Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer for Help

35 O Lord, stand against those who stand against me. Fight those who fight me. ² Take hold of a safe-covering and rise up to help me. ³ Take a spear and battle-ax against those who come to get me. Say to my soul, “I am the One Who saves you.” ⁴ Let the people be ashamed and without honor who want to take my life. Let those be turned away and brought to shame who plan to hurt me. ⁵ Let them be like straw in the wind. May the angel of the Lord drive them away. ⁶ Let their way be dark and dangerous, with the angel of the Lord going to get them. ⁷ For without a reason they hid their net for me. Without a reason, they dug a hole for my soul. ⁸ Let them be destroyed before they know it. And let them be caught in their own net. May they destroy themselves as they fall into their own hole.

⁹ My soul will be happy in the Lord. It will be full of joy because He saves. ¹⁰ All my bones will say, “Lord, who is like You? Who saves the weak from those too strong for them? Who saves the poor from those who would rob them?”

Balak Sends for Balaam

22 Then the people of Israel traveled on and set up their tents in the plains of Moab on the other side of the Jordan beside Jericho. ² Now Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. ³ So Moab was filled with much fear because of the people, for they were many. Moab was very afraid of the people of Israel. ⁴ And Moab said to the leaders of Midian, “Now these people will take away everything around us like the bull eats up the grass of the field.” Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. ⁵ So he sent men to Balaam the son of Beor, at Pethor, which is near the River in the land of the children of his people. They said to him, “See, a people came out of Egypt. See, they cover the land, and they are living beside me. ⁶ Now come, I beg you. Curse this people for me, because they are too strong for me. Then I may be able to win the battle against them and send them out of the land. For I know that good will come to the one you pray for, and trouble will come to the one you curse.”

⁷ So the leaders of Moab and the leaders of Midian left with the pay in their hand for the one who tells what will happen in the future. When they came to Balaam, they told him Balak’s words. ⁸ Balaam said to them, “Stay here tonight. I will bring word to you as the Lord may speak to me.” So the leaders of Moab stayed with Balaam. ⁹ Then God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?” ¹⁰ Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent word to me, saying, ¹¹ ‘See, the people who came out of Egypt cover the land. Now come, curse them for me. Then I may be able to fight against them and send them away.’” ¹² God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. Do not curse the people, for I have decided that good would come to them.” ¹³ So Balaam got up in the morning and said to Balak’s leaders, “Return to your land. For the Lord will not let me go with you.” ¹⁴ So the leaders of Moab got up and went to Balak, and said, “Balaam would not come with us.”

¹⁵ Balak sent leaders again, more than were sent before, and men who were more important. ¹⁶ They came to Balaam and said to him, “Balak the son of Zippor says, ‘I beg you, let nothing keep you from coming to me. ¹⁷ I will give you much honor. I will do whatever you tell me. I beg you to come and curse these people for me.’” ¹⁸ Balaam answered and said to Balak’s men, “Balak could give me his house full of silver and gold. But I could not do anything, small or big, against the Word of the Lord my God. ¹⁹ Now I ask you to stay here tonight. I will find out what else the Lord will say to me.” ²⁰ God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them. But do only what I tell you.”

Balaam’s Donkey and the Angel

²¹ So Balaam got up in the morning and got his donkey ready, and went with the leaders of Moab.

¹⁷ When we got to Jerusalem, the Christians were glad to see us. ¹⁸ The next day we went with Paul to see James. All the church leaders came also. ¹⁹ After saying hello to them, Paul told of what God had done through his work for the people who were not Jews.

²⁰ When they heard this, they thanked the Lord. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Christians there are among the Jews. They all obey the Law of Moses. ²¹ They have heard about you. They have heard you teach the Jews who live among people who are not Jews. They have heard you teach them to break away from the Law of Moses. They say you are telling them not to do the religious act of becoming a Jew and not to follow old religious ways of worship. ²² What should we do about it? They will hear that you have come. ²³ You must do what we tell you. We have four men with us who have made a promise to God. ²⁴ Take these four men and go through the religious worship of washing with them. You pay to have their hair cut off. Then everybody will know what they have heard about you is not true. They will know you are careful to obey the Law of Moses. ²⁵ As for the people who are not Jews, we wrote to them. We said that they must keep away from everything that has been given to gods. They must not eat blood or meat from animals that have been killed in ways against the Law. They must keep away from sex sins.”

²⁶ The next day Paul took the men. He went through the religious worship of washing with them. They went into the house of God to tell when their religious worship of washing would be finished. Then the gift for each one of them would be given as an act of worship.