Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

42 To the Overseer. -- An Instruction. By sons of Korah. As a hart doth pant for streams of water, So my soul panteth toward Thee, O God.

² My soul thirsted for God, for the living God, When do I enter and see the face of God?

³ My tear hath been to me bread day and night, In their saying unto me all the day, `Where [is] thy God?'

⁴ These I remember, and pour out my soul in me, For I pass over into the booth, I go softly with them unto the house of God, With the voice of singing and confession, The multitude keeping feast!

⁵ What! bowest thou thyself, O my soul? Yea, art thou troubled within me? Wait for God, for still I confess Him: The salvation of my countenance -- My God!

⁶ In me doth my soul bow itself, Therefore I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, And of the Hermons, from the hill Mizar.

⁷ Deep unto deep is calling At the noise of Thy water-spouts, All Thy breakers and Thy billows passed over me.

⁸ By day Jehovah commandeth His kindness, And by night a song [is] with me, A prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I say to God my rock, `Why hast Thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning in the oppression of an enemy?

¹⁰ With a sword in my bones Have mine adversaries reproached me, In their saying unto me all the day, `Where [is] thy God?'

¹¹ What! bowest thou thyself, O my soul? And what! art thou troubled within me? Wait for God, for still I confess Him, The salvation of my countenance, and my God!

¹³ And it cometh to pass on the morrow, that Moses sitteth to judge the people, and the people stand before Moses, from the morning unto the evening;

¹⁴ and the father-in-law of Moses seeth all that he is doing to the people, and saith, `What [is] this thing which thou art doing to the people? wherefore art thou sitting by thyself, and all the people standing by thee from morning till evening?'

¹⁵ And Moses saith to his father-in-law, `Because the people come unto me to seek God;

¹⁶ when they have a matter, it hath come unto me, and I have judged between a man and his neighbour, and made known the statutes of God, and His laws.'

¹⁷ And the father-in-law of Moses saith unto him, `The thing which thou art doing [is] not good;

¹⁸ thou dost surely wear away, both thou, and this people which [is] with thee, for the thing is too heavy for thee, thou art not able to do it by thyself.

¹⁹ `Now, hearken to my voice, I counsel thee, and God is with thee: be thou for the people over-against God, and thou hast brought in the things unto God;

²⁰ and thou hast warned them [concerning] the statutes and the laws, and hast made known to them the way in which they go, and the work which they do.

²¹ `And thou -- thou dost provide out of all the people men of ability, fearing God, men of truth, hating dishonest gain, and hast placed [these] over them, heads of thousands, heads of hundreds, heads of fifties, and heads of tens,

²² and they have judged the people at all times; and it hath come to pass, every great matter they bring in unto thee, and every small matter they judge themselves; and lighten it from off thyself, and they have borne with thee.

²³ If thou dost this thing, and God hath commanded thee, then thou hast been able to stand, and all this people also goeth in unto its place in peace.'

²⁴ And Moses hearkeneth to the voice of his father-in-law, and doth all that he said,

²⁵ and Moses chooseth men of ability out of all Israel, and maketh them chiefs over the people, heads of thousands, heads of hundreds, heads of fifties, and heads of tens,

²⁶ and they have judged the people at all times; the hard matter they bring in unto Moses, and every small matter they judge themselves.

²⁷ And Moses sendeth his father-in-law away, and he goeth away unto his own land.

¹⁵ Certain, indeed, even through envy and contention, and certain also through good-will, do preach the Christ;

¹⁶ the one, indeed, of rivalry the Christ do proclaim, not purely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds,

¹⁷ and the other out of love, having known that for defence of the good news I am set:

¹⁸ what then? in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed -- and in this I rejoice, yea, and shall rejoice.

¹⁹ For I have known that this shall fall out to me for salvation, through your supplication, and the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus,

²⁰ according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, and in all freedom, as always, also now Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death,

²¹ for to me to live [is] Christ, and to die gain.