Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
5 Hear my words, O LORD. Understand my meditation.
2 Hear the voice of my cry, my King and my God. For to you I pray.
3 Hear my voice in the morning, O LORD. In the morning I will direct myself to You, and I will wait.
4 For You are not a God Who loves wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You.
5 The foolish shall not stand in Your sight. You hate all those who work iniquity.
6 You shall destroy those who speak lies. The LORD will abhor the bloody man, and deceitful.
7 But I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy. In Your fear I will worship toward Your Holy Temple.
8 Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness, because of my enemies. Make Your way plain before my face.
20 Then Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, assembled all his army, and thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots, and went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it.
2 And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city,
3 and said to him, “Thus says Ben-Hadad, ‘Your silver and your gold is mine. Also, your women and your fair children are mine.’”
4 And the king of Israel answered, and said, “My lord king, according to your saying, I am yours, and all that I have.”
5 And when the messengers came back, they said, “Thus commands Ben-Hadad, and says, ‘When I shall send to you and command, you shall deliver to me your silver and your gold and your women and your children.
6 ‘Or else, I will send my servants to you by tomorrow at this time, and they shall search your house, and the houses of your servants, and whatever is pleasant in your eyes they shall take it in their hands and bring it away.’”
7 Then the king of Israel sent for all the elders of the land, and said, “Take heed, please, and see how he seeks mischief. For he sent to me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold. And I did not deny him.”
8 And all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen to him, or consent.”
9 Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you sent for to your servant the first time, that I will do. But this thing I cannot do.’” And the messengers departed and brought him an answer.
10 And Ben-Hadad sent to him, and said, “The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria is enough for every man who follows me to have a handful.”
11 And the king of Israel answered, and said, “Tell him, ‘Do not let him who girds his harness boast of himself just as he who takes it off.’”
12 And when he heard that news, as he was with the kings drinking in the pavilions, he said to the servants, “Make ready.” And they set themselves against the city.
13 And behold, there came a Prophet to Ahab, king of Israel, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand this day, so that you may know that I am the LORD.’”
14 And Ahab said, “By whom?” And he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘By the servants of the princes of the provinces.’” He said again, “Who shall order the battle?” And he answered, “You.”
15 Then he mustered the servants of the princes of the provinces. And there were two hundred thirty-two. And after them, he mustered the whole people of all the children of Israel: seven thousand.
16 And they went out at noon. But Ben-Hadad drank in the tents, until he was drunk, he and the kings. Thirty-two kings helped him.
17 So, the servants of the princes of the provinces went out first. And Ben-Hadad sent out. And they told him, saying, “There are men who came out of Samaria.”
18 And he said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive. Or if they have come out to fight, still take them alive.”
19 So they came out of the city, the servants of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them.
20 And each one killed his enemy. And the Aramites fled. And Israel pursued them. But Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, escaped on a horse, with horsemen.
21 And the king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots and killed the Aramites with a great slaughter.
22 (For there had come a Prophet to the king of Israel, and had said to him, “Go. Be of good courage. And consider and take heed to what you do. For when the year has gone around, the king of Aram will come up against you.”)
4 From where are wars and contentions among you? Do they not come from your sensual pleasures, which fight in your members?
2 You lust, and do not have. You envy and desire immoderately and cannot obtain. You fight and war and get nothing, because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, so that you might spend it on your pleasures.
4 You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that the amity of the world is the enmity of God? Therefore, whoever will be a friend of the world, makes himself the enemy of God.
5 Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit that dwells in us longs enviously”?
6 But it offers more grace, and therefore says, “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.
7 Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
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