Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

127 ⁽⁰⁾ A song of ascents. By Shlomo:

⁽¹⁾ Unless Adonai builds the house,
its builders work in vain.
Unless Adonai guards the city,
the guard keeps watch in vain.

² In vain do you get up early
and put off going to bed,
working hard to earn a living;
for he provides for his beloved,
even when they sleep.
³ Children too are a gift from Adonai;
the fruit of the womb is a reward.
⁴ The children born when one is young.
are like arrows in the hand of a warrior.
⁵ How blessed is the man
who has filled his quiver with them;
he will not have to be embarrassed
when contending with foes at the city gate.

12 So remember your creator while you are young,
before the evil days come,
and the years approach when you will say,
“They no longer give me pleasure”;
² before the sun and the light grow dim,
also the moon and the stars;
before the clouds return after the rain;
³ on the day when the guards of the house are trembling,
and men of courage are bent over double;
when the women stop grinding grain,
because there are so few;
when the women at the windows
can no longer see out;
⁴ when the doors to the streets are kept shut;
when the noise from the grain-mill fades;
when a person is startled by the chirp of a bird,
yet their singing is hard to hear;
⁵ when they will be afraid to go up a hill,
and terrors will stalk the way,
even though the almond tree is in bloom;
when the locust can only drag itself along,
and the caper berry has no [aphrodisiac] effect —
because the person is headed for his eternal home,
and the mourners are already gathering
in the marketplace —
⁶ before the silver cord is snapped
the bowl of gold is cracked,
the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
the pulley is broken at the cistern,
⁷ the dust returns to earth, as it was,
and the spirit returns to God, who gave it!
⁸ Pointless! Meaningless! — says Kohelet,
Nothing matters at all!