Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁸ Jehovah, God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

⁹ Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.

¹⁰ For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

¹¹ For Jehovah Elohim is a sun and shield: Jehovah will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

¹² Jehovah of hosts, blessed is the man that confideth in thee!

5 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his nobles, and drank wine before the thousand.

² Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, might drink in them.

³ Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, drank in them.

⁴ They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

⁵ In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

⁶ Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

⁷ The king cried aloud to bring in the magicians, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

⁸ Then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation.

⁹ Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his nobles were confounded.

¹⁰ —The queen, by reason of the words of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet-house. The queen spoke and said, O king, live for ever! let not thy thoughts trouble thee, neither let thy countenance be changed.

¹¹ There is a man in thy kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods was found in him; and the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, [even] the king thy father, made him master of the scribes, magicians, Chaldeans, [and] astrologers;

¹² forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and solving of problems, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.

5 The elders which [are] among you I exhort, who [am their] fellow-elder and witness of the sufferings of the Christ, who also [am] partaker of the glory about to be revealed:

² shepherd the flock of God which [is] among you, exercising oversight, not by necessity, but willingly; not for base gain, but readily;

³ not as lording it over your possessions, but being models for the flock.

⁴ And when the chief shepherd is manifested ye shall receive the unfading crown of glory.

⁵ Likewise [ye] younger, be subject to [the] elder, and all of you bind on humility towards one another; for God sets himself against [the] proud, but to [the] humble gives grace.

⁶ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in [the due] time;

⁷ having cast all your care upon him, for he cares about you.

⁸ Be vigilant, watch. Your adversary [the] devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour.

⁹ Whom resist, stedfast in faith, knowing that the selfsame sufferings are accomplished in your brotherhood which [is] in [the] world.

¹⁰ But the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, when ye have suffered for a little while, himself shall make perfect, stablish, strengthen, ground:

¹¹ to him [be] the glory and the might for the ages of the ages. Amen.