Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

39 I thought, “I will guard my ways, so that I do not sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth bridled while the wicked are in my sight.

² I was dumb and spoke nothing. I kept silent, even from good; and my sorrow was more stirred.

³ My heart was hot within me. While I was musing, the fire kindled and I spoke with my tongue:

⁴ “LORD, let me know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is. Let me know how long I have to live.”

⁵ Behold, You have made my days as a handbreadth and my age as nothing in Your sight. Surely, every man is altogether vanity in his best state. Selah.

⁶ Doubtless, man walks in a shadow, and disquiets himself pointlessly. He heaps up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them.

⁷ And now LORD, for what do I wait? My hope is even in You.

⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions, and do not make me a rebuke to the foolish.

⁹ I should have been dumb, and not have opened my mouth, because You did it.

¹⁰ Take Your plague away from me; for I am consumed by the stroke of Your hand.

¹¹ When, with rebukes, You chastise man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away as a moth. Surely, every man is vanity. Selah.

¹² Hear my prayer, O LORD; and hear my cry. Do not keep silent at my tears; for I am a stranger with You and a sojourner, as all my fathers.

¹³ Keep Your anger from me, so that I may recover my strength before I go away and am no more. To him who excels: A Psalm of David.

¹⁷ These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called the name of Hoshea, the son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁸ So Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way toward the south; and go up into the mountains.

¹⁹ “And consider the land, what it is. And the people who dwell in it, whether they are strong or weak, few or many.

²⁰ “Also, the land that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad and what cities that they dwell in, whether they dwell in tents or in walled towns.

²¹ “And the land, whether it is fat or lean, whether there are trees in it or not. And be of good courage. And bring from the fruit of the land.” For then was the time of the first ripe grapes.

²² So they went up and searched out the land, from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to go to Hamath.

²³ And they ascended toward the south and came to Hebron, where were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the sons of Anak. And Hebron was built seven years before Zoan, in Egypt.

²⁴ Then they came to the river of Eshcol. And there they cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes. And they bore it upon a bar between two of them, and brought some pomegranates and some figs.

²⁵ That place was called the River Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down there.

²⁶ Then, after forty days, they turned away from searching out the land.

²⁷ And they came to Moses and to Aaron, and to all the Congregation of the children of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh. And they brought tidings to them and to all the Congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

¹⁸ Then He said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? Or, to what shall I compare it?

¹⁹ “It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his garden. And it grew and became a great tree. And the birds of the heaven made nests in its branches.”

²⁰ And again He said, “To what shall I liken the Kingdom of God?

²¹ “It is like leaven. Which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour, till it all was leavened.”