Monday in Season after Pentecost

8Verse 8. Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9Verse 9. “I will certainly go with you,” Deborah replied, “but the road you are taking will bring you no honor, because the LORD will be selling Sisera into the hand of a woman.” So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh, 10Verse 10. where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him. 11Verse 11. Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent by the great tree of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh. 12Verse 12. When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up Mount Tabor, 13Verse 13. he summoned all nine hundred of his iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the River Kishon. 14Verse 14. Then Deborah said to Barak, “Arise, for this is the day that the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone before you?” So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 15Verse 15. And in front of him the LORD routed with the sword Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16Verse 16. Then Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a single man was left. 17Verse 17. Meanwhile, Sisera had 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. 18Verse 18. Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in with me. Do not be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. 19Verse 19. Sisera said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again. 20Verse 20. “Stand at the entrance to the tent,” he said, “and if anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say, ‘No.’” 21Verse 21. But as he lay sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died. 22Verse 22. When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with a tent peg through his temple. 23Verse 23. On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. 24Verse 24. And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.

7Verse 7. On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. 8Verse 8. I looked out into the night and saw a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. 9Verse 9. “What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.” 10Verse 10. Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.” 11Verse 11. And the riders answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and tranquil.” 12Verse 12. Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?” 13Verse 13. So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me. 14Verse 14. Then the angel who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, 15Verse 15. but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity. ’ 16Verse 16. Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt, declares the LORD of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’ 17Verse 17. Proclaim further that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”