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!
16 And again, I have seen under the sun the place of judgment -- there [is] the wicked; and the place of righteousness -- there [is] the wicked.
17 I said in my heart, `The righteous and the wicked doth God judge, for a time [is] to every matter and for every work there.'
18 I said in my heart concerning the matter of the sons of man that God might cleanse them, so as to see that they themselves [are] beasts.
19 For an event [is to] the sons of man, and an event [is to] the beasts, even one event [is] to them; as the death of this, so [is] the death of that; and one spirit [is] to all, and the advantage of man above the beast is nothing, for the whole [is] vanity.
20 The whole are going unto one place, the whole have been from the dust, and the whole are turning back unto the dust.
21 Who knoweth the spirit of the sons of man that is going up on high, and the spirit of the beast that is going down below to the earth?
22 And I have seen that there is nothing better than that man rejoice in his works, for it [is] his portion; for who doth bring him in to look on that which is after him?
4 And I have turned, and I see all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and lo, the tear of the oppressed, and they have no comforter; and at the hand of their oppressors [is] power, and they have no comforter.
2 And I am praising the dead who have already died above the living who are yet alive.
3 And better than both of them [is] he who hath not yet been, in that he hath not seen the evil work that hath been done under the sun.
4 And I have seen all the labour, and all the benefit of the work, because for it a man is the envy of his neighbour. Even this [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.
5 The fool is clasping his hands, and eating his own flesh:
6 `Better [is] a handful [with] quietness, than two handfuls [with] labour and vexation of spirit.'
7 And I have turned, and I see a vain thing under the sun:
8 There is one, and there is not a second; even son or brother he hath not, and there is no end to all his labour! His eye also is not satisfied with riches, and [he saith not], `For whom am I labouring and bereaving my soul of good?' This also is vanity, it is a sad travail.
2 In the prayer continue ye, watching in it in thanksgiving;
3 praying at the same time also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the secret of the Christ, because of which also I have been bound,
4 that I may manifest it, as it behoveth me to speak;
5 in wisdom walk ye toward those without, the time forestalling;
6 your word always in grace -- with salt being seasoned -- to know how it behoveth you to answer each one.