Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
His Chesed Endures Forever
Psalm 118
1 Praise[a] Adonai, for He is good.
For His lovingkindness endures forever.
2 O let Israel say:
For His lovingkindness endures forever.
14 Adonai is my strength and song,
and He has become my salvation.[a]
15 Shouts of joy and victory
are in the tents of the righteous:
“Adonai’s right hand is mighty![b]
16 Adonai’s right hand is lifted high!
Adonai’s right hand is mighty!”
17 I will not die, but live,
and proclaim what Adonai has done!
18 Adonai has chastened me hard,
but has not given me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them and praise Adonai.
20 This is the gate of Adonai—
the righteous will enter through it.[c]
21 I give You thanks, because You have answered me
and have become my salvation.
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone.[d]
23 It is from Adonai:
it is marvelous in our eyes!
24 This is the day that Adonai has made!
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
17 Meanwhile Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Yael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 So Yael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me! Don’t be afraid!” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and made him drink some, and covered him. 20 Then he said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you saying, ‘Is there a man here?’ then you will say, ‘There’s no one.’”
21 Then Yael, Heber’s wife, took a tent pin and got a hammer in her hand, approached him stealthily and drove the pin into his temple until it pierced through into the ground—for he was exhausted and in a deep sleep. So he died. 22 Now behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Yael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he entered with her, and behold, Sisera was lying dead, with a tent-pin in his temple!
23 So on that day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before Bnei-Yisrael.
24 Blessed above women is Yael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
above women in the tent is she blessed.
25 Water he asked, milk she gave him.
In a lordly bowl she brought him butter.
26 Her hand reached for the tent pin,
her right hand to the workmen’s hammer,
and with the hammer she struck Sisera,
she smashed his head—
yes, she crushed and pierced his temple.
27 At her feet he collapsed, he fell, he lay.
Between her feet he bowed, he fell.
Where he bowed, there he fell dead.
28 Through the window, Sisera’s mother
looked out, through the lattice.
and lamented shrilly:
‘Why does his chariot delay in coming?
Why do the wheels of his chariots tarry?’
29 The wisest of her princesses answer her,
yes, she repeats the words to herself:
30 ‘Are they not finding, dividing the spoil?
A maiden, maidens for every warrior!
To Sisera a spoil of dyed garments—
a spoil of dyed garments of embroidery,
double-dyed garments of embroidery
for the necks of every spoiler!’
31 So let all Your enemies perish, Adonai!
But may those who love Him be
like the rising of the sun in its might.”
Then the land had peace for 40 years.
Mother, Child, Dragon, and War
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. [a] 2 She is pregnant—crying out in birth pains, in agony to give birth.[b]
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: a great fiery red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads. [c] 4 His tail sweeps away a third of the stars of heaven—it hurled them to the earth.[d] Now the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that whenever she gave birth he might devour her child.
5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with an iron rod.[e] And her child was snatched away to God and to His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God so they might take care of her for 1,260 days.
7 And war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels making war against the dragon.[f] The dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they were not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, called the devil and satan, who deceives the whole world.[g] He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. [h] 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Anointed One, for the accuser of our brothers and sisters—the one who accuses them before our God day and night[i]—has been thrown out. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even in the face of death.
12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great rage, knowing that his time is short.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.