Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³ Have mercy on us, Lord. Have mercy on us,
    because we have been insulted.
⁴ We have suffered many insults from lazy people
    and much cruelty from the proud.

² “My troubled thoughts cause me to answer,
    because I am very upset.
³ You correct me and I am insulted,
    but I understand how to answer you.

⁴ “You know how it has been for a long time,
    ever since people were first put on the earth.
⁵ The happiness of evil people is brief,
    and the joy of the wicked lasts only a moment.
⁶ Their pride may be as high as the heavens,
    and their heads may touch the clouds,
⁷ but they will be gone forever, like their own dung.
    People who knew them will say, ‘Where are they?’
⁸ They will fly away like a dream
    and not be found again;
    they will be chased away like a vision in the night.
⁹ Those who saw them will not see them again;
    the places where they lived will see them no more.
¹⁰ Their children will have to pay back the poor,
    and they will have to give up their wealth.
¹¹ They had the strength of their youth in their bones,
    but it will lie with them in the dust of death.