Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God Is My Strong Tower
Psalm 59
1 For the music director: “Do Not Destroy,” a Michtam of David, when Saul sent men to watch the house to kill him.
2 Deliver me from my enemies, my God!
Set me on high,
away from those who rise up against me.
3 Deliver me from workers of iniquity.
Rescue me from bloodthirsty men.
4 For behold, they lie in wait for me.
Defiant men stir up strife against me—
not for my transgression or sin, Adonai.
5 For no guilt of mine, they run and set things up.
Awake! Help me! Look!
6 For You are Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel!
Rouse Yourself to punish all the nations.
Show no mercy to any iniquitous traitors. Selah
7 They return at evening, snarling like a dog,
prowling about the city.
8 See, they are spewing with their mouth
—swords in their lips—
“After all, who is listening?”
9 But You, Adonai, are laughing at them.
You scoff at all the nations.
10 O my strength, I watch for You—
for God is my strong tower.
11 My God in His lovingkindness will go before me.
God will let me look down on my foes.
12 Do not slay them, lest my people forget.
With Your power shake them
and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
13 The sin of their mouth is the words of their lips.
So let them be caught in their pride,
and for uttering a curse and a lie.
14 Consume them in wrath,
consume them till they are no more.
Let them know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah
15 They return at evening, snarling like a dog,
prowling about the city.
16 They wander around for food.
If they are not full, they stay up all night.
17 But I—I sing of Your strength!
Yes, in the morning I sing aloud of Your lovingkindness.
For You have been my fortress,
a refuge in the day of my trouble.
18 O my strength, to You I sing praises.
For God is my strong tower—
my God of lovingkindness.
Jehu Avenges Naboth
9 Then Elisha the prophet summoned one of the sons of the prophets and told him, “Strap up your cloak, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2 When you arrive there, look out there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi. Then go in, get him to rise up from among his fellows, and bring him to an inner room. 3 Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, thus says Adonai: ‘I have anointed you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee—don’t wait around.”
4 So the young man, a young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. 5 Now when he arrived, behold, the army commanders were sitting. So he said, “I have a word for you, commander.”
Jehu asked, “For which one of us?”
He replied, “For you, commander.” 6 Then he rose and went inside the house, and the prophet poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says Adonai, God of Israel: I have anointed you king over the people of Adonai, over Israel. 7 So you will strike down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Adonai shed by Jezebel. 8 For the whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, slave or free, in Israel. 9 I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasa son of Ahijah. 10 The dogs will eat Jezebel in the field of Jezreel, and there will be none to bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.
11 Then Jehu came out to the officers of his master, and one asked him, “Is everything all right? Why did this crazy fellow come to you?”
He said to them, “You know the man and his babbling.”
12 But they said, “It’s a lie! Tell us now.”
So he said, “He said something like this to me, saying ‘Thus says Adonai, I have anointed you king over Israel.’”
13 Then they hurried and every man took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and blew the shofar, saying, “Jehu is king!”
Whose Wisdom Is Foolish?
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and bring to nothing the understanding of the intelligent.”[a]
20 Where is the wise one? Where is the Torah scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of the world? [b] 21 For seeing that—in God’s wisdom—the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased—through the foolishness of the message proclaimed—to save those who believe. 22 For Jewish people ask for signs and Greek people seek after wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Messiah crucified—a stumbling block to Jewish people and foolishness to Gentile people, 24 but to those who are called (both Jewish and Greek people), Messiah, the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brothers and sisters, that not many are wise according to human standards,[c] not many are powerful, and not many are born well. 27 Yet God chose the foolish things of the world so He might put to shame the wise; and God chose the weak things of the world so He might put to shame the strong; 28 and God chose the lowly and despised things of the world, the things that are as nothing, so He might bring to nothing the things that are— 29 so that no human might boast before God. 30 But because of Him you are in Messiah Yeshua, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and holiness and redemption— 31 so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in Adonai.”[d]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.