Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

54 Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David.

² Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:

³ Be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,

⁴ At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.

⁵ My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.

⁶ Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.

⁷ And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?

⁸ Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.

⁹ I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.

¹⁰ Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.

¹¹ Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,

¹² And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.

¹³ For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.

¹⁴ But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,

¹⁵ Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.

¹⁶ Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.

¹⁷ But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.

¹⁸ Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.

¹⁹ He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.

²⁰ God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:

²¹ He hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,

²² They are divided by the wrath Of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.

²³ Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.

²⁴ But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.

6 And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord: and he delivered them into the hand of Madian seven years.

² And they were grievously oppressed by them. And they made themselves dens and eaves in the mountains, and strong holds to resist.

³ And when Israel had sown, Madian and Amalec, and the rest of the eastern nations came up:

⁴ And pitching their tents among them, wasted all things as they were in the blade even to the entrance of Gaza: and they left nothing at all in Israel for sustenance of life, nor sheep, nor oxen, nor asses.

⁵ For they and all their flocks came with their tents, and like locusts filled all places, an innumerable multitude of men, and of camels, wasting whatsoever they touched.

⁶ And Israel was humbled exceedingly in the sight of Madian.

⁷ And he cried to the Lord desiring help against the Madianites.

⁸ And he sent unto them a prophet, and he spoke: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I made you to come up out of Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage,

⁹ And delivered you out of the hands of the Egyptians, and of all the enemies that afflicted you: and I cast them out at your coming in, and gave you their land.

¹⁰ And I said: I am the Lord your God, fear not the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell. And you would not hear my voice.

2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of Christ.

² For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

³ And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

⁴ And my speech and my preaching was not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in shewing of the Spirit and power;

⁵ That your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.