Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Answered Prayer for Deliverance from Adversaries

For the music director, with stringed instruments.

A maskil of David,

when the Ziphites went and said to Saul,

“Is not David hiding himself among us?”^[a]

²⁴ Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah came near and slapped Micaiah on the cheek and said, “When did the Spirit of Yahweh pass from me to speak with you?” ²⁵ Then Micaiah said, “Behold, you are about to see on that day when you go from room to room^[a] to hide.” ²⁶ The king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the commander of the city and to Jehoash the son of the king; ²⁷ and say, ‘Thus says the king: “Put this fellow in the house of imprisonment and feed him reduced rations of food and water until I come in peace.”’” ²⁸ Then Micaiah said, “If you indeed return in peace, then Yahweh has not spoken with me.” Then he said, “Let all the peoples hear!”

²⁹ Then the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-Gilead. ³⁰ Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you wear your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself, and he went into the battle. ³¹ The king of Aram commanded his thirty-two chariot commanders, saying, “You shall not fight with small or great, but only against the king of Israel, him alone!” ³² When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “Surely he is the king of Israel,” and they turned to fight against him, so Jehoshaphat called out. ³³ When the chariot commanders saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned away from him. ³⁴ But another man drew his bow fully and struck the king of Israel between the armor scales and the breastplate; so he said to his chariot driver, “Turn the chariot^[b] and bring me out from the camp, for I am wounded.”

³⁵ The battle intensified on that day, and the king was being propped up in the chariot opposite Aram, but he died in the evening, and the blood of the wound ran out to the floor of the chariot. ³⁶ Then the shout passed through the camp about sunset, saying, “Each man to his city and each to his land!” ³⁷ So the king died, and they brought him^[c] to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. ³⁸ They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood (now, the prostitutes washed themselves there) according to the word of Yahweh which he had spoken. ³⁹ The remainder of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, and the ivory palace and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel? ⁴⁰ So Ahab slept with his ancestors,^[d] and Ahaziah his son became king in his place.

All Israel to be Saved

²⁵ For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you will not be wise in your own sight,^[a] that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written,

²⁸ With respect to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but with respect to election, they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers. ²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. ³⁰ For just as you formerly were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of the disobedience of these, ³¹ so also these have now been disobedient for your mercy, in order that they also may now be shown mercy. ³² For God confined them all in disobedience, in order that he could have mercy on them all.