. They marched round the city as they had done before. But this time they did it seven times. 16 The seventh time, the priests made a long, loud noise on their trumpets. Joshua told the people, ‘Shout aloud to attack! The Lord has given the city to you! 17 The city and everything that is in it belongs to the Lord, so destroy it all. Only the prostitute Rahab and all the people who are with her in her house will live. This is because she hid the two men that we sent. 18 Be careful! Do not take for yourselves the valuable things that belong to the Lord. If you do that, you will cause bad trouble to come to the whole Israelite army. The Lord will destroy us all. 19 Everything that is made from silver, gold, bronze and iron belong to the Lord as his holy things. You must store them with his other valuable things.’
20 When the trumpets made a noise, all the people gave a loud shout to attack the city. When they did this, the walls of the city fell down. All the soldiers went up into the city. They went straight in and they took the city for themselves. 21 They destroyed everything that lived in the city, as a gift to the Lord. With their weapons, they killed men and women, young people and old people, as well as cows, sheep and donkeys.
29 Because of their faith, Israel's people walked across the Red Sea. They walked through there as if they were walking on dry land. But when the soldiers from Egypt tried to cross the same place, they drowned.[a]
30 Because of their faith, Israel's people marched round Jericho city for seven days. Then the city's walls fell down.[b]
31 Rahab, who had been a prostitute in Jericho, also trusted God. She helped the men from Israel who had come to that city earlier. They wanted to discover how to attack the city. Rahab was kind to them. As a result of her faith, she did not die with all the other people in Jericho who did not obey God.[c]
32 I could say even more about other people who trusted God. But there is not enough time to talk about all of them. I could tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and all the prophets.[d] 33 As a result of their faith, they did great things. Some of them won wars against other countries. Others ruled in a way that is right and fair. They received the good things that God had promised. Some of them caused lions to shut their mouths.[e] 34 Some of them put out fires that were burning very strongly. Some of them got away from people who wanted to kill them with a sword. Other people who were weak became strong. They became powerful to fight wars. They won against foreign armies so that those armies ran away.[f]
35 Some women who trusted God received their friends and family back from death. God raised those people who had died to become alive again. Other people refused to turn against God so that their enemies would not hurt them. As a result, their enemies killed them. These people agreed to die because they were sure that they would live again with God. They knew that would be better for them.
36 Other people who trusted God received insults. Some of them were hit with whips. Enemies of God tied these people up and they put them in prison. 37 Some of them died when people killed them with stones. Some of them died when people cut them into two pieces. Some of them died when people killed them with swords. Some of these people wore the skins of sheep and goats while they travelled about. They were very poor and they had a lot of trouble. People did bad things to them. 38 These people who trusted God were too good for this world. Some of them had to travel about in the wilderness and on the hills. Some had to live in holes in the rocks and in the ground.
39 God said good things about all these people because they trusted him. But they still did not receive everything that God had promised to give to them.[g] 40 God had already decided to prepare something better for all of us. As a result, those people did not receive everything until we could join with them.[h]
Be strong as servants of God
12 So we have learned about many people who trusted God long ago. They are like a very big crowd all round us and we should copy their example. We must be like people who run in a race.[i] We must throw away everything that stops us from running well. The sins that we do make us fall down very easily. We must not let those sins rule us. God has prepared the way that is in front of us. We must continue to be strong while we run along that way. We must choose to run that race well. 2 As we run, we must always look towards Jesus. He is the one who trusted God completely. Our faith starts with him, and he will help us to trust God all the way to the end. Jesus accepted punishment on the cross. He chose to receive much pain. He did not think about being ashamed to die like that. He knew that God had prepared something very good for him that would make him happy. Now he has sat down at the right side of God to rule with him in heaven.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.