Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 5[a]
Morning Prayer for Divine Help
1 For the director.[b] With flutes. A psalm of David.
2 Listen to my words, O Lord;
pay heed to my sighs.
3 Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God;
for to you I pray.
4 O Lord, at daybreak[c] you hear my voice;
at daybreak I bring my petition before you
and await your reply.
5 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil cannot remain in your presence.
6 The arrogant shrink before your gaze;
you hate all who do evil.
7 You destroy all who tell lies;
the Lord detests the violent and the deceitful.
8 But I will enter your house
because of your great kindness,[d]
and I will bow down in your holy temple,
filled with awe of you.
23 The servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Their gods are the gods of the hills. That is why they were stronger than we were. We should fight against them in the plain, and we will surely be stronger than they are. 24 Just do this, remove all of the kings from their command and replace them with the officers. 25 You must assemble an army as large as the army you lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. Then we will be able to fight against them in the plain. We will certainly be stronger than they are.” He listened to their advice and followed it.
26 In the spring of the year, Ben-hadad assembled the Arameans and went to Aphek to fight against Israel. 27 When the Israelites were assembled and given provisions, they went out against them. The Israelites camped opposite them, and they looked like two little flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.
28 The man of God arrived and spoke to the king of Israel, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘The Arameans think that the Lord is the God of the hills but not the God of the lowlands. I will therefore deliver this enormous army into your hands, and thus you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”
29 They camped opposite one another for seven days, and then on the seventh day they joined in battle. The Israelites killed one hundred thousand of the Aramean infantry in one day. 30 The rest of them escaped into the city of Aphek, but a wall collapsed upon twenty-seven thousand of the survivors.
Ben-hadad fled into the city and hid in an inner room. 31 His servants said to him, “Behold, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.” 32 So they put sackcloth around their waists and they put ropes around their heads and they went out to the king of Israel and said, “Ben-hadad said, ‘Please let me live.’ ” He answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”[a]
33 The men were listening carefully and they quickly took up his refrain, “Ben-hadad is your brother!” He said, “Go and bring him here.” When Ben-hadad came out to him, he had him join him in the chariot.
34 Ben-hadad said to him, “I will give back the cities that my father took from your father. You can set up marketplaces in Damascus just like my father did in Samaria.” He answered, “I will release you on the basis of this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and released him.
Chapter 11
The Remnant of Israel.[a] 1 I ask, then: Has God rejected his people? Of course not! I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. You surely must know what Scripture asserts in the passage about Elijah where he pleads with God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your Prophets, they have torn down your altars. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”
4 What was God’s response to him? “I have spared for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt before Baal.” 5 So too, at the present time, there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
7 What follows, then? Israel was unable to attain what it was seeking. The elect attained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written:
“God gave them a spirit of lethargy:
eyes that could not see
and ears that could not hear,
down to this very day.”
9 And David says:
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.”
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