Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

138 Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me:

² Thou hast know my sitting down, and my rising up.

³ Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out.

⁴ And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.

⁵ Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of old: thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me.

⁶ Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it.

⁷ Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face?

⁸ If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art present.

⁹ If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:

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

¹¹ And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.

¹² But darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be light as day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to thee.

¹³ For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well.

¹⁵ My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.

¹⁷ But to me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.

¹⁸ I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand: I rose up and am still with thee.

¹⁹ If thou wilt kill the wicked, O God: ye men of blood, depart from me:

²⁰ Because you say in thought: They shall receive thy cities in vain.

²¹ Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated thee: and pine away because of thy enemies?

²² I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they are become enemies to me.

²³ Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths.

²⁴ And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way.

¹¹ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre:

¹² And say to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

¹³ Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God: every precious stone was thy covering: the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the emerald: gold the work of thy beauty: and thy pipes were prepared in the day that thou wast created.

¹⁴ Thou a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set thee in the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked in the midst of the stones of fire.

¹⁵ Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee.

¹⁶ By the multitude of thy merchandise, thy inner parts were filled with iniquity, and thou hast sinned: and I cast thee out from the mountain of God, and destroyed thee, O covering cherub, out of the midst of the stones of fire.

¹⁷ And thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty: thou hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty, I have cast thee to the ground: I have set thee before the face of kings, that they might behold thee.

¹⁸ Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thy iniquities, and by the iniquity of thy traffic: therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, to devour thee, and I will make thee as ashes upon the earth in the sight of all that see thee.

¹⁹ All that shall see thee among the nations, shall be astonished at thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.

6 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to be judged before the unjust, and not before the saints?

² Know you not that the saints shall judge this world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

³ Know you not that we shall judge angels? how much more things of this world?

⁴ If therefore you have judgments of things pertaining to this world, set them to judge, who are the most despised in the church.

⁵ I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not among you any one wise man, that is able to judge between his brethren?

⁶ But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers.

⁷ Already indeed there is plainly a fault among you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

⁸ But you do wrong and defraud, and that to your brethren.

⁹ Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,

¹⁰ Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.

¹¹ And such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.