Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

74 The learning of Asaph. God, why hast thou put (us) away into the end; thy strong vengeance is wroth on the sheep of thy pasture? (The teaching of Asaph. God, why hast thou deserted us? is it forever? and why is thy anger, yea, thy fury, so strong against the sheep of thy pasture?)

² Be thou mindful of thy gathering together; which thou haddest in possession from the beginning. Thou again-boughtest the rod of thine heritage; the hill of Zion, in which thou dwelledest therein. (Remember thy congregation; whom thou haddest in possession since the old days. Thou redeemedest this tribe for thy inheritance. And remember Mount Zion; where thou dwelledest.)

³ Raise thine hands into the prides of them; how great things the enemy did wickedly in the holy (place). (How greatly wicked were the things that the enemy did in the holy place; raise up thy hands against their pride.)

⁴ And they that hated thee; had glory in the midst of thy solemnity. They setted their signs, either banners, to be signs on the highest (place), as in the out-going; and they knew not. (For they who hated thee, had glory in the midst of thy holy place. They set up their signs, or their banners, there, as signs of victory.)

⁵ As in a wood of trees, they hewed down with axes the gates thereof into itself; (Like in a forest, they hewed down its gates with their axes, as if they were woodsmen;)

⁶ they casted down it with an ax, and a broad falling ax. (they threw them down with their axes, yea, with their broad falling axes.)

⁷ They burnt with fire thy saintuary; they defouled the tabernacle of thy name in earth. (They burned thy sanctuary with fire; they defiled the Temple of thy name, and razed it to the ground.)

⁸ The kindred of them said together in their heart; Make we all the feast days of God to cease in the earth. (They said in their hearts, Let us altogether destroy them; and they burned down all the synagogues of God in the land/and they burned down all the holy places of God in the land.)

⁹ We have not seen our signs, now there is no prophet; and he shall no more know us. (We cannot see our signs, that is, the future, for now there is no prophet here; and none of us know how long this shall last.)

¹⁰ God, how long shall the enemy say despite? the adversary stirreth to ire thy name into the end. (God, how long shall the enemy show their despising of us? shall the adversary scorn thy name forever?)

¹¹ Why turnest thou away thine hand, and to (not) draw out thy right hand from the midst of thy bosom, till into the end? (Why turnest thou away thy hand, and why draw thou not out thy right hand from the midst of thy bosom?)

¹² Forsooth God our king before worlds, wrought health in the midst of earth. (But God, our King forever, hath given salvation, or deliverance, all the world over.)

¹³ Thou madest firm the sea by thy virtue; thou hast troubled the heads of the dragons in waters. (Thou dividedest the sea by thy strength, or thy power; thou hast broken the heads of the dragons in the water/thou hast broken the heads of the Dragon in the water.)

¹⁴ Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon; thou hast given him to be meat to the peoples of Ethiopians. (Thou hast broken the heads of the Dragon, or of Leviathan; thou hast given him to be food for the peoples of the desert.)

¹⁵ Thou hast broken wells, and strands; thou madest dry the floods of Eitan. (Thou hast broken open the wells, or the springs, and the streams; thou hast dried up the mighty rivers.)

¹⁶ The day is thine, and the night is thine; thou madest the morrowtide and the sun.

¹⁷ Thou madest all the ends of the earth; summer, and ver time, either springing time (or spring time), thou formedest those.

¹⁸ Be thou mindful of this thing, the enemy hath said shame to the Lord; and the unwise people hath excited to ire thy name. (Remember this, that the enemy hath said shame to the Lord; and that the foolish and the ignorant have scorned thy name.)

¹⁹ Betake thou not (over) to beasts men acknowledging to thee; and forget thou not into the end the souls of thy poor men. (Give thou not over to beasts those who confess thee; and forget thou not forever the suffering of thy poor.)

²⁰ Behold into thy testament; for they that be made dark of (the) earth, be [full-]filled with the houses of wickednesses. (Remember thy covenant; for the dark places of the earth, be filled full with the houses of wickedness.)

²¹ A meek man be not turned away made ashamed; a poor man and needy shall praise thy name. (Let not the humble be turned away, and be made ashamed; yea, let the poor and the needy praise thy name.)

²² God, rise up, deem thou thy cause; be thou mindful of thy shames, either upbraidings, of those that be all day of the unwise man. (God, rise up, defend thou thy own case; remember the reproaches, or the upbraidings, that come to thee all day long, from the foolish and the ignorant.)

²³ Forget thou not the voices of thine enemies; the pride of them that hate thee ascendeth ever[more]. (Do not thou forget the words, or the shouts, of thy enemies; the noise of those who hate thee goeth up forevermore.)

¹⁶ Lord, in anguish they sought thee (out); in the tribulation of grumbling, (you gave) thy doctrine to them.

¹⁷ As she that conceived, when she nigheth sorrowful to the child bearing, crieth in her sorrows, so we be made, Lord, of thy face. (As she who conceived, and when she neareth to giving birth, crieth out in her sorrows, or in her pain, so we be made, Lord, in thy presence.)

¹⁸ We have conceived, and we have as travailed of child, and we have childed the spirit of health; we did not rightfulness in (the) earth. Therefore the dwellers of [the] earth fell not down; (We have conceived, and we have laboured as with child, but we brought forth nothing but wind. We have not won any victory in the land, and the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.)

¹⁹ thy dead men shall live (again), and my slain men shall rise again. Ye that dwell in dust, awake, and praise; for why the dew of light is thy dew, and thou shalt draw down the land of giants into falling. (But thy dead shall live again, and my slain people shall rise again. Ye who live in the dust, awake, and give praise; for thy dew is the dew of light, and thou shalt revive those who have long been dead/and the earth shall bring back to life those who have long been dead.)

²⁰ Go thou, my people, enter into thy beds, close thy doors on thee, be thou hid a little at a moment, till (the) indignation pass (by).

²¹ For lo! the Lord shall go out of his place, to visit the wickedness of the dwellers of [the] earth against him; and the earth shall show his blood, and shall no more cover his slain men. (For lo! the Lord shall go out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wickedness; and the earth shall show their blood, and shall no more cover its people who be slain.)

27 In that day the Lord shall visit in his hard sword, and great, and strong, on leviathan, (the) serpent, a bar, and on leviathan, the crooked serpent; and he shall slay the whale, which is in the sea. (On that day the Lord shall punish with his hard sword, yea, with his great and strong sword, Leviathan, that piercing serpent, Leviathan, that twisting, wriggling serpent, and he shall kill this monster which is in the sea.)

¹⁴ And Jesus was casting out a fiend [And he was casting out a fiend], and it was dumb. And when he had cast out the fiend, the dumb man spake; and the people wondered.

¹⁵ And some of them said, In Beelzebub, prince of devils, he casteth out devils.

¹⁶ And others tempting asked of him a token from heaven.

¹⁷ And as he saw the thoughts of them, he said to them, Every realm parted against itself, shall be desolate, and an house shall fall on an house.^[a]

¹⁸ And if Satan be parted against himself, how shall his realm stand? For ye say, that I cast out fiends in Beelzebub.

¹⁹ And if I in Beelzebub cast out fiends, in whom cast out your sons [in whom your sons cast out]? Therefore they shall be your doomsmen.

²⁰ But if I cast out fiends in the finger of God, then [soothly] the realm of God is come among you.

²¹ When a strong, armed man keepeth his house, all things that he wieldeth be in peace.

²² But if a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him, he shall take away all his armour, in which he trusted, and shall deal abroad his robberies [and shall deal abroad his spoils, or robberies].

²³ He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not together with me, scattereth abroad.

²⁴ When an unclean spirit goeth out of a man, he wandereth by dry places, and seeketh rest [When an unclean spirit hath gone out of a man, he wandereth by dry places, seeking rest]; and he finding none, saith, I shall turn again into mine house, from whence I came out.

²⁵ And when he cometh, he findeth it cleansed with besoms, and fair arrayed [and adorned].

²⁶ Then he goeth, and taketh with him seven other spirits worse than himself, and they enter [in], and dwell there. And the last things of that man be made worse than the former.

²⁷ And it was done, when he had said these things, a woman of the company raised [up] her voice, and said to him, Blessed be the womb that bare thee, and blessed be the teats that thou hast sucked.^[b]

²⁸ And he said, But yea blessed be they [And he said, Rather, blessed be they], that hear the word of God, and keep it.