Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

103 A psalm of David. (A song of David.) My soul, bless thou the Lord, and all things that be within me, bless his holy name.

² My soul, bless thou the Lord; and do not thou forget all the yieldings of him. (My soul, bless thou the Lord; and do not thou forget about all his gifts to thee.)

³ Which doeth mercy to all thy wickednesses; which healeth all thy sicknesses. (Who showeth mercy to all thy sins, or all thy wickednesses; who healeth all thy sicknesses.)

⁴ Which again-buyeth thy life from death; which crowneth thee in mercy and merciful doings. (Who redeemeth thy life from death; who crowneth thee with love and merciful doings.)

⁵ Which [ful]filleth thy desire in goods; thy youth shall be renewed as the youth of an eagle. (Who fulfilleth thy desires with good things; thy youth shall be renewed like the youth of an eagle.)

⁶ The Lord doing mercies; and doom, to all men suffering wrong. (The Lord giveth mercy, and justice, to all who suffer wrong.)

⁷ He made his ways known to Moses; his wills to the sons of Israel (his deeds to the Israelites).

⁸ The Lord is a merciful doer, and merciful in will (The Lord is a giver of love, and a giver of mercy); long abiding, and much merciful.

⁹ He shall not be wroth [into] without end; and he shall not threaten [into] without end. (He shall not be angry forever; and he shall not threaten forever.)

¹⁰ He did not to us after our sins; neither he yielded to us after our wickednesses. (He did not do to us what we deserved for our sins; nor did he punish us for all our wickednesses.)

¹¹ For by the highness of heaven from earth; he made strong his mercy on men dreading him. (For as high as the heavens be above the earth, is how strong his love is, for those who fear him/for those who revere him.)

¹² As much as the east is from the west; he made [a]far our wickednesses from us.

¹³ As a father hath mercy on his sons, the Lord had mercy on men dreading him; (Like a father hath love for his sons and daughters, so the Lord hath love for those who fear him/for those who revere him;)

¹² and when his brethren dwelled in Shechem, about [the] keeping of [the] flocks of their father, (And one day, when his brothers were tending their father’s flocks in Shechem,)

¹³ Israel said to Joseph, Thy brethren keep (the) sheep in Shechem (Thy brothers tend the sheep in Shechem); come thou, I shall send thee to them. And when Joseph answered, I am ready,

¹⁴ Israel said, Go thou, and see whether all things be wellsome with thy brethren, and (with) the sheep; and (then come back, and) tell thou to me what is done. (And so) He was sent from the valley of Hebron, and came into Shechem;

¹⁵ and a man found him erring in the field (and a man found him wandering in a field), and the man asked him, what he sought.

¹⁶ And he answered, I seek my brethren; show thou to me where they keep their flocks. (And he answered, I am looking for my brothers; tell thou to me where they tend their flocks.)

¹⁷ And the man said to him, They went away from this place; forsooth I heard them saying, Go we into Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.

¹⁸ And when they had seen him afar (off), before he nighed to them, they thought to slay him (they decided to kill him),

¹⁹ and they spake together, (and said,) Lo! the dreamer cometh,

²⁰ come ye, slay we him, and put we him into an eld cistern, and we shall say, A wild beast full wicked hath devoured him; and then it shall appear what his dreams profit to him. (come ye, let us kill him, yea, we shall put him into an old cistern, and we shall say, A wicked wild beast hath devoured him; and then we shall see what his dreams shall profit him.)

²¹ Soothly Reuben heard this, and endeavoured to deliver him from their hands, and said, Slay we not the life of him (and he said, Nay, we should not kill him),

²² neither shed we out his blood, but cast ye him into an eld cistern, which is in the wilderness, and (so) keep ye your hands guiltless. Forsooth he said this, desiring to deliver him from their hands, and to yield him (again) to his father.

²³ Therefore anon as Joseph came to his brethren, they despoiled him of his coat, (that went) down to the heel, and (was) of many colours, (And so when Joseph came to his brothers, at once they tore off the coat, that went down to his heels, and had many colours,)

²⁴ and they put him in[to] an eld cistern, that had no water.

²⁵ And (then) they sat (down) to eat bread; and (soon) they saw that (some) Ishmaelite waygoers came from Gilead, and that their camels bare sweet smelling spiceries, and resin, and stacte, into Egypt (to take to Egypt).

²⁶ Therefore Judah said to his brethren, What shall it profit to us, if we shall slay our brother, and shall hide his blood? (And so Judah said to his brothers, What shall it profit us, if we kill our brother, and then hide his blood?)

²⁷ It is better that he be sold to (the) Ishmaelites, and our hands be not defouled, for he is our brother and our flesh. His brethren assented to these words;

²⁸ and (so) when [the] merchants of Midian passed thereforth, they drew Joseph out of the cistern, and sold him to (the) Ishmaelites, for twenty pieces of silver; which led him into Egypt (and they took him down to Egypt).

²⁹ And Reuben turned again to the cistern, and found not the child; and he rent his clothes, (And when Reuben returned to the cistern, he did not find the boy; and he tore his clothes,)

³⁰ and he went to his brethren, and said, The child appeareth not, and whither shall I go? (and he went to his brothers, and said, The boy is gone, now what shall I do?)

³¹ Forsooth they took his coat, and dipped it in the blood of a kid, which they had slain;

³² and they sent men that bare it to their father, and said, We have found this coat; see thou, whether it is the coat of thy son, or nay. (and they brought it to their father, and said to him, We have found this coat; see thou, is it thy son’s coat, or not.)

³³ And when the(ir) father had known it (to be such), he said, It is the coat of my son; a wild beast full wicked hath eaten him (a wicked wild beast must hath eaten him); a beast hath devoured Joseph.

³⁴ And he rent his clothes, and he was clothed with an hair shirt, and bewailed his son in much time (and for a long time he bewailed his son).

³⁵ Soothly when his free children were gathered together, that they should appease the sorrow of their father, he would not take comfort; but said, I shall go down into hell, and shall bewail my son. And while Jacob continued in weeping, (And his children gathered together, to try to appease their father’s sorrow, but he would not take comfort from them; and he said, I shall go down into the grave/I shall go down to Sheol, bewailing my son. And while Jacob continued weeping,)

³⁶ (the) Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, (a) chaste and honest servant of Pharaoh [the gelding of Pharaoh], master of the chivalry. (the Midianites now in Egypt, sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s eunuchs, and the captain of the guard.)

¹¹ For this is the telling, that ye heard at the beginning, that ye love each other;

¹² not as Cain, that was of the devil, and slew his brother. And for what thing slew he him? for his works were evil, and his brother's just.

¹³ Brethren, do not ye wonder, if the world hateth you.

¹⁴ We know, that we be translated from death to life, for we love brethren. He that loveth not, dwelleth in death.

¹⁵ Each man that hateth his brother, is a manslayer; and ye know, that each manslayer hath not everlasting life dwelling in him.

¹⁶ In this thing we have known the charity of God, for he put his life for us, and we owe to put our lives for our brethren.