Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

41 To the Overseer. -- A Psalm of David. O the happiness of him Who is acting wisely unto the poor, In a day of evil doth Jehovah deliver him.

² Jehovah doth preserve him and revive him, He is happy in the land, And Thou givest him not into the will of his enemies.

³ Jehovah supporteth on a couch of sickness, All his bed Thou hast turned in his weakness.

⁴ I -- I said, `O Jehovah, favour me, Heal my soul, for I did sin against Thee,'

⁵ Mine enemies say evil of me: When he dieth -- his name hath perished!

⁶ And if he came to see -- vanity he speaketh, His heart gathereth iniquity to itself, He goeth out -- at the street he speaketh.

⁷ All hating me whisper together against me, Against me they devise evil to me:

⁸ A thing of Belial is poured out on him, And because he lay down he riseth not again.

⁹ Even mine ally, in whom I trusted, One eating my bread, made great the heel against me,

¹⁰ And Thou, Jehovah, favour me, And cause me to rise, And I give recompence to them.

¹¹ By this I have known, That Thou hast delighted in me, Because my enemy shouteth not over me.

¹² As to me, in mine integrity, Thou hast taken hold upon me, And causest me to stand before Thee to the age.

¹³ Blessed [is] Jehovah, God of Israel, From the age -- and unto the age. Amen and Amen.

¹² And Jehovah appeareth unto Solomon by night, and saith to him, `I have heard thy prayer, and have fixed on this place to Me for a house of sacrifice.

¹³ If I restrain the heavens and there is no rain, and if I lay charge on the locust to consume the land, and if I send pestilence among My people --

¹⁴ and My people on whom My name is called be humbled, and pray, and seek My face, and turn back from their evil ways, then I -- I hear from the heavens, and forgive their sin, and heal their land.

¹⁵ `Now, Mine eyes are open, and Mine ears attentive, to the prayer of this place;

¹⁶ and now, I have chosen and sanctified this house for My name being there unto the age; yea, Mine eyes and My heart have been there all the days.

¹⁷ `And thou, if thou dost walk before Me as David thy father walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and My statutes and My judgments dost keep --

¹⁸ then I have established the throne of thy kingdom, as I covenanted with David thy father, saying, There is not cut off a man to thee -- a ruler in Israel;

¹⁹ and if ye turn back -- ye -- and have forsaken My statutes, and My commands, that I have placed before you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them -- then I have plucked them from off My ground that I have given to them,

²⁰ and this house that I have sanctified for My name, I cast from before My face, and make it for a proverb, and for a byword, among all the peoples.

²¹ `And this house that hath been high, to every one passing by it, is an astonishment, and he hath said, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus to this land, and to this house?

²² and they have said, Because that they have forsaken Jehovah, God of their fathers, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, and lay hold on other gods, and bow themselves to them, and serve them, therefore He hath brought upon them all this evil.'

² beloved, concerning all things I desire thee to prosper, and to be in health, even as thy soul doth prosper,

³ for I rejoiced exceedingly, brethren coming and testifying of the truth in thee, even as thou in truth dost walk;

⁴ greater than these things I have no joy, that I may hear of my children in truth walking.

⁵ Beloved, faithfully dost thou do whatever thou mayest work to the brethren and to the strangers,

⁶ who did testify of thy love before an assembly, whom thou wilt do well, having sent forward worthily of God,

⁷ because for [His] name they went forth, nothing receiving from the nations;

⁸ we, then, ought to receive such, that fellow-workers we may become to the truth.