Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

89 A prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our refuge from generation to generation.

² Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed; from eternity and to eternity thou art God.

³ Turn not man away to be brought low: and thou hast said: Be converted, O ye sons of men.

⁴ For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday, which is past. And as a watch in the night,

⁵ Things that are counted nothing, shall their years be.

⁶ In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away: in the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither.

⁷ For in thy wrath we have fainted away: and are troubled in thy indignation.

⁸ Thou hast set our iniquities before thy eyes: our life in the light of thy countenance.

⁹ For all our days are spent; and in thy wrath we have fainted away. Our years shall be considered as a spider:

¹⁰ The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow. For mildness is come upon us: and we shall be corrected.

¹¹ Who knoweth the power of thy anger, and for thy fear

¹² Can number thy wrath? So make thy right hand known: and men learned in heart, in wisdom.

¹³ Return, O Lord, how long? and be entreated in favour of thy servants.

¹⁴ We are filled in the morning with thy mercy: and we have rejoiced, and are delighted all our days.

¹⁵ We have rejoiced for the days in which thou hast humbled us: for the years in which we have seen evils.

¹⁶ Look upon thy servants and upon their works: and direct their children.

¹⁷ And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and direct thou the works of our hands over us; yea, the work of our hands do thou direct.

²² And Helcias and they that were sent with him by the king, went to Olda the prophetess, the wife of Sellum the son of Thecuath, the son of Hasra keeper of the wardrobe: who dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second part: and they spoke to her the words above mentioned.

²³ And she answered them: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Tell the man that sent you to me:

²⁴ Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring evils upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, and all the curses that are written in this book which they read before the king of Juda.

²⁵ Because they have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange gods, to provoke me to wrath with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath shall fall upon this place, and shall not be quenched.

²⁶ But as to the king of Juda that sent you to beseech the Lord, thus shall you say to him: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Because thou hast heard the words of this book,

²⁷ And thy heart was softened. and thou hast humbled thyself in the sight of God for the things that are spoken against this place, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and reverencing my face, hast rent thy garments, and wept before me: I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.

²⁸ For now I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be brought to thy tomb in peace: and thy eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and the inhabitants thereof. They therefore reported to the king all that she had said.

²⁹ And he called together all the ancients of Juda and Jerusalem.

³⁰ And went up to the house of the Lord, and all the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, and all the people from the least to the greatest. And the king read in their hearing, in the house of the Lord, all the words of the book.

³¹ And standing up in his tribunal, he made a covenant before the Lord to walk after him, and keep his commandments, and testimonies, and justifications with all his heart, and with all his soul, and to do the things that were written in that book which he had read.

³² And he adjured all that were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to do the same: and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of the Lord the God of their fathers.

³³ And Josias took away all the abominations out of all the countries of the children of Israel: and made all that were left in Israel, to serve the Lord their God. As long as he lived they departed not from the Lord the God of their fathers.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son;

¹⁸ (To whom it was said: In Isaac shall thy seed be called.)

¹⁹ Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Whereupon also he received him for a parable.

²⁰ By faith also of things to come, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.

²¹ By faith Jacob dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and adored the top of his rod.

²² By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the going out of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

²³ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents; because they saw he was a comely babe, and they feared not the king's edict.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was grown up, denied himself to be the son of Pharao's daughter;

²⁵ Rather choosing to be afflicted with the people of God, than to have the pleasure of sin for a time,

²⁶ Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians. For he looked unto the reward.

²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the fierceness of the king: for he endured as seeing him that is invisible.

²⁸ By faith he celebrated the pasch, and the shedding of the blood; that he, who destroyed the firstborn, might not touch them.