Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

31 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. ² He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ ³ Yahweh your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua will go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken. ⁴ Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. ⁵ Yahweh will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them, for Yahweh your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

⁷ Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it. ⁸ Yahweh himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged.”

⁹ Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰ Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of booths, ¹¹ when all Israel has come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ¹² Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates, that they may hear, learn, fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law, ¹³ and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

¹⁶ “A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me.”

¹⁷ Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.”

¹⁹ Therefore Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, “Do you inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’? ²⁰ Most certainly I tell you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. ²¹ A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world. ²² Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

²³ “In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. ²⁴ Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.