Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

107 Say thank you to the Lord for being so good, for always being so loving and kind. ² Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has saved you from your enemies.

³ He brought the exiles back from the farthest corners of the earth. ⁴ They were wandering homeless in the desert, ⁵ hungry and thirsty and faint. ⁶ “Lord, help!” they cried, and he did! ⁷ He led them straight to safety and a place to live.

³³ He dries up rivers ³⁴ and turns the good land of the wicked into deserts of salt. ³⁵ Again, he turns deserts into fertile, watered valleys. ³⁶ He brings the hungry to settle there and build their cities, ³⁷ to sow their fields and plant their vineyards, and reap their bumper crops!

2 Then Joshua sent two spies from the Israeli camp at Acacia to cross the river and check out the situation on the other side, especially at Jericho. They arrived at an inn operated by a woman named Rahab, who was a prostitute. They were planning to spend the night there, ² but someone informed the king of Jericho that two Israelis who were suspected of being spies had arrived in the city that evening. ³ He dispatched a police squadron to Rahab’s home, demanding that she surrender them.

“They are spies,” he explained. “They have been sent by the Israeli leaders to discover the best way to attack us.”

⁴ But she had hidden them, so she told the officer in charge, “The men were here earlier, but I didn’t know they were spies. ⁵ They left the city at dusk as the city gates were about to close, and I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them!”

⁶ But actually she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them beneath piles of flax that were drying there. ⁷ So the constable and his men went all the way to the Jordan River looking for them; meanwhile, the city gates were kept shut. ⁸ Rahab went up to talk to the men before they retired for the night.

⁹ “I know perfectly well that your God is going to give my country to you,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you; everyone is terrified if the word Israel is even mentioned. ¹⁰ For we have heard how the Lord made a path through the Red Sea for you when you left Egypt! And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan, and how you ruined their land and completely destroyed their people. ¹¹ No wonder we are afraid of you! No one has any fight left in him after hearing things like that, for your God is the supreme God of heaven, not just an ordinary god. ^12-13 Now I beg for this one thing: Swear to me by the sacred name of your God that when Jericho is conquered you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families. This is only fair after the way I have helped you.”

¹⁴ The men agreed. “If you won’t betray us, we’ll see to it that you and your family aren’t harmed,” they promised.

2 But there were false prophets, too, in those days, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly tell their lies about God, turning against even their Master who bought them; but theirs will be a swift and terrible end. ² Many will follow their evil teaching that there is nothing wrong with sexual sin. And because of them Christ and his way will be scoffed at.

³ These teachers in their greed will tell you anything to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago and their destruction is on the way.