Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
10 “I said at the cessation of my days, ‘I shall go to the gates of the grave. I am deprived of the residue of my years.’
11 “I said, ‘I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living. I shall not see man anymore among the inhabitants of the world.
12 ‘My habitation has departed, and is removed from me, like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life, like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day to night You will make an end of me.
13 ‘I reckoned until the morning, but He broke all my bones like a lion. From day to night will You make an end of me.
14 ‘Like a crane, a swallow, so I chattered. I mourned as a dove. My eyes were lifted up on high. O LORD, it has oppressed me. Comfort me.
15 ‘What shall I say? For He has said it to me, and He has done it. I shall walk weakly in the bitterness of my soul all my years.
16 ‘O LORD, by these things You sustain life. And in these things is the life of my spirit, by which You cause me to dream and give me life.
17 ‘Behold, for peace I had bitter grief. But it was Your pleasure to deliver my soul from the pit of corruption. For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
18 ‘For the grave cannot confess You. Death cannot praise You. Those who go down into the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
19 ‘But the living, the living, he shall confess You, as I do this day. The father shall declare Your truth to the children.
20 ‘The LORD saves me. Therefore, we will sing my song all the days of our life in the House of the LORD.’”
8 After, the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the men of war with you and arise. Go up to Ai. Behold, I have given the king of Ai into your hand, and his people, and his city, and his land.
2 “And you shall do to Ai and to its king as you did to Jericho and to its king. Only, you shall take its spoils and its cattle to you as plunder. You shall lie in wait against the city, on its back side.”
3 Then Joshua and all the men of war arose to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand strong and valiant men and sent them away by night.
4 And he commanded them, saying, “Behold, you shall lie in wait against the city, on the back side of the city. Do not go very far from the city, but everyone be ready.
5 “And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they shall come out against us, as they did the first time, then will we flee before them.
6 “For they will come out after us, till we have brought them out of the city. For they will say, ‘They flee before us, as the first time.’ So we will flee before them.
7 “Then you shall rise up from lying in wait and destroy the city. For the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 “And when you have taken the city, you shall set it on fire. According to the Commandment of the LORD you shall do so. Behold, I have charged you.”
9 Joshua then sent them forth. And they went to lie in wait, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the West side of Ai. But Joshua lodged that night among the people.
10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning and numbered the people. And he and the elders of Israel went up before the people against Ai.
11 Also all the men of war who were with him went up and drew near and came against the city, and pitched on the North side of Ai. And there was a valley between them and Ai.
12 And he took about five thousand men and set them to lie in wait between Bethel and Ai, on the West side of the city.
13 And the people set all the army that was on the north side against the city, and those who lay in wait on the west, opposite the city. Joshua went the same night into the midst of the valley.
14 And when the king of Ai saw it, then the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, in front of the plain. For he did not know that anyone lay in wait against him on the back side of the city.
15 Then Joshua and all Israel, as if beaten before them, fled by the way of the wilderness.
16 And all the people of the city were called together to pursue after them. And they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away out of the city,
17 so that there was not a man left in Ai or in Bethel who did not go out after Israel. And they left the city open and pursued after Israel.
18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai. For I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.
19 And those who lay in wait arose quickly out of their place and ran, as soon as he had stretched out his hand. And they entered into the city and took it and hurried and set the city on fire.
20 And the men of Ai looked behind them and saw it. For lo, the smoke of the city ascended up to Heaven. And they had no power to flee this way or that way. For the people who fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.
21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that those who lay in wait had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city mounted up, then they turned back and killed the men of Ai.
22 Also, the others came out of the city against them. So, they were in the midst of Israel, some on one side and the rest on the other side. And they killed them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23 And they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
3 Therefore, consider Him Who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 In striving against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed.
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him.
6 “For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And He scourges every son that He receives.”
7 If you endure chastening, God offered Himself to you as to sons. For what son is it whom the Father does not chasten?
8 Therefore, if you are without correction - of which all are partakers - then you are bastards, and not sons.
9 Moreover, we have had the fathers of our bodies who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Should we not be in all the more subjection to the Father of Spirits, in order that we might live?
10 For indeed they chastened us for a few days, as it pleased them. But He chastened us for our profit, so that we might be partakers of His holiness.
11 Now, no chastising seems joyous at the time, but grievous. Yet afterward, it brings the quiet fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.
12 Therefore, lift up your hands which hang down, and your weak knees,
13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is halting is not turned out of the way. But rather, let it be healed.
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