Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 5
For the Music Director. With the flutes. A Psalm of David.
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my meditation.
2 Listen to the voice of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to You will I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning You will hear my voice;
in the morning I will direct my prayer to You,
and I will watch expectantly.
4 For You are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness,
nor will evil dwell with You.
5 Those who boast will not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You will destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors
the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, in the abundance of Your mercy
I will enter Your house;
in fear of You I will worship
at Your holy temple.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make Your way straight before me.
23 The servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were stronger than us, but if we fight against them in the plain, we will surely be stronger than they. 24 Do this: Dismiss the kings, each from his position, and put commanders in their places, 25 and assemble an army like the army that you lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot, and we will fight them in the plain and will surely be stronger than they.” And he listened to their advice and followed it.
26 The next year Ben-Hadad assembled the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. 27 The children of Israel were assembled and were all present, and they went against them, and the children of Israel camped in front of them like two little flocks of kids, while the Arameans filled the country.
28 A man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord: Because the Arameans have said, ‘The Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys,’ I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you will know that I am the Lord.”
29 They camped opposite each other for seven days, and on the seventh day, the battle was joined. The children of Israel killed a hundred thousand Aramean footmen in one day. 30 But the rest fled into the city of Aphek, where a wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the men who were left. And Ben-Hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber.
31 His servants said to him, “We have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.”
32 So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ”
And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother!”
33 Now the men were diligently looking for a positive sign and quickly took hold of it, and they said, “Your brother Ben-Hadad!”
Then he said, “Go. You bring him.” Then Ben-Hadad came to him and got into the chariot.
34 Ben-Hadad said to him, “I will restore the cities which my father took from your father, and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.”
Then Ahab said, “I will send you away with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and sent him away.
The Remnant of Israel
11 I say then, has God rejected His people? God forbid! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and destroyed Your altars. I alone am left, and they seek my life”?[a] 4 But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”[b] 5 So then at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. But if it is by works, then is it no longer by grace; otherwise work would no longer be work.
7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it was seeking. But the elect obtained it, and the rest were hardened. 8 As it is written:
“God has given them a spirit of slumber,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
to this very day.”[c]
9 And David says:
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they may not see,
and always bow down their backs.”[d]
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.