Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Thanksgiving for Escaping Death
A song of David. A song for giving the Temple to the Lord.
30 I will praise you, Lord,
because you rescued me.
You did not let my enemies laugh at me.
2 Lord, my God, I prayed to you.
And you healed me.
3 You lifted me out of the grave.
You spared me from going down where the dead are.
4 Sing praises to the Lord, you who belong to him.
Praise his holy name.
5 His anger lasts only a moment.
But his kindness lasts for a lifetime.
Crying may last for a night.
But joy comes in the morning.
6 When I felt safe, I said,
“I will never fail.”
7 Lord, in your kindness you made my mountain safe.
But when you turned away, I was frightened.
8 I called to you, Lord.
I asked you to have mercy on me.
9 I said, “What good will it do if I die
or if I go down to the grave?
Dust cannot praise you.
It cannot speak about your truth.
10 Lord, hear me and be merciful to me.
Lord, help me.”
11 You changed my sorrow into dancing.
You took away my rough cloth, which shows sadness, and clothed me in happiness.
12 I will sing to you and not be silent.
Lord, my God, I will praise you forever.
Joab Sends a Wise Woman to David
14 Joab son of Zeruiah knew that King David missed Absalom very much. 2 So Joab sent messengers to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. Joab said to her, “Please pretend to be very sad for someone. Put on clothes to show your sadness. Don’t put lotion on yourself. Act like a woman who has been crying many days for someone who died. 3 Go to the king. Talk to him using the words that I tell you.” Then Joab told the wise woman what to say.
4 So the woman from Tekoa talked to the king. She bowed facedown on the ground to show respect. She said, “My king, help me!”
5 King David asked her, “What is the matter?”
The woman said, “I am a widow. My husband is dead. 6 I had two sons. They were out in the field fighting. No one was there to stop them. So one son killed the other son. 7 Now all the family group is against me. They said to me, ‘Bring the son who killed his brother. Then we will kill him for killing his brother. That way we will also get rid of the one who would receive what belonged to his father.’ My son is like the last spark of a fire. He is all I have left. If they kill him, my husband’s name and property will be gone from the earth.”
8 Then the king said to the woman, “Go home. I will take care of this for you.”
9 The woman of Tekoa said to him, “Let the blame be on me. My father’s family and I are to blame, my master and king. But you and your throne are innocent.”
10 King David said, “Bring me anyone who says anything bad to you. Then he won’t bother you again.”
11 The woman said, “Please promise in the name of the Lord your God. Then my relative who has the duty of punishing a murderer won’t add to the destruction. And he won’t kill my son.”
David said, “As surely as the Lord lives, no one will hurt your son. Not even one hair from your son’s head will fall to the ground.”
6 “But something happened to me on my way to Damascus. It was about noon when I came near Damascus. Suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed all around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you doing things against me?’ 8 I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The voice said, ‘I am Jesus from Nazareth. I am the One you are trying to hurt.’ 9 The men who were with me did not understand the voice. But they saw the light. 10 I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘Get up and go to Damascus. There you will be told about all the things I have planned for you to do.’ 11 I could not see, because the bright light had made me blind. So the men led me into Damascus.
12 “There a man named Ananias came to me. He was a religious man; he obeyed the law of Moses. All the Jews who lived there respected him. 13 Ananias came to me, stood by me, and said, ‘Brother Saul, see again!’ Immediately I was able to see him. 14 Ananias told me, ‘The God of our fathers chose you long ago. He chose you to know his plan. He chose you to see the Righteous One and to hear words from him. 15 You will be his witness to all people. You will tell them about the things you have seen and heard. 16 Now, why wait any longer? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away. Do this, trusting in him to save you.’
17 “Later, I returned to Jerusalem. I was praying in the Temple, and I saw a vision. 18 I saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem now! The people here will not accept the truth about me.’ 19 But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in every synagogue I put the believers in jail and beat them. 20 They also know that I was there when Stephen, your witness, was killed. I stood there and agreed that they should kill him. I even held the coats of the men who were killing him!’ 21 But the Lord said to me, ‘Leave now. I will send you far away to the non-Jewish people.’”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.