Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 118
1 Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good,
because His mercy endures forever.
2 Let Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
14 The Lord is my strength and song;
He has become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord is valiant.
16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord is valiant.”
17 I shall not die, but I shall live
and declare the works of the Lord.
18 The Lord has severely chastened me,
but He has not given me over unto death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through.
21 I will thank You that You have heard me
and have become my deliverance.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
23 This is what the Lord has done;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
17 Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord. Turn aside to me. Do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
19 He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a leather milk container, gave it to him to drink, and covered him.
20 He said to her, “Stand in the entrance to the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ then you say, ‘No.’ ”
21 Then Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand and went quietly to him, for he was fast asleep and tired. She drove the tent peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground, so he died.
22 Now as Barak had been chasing Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek.” When he came in, there was Sisera fallen dead with a tent peg in his temple.
23 So God humbled King Jabin of Canaan before the children of Israel that day.
24 “Most blessed of women is Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
25 He asked for water, she gave him milk.
In a magnificent bowl she brought cream.
26 Her hand on a tent peg,
her right hand on a workman’s hammer;
she struck Sisera, she crushed his skull,
she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay;
between her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell, overpowered.
28 “The mother of Sisera looked through the window,
and cried out through the lattice,
‘Why is his chariot so late?
Why is the sound of his war chariots so delayed?’
29 Her wise attendants answered her,
indeed, she replied to herself,
30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:
a girl or two for each man;
dyed garments as plunder for Sisera,
dyed and embroidered garments,
two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter?’
31 “May all Your enemies perish like this, O Lord!
But may those who love Him rise like the sun
when it rises in full strength.”
Then the land was at peace for forty years.
The Woman and the Dragon
12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was with child and cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: There was a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as He was born. 5 She gave birth to a male Child, “who was to rule all nations with an iron scepter.”[a] And her Child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, that they may nourish her there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was there a place for them in heaven any longer. 9 The great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying:
“Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of His Christ have come,
for the accuser of our brothers,
who accused them before our God day and night,
has been cast down.
11 They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives
unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens,
and you who dwell in them!
Woe unto the inhabitants of the earth and the sea!
For the devil has come down to you in great wrath,
because he knows that his time is short.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.