Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Comfort in Times of Trouble

77 My voice goes up to God, and I will cry out. My voice goes up to God and He will hear me. ² I looked to the Lord when I was in trouble. I put out my hand at night, and it did not get tired. My soul would not be comforted.

¹¹ I will remember the things the Lord has done. Yes, I will remember the powerful works of long ago. ¹² I will think of all Your work, and keep in mind all the great things You have done. ¹³ O God, Your way is holy. What god is great like our God? ¹⁴ You are the God Who does great works. You have shown Your power among the people. ¹⁵ You have set free Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph, with Your strong arm.

¹⁶ The waters saw You, O God. The waters saw You and shook. The sea shook also. ¹⁷ The clouds poured down water. The sky sounded with thunder. Your arrows of lightning went this way and that. ¹⁸ The sound of Your thunder was in the turning wind. The lightning lit up the world. The earth shook. ¹⁹ Your way was through the sea. Your paths went through the powerful waters. And it cannot be known where You stepped. ²⁰ You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

The Death of Ahab

²⁹ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. ³⁰ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will dress so no one will know who I am, and will go to battle. But you put on your king’s clothing.” So the king of Israel dressed so no one would know who he was, and went into battle. ³¹ Now the king of Syria had told the thirty-two captains of his war-wagons, “Do not fight with the small or strong. But only fight with the king of Israel.” ³² When the captains of the war-wagons saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “For sure this is the king of Israel.” And they turned to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. ³³ Then the captains of the war-wagons saw that it was not the king of Israel. So they returned from going after him.

³⁴ But a certain man happened to shoot an arrow and hit the king of Israel between the parts of his battle-clothes. So Ahab said to the driver of his war-wagon, “Turn around and take me out of the battle. For I am hurt.” ³⁵ The battle was hard that day, and the king was set up in his war-wagon in front of the Syrians. At evening he died. The blood from the cut flowed to the bottom of the war-wagon. ³⁶ Then a cry went through to his country!

³⁷ So the king died and was brought to Samaria. They buried the king in Samaria. ³⁸ And they washed the war-wagon by the pool of Samaria. The dogs drank up his blood. (The women who sold the use of their bodies washed themselves there.) It happened as the word of the Lord said it would. ³⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahab and all he did, the ivory house and cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ⁴⁰ Ahab died and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.

Ahaziah Rules Israel

⁵¹ Ahab’s son Ahaziah became the king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. And he ruled Israel for two years. ⁵² He did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord. He walked in the way of his father and mother, and Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. ⁵³ He served the false god Baal and worshiped him. He made the Lord God of Israel angry in every way his father had done.

⁵ Put yourselves through a test. See if you belong to Christ. Then you will know you belong to Christ, unless you do not pass the test. ⁶ I trust you see that we belong to Him and have passed the test. ⁷ We pray to God that you do no wrong. We do not pray this to show that our teaching is so great, but that you will keep on doing what is right, even if it looks as if we have done much wrong. ⁸ We cannot work against the truth of God. We only work for it. ⁹ We are glad when we are weak and you are strong. We pray that you will become strong Christians. ¹⁰ This is why I am writing these things while I am away from you. Then when I get there, I will not have to use strong words or punish you to show you that the Lord gives me this power. This power is to be used to make you stronger Christians, not to make you weak by hurting your faith.