Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is a song that David wrote to praise God.

An alphabet of praise^[a]

³ Strong soldiers are coming to attack Nineveh! They have red shields and bright red clothes. The soldiers wave their spears in the air. The metal on their chariots shines brightly. ⁴ When the soldiers are ready for war they move quickly through the streets. Their chariots move very fast, like lightning in the sky. ⁵ The army leader chooses his best soldiers to go forward. They almost fall as they run! They hurry to the city wall and they prepare to attack. ⁶ They open the river gates and the water rushes into the city. It destroys the palace. ⁷ Nineveh's people must be led away to another country. They are ashamed. Her female slaves cry like doves and they hit themselves.

⁸ Nineveh is like a pool of water. But now its people run away, like water that is pouring away. ‘Stop, stop!’ they shout, but nobody comes back.

⁹ Take the silver. Take the gold. The city has so many valuable things.^[a]

¹⁰ They take the valuable things from the city. They take everything that they can. And they destroy everything else. The people are very sad. Their knees and their bodies shake. Their faces become white because they are afraid. ¹¹ The home of the lions has gone. The place where they fed their young lions has gone. This was the place where whole families of lions once lived. It is here where their young lions were not afraid. ¹² The lion killed to give enough food to his young lions and he strangled animals to feed his female lion. He filled his home with the animals that he had killed.

¹³ The Lord Almighty says, ‘I am against you. I will burn your chariots and the sword will kill your young lions. I will take away all the animals that you attack. Nobody will hear the voices of your messengers.’^[b]

⁵ Think carefully about how you are living. Are you really believing the message about Christ? I hope you know that Jesus Christ is in you. You ought to know that, unless you have completely failed. ⁶ I hope that you will know that we ourselves have not failed. We do belong to Christ, as you do.

⁷ Now we pray to God that you will not do any wrong things. We do not pray this to show that God has accepted us as good. We pray like that because we want you to do what is right. We want that, even if we ourselves seem to have failed. ⁸ We can only work to show what is true. We cannot do anything against what is true. ⁹ We are happy when we seem to be weak, if you become strong as a result. We pray that you will become completely as you should be.

¹⁰ That is why I am writing these things to you now, while I am away from you. Then, when I arrive, I will not need to be angry with you. I will not have to use my authority to punish you. The Lord gave that authority to me to help you to become stronger as believers. He did not give it to me so that I could destroy you.