Old/New Testament

137 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.

² We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

³ For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that made us wail [required] mirth, [saying,] Sing us [one] of the songs of Zion.

⁴ How should we sing a song of Jehovah's upon a foreign soil?

⁵ If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [its skill];

⁶ If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to my palate: if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

⁷ Remember, O Jehovah, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, Lay [it] bare, Lay [it] bare, down to its foundation!

⁸ Daughter of Babylon, who art to be laid waste, happy he that rendereth unto thee that which thou hast meted out to us.

⁹ Happy he that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock.

[A Psalm] of David.

138 I will give thee thanks with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing psalms of thee.

² I will bow down toward the temple of thy holiness, and celebrate thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth; for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

³ In the day when I called thou answeredst me; thou didst encourage me with strength in my soul.

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall celebrate thee, Jehovah, when they have heard the words of thy mouth;

⁵ And they shall sing in the ways of Jehovah, for great is the glory of Jehovah.

⁶ For Jehovah is high; but he looketh upon the lowly, and the proud he knoweth afar off.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou wilt stretch forth thy hand against the anger of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

⁸ Jehovah will perfect what concerneth me: thy loving-kindness, O Jehovah, [endureth] for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands.

To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

139 Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known [me].

² *Thou* knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off;

³ Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways;

⁴ For there is not yet a word on my tongue, [but] lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether.

⁵ Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me.

⁶ O knowledge too wonderful for me! it is high, I cannot [attain] unto it.

⁷ Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? and whither flee from thy presence?

⁸ If I ascend up into the heavens thou art there; or if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou [art there];

⁹ [If] I take the wings of the dawn [and] dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

¹⁰ Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

¹¹ And if I say, Surely darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night;

¹² Even darkness hideth not from thee, and the night shineth as the day: the darkness is as the light.

¹³ For thou hast possessed my reins; thou didst cover me in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I will praise thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well.

¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Thine eyes did see my unformed substance, and in thy book all [my members] were written; [during many] days were they fashioned, when [as yet] there was none of them.

¹⁷ But how precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

¹⁸ [If] I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee.

¹⁹ Oh that thou wouldest slay the wicked, O +God! And ye men of blood, depart from me.

²⁰ For they speak of thee wickedly, they take [thy name] in vain, thine enemies.

²¹ Do not I hate them, O Jehovah, that hate thee? and do not I loathe them that rise up against thee?

²² I hate them with perfect hatred; I account them mine enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts;

²⁴ And see if there be any grievous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting.

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

² And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

³ And if I shall dole out all my goods in food, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but have not love, I profit nothing.

⁴ Love has long patience, is kind; love is not emulous [of others]; love is not insolent and rash, is not puffed up,

⁵ does not behave in an unseemly manner, does not seek what is its own, is not quickly provoked, does not impute evil,

⁶ does not rejoice at iniquity but rejoices with the truth,

⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails; but whether prophecies, they shall be done away; or tongues, they shall cease; or knowledge, it shall be done away.

⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part:

¹⁰ but when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I had done with what belonged to the child.

¹² For we see now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face; now I know partially, but then I shall know according as I also have been known.

¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these [is] love.