Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Praise to God for His Loyal Love
118 Give thanks to Yahweh for he is good,
for his loyal love is forever.
2 Let Israel say,
“His loyal love is forever.”
14 Yah[a] is my strength and my song,[b]
and he has become my salvation.[c]
15 The sound of rejoicing and salvation[d]
is in the tents of the righteous;
the right hand of Yahweh has done valiantly.
16 The right hand of Yahweh has exalted;
the right hand of Yahweh has done valiantly.
17 I will not die but live,
and tell of the works of Yah.[e]
18 Yah has disciplined me severely,
but he did not consign[f] me to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to Yah.[g]
20 This is the gate of Yahweh,
through which the righteous will enter.
21 I will give thanks to you for you have answered me,
and you have become my salvation.[h]
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is from Yahweh;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
24 This is the day Yahweh has worked;[i]
let us rejoice and be glad in him.[j]
17 Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 And Jael came out to meet Sisera, and she said to him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me and do not be afraid.” So he turned aside into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.[a] 19 And he said to her, “Please, give me a drink of water, because I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin vessel of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. 20 And he said to her, “Stand at the doorway of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you, and says, ‘Is there anyone here?’ You must answer, ‘No.’” 21 But Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, took in her hand a tent peg and a hammer, and she went softly[b] to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; he was fast asleep since he was exhausted, and he died. 22 And behold, Barak was pursuing Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him, and she said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” And he came with her and saw that Sisera was lying dead with the peg in his temple. 23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.[c]
24 “Most blessed of women is Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite;
most blessed is she of women among tent dwellers.
25 He asked for water, and she gave milk;
in a drinking bowl for nobles, she brought curds.
26 She reached out her hand to the peg,
and her right hand for the workman’s hammer;
and she struck Sisera, crushed his head,
and she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay.
Between her feet he sank down, he fell;
Where he sank down, there he fell—dead.[a]
28 “Through the window she looked down;
the mother of Sisera cried out through the lattice,
‘Why is his chariot delayed in coming?
Why do the hoof beats[b] of his chariot tarry?’
29 The wisest of her ladies answer her;
she also answers the question herself:
30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the plunder?
A bedmate or two bedmates for every man;[c]
colorful garments for Sisera,
plunder of colorful garments,[d]
beautifully finished colorful garments,
on the neck of the plunderer?’
31 So may all your enemies perish, O Yahweh,
but those who love him are like the rising sun at its brightest.”
And the land had rest for forty years.
The Woman and Her Son Versus the Dragon
12 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars, 2 and who was pregnant[a] and was crying out because she[b] was having birth pains, and was in torment to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven, and behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven royal headbands.[c] 4 And his tail swept away a third of the stars from heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, in order that whenever she gave birth to her child he could devour it. 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod,[d] and her child was snatched away to God and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared there by God, so that they could feed her there for one thousand two hundred sixty days.
Satan Thrown Down from Heaven to Earth
7 And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against[e] the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back[f]. 8 And they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,
“Now the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ have come,
because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down,
the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
11 And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives until death.
12 Because of this, rejoice, you heavens,
and those who live in them!
Woe to the earth and to the sea,
because the devil has come down to you,
having great anger,
because he[g] knows that he has little time!”
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