Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

116 I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my prayers.

² For He has inclined His ear to me, when I called in my days.

³ The snares of death surrounded me and the griefs of the grave caught me. I found trouble and sorrow.

⁴ Then I called upon the Name of the LORD, “I implore You, O LORD, deliver my soul!”

⁵ The LORD is merciful and righteous; and our God is full of compassion.

⁶ The LORD preserves the simple. I was in misery and He saved me.

⁷ Return to your rest, O my soul; for the LORD has been beneficial to you.

⁸ For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

⁹ I shall walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

²² But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied on the country, “Go into the harlot’s house and bring the woman out, and all that she has, as you swore to her.”

²³ So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all that she had. They also brought out all her family and put them outside the camp of Israel.

²⁴ Afterward, they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein. But the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the House of the LORD.

²⁵ So Joshua saved Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all that she had; and she dwelt in Israel (even to this day) because she had hidden the messengers which Joshua sent to spy on Jericho.

²⁶ And Joshua swore at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before the LORD who rises up and builds the city Jericho. He shall pay for its foundation with his eldest son. And his youngest son shall be the price for setting up its gates.”

²⁷ So the LORD was with Joshua; and he was famous through all the world.

²³ And when He had come into the Temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority do You do these things? And who gave You this authority?”

²⁴ Then Jesus answered, and said to them, “I will also ask of you a certain thing which, if you tell me, I will likewise tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁵ “The baptism of John. From where did it come - from Heaven or from man?” Then they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we shall say, ‘From Heaven’, He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

²⁶ “And if we say, ‘From man’, we fear the multitude.” For all held John as a Prophet.

²⁷ Then they answered Jesus, and said, “We cannot tell.” And He said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁸ “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and came to the elder, and said, ‘Son, go and work today in my vineyard.’

²⁹ “But he answered, and said, ‘I will not.’ But later he changed his mind and went.

³⁰ “Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered, and said, ‘I will, sir.’ But he did not go.

³¹ “Which of the two did the will of the father?” They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes go before you into the Kingdom of God.

³² “For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And you, though you saw it, were not moved with repentance afterward, so that you might believe him.