Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 O Lord, hear my voice when I cry out;
be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart[a] says of you,
“Seek his face.”
It is your face, O Lord, that I seek;
9 do not hide your face[b] from me.
Do not turn away your servant in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not reject or forsake me,
O God, my Savior.
10 Even if my father and mother abandon me,
the Lord will gather me up.[c]
11 Teach me your way,[d] O Lord,
and lead me along a level path
because of my enemies.
12 Do not abandon me to the will of my adversaries,
for lying witnesses have risen against me,
breathing forth violence in their malice.
13 I am confident that I will behold the goodness of the Lord[e]
in the land of the living.
14 Place your hope in the Lord:
be strong and courageous in your heart,
and place your hope in the Lord.
13 Gideon arrived just as a man was telling his friend about a dream. He said, “I dreamed that a barley cake[a] came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard that it overturned and collapsed.” 14 His friend said, “This can only be the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the Israelite. God has delivered Midian and its entire army into his hands.”
15 When Gideon heard the content of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. He returned to the army of Israel and said, “Rise up, for the Lord has delivered the army of Midian into your hands.”
16 He divided the three hundred men into three groups, and he placed trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them into each man’s hands. 17 He said to them, “Watch me. Do whatever I do. When we reach the edge of the camp, do whatever I do. 18 When I and all those who are with me blow our trumpets, then blow your trumpets all around the camp and shout out, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’ ”
19 Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The three groups blew their trumpets and broke their jars, holding the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands. They blew their trumpets and cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.”
21 While each man stood in his place around the camp, the army ran away crying. 22 When the three hundred men blew their trumpets, the Lord caused each man to attack his fellow soldiers with his sword. The army fled to Beth-shittah, toward Zeredah, coming to the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.[b]
12 Innocence of the Children of God.[a] Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always been obedient when I am present, you must be so all the more now when I am absent, as you work out your salvation in fear and trembling.[b] 13 For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to desire and to act for his chosen purpose.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may show yourselves blameless and beyond reproach, children of God without spot in the midst of an evil and depraved generation, among which you shine like lights in the world 16 as you hold fast tenaciously to the word of life. Then I will have cause to boast of you on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor to no purpose.
17 But even if my blood is to be poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I rejoice, and I share my joy with all of you. 18 In the same way, you too must rejoice and share your joy with me.
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