Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

68 Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let them also that hate Him flee before Him.

² As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

³ But let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God; yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.

⁴ Sing unto God, sing praises to His name! Extol Him that rideth upon the heavens by His name Jehovah; and rejoice before Him.

⁵ A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.

⁶ God setteth the solitary in families, He bringeth out those who are bound with chains; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

⁷ O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, when Thou didst march through the wilderness, Selah

⁸ the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God; even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

⁹ Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance when it was weary.

¹⁰ Thy congregation hath dwelt therein; Thou, O God, hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor.

¹⁹ Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah

²⁰ He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belongeth the discharge from death.

22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

² “Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

³ Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to Him that thou makest thy ways perfect?

⁴ Will He reprove thee for fear of thee? Will He enter with thee into judgment?

⁵ Is not thy wickedness great, and thine iniquities infinite?

⁶ For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷ Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸ But as for the mighty man, he had the earth, and the honorable man dwelt in it.

⁹ Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

¹⁰ Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee,

¹¹ or darkness, that thou canst not see, and abundance of waters cover thee.

¹² “Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

¹³ And thou sayest, ‘How doth God know? Can He judge through the dark cloud?

¹⁴ Thick clouds are a covering to Him, that He seeth not; and He walketh in the circuit of heaven.’

¹⁵ Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden,

¹⁶ who were cut down before their time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood,

¹⁷ who said unto God, ‘Depart from us. And what can the Almighty do to them?’

¹⁸ Yet He filled their houses with good things; but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹ The righteous see it and are glad, and the innocent laugh them to scorn;

²⁰ whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.

2 Then fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.

² And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.

³ But neither was Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, compelled to be circumcised;

⁴ and that because false brethren were brought in by stealth, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.

⁵ To them we gave place by submission not even for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.

⁶ But of those who seemed to be something (whosoever they were, it maketh no difference to me: God accepteth no man’s person) — those who seemed to be somewhat in consultation added nothing to me;

⁷ but contrariwise, when they saw that the Gospel to the Uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the Gospel to the Circumcision was unto Peter

⁸ (for He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the Circumcision, that Same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles),

⁹ and when James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen and they unto the Circumcision.

¹⁰ Only they would that we should remember the poor, the same as I also was eager to do.