Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Morning Prayer for Protection
For the director of music. For flutes. A song of David.
5 Lord, listen to my words.
Understand what I am thinking.
2 Listen to my cry for help.
My king and my God, I pray to you.
3 Lord, every morning you hear my voice.
Every morning, I tell you what I need.
And I wait for your answer.
4 You are not a God who is pleased with what is wicked.
You do not live with those who do evil.
5 Those people who make fun of you cannot stand before you.
You hate all those who do wrong.
6 You destroy liars.
The Lord hates those who kill and trick others.
7 Because of your great love,
I can come into your Temple.
Because I fear and respect you,
I can worship in your holy Temple.
8 Lord, since I have many enemies,
show me the right thing to do.
Show me clearly how you want me to live.
Ben-Hadad and Ahab Go to War
20 Now Ben-Hadad was king of Aram. He gathered together all his army. There were 32 kings with their horses and chariots. They went with him and surrounded Samaria and attacked it. 2 The king sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel. 3 This was his message: “Ben-Hadad says, ‘You must give me your silver and gold and the best of your wives and children.’”
4 Ahab king of Israel answered, “My master and king, I agree to what you say. I and everything I have belongs to you.”
5 Then the messengers came to Ahab again. They said, “Ben-Hadad says, ‘I told you before that you must give me your silver and gold, your wives and your children. 6 About this time tomorrow I am going to send my men to you. They are to search everywhere in your palace. And they are to search the homes of the men who rule under you. My men will take anything they want.’”
7 So Ahab called a meeting of all the elders of his country. He said, “Ben-Hadad is looking for trouble. First he said I had to give him my wives, my children, my silver and my gold. I agreed to that.”
8 But the elders and all the people said, “Pay no attention to him. Don’t do what he says.”
9 So Ahab said to Ben-Hadad’s messengers, “Tell my master the king this: ‘I will do what you said at first. But I will not obey your second command.’” So King Ben-Hadad’s men carried the message back to him.
10 Then Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab: “I will completely destroy Samaria. There won’t be even enough left for each of my men to get a handful of dust. May the gods punish me terribly if I don’t do this!”
11 Ahab answered, “Tell Ben-Hadad this: ‘The man who puts on his armor should not brag too soon. It’s the man who lives long enough to take it off who has the right to brag.’”
12 Now Ben-Hadad was drinking in his tent with the other rulers. The messengers came and gave him the message from Ahab. Ben-Hadad commanded his men to prepare to attack the city. So they moved into their places for the battle.
13 At the same time a prophet came to Ahab, king of Israel. The prophet said, “Ahab, the Lord says to you, ‘Do you see that big army? I will let you defeat it today. Then you will know I am the Lord.’”
14 Ahab said, “Who will you use to defeat them?”
The prophet answered, “The Lord says, ‘The young officers of the district governors will defeat them.’”
Then the king asked, “Who will command the main army?”
The prophet answered, “You will.”
15 So Ahab gathered the young officers of the district governors. There were 232 of them. Then he called together the army of Israel. There were 7,000 of them.
16 At noon Ben-Hadad and the 32 rulers helping him were getting drunk in their tents. At this time Ahab attacked them. 17 The young officers of the district governors attacked first.
Ben-Hadad’s scouts told him that soldiers were coming from Samaria. 18 So Ben-Hadad said, “They may be coming to fight. Or they may be coming to ask for peace. In either case capture them alive.”
19 The young officers of the district governors led the attack. The army of Israel followed them. 20 Then each officer of Israel killed the man who came against him. So the men from Aram ran away as Israel chased them. But Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with some of his horsemen. 21 Ahab king of Israel led the army. He captured the Arameans’ horses and chariots. So King Ahab caused a great defeat of the Aramean army.
22 Then the prophet went to Ahab king of Israel and said, “The king of Aram will attack you again next spring. So you should go home now and make your army stronger. Make plans to defend yourself.”
Give Yourselves to God
4 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that make war inside you. 2 You want things, but you do not have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous of other people. But you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You do not get what you want because you do not ask God. 3 Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things only so that you can use them for your own pleasures.
4 So, you people are not loyal to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. So if a person wants to be a friend of the world, he makes himself God’s enemy. 5 Do you think the Scripture means nothing? It says, “The Spirit that God made to live in us wants us for himself alone.”[a] 6 But God gives us even more grace, as the Scripture says,
“God is against the proud,
but he gives grace to the humble.” Proverbs 3:34
7 So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run away from you.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.