Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

16 A Secret Treasure of David. Preserve me, O God, for I did trust in Thee.

² Thou hast said to Jehovah, `My Lord Thou [art];' My good [is] not for thine own sake;

³ For the holy ones who [are] in the land, And the honourable, all my delight [is] in them.

⁴ Multiplied are their griefs, [Who] have hastened backward; I pour not out their libations of blood, Nor do I take up their names on my lips.

⁵ Jehovah [is] the portion of my share, and of my cup, Thou -- Thou dost uphold my lot.

⁶ Lines have fallen to me in pleasant places, Yea, a beauteous inheritance [is] for me.

⁷ I bless Jehovah who hath counselled me; Also [in] the nights my reins instruct me.

⁸ I did place Jehovah before me continually, Because -- at my right hand I am not moved.

⁹ Therefore hath my heart been glad, And my honour doth rejoice, Also my flesh dwelleth confidently:

¹⁰ For Thou dost not leave my soul to Sheol, Nor givest thy saintly one to see corruption.

¹¹ Thou causest me to know the path of life; Fulness of joys [is] with Thy presence, Pleasant things by Thy right hand for ever!

⁴ `I, Nebuchadnezzar, have been at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace:

⁵ a dream I have seen, and it maketh me afraid, and the conceptions on my bed, and the visions of my head, do trouble me.

⁶ And by me a decree is made, to cause all the wise men of Babylon to come up before me, that the interpretation of the dream they may cause me to know.

⁷ Then coming up are the scribes, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, and the dream I have told before them, and its interpretation they are not making known to me.

⁸ And at last come up before me hath Daniel, whose name [is] Belteshazzar -- according to the name of my god -- and in whom [is] the spirit of the holy gods, and the dream before him I have told:

⁹ `O Belteshazzar, master of the scribes, as I have known that the spirit of the holy gods [is] in thee, and no secret doth press thee, the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation, tell.

¹⁰ As to the visions of my head on my bed, I was looking, and lo, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height [is] great:

¹¹ become great hath the tree, yea, strong, and its height doth reach to the heavens, and its vision to the end of the whole land;

¹² its leaves [are] fair, and its budding great, and food for all [is] in it: under it take shade doth the beast of the field, and in its boughs dwell do the birds of the heavens, and of it fed are all flesh.

¹³ `I was looking, in the visions of my head on my bed, and lo, a sifter, even a holy one, from the heavens is coming down.

¹⁴ He is calling mightily, and thus hath said, Cut down the tree, and cut off its branches, shake off its leaves, and scatter its budding, move away let the beast from under it, and the birds from off its branches;

¹⁵ but the stump of its roots leave in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field, and with the dew of the heavens is it wet, and with the beasts [is] his portion in the herb of the earth;

¹⁶ his heart from man's is changed, and the heart of a beast is given to him, and seven times pass over him;

¹⁷ by the decree of the sifters [is] the sentence, and by the saying of the holy ones the requirement, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and to whom He willeth He giveth it, and the lowest of men He doth raise up over it.

¹⁸ `This dream I have seen, I king Nebuchadnezzar; and thou, O Belteshazzar, the interpretation tell, because that all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to cause me to know the interpretation, and thou [art] able, for the spirit of the holy gods [is] in thee.

¹¹ and thou, O man of God, these things flee, and pursue righteousness, piety, faith, love, endurance, meekness;

¹² be striving the good strife of the faith, be laying hold on the life age-during, to which also thou wast called, and didst profess the right profession before many witnesses.

¹³ I charge thee, before God, who is making all things alive, and of Christ Jesus, who did testify before Pontius Pilate the right profession,

¹⁴ that thou keep the command unspotted, unblameable, till the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁵ which in His own times He shall shew -- the blessed and only potentate, the King of the kings and Lord of the lords,

¹⁶ who only is having immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable, whom no one of men did see, nor is able to see, to whom [is] honour and might age-during! Amen.

¹⁷ Those rich in the present age charge thou not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who is giving to us all things richly for enjoyment; --

¹⁸ to do good, to be rich in good works, to be ready to impart, willing to communicate,

¹⁹ treasuring up to themselves a right foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life age-during.

²⁰ O Timotheus, the thing entrusted guard thou, avoiding the profane vain-words and opposition of the falsely-named knowledge,

²¹ which certain professing -- concerning the faith did swerve; the grace [is] with you. Amen.