Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

73 The psalm of Asaph. God of Israel is full good; to them that be of rightful heart. (The song of Asaph. The God of Israel is very good; to those who have an upright heart.)

² But my feet were moved almost; my steps were shed out almost. (But my feet almost stumbled; my steps almost slipped.)

³ For I loved fervently on wicked men; seeing the peace of sinners. (For I envied the wicked; when I saw the prosperity of the sinners.)

⁴ For beholding is not to the death of them; and steadfastness in the sickness of them. (For it seemed that they never die; yea, they always be strong, and never get sick.)

⁵ They be not in travail of (other) men; and they shall not be beaten with men. (They do not have trouble, or tribulation, like other people do; and they be not beaten down like others be.)

⁶ Therefore pride hath held them; they were covered with their wickedness and unfaithfulness.

⁷ The wickedness of them came forth as of fatness; they went into desire of heart. (Their wickedness came forth like fatness; and they went forth in the desire of their hearts.)

⁸ They thought and spake waywardness; they spake wickedness on high (they spoke wickedness out loud).

⁹ They putted their mouth into heaven; and their tongue passed in earth. (They put their mouths against heaven; and their tongues went about over all the earth.)

¹⁰ Therefore my people shall be turned again here; and full days shall be found in them. (And so my people followed them; and found nothing to condemn them for.)

¹¹ And they said, How knoweth God; and whether knowing is on high? (And they said, How could God know? how can the Most High have any knowledge of this?)

¹² Lo! those sinners and having abundance in the world; (they) held riches.

¹³ And I said, Therefore without cause I justified mine heart; and washed mine hands among innocents. (And I said, And so I have keep my heart pure, and I have kept my hands clean, all for nothing/all in vain.)

¹⁴ And I was beaten all day; and my chastising was in morrowtides. (Yea, all day long I am beaten down; and I am punished every morning.)

¹⁵ If I said, I shall tell thus; lo! I [have] reproved the nation of thy sons. (If I had said, I shall talk as they do; lo! I would have brought reproach upon the nation of thy children.)

¹⁶ I guessed, that I should know this; (but too much) travail is before me. (I tried to work through all of this; but it was too much for me.)

¹⁷ Till I enter into the saintuary of God; and understand in the last things of them. (Until I entered into the sanctuary of God; and there I understood their last things, that is, their end.)

¹⁸ Nevertheless for guiles thou hast put to them; thou castedest them down, while they were raised. (For thou shalt put them in slippery places; thou shalt throw them down, after they be raised up.)

¹⁹ How be they made into desolation; they failed suddenly, they perished for their wickedness/for their waywardness. (How they shall go into desolation! they shall suddenly fail, and they shall perish for all their wickedness/for all their wayward ways.)

²⁰ As the dream of men that (a)rise; Lord, thou shalt drive their image to nought, in thy city. (Like a dream when one awaketh, and it vanisheth; so, Lord, thou shalt drive them down into nothing/until they completely disappear.)

²¹ For mine heart is enflamed, and my reins be changed; (When my heart was enflamed, and my feelings were hurt;)

²² and I am driven to nought, and I knew not. As a work beast I am made with thee; (and I was driven down into nothing, and I knew nothing; yea, I was made like a work beast before thee;)

²³ and I am ever with thee. Thou heldest my right hand, (but still I am ever with thee. Thou holdest my right hand,)

²⁴ and in thy will thou leddest me forth; and with glory thou tookest me up. (and by thy counsel, or thy instruction, thou leadest me forth; and afterward thou shalt receive me with honour.)

²⁵ For why what is to me in heaven; and what would I of thee on earth? (For what is there for me in heaven, but thee? and what else do I desire here on earth, but thee?)

²⁶ My flesh and mine heart failed; God of mine heart, and my part is God [into] without end. (Though my flesh and my heart fail; but God is my strength, and my portion forever.)

²⁷ For lo! they that draw away far themselves from thee shall perish; thou hast lost all men that do fornication from thee. (For lo! they who take themselves far away from thee, shall perish; thou shalt destroy all those who wantonly abandon thee.)

²⁸ But it is good to me to cleave to God; and to set mine hope in the Lord God. That I tell all thy preachings, in the gates of the daughter of Zion. (But it is good for me to cleave to God; and to trust in the Lord God. And that I tell out all thy works, or all of thy deeds.)

3 And the word of the Lord was made the second time to Jonah, and said,

² Rise thou, and go into Nineveh, the great city, and preach thou in it the preaching which I speak to thee. (Rise thou up, and go to the great city Nineveh, and preach thou in it the preaching which I tell thee/which I told thee before.)

³ And Jonah rose, and went into Nineveh, by the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city, of the journey of three days. (And Jonah rose up, and went to Nineveh, by the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was such a great, or such a large, city, that it took three days’ journey to walk across it.)

⁴ And Jonah began for to enter into the city, by the journey of one day, and cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overturned, or destroyed. (And after one day’s journey in the city, Jonah cried aloud, and said, In forty days, Nineveh shall be destroyed!)

⁵ And men of Nineveh believed to the Lord, and preached fasting, and were clothed with sackcloths, from the more till to the less. (And the people of Nineveh believed the word of the Lord, and proclaimed a fast, and were clothed with sackcloths, from the greatest unto the least.)

⁶ And the word came to the king of Nineveh; and he rose off his seat, and casted away his clothing from him (and he rose up off his throne, and threw off his clothes), and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷ And he cried, and said in Nineveh of the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying, Men, and work beasts, and oxen, and sheep, taste not anything, neither be fed, neither drink water. (And he cried aloud, and had it said in Nineveh by the command of the king and of his princes, saying, People, and work beasts, and oxen, and sheep, taste not anything, neither be fed, nor drink water.)

⁸ And men be covered with sackcloths, and work beasts, (and) cry to the Lord in strength; and be a man converted, or all-turned, from his evil way, and from (the) wickedness that is in the hands of them. (And let everyone, and their work beasts, be covered with sackcloths, and cry out to the Lord with all their strength; let everyone be turned, or converted, from their evil ways, and from the wickedness that they do.)

⁹ Who knoweth, if God be converted, and forgive, and be turned away from strong vengeance of his wrath, and we shall not perish? (Who knoweth, if God shall not be converted, or shall not change his thinking, and forgive us, and turn away from the strong vengeance of his anger, and then we shall not perish!)

¹⁰ And God saw the works of them, that they were converted from their evil way; and God had mercy on the malice which he spake, that he would do to them, and did not. (And indeed God saw their works, and that they were converted, or were turned, from their evil ways; and God repented for the malice, which he had said he would do to them, and so he did not harm them.)

⁸ But, ye most dear, this one thing be not hid to you [be not unknown], that one day with God is as a thousand years, and a thousand years be as one day [and a thousand years as one day].

⁹ The Lord tarrieth not his promise, as some [men] guess, but he doeth patiently for you, and will not that any man perish [not willing any to perish], but that all turn again to penance.

¹⁰ For the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which heavens with great rush shall pass [in which heavens with great rush, or fierceness, shall pass], and elements shall be dissolved by heat, and the earth, and all the works that be in it, shall be burnt.

¹¹ Therefore when all these things shall be dissolved, what manner men behooveth it you to be in holy livings and piety [in holy livings and pieties],

¹² abiding and hieing into the coming of the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom heavens burning shall be dissolved, and elements shall fail by burning of fire^[a].

¹³ Also we abide by his promises [Soothly we abide after his promise] new heavens and new earth, in which rightwiseness dwelleth.