Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer; preserve my life from fear of the enemy.

² Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:

³ Who whet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words

⁴ That they may shoot in secret at the perfect; suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not.

⁵ They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they attempt to hide the snares; they say, Who shall see them?

⁶ They search out iniquities; they perfect and put into effect that which they have invented in the inward thought of each one of them and that which they have devised in their heart.

⁷ ¶ But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.

⁸ So they shall make their own council and agreements to fall upon themselves; all that see them shall flee away.

⁹ And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall understand his doing.

¹⁰ The righteous shall be glad in the LORD and shall become secure in him, and all the upright in heart shall glory in him.

19 ¶ And Job replied and said,

² How long will ye anguish my soul and break me in pieces with words?

³ These ten times ye have reproached me; are ye not ashamed to make yourselves strange to me?

⁴ And if indeed I have erred, my error shall remain with me.

⁵ If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me and reprove me of my reproach,

⁶ know now that God has overthrown me and has compassed me with his net.

⁷ Behold, I shall cry out that I have been wronged, and I shall not be heard; I shall cry aloud, and there shall be no judgment.

⁸ ¶ He has walled off my way and I shall not pass, and he has set darkness in my paths.

⁹ He has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰ He has pulled me up on every side, and I am dried up; he has caused my hope to pass like an uprooted tree.

¹¹ He has kindled his wrath against me, and he counted me unto him as one of his enemies.

¹² His troops came together and raised up their way over me and encamp round about my tent.

¹³ He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are verily estranged from me.

¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵ Those that dwell in my house and my maids have counted me for a stranger; I was an alien in their sight.

¹⁶ I called my slave, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

¹⁷ My spirit came to be strange to my wife, although I intreated her for the sons of my own body.

¹⁸ Even the young children despised me; as I arose, they spoke against me.

¹⁹ All my intimate friends abhorred me; and those whom I loved are turned against me.

²⁰ My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

²¹ Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

²² Why do ye persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh?

¹¹ ¶ Therefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who were called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh, which is made by hands,

¹² that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world,

¹³ but now in Christ Jesus ye who at another time were far off are made near by the blood of the Christ.

¹⁴ ¶ For he is our peace, who of both has made one, breaking down the middle wall of separation,

¹⁵ abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which was the law of commandments in the order of rites, to edify in himself the two in one new man, making peace,

¹⁶ and to reconcile both with God by the cross {Gr. stauros – stake} in one body, having slain the enmity thereby;

¹⁷ and he came and preached peace unto you who were afar off and to those that were near.

¹⁸ For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

¹⁹ Now therefore ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God,

²⁰ and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone,

²¹ in whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord,

²² in whom ye also are being built together for the habitation of God in the Spirit.