88 O lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

² Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

³ For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

⁴ I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

⁵ Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

⁶ Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

⁷ Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

⁸ Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁹ Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

¹⁰ Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

¹¹ Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

¹² Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³ But unto thee have I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

¹⁴ Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

¹⁵ I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

¹⁶ Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

¹⁷ They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

¹⁸ Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

²⁴ And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

²⁵ And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them.

²⁶ Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.

²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.

²⁸ Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹ Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.

³⁰ And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

³¹ And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³² So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.

³³ They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.

³⁴ Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;

³⁵ With whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:

³⁶ But the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.

³⁷ And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.

³⁸ And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.

³⁹ But the Lord your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.

⁴⁰ Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.

⁴¹ So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

²⁵ Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

²⁶ I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.

²⁷ Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.

²⁸ But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.

²⁹ But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;

³⁰ And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;

³¹ And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

²⁵ Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

²⁶ Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

²⁷ Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

²⁸ And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

²⁹ And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

³⁰ Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

³¹ Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

³² (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

³³ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

³⁴ Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.