Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁸¹ [Caph]. My soul failed into thine health; and I hoped more in thy word. (My soul fainteth waiting for thy salvation, or thy deliverance; but still I trust in thy word.)

⁸² Mine eyes failed into thy speech; saying, When shalt thou comfort me? (My eyes fail waiting for thy word; and so I ask, When shalt thou comfort me?)

⁸³ For I am made as a bouget, (or a bottle,) in frost; (yet) I have not forgotten thy justifyings. (For I am shriveled up, like a wineskin in the smoke; but I have not forgotten thy statutes.)

⁸⁴ How many be the days of thy servant; when thou shalt make doom of them that pursue me? (How many days must thy servant wait? when shalt thou bring judgement upon those who persecute me?)

⁸⁵ Wicked men told to me janglings; but (they be) not as thy law. (The wicked gossiped about me; and they do not obey thy Law.)

⁸⁶ All thy commandments be truth; wicked men have pursued me, help thou me. (All thy commandments be faithful/be trustworthy, and shall stand forever; the wicked persecute me, help thou me!)

⁸⁷ Almost they ended me in [the] earth; but I forsook not thy commandments. (Yea, they almost brought me to an end here on the earth; but I did not forsake thy precepts.)

⁸⁸ By thy mercy quicken thou me; and I shall keep the witnessings of thy mouth. (In thy mercy/In thy love, grant thou me life; so that I can obey the teachings from thy mouth.)

⁸ But thou, son of man, hear whatever things I shall speak to thee; and do not thou be a stirrer to wrath, as the house of Israel is a stirrer to wrath. Open thy mouth, and eat whatever things I give to thee. (But thou, son of man, listen to whatever I say to thee; and do not thou be a stirrer, or a provoker, to anger, like the house of Israel is a stirrer to anger. Open thy mouth, and eat whatever things I give thee.)

⁹ And I saw, and lo! an hand was sent to me, in which a book was folded together. (And I saw, and lo! a hand was sent to me, holding a folded up book, or a folio/holding a rolled up scroll.)

¹⁰ And he spreaded abroad it before me, that was written within and withoutforth. And lamentations, and song, and woe, were written therein. (And he spread it out before me/And he unrolled it before me, and it was written on both sides, that is, the inside, and the outside. And lamentations, and songs, and woes, were written on it.)

3 And he said to me, Son of man, eat thou whatever thing thou findest (before thee), eat thou this volume; and go thou, and speak to the sons of Israel. (And he said to me, Son of man, eat thou whatever thing thou findest before thee, yea, eat thou this book/yea, eat thou this scroll; and then go thou, and speak to the Israelites.)

² And I opened my mouth, and he fed me with that volume. (And I opened my mouth, and he fed me with that book/and he fed me with that scroll.)

³ And he said to me, Son of man, thy womb shall eat, and thine entrails shall be filled with this volume, which I give to thee. And I ate it, and it was made as sweet honey in my mouth. (And he said to me, Son of man, make thy womb to eat, and thy bowels to be filled with this book/with this scroll, which I give thee. And I ate it, and it was made as sweet as honey in my mouth.)

⁴ And he said to me, Son of man, go thou to the house of Israel, and thou shalt speak my words to them.

⁵ For thou shalt not be sent to a people of high word, and of unknown language; thou shalt be sent to the house of Israel,

⁶ neither to many peoples of high word, and of unknown language, of which thou mayest not hear the words. And if thou were sent to them, they should hear thee. (nor to great peoples of difficult and unknown languages, of which thou cannot understand the words. Though if thou had been sent to them, they would have listened to thee.)

⁷ But the house of Israel will not hear thee, for they will not hear me. For all the house of Israel is of defouled, either of unshamefast, forehead, and of hard heart. (But the house of Israel will not listen to thee, for they will not listen to me. For all the house of Israel is of defiled, or of defiant, face, and of hard, or stubborn, heart.)

⁸ Lo! I gave thy face stronger than the faces of them, and thy forehead harder than the foreheads of them. (Lo! I made thy face stronger than their faces, and thy head harder than their heads, or thy stubbornness stronger than their stubbornness.)

⁹ And I gave thy face as an adamant, and as a flint; dread thou not them, neither dread thou of the face of them, for it is an house stirring to wrath. (And I made thy face like adamant, yea, harder than flint; do not thou fear them, nor fear thou their faces, though it is a house stirring me to anger.)

¹⁰ And he said to me, Son of man, take in thine heart, and hear with thine ears all these my words, which I speak to thee.

¹¹ And go thou, and enter to the passing over, to the sons of thy people. And thou shalt speak to them, and thou shalt say to them, The Lord God saith these things, if peradventure they hear, and rest. (And go thou, and enter in to the exiles, or to the captives, to the nation of thy people. And thou shalt speak to them, and thou shalt say to them, whether they listen to you or not, The Lord God saith these things.)

¹⁶ Again I say, lest any man guess me to be unwise [lest any man deem me unwise]; else take ye me as unwise, that also I have glory a little what.

¹⁷ That that I speak, I speak not after God, but as in unwisdom [but as to unwisdom], in this substance of glory.

¹⁸ For many men glory after the flesh, and I shall glory.

¹⁹ For ye suffer gladly unwise men, when ye yourselves be wise.

²⁰ For ye suffer, if any man driveth you into servage [if any man drive you into servage], if any man devoureth, if any man taketh, if any man is enhanced [by pride], if any man smiteth you on the face.

²¹ By unnobleness I say, as if we were frail in this part^[a]. In what thing any man dare, in unwisdom I say, and I dare.

²² They be Hebrews, and I; they be Israelites, and I; they be the seed of Abraham, and I;

²³ they be the ministers of Christ, and I. As less wise I say, I more; in full many travails, in prisons more plenteously, in wounds above manner [in wounds above manner, or over measure], in deaths oft times.

²⁴ I received of the Jews five times forty strokes one less;

²⁵ thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I was at ship-break, a night and a day I was in the deepness of the sea;

²⁶ in ways oft, in perils of rivers [in perils of floods], in perils of thieves, in perils of kin, in perils of heathen men, in perils in [the] city, in perils in desert, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren,

²⁷ in travail and neediness, in many wakings, in hunger, in thirst [in travail and neediness, either mis-ease, in many wakings, in hunger and thirst], in many fastings, in cold and nakedness.

²⁸ Without those things that be withoutforth, mine each day's travailing is the busyness of all churches. [Without those things that be withoutforth; mine each day's waking, or studying, the busyness of all churches.]

²⁹ Who is frail, and I am not frail? who is caused to stumble, and I am not burnt? [Who is sick, and I am not sick? who is offended, and I am not burnt?]

³⁰ If it behooveth to glory, I shall glory in those things that be of mine infirmity [that be of my infirmity, or frailty].

³¹ [For] God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is blessed into worlds, knoweth that I lie not [knoweth, that I gab not, or lie not].

³² The provost of Damascus, of the king of the folk of Aretas [The provost, or keeper, of Damascus, of the king of the folk Arteas], kept the city of Damascenes to take me;

³³ and by a window in a basket I was let down by the wall, and so I escaped his hands.