Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

17 The prayer of David. Lord, hear thou my rightfulness; behold thou my prayer. Perceive thou with ears my prayer; not made in guileful lips. (The prayer of David. Lord, hear thou my plea for justice; consider thou my prayer. Listen thou to my prayer; for it is not made with deceitful, or lying, lips.)

² My doom come forth of thy cheer; thine eyes see they equity. (Let my judgement come forth from thy lips; let thine eyes be fixed on justice.)

³ Thou hast proved mine heart, and hast visited (me) in [the] night; thou hast examined, or assayed, me by fire, and wickedness is not found in me.

⁴ That my mouth speak not (of) the works of men; for the words of thy lips I have kept hard ways. (My mouth shall not speak of the works of men; by the words of thy lips I have kept myself from bad ways.)

⁵ Make thou perfect my goings in thy paths; that my steps be not moved. (Make thou perfect my goings on thy paths; so that my steps will not slip, or stumble/so that I do not fall.)

⁶ I cried, for thou, God, heardest me; bow down thy ear to me, and hear thou my words. (I cried, for I know that thou, God, shalt answer me; bow down thy ear to me, and listen to my words.)

⁷ Make wonderful thy mercies; that makest safe them that hope in thee. (Show thou me thy constant love, thou who savest me; with thy right hand save thou those who trust in thee, from those who stand against them.)

⁸ Keep thou me as the apple of thine eye; and from them that against-stand thy right hand. Cover thou me under the shadow of thy wings; (Keep thou me as the apple of thine eye. Cover thou me, or hide me, under the shadow of thy wings;)

⁹ from the face of unpious men, that have tormented me. Mine enemies have (en)compassed my soul; (from the face of the unpious, or of the wicked, who torment me. My enemies have surrounded me;)

¹⁰ they have closed (al)together their fatness; the mouth of them spake pride. (they be enclosed in their own fatness; their mouths have spoken proudly, or boastfully.)

¹¹ They casted me forth, and have (en)compassed me now; they ordained to bow down their eyes into [the] earth. (They surround me now, wherever I turn; they lie in wait, to bring me down to the ground.)

¹² They, as a lion made ready to his prey, have taken me; and as the whelp of a lion dwelling in hid places. (They be ready to catch me, like a lion catcheth its prey; and like the cub of a lion living in hidden places.)

¹³ Lord, rise thou up, before come thou him, and deceive thou him/and overturn thou him; deliver thou my life from the unpious, deliver thou thy sword; (Lord, rise thou up, come thou before him, and overturn thou him; save thou my life from the unpious, with thy sword,)

¹⁴ from the enemies of thine hand. Lord, part thou them from a few men of the land in the life of them; their womb is [full-]filled of thine hid things. They be [full-]filled with sons; and they left their remnants, either residue, to their little children. (yea, from the enemies of thy hand. Lord, save thou me from those of the land who have their portion in this life; their womb is filled full of thy good things. They be filled full with sons and daughters; and they have left all that they have to their little children.)

¹⁵ But I in rightfulness shall appear to thy sight; I shall be [ful]filled, when thy glory shall appear. (But I shall appear upright, or righteous, before thee; and I shall be fulfilled, when thy glory shall appear.)

²⁷ And when the mourning was passed, David sent, and brought her into his house; and she was made (a) wife to him, and she childed a son to him. And this word that David had done displeased before the Lord (But this thing that David had done greatly displeased the Lord).

12 Therefore the Lord sent Nathan to David; and when he had come to David, he said to him, Answer thou a doom to me (Give thou to me your judgement on this); two men were in one city; one man was rich, and the tother was poor.

² The rich man had full many sheep, and oxen;

³ and the poor man had utterly nothing, except one little sheep, which he had bought, and nourished, and which had waxed at him, (and) with his sons, and ate together (with them) of his bread, and drank of his cup, and slept in his bosom; and it was as a daughter to him. (and the poor man had utterly nothing, except one little lamb, which he had bought, and nourished, and which had grown up with him, and with his sons, and together with them ate his food, and drank from his cup, and slept in his bosom; yea, it was like a daughter to him.)

⁴ But when a pilgrim came to this rich man, he spared to take of his own sheep and oxen, that he should make a feast to that pilgrim, that came to him; and he took the sheep of the poor man, and prepared meats to the man that came to him. (But when a visitor came to the rich man, he would not take his own sheep and oxen to make a feast for that visitor, who came to him; but instead he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared food for the man who came to him.)

⁵ Certainly David was full wroth with indignation against that man, and he said to Nathan, (As) The Lord liveth, for the man that did this thing is the son of death, that is, is worthy of death, for the hideousness of the deed;

⁶ he shall yield the sheep into fourfold, for he did this word, and spared not. (he shall give him four sheep, for he did this thing, and yet could care less.)

⁷ And Nathan said to David, Thou art that man, that hast done this thing. The Lord God of Israel saith these things, I anointed thee into king on Israel (I anointed thee king upon Israel), and I delivered thee from the hand of Saul,

⁸ and I gave to thee the house of thy lord, and the wives of thy lord in(to) thy bosom, and I gave to thee the house of Israel, and of Judah; and if these things be little, I shall add to thee much greater things (and if these things were too little, I would have added much greater things for thee).

⁹ Why therefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, that thou didest evils in my sight? Thou hast killed by sword Uriah (the) Hittite, and thou hast taken his wife into wife to thee, and thou hast slain him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. (And so why hast thou despised the word of the Lord, so that thou didest evils in my sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and thou hast taken his wife for thy wife, and thou hast killed him by the sword of the Ammonites.)

¹⁰ Wherefore a sword shall not go away from thine house till into without end; for thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah (the) Hittite, that she should be thy wife.

¹¹ Therefore the Lord saith these things, Lo! I shall raise on thee evil (out) of thine house, and I shall take thy wives in thine eyes, and I shall give to thy neighbour, and he shall sleep with thy wives in the eyes of this sun. (And so the Lord saith these things, Lo! I shall raise up evil against thee from thy own house, and I shall take thy wives from before thee, and I shall give them to thy neighbour, or to another man, and he shall sleep with thy wives in broad daylight.)

¹² For thou hast done (thy sin) privily; forsooth I shall do this word in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of this sun. (Yea, thou hast done thy sin in secret; but I shall do this thing before all Israel, and in broad daylight.)

¹³ And David said to Nathan, I have sinned to the Lord. And Nathan said to David, Also the Lord hath turned away thy sin; thou shalt not die. (And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord hath turned away thy sin; thou shalt not die.)

¹⁴ Nevertheless for thou hast made [the] enemies to blaspheme the name of the Lord, for this word the child that is born to thee shall die by death (because of this, the child who is born to thee shall die).

¹⁵ And Nathan turned again into his house. And the Lord smote the little child, whom the wife of Uriah childed to David, and he despaired. (And Nathan returned to his house. And the Lord struck the young child, whom Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became very ill.)

⁷ And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia write thou, These things saith the holy and true, that hath the key of David; which openeth, and no man closeth, he closeth, and no man openeth^[a].

⁸ I know thy works, and lo! I gave before thee a door opened, which no man may close^[b]; for thou hast a little virtue, and hast kept my word, and deniedest not my name.

⁹ Lo! I shall give to thee of the synagogue of Satan, which say that they be Jews, and be not, but lie. Lo! I shall make them, that they come, and worship before thy feet; and they shall know, that I loved thee,

¹⁰ for thou keptest the word of my patience. And I shall keep thee from the hour of temptation, that is to coming [that is to come] into all the world, to tempt men that dwell in earth.

¹¹ Lo! I come soon; hold thou that that thou hast [hold that that thou hast], that no man take thy crown.

¹² And him that shall overcome, I shall make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall no more go out; and I shall write on [upon] him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, of the new Jerusalem, that cometh down from heaven of my God, and my new name.

¹³ He that hath ears, hear he, what the Spirit saith to the churches.