Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹³ Then Joab and the troops with him marched out to attack the Arameans. They ran away from him. ¹⁴ The Ammonites realized that the Arameans were running away. So they ran away from Abishai. They went inside the city. After Joab had fought against the Ammonites, he went back to Jerusalem.

¹⁵ The Arameans saw that they had been driven away by Israel. So they brought their troops together. ¹⁶ Hadadezer had some Arameans brought from east of the Euphrates River. They went to Helam under the command of Shobak. He was the commander of Hadadezer’s army.

¹⁷ David was told about it. So he gathered the whole army of Israel together. They went across the Jordan River to Helam. The Arameans lined up their soldiers to go to war against David. They began to fight against him. ¹⁸ But then they ran away from Israel. David killed 700 of their chariot riders. He killed 40,000 of their soldiers who were on foot. He also struck down Shobak, the commander of their army. Shobak died there. ¹⁹ All the kings who were under the rule of Hadadezer saw that Israel had won the battle over them. So they made a peace treaty with the Israelites. They were brought under Israel’s rule.

After that, the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.

³¹ His disciples were saying to him, “Rabbi, eat something!”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples asked each other, “Did someone bring him food?”

³⁴ Jesus said, “My food is to do what my Father sent me to do. My food is to finish his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying? You say, ‘It’s still four months until harvest time.’ But I tell you, open your eyes! Look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest right now. ³⁶ Even now the one who gathers the crop is getting paid. They are already harvesting the crop for eternal life. So the one who plants and the one who gathers can now be glad together. ³⁷ Here is a true saying. ‘One plants and another gathers.’ ³⁸ I sent you to gather what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work. You have gathered the benefits of their work.”