Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
127 A Song of the Ascents, by Solomon. If Jehovah doth not build the house, In vain have its builders laboured at it, If Jehovah doth not watch a city, In vain hath a watchman waked.
2 Vain for you who are rising early, Who delay sitting, eating the bread of griefs, So He giveth to His beloved one sleep.
3 Lo, an inheritance of Jehovah [are] sons, A reward [is] the fruit of the womb.
4 As arrows in the hand of a mighty one, So [are] the sons of the young men.
5 O the happiness of the man Who hath filled his quiver with them, They are not ashamed, For they speak with enemies in the gate!
2 I said in my heart, `Pray, come, I try thee with mirth, and look thou on gladness;' and lo, even it [is] vanity.
2 Of laughter I said, `Foolish!' and of mirth, `What [is] this it is doing?'
3 I have sought in my heart to draw out with wine my appetite, (and my heart leading in wisdom), and to take hold on folly till that I see where [is] this -- the good to the sons of man of that which they do under the heavens, the number of the days of their lives.
4 I made great my works, I builded for me houses, I planted for me vineyards.
5 I made for me gardens and paradises, and I planted in them trees of every fruit.
6 I made for me pools of water, to water from them a forest shooting forth trees.
7 I got men-servants, and maid-servants, and sons of the house were to me; also, I had much substance -- herd and flock -- above all who had been before me in Jerusalem.
8 I gathered for me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I prepared for me men-singers and women-singers, and the luxuries of the sons of man -- a wife and wives.
9 And I became great, and increased above every one who had been before me in Jerusalem; also, my wisdom stood with me.
10 And all that mine eyes asked I kept not back from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labour, and this hath been my portion, from all my labour,
11 and I have looked on all my works that my hands have done, and on the labour that I have laboured to do, and lo, the whole [is] vanity and vexation of spirit, and there is no advantage under the sun!
12 And I turned to see wisdom, and madness, and folly, but what [is] the man who cometh after the king? that which [is] already -- they have done it!
13 And I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom above folly, like the advantage of the light above the darkness.
14 The wise! -- his eyes [are] in his head, and the fool in darkness is walking, and I also knew that one event happeneth with them all;
15 and I said in my heart, `As it happeneth with the fool, it happeneth also with me, and why am I then more wise?' And I spake in my heart, that also this [is] vanity:
16 That there is no remembrance to the wise -- with the fool -- to the age, for that which [is] already, [in] the days that are coming is all forgotten, and how dieth the wise? with the fool!
17 And I have hated life, for sad to me [is] the work that hath been done under the sun, for the whole [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.
18 The wives! be subject to your own husbands, as is fit in the Lord;
19 the husbands! love your wives, and be not bitter with them;
20 the children! obey the parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord;
21 the fathers! vex not your children, lest they be discouraged.
22 The servants! obey in all things those who are masters according to the flesh, not in eye-service as men-pleasers, but in simplicity of heart, fearing God;
23 and all, whatever ye may do -- out of soul work -- as to the Lord, and not to men,
24 having known that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance -- for the Lord Christ ye serve;
25 and he who is doing unrighteously shall receive what he did unrighteously, and there is no acceptance of persons.
4 The masters! that which is righteous and equal to the servants give ye, having known that ye also have a Master in the heavens.