Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 116
1 I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice
and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me,
therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
3 The cords of death encircled me,
and the pains of Sheol took hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I plead with You, deliver my soul.”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
indeed, our God is merciful.
6 The Lord protects the simple;
I was brought low, and He helped me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul;
for the Lord has vindicated you.
8 For You have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
and my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
Rahab and the Spies
2 Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men out from Shittim to spy, saying, “Go see the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and they came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab. They spent the night there.
2 The king of Jericho was told, “Israelite men came here tonight to spy out the land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who came to you, who have entered your house, for they came to spy out the whole land.”
4 Now the woman had taken the two men and had hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. 5 The men went out when it was time to shut the gate at dark. I do not know where the men went. Chase after them quickly, for you can overtake them.” 6 Yet she had brought them up to the roof. She hid them in the stalks of flax that she had spread out on the roof. 7 So the men chased after them on the road to the Jordan as far as the fords. They shut the gate as soon as the pursuers went out after them.
8 Before the spies went to sleep, Rahab went up to them on the roof. 9 She said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, for dread from you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land melt in terror before you. 10 For we heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 Our hearts melted when we heard these things, and no man had any breath in him because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.
12 “So now, since I have acted faithfully toward you, please swear to me by the Lord that you will also act faithfully toward my father’s house. Please give me a firm pledge 13 that you will spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all whom they own, and that you will deliver our lives from death.”
14 The men said to her, “Our lives for yours; if you do not report us, then when the Lord gives us the land, we will act faithfully and kindly with you.”
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. 18 Of him God said, “Through Isaac shall your seed be named.”[a] 19 He reasoned that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he indeed received him in a figurative sense.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped while leaning on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, mentioned the exodus of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.