Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

37 To David. [The psalm of David.] Do not thou follow wicked men; neither love thou men doing wickedness. (The song of David. Do not thou follow the wicked; nor love thou those who do wickedly.)

² For they shall wax dry swiftly as hay; and they shall fall down soon as the worts of herbs. (For they shall quickly grow dry like the hay, or the grass; and soon they shall fall down like the best herbs, or the plants.)

³ Hope thou in the Lord, and do thou goodness (Trust thou in the Lord, and do good); and inhabit thou the land, and thou shalt be fed with his riches.

⁴ Delight thou in the Lord; and he shall give to thee the askings of thine heart.

⁵ Show thy way to the Lord; and hope in him, and he shall do. (Give all thy ways to the Lord, and trust in him; and he shall make it happen.)

⁶ And he shall lead out thy rightfulness as light, and thy doom as midday; (And he shall lead forth thy righteousness like the light, and thy judgement like the midday sun;)

⁷ be thou subject to the Lord, and pray thou him. Do not thou follow him, that hath prosperity in his way; (nor) a man doing unrightfulness. (be thou subject to the Lord, and wait thou for him. Do not thou follow a man, simply because he hath prospered along his way; nor a man doing unrighteousness, or wickedness.)

⁸ Cease thou of ire, and forsake strong vengeance; do not thou follow, that thou do wickedly. (Cease thou from anger, and abandon taking vengeance; do not thou follow after these things, so that thou do wickedly.)

⁹ For they, that do wickedly, shall be destroyed; but they that suffer the Lord, shall inherit the land. (For they, who do wickedly, shall be destroyed; but they who hope in the Lord, shall inherit the earth.)

⁸ Therefore Rabshakeh turned again (And so Rabshakeh returned), and found the king of Assyrians fighting against Libnah; for he had heard, that the king had gone away from Lachish.

⁹ And when he had heard of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, men saying, Lo! he went out, that he fight against thee; that he should go against that king, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, and said, (And when he had heard men saying of Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, Lo! he went out, so that he could fight against thee; then before he went out against Tirhakah, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, and said,)

¹⁰ Say ye these things to Hezekiah, king of Judah, Thy Lord God, in whom thou hast trust, deceive not thee (deceive thee not), neither say thou, Jerusalem shall not be betaken into the hands of the king of Assyrians;

¹¹ for thou thyself hast heard what things the kings of Assyrians have done in all lands, how they have wasted them; whether therefore thou alone mayest be delivered? (and so can thou alone escape?)

¹² Whether the gods of heathen men delivered all (the) men which my fathers destroyed, that is, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, that were in Thelasar? (who were in Thelasar?)

¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad? and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and of Ivah?

¹⁴ Therefore when Hezekiah had taken the letters from the hand of the messengers, and had read them, he went up into the house of the Lord, and spreaded abroad those letters before the Lord;

¹⁵ and prayed in his sight, and said, Lord God of Israel, that sittest upon cherubim, thou art (the) God alone of all kings of [the] earth; thou madest heaven and earth. (and prayed before him, and said, Lord God of Israel, who sittest above the cherubim, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou madest heaven and earth.)

¹⁶ Bow [down] thine ear, (Lord,) and hear; open thine eyes, Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, the which (he) hath sent to us, that he would despise the living God (yea, his insulting words toward the living God).

¹⁷ Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyrians have destroyed heathen men, and the lands of all men,

¹⁸ and they have sent the gods of them into (the) fire; for they were not gods, but [the] works of men’s hands, of wood and of stone; and they destroyed them.

¹⁹ Now therefore, our Lord God, make us safe from the hand of them, that all the realms of [the] earth (may) know that thou art the Lord God alone. (And so now, Lord our God, make us safe from them, so that all the kingdoms of the earth can know that thou alone art the Lord God.)

²⁰ Forsooth Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, and said, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, I have heard those things, which thou prayedest (to) me on Sennacherib, king of Assyrians.

³⁵ Therefore it was done, in that night the angel of the Lord came, and smote in the castles of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand (And so it was done that night, that the angel of the Lord came, and killed a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the tents, or the camp, of the Assyrians). And when Sennacherib had risen early, he saw all the bodies of [the] dead men;

³⁶ and he departed, and went away. And Sennacherib, king of Assyrians, turned again, and dwelled in Nineveh (And Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, returned home, and lived in Nineveh).

³⁷ And when he worshipped in the temple (of) Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, killed him with (the) sword; and (then) they fled into the land of Armenia; and Esarhaddon, his son, reigned for him.

¹² And to the angel of the church of Pergamos write thou, These things saith he, that hath the sword sharp on either side [that hath the sword sharp on each side].

¹³ I know where thou dwellest, where the seat of Satan is; and thou holdest my name, and deniedest not my faith. And in those days was Antipas, my faithful witness, that was slain at you, where Satan dwelleth.

¹⁴ But I have against thee a few things; for thou hast there men holding the teaching of Balaam, which taught Balac to send cause of stumbling [to send offence] before the sons of Israel, to eat of sacrifices of idols, and to do fornication;

¹⁵ so also thou hast men holding the teaching of Nicolaitanes.

¹⁶ Also do thou penance; if any thing less [if not], I shall come soon to thee, and I shall fight with them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷ He that hath ears, hear he, what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh I shall give angel meat hid [To the overcoming, I shall give manna hid, or angel meat]; and I shall give to him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, but he that taketh.

¹⁸ And to the angel of the church of Thyatira write thou, These things saith the Son of God, that hath eyes as flame of fire, and his feet like latten [and his feet like to the dross of gold, either latten].

¹⁹ I know thy works, and faith, and charity, and thy service [and service], and thy patience, and thy last works more than the former.

²⁰ But I have against thee a few things; for thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, which saith that she is a prophetess [the which saith herself for to be a prophetess], to teach and deceive my servants, to do lechery, and to eat of things offered to idols.

²¹ And I gave to her time, that she should do penance [And I gave to her time, for to do penance], and she would not do penance of her fornication.

²² And lo! [Lo!] I send her into a bed, and they that do lechery with her shall be in most tribulation, but they do penance of her works [but they do penance of their works].

²³ And I shall slay her sons into death [And I shall slay her sons in death], and all churches shall know, that I am searching reins and hearts; and I shall give to each man of you after his works.

²⁴ And I say to you, and to others that be at Thyatira, whoever have not this teaching, and that knew not the highness of Satan, how they say, I shall not send on [upon] you another charge;

²⁵ nevertheless hold ye that that ye have, till I come. [nevertheless that that ye have, holdeth till I come.]

²⁶ And to him that shall overcome, and that shall keep till into the end my works, I shall give power on folks, [And to him that shall overcome, and shall keep till into the end my works, I shall give to him power upon folks,]

²⁷ and he shall govern them in an iron rod; and they shall be broken together, as a vessel of a potter, as also I received of my Father;

²⁸ and I shall give to him a morrow star. [and I shall give to him a morn star.]

²⁹ He that hath ears, hear he, what the Spirit saith to the churches.