Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 130
A song for going up to worship.
1 O Yahweh, out of the depths I call to you.
2 O Adonay, hear my voice.
Let your ears be open to my pleas for mercy.
3 O Yahweh, who would be able to stand
if you kept a record of sins?
4 But with you there is forgiveness
so that you can be feared.
5 I wait for Yahweh, my soul waits,
and with hope I wait for his word.
6 My soul waits for Adonay
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
7 O Israel, put your hope in Yahweh,
because with Yahweh there is mercy
and with him there is unlimited forgiveness.
8 He will rescue Israel from all its sins.
37 Absalom, however, fled to Geshur’s King Talmai, Ammihud’s son. But the king mourned for his son Amnon every day. 38 Absalom, having fled to Geshur, stayed there three years. 39 King David began to long for Absalom once people had consoled him over Amnon’s death.
Absalom Returns to Jerusalem
14 Joab, Zeruiah’s son, knew the king was still thinking about Absalom. 2 So Joab sent someone to Tekoa to get a clever woman from there. He told her, “Please act like a mourner, and dress in mourning clothes. Don’t rub olive oil on yourself,[a] but act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for a long time. 3 Go to the king, and tell him this. . . .” Then Joab told her exactly what to say.
4 The woman from Tekoa came[b] to the king and immediately bowed down with her face touching the ground. “Help me, Your Majesty,” she said.
5 The king asked her, “What can I do for you?”
She answered, “I’m a widow; my husband is dead. 6 I had two sons who quarreled in the field, and there was no one to separate them. One killed the other. 7 Then the entire family turned against me. They said, ‘Give us the man who killed his brother so that we can kill him because he took his brother’s life. We’re going to destroy the one who now would be the heir.’ In this way they wish to extinguish the one burning coal that is left for me. They will not let my husband’s name or descendants remain on the face of the earth.”
8 “Go home,” the king told the woman. “I will order someone to take care of this matter.”
9 The woman from Tekoa said to the king, “Let me be held responsible for the sin, Your Majesty. Let my father’s family be held responsible. Your Majesty and your throne are innocent.”
10 The king said, “If anyone says anything against you, bring him to me. He’ll never harm you again.”
11 She said, “Your Majesty, please pray to Yahweh your Elohim in order to keep an avenger from doing more harm by destroying my son.”
“I solemnly swear, as Yahweh lives,” he said, “not a hair on your son’s head will fall to the ground.”
12 The woman said, “Please let me say something else to you.”
“Speak,” he said.
13 “Why have you devised something like this against Elohim’s people?” she said. “When you say this, you condemn yourself because you haven’t brought back the one you banished! 14 We are all going to die; we are all like water that is poured on the ground and can’t be gathered up. But doesn’t Elohim forgive a person? He never plans to keep a banished person in exile.
15 “I’ve come to say this to you because the people have frightened me. So I thought, ‘I will speak to the king about this. Maybe the king will do something for me, his subject. 16 Maybe the king will listen and rescue me, his subject, from the man who wants to cut off both me and my son from our Elohim-given inheritance.’ 17 I thought that you would reassure me. You are like Elohim’s Messenger, who is able to distinguish right from wrong. May Yahweh your Elohim be with you!”
18 The king said to the woman, “Please don’t refuse to answer the question I’m going to ask you.”
The woman responded, “Please speak, Your Majesty.”
19 “Did Joab put you up to this?” the king asked.
The woman answered, “I solemnly swear on your life, Your Majesty, you are absolutely right. Yes, your servant Joab ordered me to do this. He told me to say exactly what I said. 20 Your servant Joab has done this to portray the matter in a different light. You are as wise as Elohim’s Messenger, who knows everything on earth.”
21 Then the king told Joab, “This is what you’ll do. Bring back the young man Absalom.”
22 Joab quickly bowed down with his face touching the ground, and he blessed the king. He said, “Today I know that you have been kind to me because you have done what I wanted.”
23 So Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. 24 But the king said, “Absalom should return to his own house. He will not see me.” So Absalom returned to his house and didn’t see the king.
15 So those of us who have a strong faith must be patient with the weaknesses of those whose faith is not so strong. We must not think only of ourselves. 2 We should all be concerned about our neighbor and the good things that will build his faith. 3 Christ did not think only of himself. Rather, as Scripture says, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”
God Gives Us Unity
4 Everything written long ago was written to teach us so that we would have confidence through the endurance and encouragement which the Scriptures give us. 5 May God, who gives you this endurance and encouragement, allow you to live in harmony with each other by following the example of Christ Yeshua. 6 Then, having the same goal, you will praise the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua Christ.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.