Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 83^[a]

A song. A psalm of Asaph.

⁸ Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

⁹ “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.^{(A) 10} There Barak summoned^(B) Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.

¹¹ Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites,^(C) the descendants of Hobab,^(D) Moses’ brother-in-law,^[a] and pitched his tent by the great tree^(E) in Zaanannim^(F) near Kedesh.

¹² When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,^{(G) 13} Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River^(H) all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.^(I)

¹⁴ Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands.^(J) Has not the Lord gone ahead^(K) of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. ¹⁵ At Barak’s advance, the Lord routed^(L) Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶ Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left.^{(M) 17} Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael,^(N) the wife of Heber the Kenite,^(O) because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor^(P) and the family of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸ Jael^(Q) went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

¹⁹ “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk,^(R) gave him a drink, and covered him up.

²⁰ “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’”

²¹ But Jael,^(S) Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep,^(T) exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.^(U)

²² Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael^(V) went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.^(W)

²³ On that day God subdued^(X) Jabin^(Y) king of Canaan before the Israelites. ²⁴ And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.^(Z)

God’s Righteous Judgment

2 You, therefore, have no excuse,^(A) you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.^{(B) 2} Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches^(C) of his kindness,^(D) forbearance^(E) and patience,^(F) not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?^(G)

⁵ But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath^(H), when his righteous judgment^(I) will be revealed. ⁶ God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”^{[a](J) 7} To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor^(K) and immortality,^(L) he will give eternal life.^{(M) 8} But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil,^(N) there will be wrath and anger.^{(O) 9} There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil:^(P) first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;^{(Q) 10} but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.^{(R) 11} For God does not show favoritism.^(S)