Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide thyself from my supplication.

² Attend unto me and hear me: I mourn in my complaint and make a noise

³ because of the voice of the enemy because of the oppression of the wicked; for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.

⁴ My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.

⁵ Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.

⁶ And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away and be at rest.

⁷ Behold, then I would flee far away and dwell in the wilderness. Selah.

⁸ I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

⁹ ¶ Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

¹⁰ Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof; iniquity also and sorrow are in the midst of it.

¹¹ Wickedness is in the midst thereof; deceit and guile depart not from her streets.

¹² For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it, neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

¹³ But it was thou, who in my estimation was, my lord, and of my own family.

¹⁴ We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company.

¹⁵ Let them be condemned unto death, and let them go down alive into Sheol for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

8 ¶ Then Bildad, the Shuhite, answered and said,

² How long wilt thou speak such things and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?

³ Shall God pervert that which is right or shall the Almighty pervert justice?

⁴ Because thy sons sinned against him, he cast them away in the place of their rebellion;

⁵ if thou would seek God early and make thy supplication to the Almighty,

⁶ if thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake upon thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

⁷ In such a way that thy beginning would have been small, in comparison to the great increase of thy latter.

⁸ ¶ Ask, I pray thee, of the former age, and be willing to enquire of thy fathers regarding them;

⁹ for we are but of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon earth are as a shadow.

¹⁰ Shall they not teach thee and tell thee and utter these words out of their heart?

¹¹ Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the meadow grow without water?

¹² Whilst it is yet in its greenness and not cut down, it withers before any other herb.

¹³ So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish.

¹⁴ For his hope shall be cut off, and his trust is a spider’s web.

¹⁵ He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

¹⁶ Like a tree, he is green before the sun, and his branches go forth over his garden;

¹⁷ his roots weave themselves around a spring and secure themselves even in a stony place.

¹⁸ If he is uprooted from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.

¹⁹ Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth from where he was transplanted, others shall grow.

²⁰ ¶ Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man; neither will he help the evil doers.

²¹ He will yet fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with shouts of joy.

²² Those that hate thee shall be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.

7 ¶ Now concerning the things of which ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

² Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

³ Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

⁴ The wife does not have authority of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband does not have authority of his own body, but the wife.

⁵ Do not defraud one another, except it be with mutual consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again, that Satan not tempt you for your incontinency.

⁶ But I speak this by permission, and not by commandment.

⁷ For I would that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one after this manner and another after that.

⁸ I say, therefore, to the unmarried men and widowers, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

⁹ But if they do not have the gift of continence, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn.