Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
10 I said: “In the prime of my life,
I am to enter the gates of Sheol.
I am deprived of the rest of my years.”
11 I said: “I will not see Adonai,
Adonai, in the land of the living.
I will look on humanity no longer
among the inhabitants of the world.
12 Like a shepherd’s tent,
my dwelling is pulled up and carried away from me.
Like a weaver I rolled up my life.
He cuts me off from the loom.
From day until night You make my end.
13 I stilled my soul till morning.
Like a lion, He will break all my bones.
From day till night You make my end.
14 Like a swallow or a crane, I whisper,
I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary, looking upward.
Adonai, I am oppressed, be my security!
15 What should I say?
For He has spoken to me—
He Himself has done it!
I will wander about all my years
because of the bitterness of my soul.
16 Adonai, by such things men live,
and my spirit has life in them too.
Restore me to health,
and let me live!
17 Behold, it was for my own shalom
that I had great bitterness.
You have loved my soul
out of the Pit of destruction!
For You have flung all my sins
behind Your back.
18 For Sheol cannot thank You,
death cannot praise You.
Those who go down to the Pit
cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living—they praise You—
as I do today.
A father makes Your faithfulness
known to his children.
20 Adonai will save me.
So we will play my songs on stringed instruments
all the days of our life in the House of Adonai.”
8 Then Adonai said to Joshua: “Do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land into your hand. 2 Then you will do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king—except you will take its spoil and its cattle as booty for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”
3 So Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up to Ai. Joshua selected 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them at night. 4 He commanded them saying: “Look, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Don’t go too far from the city, but all of you be ready. 5 Then I and all the troops with me will approach the city. Then it will be when they come out against us, like the first time, that we will flee before them. 6 So they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will think, ‘They are fleeing before us like the first time.’ While we are fleeing before them, 7 you will rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, for Adonai your God will give it into your hand. 8 Now when you have seized the city, you will set the city on fire—according to the word of Adonai you must do. See that you do as I have ordered you.”
9 So Joshua sent them off, and they went to the ambush site, taking position between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people. 10 Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered the people. He and the elders of Israel marched before the people to Ai. 11 All the people of war with him went up, advanced, and came in front of the city. They camped to the north of Ai, with a valley between him and Ai. 12 But he had taken about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So they stationed the people, the main army that was to the north of the city, and its rear guard to the west of the city. Then Joshua walked that night in the midst of the valley.
14 So it came to pass when the king of Ai saw this, the men of the city hurried and rose up early, and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place facing the Arabah. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 15 So Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. 16 Then all the people who were in Ai were summoned to pursue them, so they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. 17 Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, so they left the city open as they chased after Israel.
18 Then Adonai said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. 19 As soon as he stretched out his hand, the ambush arose quickly from their place, ran and entered the city and captured it; and immediately set the city on fire. 20 Now the men of Ai looked back and saw, behold, the smoke of the city rising up to the sky! They had no place to flee this way or that, since the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. 21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city rose up, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. 22 The others also came out of the city against them, so they were surrounded by Israel, some on this side and some on that side. They struck them down until not one survivor or fugitive was left. 23 But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
[a] 3 Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and lose heart.
4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed. 5 Have you forgotten the warning addressed to you as sons?
“My son, do not take lightly the discipline of Adonai
or lose heart when you are corrected by Him,
6 because Adonai disciplines the one He loves
and punishes every son He accepts.”[b]
7 It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline—something all have come to share—then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Besides, we are used to having human fathers as instructors—and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 Indeed, for a short time they disciplined us as seemed best to them; but He does so for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness. 11 Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble! [c] 13 And make straight paths for your feet,[d] so that what is lame will not be pulled out of joint but rather be healed.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.