Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Majestic and Unshakable

Psalm 93

Parashat Vayelech

Chazak! Be Courageous!

31 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. ² He said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. Adonai has said to me, ‘You are not to cross over this Jordan.’ ³ Adonai your God—He will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross over before you, just as Adonai has promised.

⁴ “Adonai will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them. ⁵ Adonai will give them over to you, and you are to do to them according to all the mitzvot that I commanded you. ⁶ Chazak! Be courageous! Do not be afraid or tremble before them. For Adonai your God—He is the One who goes with you. He will not fail you or abandon you.”

⁷ Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong! Be courageous! For you are to go with this people into the land Adonai has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you are to enable them to inherit it. ⁸ Adonai—He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or abandon you. Do not fear or be discouraged.”

Public Torah Readings

⁹ Moses wrote down this Torah and gave it to the kohanim, the sons of Levi who carry the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them saying, “At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of cancelling debts, during the feast of Sukkot, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to appear before Adonai your God in the place He chooses, you are to read this Torah before them in their hearing. ¹² Gather the people—the men and women and little ones, and the outsider within your town gates—so they may hear and so they may learn, and they will fear Adonai your God and take care to do all the words of this Torah. ¹³ So their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear Adonai your God—all the days you live on the land you are about to cross over the Jordan to possess.”

Death and Resurrection Foretold

¹⁶ “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again in a little while, you will see Me.”

¹⁷ Then some of His disciples said to one another, “What does He mean by telling us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again in a little while, you will see Me’? And, ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

¹⁸ They kept on saying, “What’s this He’s saying, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what He’s talking about!”

¹⁹ Yeshua knew that they wanted to question Him, so He said to them, “Are you asking each other about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again in a little while, you will see Me’? ²⁰ Amen, amen I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will celebrate. You will be filled with sorrow, but your sorrow will turn to joy!

²¹ “When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come.^[a] But when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of the joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²² So also you have sorrow now; 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 nothing. Amen, amen I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. ²⁴ Up to now, you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be full.