Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

139 To victory, the psalm of David. Lord, thou hast proved me, and hast known me; (To victory, the song of David. Lord, thou hast assayed, or tested, me, and thou knowest me;)

² thou hast known my sitting, and my rising again. Thou hast understood my thoughts from [a]far; (thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up. Thou hast understood my thoughts from afar;)

³ thou hast inquired (of) my path and my cord. And thou hast before-seen all my ways; (thou hast examined my path, and my resting places. And thou hast foreseen all my ways.)

⁴ for no word is in my tongue. Lo! Lord, thou hast known all things, (Yea, there is no word on my tongue, lo! Lord; but that thou not knowest it first.)

⁵ the new things and eld; thou hast formed me, and hast set thine hand on me. (Thou art behind me, and before me; and thou hast set thy hand upon me.)

⁶ Thy knowing is made wonderful of me; it is comforted, and I shall not be able to it. (Thy abundant knowledge is so wonderful to me; yea, it is so very great, and I shall never be able to comprehend it all.)

¹³ For thou haddest in possession my reins; thou tookest me up from the womb of my mother. (For thou haddest my reins in thy possession/For thou formedest my inner parts; yea, thou madest me in my mother’s womb.)

¹⁴ I shall acknowledge to thee, for thou art magnified dreadfully; thy works be wonderful, and my soul shall know (that) full much. (I shall praise thee, for thou art greatly to be feared/for thou hath filled me with awe; thy works be wonderful, and I truly know that.)

¹⁵ My bone, which thou madest in private, is not hid from thee; and my substance (formed) in the lower parts of earth. (My bones, which thou madest in secret, be not a mystery to thee; yea, when my substance was formed in the lower parts of the earth.)

¹⁶ Thine eyes saw mine unperfect thing, and all men shall be written in thy book; days shall be formed, and no man is in those. (Thine eyes saw my imperfect substance, and all was written in thy Book; but when those days were formed, no man was there.)

¹⁷ Forsooth, God, thy friends be made honourable full much to me; the princehood of them is comforted full much. (But, God, how deep be thy thoughts to me; and how many of them there be!)

¹⁸ I shall number them, and they shall be multiplied above the gravel; I rose up, and yet I am with thee. (If I tried to count them all up, their number would be more than all the grains of sand. And then I awake; and still I am with thee.)

¹⁰ My mother, woe to me; why engenderedest thou me a man of chiding, a man of discord in all the land? I lent not, neither any man lent to me; all men curse me(.),

¹¹ the Lord saith. No man believe to me, if thy remnants be not into good, if I run not to thee in the time of torment, and in the time of tribulation and of anguish, against the enemy. (The Lord saith, No one believe me, if it be not well with thy remnant, and if I do not run against the enemy for thee, in the time of torment, and in the time of trouble and of anguish.)

¹² Whether iron and metal shall be joined by peace to iron from the north? (Can iron be broken, especially the iron from the north, that is joined with bronze?)

¹³ And I shall give freely thy riches and thy treasures into ravishing, for all thy sins, and in all thine ends. (And I shall freely give thy riches and thy treasures for robbing, for all thy sins, and in all thy land.)

¹⁴ And I shall bring thine enemies from the land which thou knowest not; for (a) fire is kindled in my strong vengeance, and it shall burn on you.

¹⁵ Lord, thou knowest, have thou mind on me, and visit me, and deliver me from them that pursue me; do not thou take me (away) in thy patience, know thou, that I suffered shame for thee. (Lord, thou knowest, remember thou me, and visit me, and rescue me, or save me, from those who pursue me; yea, in thy patience, do not thou take me away, that is, do not let me perish, and know thou, that I have suffered shame for thee.)

¹⁶ Thy words be found, and I ate those; and thy word was made to me into joy, and into gladness of mine heart; for thy name, Lord God of hosts, is called to help on me (for thy name, the Lord God of hosts, is called on to help me/for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts).

¹⁷ I sat not in the council of players, and I had glory for the face of thine hand; I sat alone, for thou filledest me with bitterness. (I sat not in the company of scorners, or of mockers, and I took no glory with them/and I made not merry with them; because of thy hand, or in obedience to thee, I sat alone; for thou hast filled me with anger.)

¹⁸ Why is my sorrow made everlasting, and my wound despaired (to heal?), (why) forsook (it) to be cured? it is made to me, as a leasing of unfaithful waters (it is made to me like a lie, like summer waters that fail, or that dry up).

¹⁹ For this thing the Lord saith these things (to me), If thou turnest (back to me), (then) I shall turn (back to) thee, and thou shalt stand before my face (again); and if thou partest precious thing from vile thing, (then) thou shalt be as my mouth (again); and they shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them (and if thou separatest precious words from vile ones, then thou shalt be like my mouth again; and the people shall return to thee, and thou shalt not need to go to them).

²⁰ And I shall give thee into a brazen wall and strong to this people (And I shall make thee like a strong bronze wall to this people), and they shall fight against thee, and they shall not have the victory; for I am with thee, to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

²¹ And I shall deliver thee from the hand of the worst men, and I shall again-buy thee from the hand of strong men. (And I shall rescue, or shall save, thee from the hands, or the power, of the wicked, and I shall buy thee back from the hands, or the power, of the strong.)

²⁵ And I guessed it needful to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and even-worker, and mine even-knight, but your apostle, and the minister of my need.

²⁶ For he desired you all, and he was sorrowful, therefore that ye heard that he was sick.

²⁷ For he was sick [till] to the death, but God had mercy on him; and not only on him, but also on me, lest I had heaviness on heaviness [lest I had heaviness upon heaviness].

²⁸ Therefore more hastily I sent him, that when ye have seen him, ye have joy again, and I be without heaviness.

²⁹ Therefore receive ye him with all joy in the Lord, and have ye such with all honour.

³⁰ For the work of Christ he went to death, giving his life, that he should fulfill that that failed of you with my service. [For why for the work of Christ unto the death he went, giving his life, that he should fulfill that that failed to you with my service.]