Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

90 (Tefillah of Moshe, ish HaElohim) Adonoi, Thou hast been our ma’on (dwelling place) b’dor vador.

² Before the harim were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed eretz and the tevel (inhabited world), even from olam ad olam, Thou art El (G-d).

³ Thou turnest enosh to dakka (dust); and sayest, Shuvu, ye Bnei Adam.

⁴ For an elef shanim in Thy sight are but as yom etmol (yesterday) when it is past, and as an ashmurah (watch, division of time) in the lailah.

⁵ Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sheinah (sleep); in the boker they are like khatzir (grass) which withereth.

⁶ In the boker it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the erev it is cut down, and drieth up.

⁷ For we are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy chemah are we troubled.

⁸ Thou hast set avonoteinu before Thee, our secret sins in the ohr of Thy countenance.

⁹ For kol yameinu are passed away in Thy evrah (fury); we spend shaneinu (our years) like a sigh.

¹⁰ The yamim of shnoteinu (our years, life) are threescore shanah and ten; and if by reason of gevurot they are fourscore shanah, yet is their boast amal (trouble, toil) and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

¹¹ Who has da’as of the oz (power) of Thine anger? Thy evrah is as great as Thy yirah (fear of, reverence owed G-d).

¹² So teach us to number yameinu, that we may apply levav unto chochmah.

¹⁰ Hinei, the Yom, hinei, it is come; The Tzefirah (Web) is gone forth; the mateh (rod) hath blossomed, zadon (pride) hath budded.

¹¹ Chamas is risen up into mateh resha (a rod of wickedness); none of them shall remain, nor of their tumult, nor of any of their’s; none of their preeminence.

¹² The time is come, the day draweth near; let not the koneh (buyer) rejoice, nor the mokher (seller) mourn; for charon (wrath) is upon all the multitude thereof.

¹³ For the mokher (seller) shall not return to that which is sold, as long as his life is alive; for the chazon (vision) concerns the whole multitude thereof, which shall not be reversed; neither shall any strengthen himself in the avon of his life.

¹⁴ They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the milchamah; for My charon (wrath) is upon all the multitude thereof.

¹⁵ The cherev is outside, and the dever and the ra’av (famine) inside; he that is in the sadeh shall die with the cherev; and he that is in the Ir, ra’av (famine) and dever shall devour him.

¹⁶ But they that survive of them shall escape, and shall be on the harim like doves of the ge’ayot (valleys), all of them moaning, every one for his avon.

¹⁷ All hands shall go limp, and all birkayim (knees) shall be weak as mayim.

¹⁸ They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and terror shall cover them; and bushah (shame) shall be upon all faces, and shaved scalps [the sign of mourning] upon all their heads.

¹⁹ They shall cast their kesef in the streets, and their zahav shall be like niddah; their kesef and their zahav shall not be able to save them in the Yom Evrat Hashem (Day of the Wrath of Hashem); they shall not satisfy their nefashot, neither fill their stomachs; for it has become the stumbling block of their avon.

²⁰ As for the beauty of his jewelry, he set it in ga’on (pride); but they made the tzelem of their to’avot and of their shikkutzim therein; therefore I will make it like niddah to them.

²¹ And I will give it into the hands of the zarim (strangers) for plunder, and to the resha’im of ha’aretz for loot; and they shall defile it.

²² My face will I turn also from them, and they shall desecrate My treasure; for the robbers shall enter into it [i.e., Yerushalayim], and defile it.

²³ Make a chain; for ha’aretz is full of mishpat damim, and the ir is full of chamas.

²⁴ Therefore I will bring the worst of the Goyim, and they shall possess their batim (houses); I will also make the ga’on (pride) of the mighty to cease; and their mikdashim (holy places) shall be defiled.

²⁵ Terror cometh; and they shall seek shalom, and there shall be none.

²⁶ Disaster shall come upon disaster, and rumor shall be upon rumor; then shall they seek a chazon (vision) from the navi; but the torah shall perish from the kohen, and etzah from the zekenim (elders).

²⁷ HaMelech shall mourn, and the nasi shall be clothed with despair, and the hands of the am ha’aretz shall fearfully tremble; I will do unto them according to their derech, and according to their mishpatim will I judge them; and they shall know that I am Hashem.

⁴³ Now when the ruach hatameh (unclean spirit) goes out from the man, it goes through dry places seeking a manoach (resting place) and it does not find one.

⁴⁴ Then it says, Into my haunt I will return from where I came out. And having come out, it finds the bais standing empty, having been swept and having been put beseder (in order).

⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes along with itself seven other ruchot more evil than itself and, having entered the residence, it sets up house there, and the last state of that man has become worse than the first. Thus it will be with this evil generation also.