Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

128 Blessings on all who reverence and trust the Lord—on all who obey him!

² Their reward shall be prosperity and happiness. ³ Your wife shall be contented in your home. And look at all those children! There they sit around the dinner table as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees. ⁴ That is God’s reward to those who reverence and trust him.

⁵ May the Lord continually bless you with heaven’s blessings^[a] as well as with human joys. ⁶ May you live to enjoy your grandchildren! And may God bless Israel!

⁹ Two can accomplish more than twice as much as one, for the results can be much better. ¹⁰ If one falls, the other pulls him up; but if a man falls when he is alone, he’s in trouble.

¹¹ Also, on a cold night, two under the same blanket gain warmth from each other, but how can one be warm alone? ¹² And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

¹³ It is better to be a poor but wise youth than to be an old and foolish king who refuses all advice. ¹⁴ Such a lad could come from prison and succeed. He might even become king though born in poverty. ¹⁵ Everyone is eager to help a youth like that, even to help him usurp the throne. ¹⁶ He can become the leader of millions of people and be very popular. But, then, the younger generation grows up around him and rejects him! So again, it is all foolishness, chasing the wind.

5 Look here, you rich men, now is the time to cry and groan with anguished grief because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. ² Your wealth is even now rotting away, and your fine clothes are becoming mere moth-eaten rags. ³ The value of your gold and silver is dropping fast, yet it will stand as evidence against you and eat your flesh like fire. That is what you have stored up for yourselves to receive on that coming day of judgment. ⁴ For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. Their cries have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

⁵ You have spent your years here on earth having fun, satisfying your every whim, and now your fat hearts are ready for the slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and killed good men who had no power to defend themselves against you.