Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

26 The psalm of David before he was anointed. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?

² Whilst the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh. My enemies that trouble me, have themselves been weakened, and have fallen.

³ If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear. If a battle should rise up against me, in this will I be confident.

⁴ One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That I may see the delight of the Lord, and may visit his temple.

⁵ For he hath hidden me in his tabernacle; in the day of evils, he hath protected me in the secret place of his tabernacle.

⁶ He hath exalted me upon a rock: and now he hath lifted up my head above my enemies. I have gone round, and have offered up in his tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation: I will sing, and recite a psalm to the Lord.

⁷ Hear, O Lord, my voice, with which I have cried to thee: have mercy on me and hear me.

⁸ My heart hath said to thee: My face hath sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I still seek.

⁹ Turn not away thy face from me; decline not in thy wrath from thy servant. Be thou my helper, forsake me not; do not thou despise me, O God my Saviour.

¹⁰ For my father and my mother have left me: but the Lord hath taken me up.

¹¹ Set me, O Lord, a law in thy way, and guide me in the right path, because of my enemies.

¹² Deliver me not over to the will of them that trouble me; for unjust witnesses have risen up against me; and iniquity hath lied to itself.

¹³ I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord.

4 Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:

² If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill, but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?

³ Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:

⁴ Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:

⁵ But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.

⁶ Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?

⁷ Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?

⁸ On the contrary I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,

⁹ Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.

¹⁰ The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions are broken:

¹¹ The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.

¹² Now there was a word spoken to me in private, and my ears by stealth as it were received the veins of its whisper.

¹³ In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,

¹⁴ Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:

¹⁵ And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.

¹⁶ There stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before my eyes, and I heard the voice as it were of a gentle wind:

¹⁷ Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?

¹⁸ Behold they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:

¹⁹ How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?

²⁰ From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever.

²¹ And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.

8 There is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh.

² For the law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath delivered me from the law of sin and of death.

³ For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh; God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and of sin, hath condemned sin in the flesh;

⁴ That the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

⁵ For they that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh; but they that are according to the spirit, mind the things that are of the spirit.

⁶ For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace.

⁷ Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be.

⁸ And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

¹⁰ And if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead, because of sin; but the spirit liveth, because of justification.

¹¹ And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you.