Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 83
A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Do not keep Your silence, O God;
do not hold Your peace or be still, O God.
2 For, look, Your enemies make an uproar,
and those who hate You have lifted up their heads.
3 They have given crafty counsel against Your people,
and have consulted against Your treasured ones.
4 They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
that the name of Israel may be no more remembered.”
9 Do to them as You did to the Midianites,
as to Sisera and Jabin at the river of Kishon,
10 who perished at Endor;
they became as dung for the ground.
17 Let them be confounded and troubled forever;
yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
18 that they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.
8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go, but if you will not go with me, then I will not go.”
9 She said, “I will indeed go with you. However, the way you are going will gain you no glory, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men went up on foot with him, and Deborah went up with him also.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, who were descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law. He pitched his tent at the oak in Zaanannim, near Kedesh.
12 Then they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. 13 So Sisera summoned all his nine hundred iron chariots and all the people with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the River Kishon.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get up, for this is the day that the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him. 15 The Lord routed Sisera and all of his chariots and all of his army with the edge of the sword in front of Barak. Sisera dismounted his chariot and fled on foot.
16 Barak chased after the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. The whole army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a single man survived. 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 The children of Israel grew more and more powerful over King Jabin of Canaan until he was no more.
The Righteous Judgment of God
2 Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judges, for when you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge do the same things. 2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who commit such things. 3 Do you think, O man, who judges those who do such things, and who does the same thing, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Do you despise the riches of His goodness, tolerance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But because of your hardness and impenitent heart, you are storing up treasures of wrath against yourself on the day of wrath when the righteous judgment of God will be revealed, 6 and He “will render to every man according to his deeds.”[a] 7 To those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality will be eternal life. 8 But to those who are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, 9 will be tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile. 10 But glory, honor, and peace will be to every man who does good work—to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile, 11 for there is no partiality with God.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.