Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
B
I
7 Hear my voice, Lord, when I call;
have mercy on me and answer me.
8 “Come,” says my heart, “seek his face”;[a]
your face, Lord, do I seek!(A)
9 Do not hide your face from me;
do not repel your servant in anger.
You are my salvation; do not cast me off;
do not forsake me, God my savior!
10 Even if my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me in.(B)
II
11 Lord, show me your way;
lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.(C)
12 Do not abandon me to the desire of my foes;
malicious and lying witnesses have risen against me.
13 I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness
in the land of the living.[b](D)
14 Wait for the Lord, take courage;
be stouthearted, wait for the Lord!
12 (A)The Midianites, Amalekites, and all the Kedemites were lying in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could not be counted, for they were as many as the sands on the seashore. 13 [a]When Gideon arrived, one man was telling another about a dream. “I had a dream,” he said, “that a round loaf of barley bread was rolling into the camp of Midian. It came to a certain tent and struck it and turned it upside down, and the tent collapsed.” 14 “This can only be the sword of the Israelite Gideon, son of Joash,” the other replied. “God has delivered Midian and all the camp into his power.” 15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its explanation, he bowed down. Then returning to the camp of Israel, he said, “Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your power.”
16 He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and provided them all with horns and with empty jars and torches inside the jars. 17 “Watch me and follow my lead,” he told them. “I shall go to the edge of the camp, and as I do, you must do also. 18 When I and those with me blow horns, you too must blow horns all around the camp and cry out, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’” 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch,[b] just after the posting of the guards. They blew the horns and broke the jars they were holding. 20 When the three companies had blown their horns and broken their jars, they took the torches in their left hands, and in their right the horns they had been blowing, and cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 They all remained standing in place around the camp, while the whole camp began to run and shout and flee. 22 When they blew the three hundred horns, the Lord set the sword of one against another throughout the camp, and they fled as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zeredah, near the border of Abel-meholah at Tabbath.
12 (A)So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.[a] 13 For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.(B) 14 Do everything without grumbling or questioning,(C) 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,[b] among whom you shine like lights in the world,(D) 16 as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.(E) 17 But, even if I am poured out as a libation[c] upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.(F) 18 In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.(G)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.