Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³ Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
    for we have had more than enough of contempt.
⁴ Our soul has had more than its fill
    of the scorn of those who are at ease,
    of the contempt of the proud.

¹⁷ “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
    How often does calamity come upon them?
    How often does God^[a] distribute pains in his anger?
¹⁸ How often are they like straw before the wind,
    and like chaff that the storm carries away?
¹⁹ You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’
    Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.
²⁰ Let their own eyes see their destruction,
    and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.^[b]
21 For what do they care for their household after them,
    when the number of their months is cut off?
²² Will any teach God knowledge,
    seeing that he judges those that are on high?
²³ One dies in full prosperity,
    being wholly at ease and secure,
²⁴ his loins full of milk
    and the marrow of his bones moist.
²⁵ Another dies in bitterness of soul,
    never having tasted of good.
²⁶ They lie down alike in the dust,
    and the worms cover them.

²⁷ “Oh, I know your thoughts,
    and your schemes to wrong me.
²⁸ For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
    Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
²⁹ Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
    and do you not accept their testimony,
³⁰ that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity,
    and are rescued in the day of wrath?
³¹ Who declares their way to their face,
    and who repays them for what they have done?
³² When they are carried to the grave,
    a watch is kept over their tomb.
³³ The clods of the valley are sweet to them;
    everyone will follow after,
    and those who went before are innumerable.
³⁴ How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
    There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”