Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁰ I said, In the noontide and tranquillity of my days I must depart; I am to pass through the gates of Sheol (the place of the dead), deprived of the remainder of my years.

¹¹ I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

¹² My [fleshly] dwelling is plucked up and is removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life as a weaver [rolls up the finished web]; [the Lord] cuts me free from the loom; from day to night You bring me to an end.

¹³ I thought and quieted myself until morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day to night You bring me to an end.

¹⁴ Like a twittering swallow or a crane, so do I chirp and chatter; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary and dim with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; take my side and be my security [as of a debtor being sent to prison].

¹⁵ But what can I say? For He has both spoken to me and He Himself has done it. I must go softly [as in solemn procession] all my years and my sleep has fled because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶ O Lord, by these things men live; and in all these is the life of my spirit. O give me back my health and make me live!

¹⁷ Behold, it was for my peace that I had intense bitterness; but You have loved back my life from the pit of corruption and nothingness, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

¹⁸ For Sheol (the place of the dead) cannot confess and reach out the hand to You, death cannot praise and rejoice in You; they who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness [to Your promises; their probation is at an end, their destiny is sealed].

¹⁹ The living, the living—they shall thank and praise You, as I do this day; the father shall make known to the children Your faithfulness and Your truth.

²⁰ The Lord is ready to save (deliver) me; therefore we will sing my songs with [my] stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the Lord.

8 And the Lord said to Joshua, Fear not nor be dismayed. Take all the men of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

² And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that its spoil and its cattle [this time] you shall take as booty for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city behind it.

³ So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai; [he] chose thirty thousand mighty men of strength and sent them forth by night.

⁴ And he commanded them, Behold, you shall lie in wait against the city behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.

⁵ And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us, as the first time, we will flee before them

⁶ Till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, They are fleeing from us as before. So we will flee before them.

⁷ Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.

⁸ When you have taken the city, you shall set it afire; as the Lord commanded, you shall do. See, I have commanded you.

⁹ So Joshua sent them forth, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua lodged that night among the people.

¹⁰ Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered the men, and went up with the elders of Israel before the warriors to Ai.

¹¹ And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of [it], with a ravine between them and Ai.

¹² And he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city.

¹³ So they stationed all the army—the main encampment that was north of the city and their men in ambush behind and on the west of the city—and Joshua went that night into the midst of the ravine.

¹⁴ When the king [and people] of Ai saw it, they hastily rose early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle [at a time and place appointed] before the Arabah [plain]. But he did not know of the ambush against him behind the city.

¹⁵ And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten by them, and fled toward the wilderness.

¹⁶ So all the people in Ai were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.

¹⁷ Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. Leaving the city open, they pursued Israel.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. So Joshua stretched out the javelin in his hand toward the city.

¹⁹ The men in the ambush arose quickly out of their place and ran when he stretched out his hand; and they entered the city and took it, and then hastened and set it afire.

²⁰ When the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to the heavens, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. Then the Israelites who fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

²¹ When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city went up, they turned again and slew the men of Ai.

²² And the others came forth out of the city against them [of Ai], so that they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And [the Israelites] smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

²³ But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

³ Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.

⁴ You have not yet struggled and fought agonizingly against sin, nor have you yet resisted and withstood to the point of pouring out your [own] blood.

⁵ And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him;

⁶ For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.

⁷ You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline?

⁸ Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all].^(A)

⁹ Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live?

¹⁰ For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness.

¹¹ For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].

¹² So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees,^(B)

¹³ And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.