Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

[A Psalm] of David.

37 Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, and be not envious of them that work unrighteousness;

² for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and fade as the green herb.

³ Confide in Jehovah, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness;

⁴ and delight thyself in Jehovah, and he will give thee the desires of thy heart.

⁵ Commit thy way unto Jehovah, and rely upon him: he will bring [it] to pass;

⁶ and he will bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

⁷ Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him that prospereth in his way, because of the man that bringeth mischievous devices to pass.

⁸ Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself: it [would be] only to do evil.

⁹ For evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait on Jehovah, they shall possess the land.

¹⁰ For yet a little while, and the wicked is not; and thou considerest his place, but he is not.

¹¹ But the meek shall possess the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of prosperity.

³⁹ But the salvation of the righteous is of Jehovah: he is their strength in the time of trouble.

⁴⁰ And Jehovah will help them and deliver them: he will deliver them from the wicked, and save them; for they trust in him.

¹⁸ Then Judah came near to him, and said, Ah! my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant; for thou art even as Pharaoh.

¹⁹ My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a brother?

²⁰ And we said to my lord, We have an aged father, and a child born to him in his old age, [yet] young; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.

²¹ And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set mine eye on him.

²² And we said to my lord, The youth cannot leave his father: if he should leave his father, [his father] would die.

²³ And thou saidst to thy servants, Unless your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more.

²⁴ And it came to pass when we came up to thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

²⁵ And our father said, Go again, buy us a little food.

²⁶ But we said, We cannot go down: if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down; for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.

²⁷ And thy servant my father said to us, Ye know that my wife bore me two [sons];

²⁸ and the one went out from me, and I said, He must certainly have been torn in pieces; and I have not seen him [again] hitherto.

²⁹ And if ye take this one also from me, and mischief should befall him, ye will bring down my grey hairs with misery to Sheol.

³⁰ And now, when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad is not with us,—seeing that his life is bound up with his life,

³¹ it will come to pass when he sees that the lad is not [there], that he will die; and thy servants will bring down the grey hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.

³² For thy servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, If I bring him not to thee, then I shall be guilty toward my father all my days.

³³ And now, let thy servant stay, I pray thee, instead of the lad a bondman to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren;

³⁴ for how should I go up to my father if the lad were not with me?—lest I see the evil that would come on my father.

⁵⁷ And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?

⁵⁸ For as thou goest with thine adverse party before a magistrate, strive in the way to be reconciled with him, lest he drag thee away to the judge, and the judge shall deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.

⁵⁹ I say unto thee, Thou shalt in no wise come out thence until thou hast paid the very last mite.