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.

¹⁴ Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform the good word that I have spoken to the house of Israel, and to the house of Juda.

¹⁵ In those days, and at that time, I will make the bud of justice to spring forth unto David, and he shall do judgment and justice in the earth.

¹⁶ In those days shall Juda be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell securely: and this is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our just one.

¹⁷ For thus saith the Lord: There shall not be cut off from David a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.

¹⁸ Neither shall there be cut off from the priests and Levites a man before my face to offer holocausts, and to burn sacrifices, and to kill victims continually:

¹⁹ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

²⁰ Thus saith the Lord: If my covenant with the day can be made void, and my covenant with the night, that there should not be day and night in their season:

²¹ Also my covenant with David my servant may be made void, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites and priests my ministers.

²² As the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea be measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites my ministers.

²³ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

²⁴ Hast thou not seen what this people hath spoken, saying: The two families which the Lord had chosen, are cast off: and they have despised my people, so that it is no more a nation before them?

²⁵ Thus saith the Lord: If I have not set my covenant between day and night, and laws to heaven and earth:

²⁶ Surely I will also cast off the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so as not to take any of his seed to be rulers of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will bring back their captivity, and will have mercy on them.

⁴¹ And Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all?

⁴² And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season?

⁴³ Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing.

⁴⁴ Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth.

⁴⁵ But if that servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming; and shall begin to strike the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk:

⁴⁶ The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers.

⁴⁷ And that servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

⁴⁸ But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.