Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
ע Ayin
121 I have done what is right and just;
do not abandon me to my oppressors.
122 Be true to Your servant for good;
let not the proud ones oppress me.
123 My eyes long for Your deliverance
and for the promise of Your righteousness.
124 Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy,
and teach me Your statutes.
125 I am Your servant; grant me understanding,
that I may know Your testimonies.
126 It is time for You, O Lord, to act,
for they have broken Your law.
127 Therefore I love Your commandments
above gold, even fine gold.
128 For I follow all Your precepts to be right,
and I hate every false way.
The Wisdom of Solomon
16 At that time, two women who were prostitutes came and stood before the king. 17 The first woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I bore a child with her in the house. 18 Three days after I gave birth, she also had a child, and we were together. There was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house.
19 “Then this woman’s child died during the night because she rolled over on it. 20 She got up at midnight and took my son from beside me while your servant slept and laid him at her bosom and laid her dead child at my bosom. 21 When I rose in the morning to feed my child, it was dead. But when I looked closely in the morning light, I recognized that it was not my son whom I bore.”
22 The other woman said, “No, the living is my son, and the dead is your son.”
And she said, “No, the dead is your son, and the living is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.
23 Then the king said, “One says, ‘This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead,’ and the other says, ‘No, but your son is dead, and my son is the living.’ ”
24 So the king said, “Bring me a sword.” And they brought a sword before the king. 25 The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”
26 Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son, and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and do not kill it.”
But the other said, “Let it be neither mine nor yours and divide it.”
27 Then the king answered and said, “Give her the living child, and do not slay it. She is its mother.”
28 All Israel heard of the king’s judgment, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute sound judgment.
The Wisdom From Above
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show his works by his good life in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, do not boast and do not lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and devilish. 16 For where there is envying and strife, there is confusion and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.