Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

55 Unto the end, for a people that is removed at a distance from the sanctuary for David, for an inscription of a title (or pillar) when the Philistines held him in Geth.

² Have mercy on me, O God, for man hath trodden me under foot; all the day long he hath afflicted me fighting against me.

³ My enemies have trodden on me all the day long; for they are many that make war against me.

⁴ From the height of the day I shall fear: but I will trust in thee.

⁵ In God I will praise my words, in God I have put my trust: I will not fear what flesh can do against me.

⁶ All the day long they detested my words: all their thoughts were against me unto evil.

⁷ They will dwell and hide themselves: they will watch my heel. As they have waited for my soul,

⁸ For nothing shalt thou save them: in thy anger thou shalt break the people in pieces, O God,

⁹ I have declared to thee my life: thou hast set my tears in thy sight, As also in thy promise.

¹⁰ Then shall my enemies be turned back. In what day soever I shall call upon thee, behold I know thou art my God.

¹¹ In God will I praise the word, in the Lord will I praise his speech. In God have I hoped, I will not fear what man can do to me.

¹² In me, O God, are vows to thee, which I will pay, praises to thee:

¹³ Because thou hast delivered my soul from death, my feet from falling: that I may please in the sight of God, in the light of the living.

8 The Baldad the Suhite answered, and said:

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

³ Doth God pervert judgment, or doth the Almighty overthrow that which is just?

⁴ Although thy children have sinned against him, and he hath left them in the hand of their iniquity:

⁵ Yet if thou wilt arise early to God, and wilt beseech the Almighty:

⁶ If thou wilt walk clean and upright, he will presently awake onto thee, and will make the dwelling of thy justice peaceable:

⁷ Insomuch, that if thy former things were small, thy latter things would be multiplied exceedingly.

⁸ For inquire of the former generation, and search diligently into the memory of the fathers:

⁹ (For we are but of yesterday, and are ignorant that our days upon earth are but a shadow:)

¹⁰ And they shall teach thee: they shall speak to thee, and utter words out of their hearts.

¹¹ Can the rush be green without moisture? or a sedge-bush grow without water?

¹² When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked up with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.

¹³ Even so are the ways of all that forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish:

¹⁴ His folly shall not please him, and his trust shall be like the spider's web.

¹⁵ He shall lean upon his house, and it shall not stand: he shall prop it up, and it shall not rise:

¹⁶ He seemeth to have moisture before the sun cometh, and at his rising his blossom shall shoot forth.

¹⁷ His roots shall be thick upon a heap of stones, and among the stones he shall abide.

¹⁸ If one swallow him up out of his place, he shall deny him, and shall say: I know thee not.

¹⁹ For this is the joy of his way, that others may spring again out of the earth.

²⁰ God will not cast away the simple, nor reach out his hand to the evildoer:

²¹ Until thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing.

²² They that hate thee, shall be clothed with confusion: and the dwelling of the wicked shall not stand.

7 Now concerning the thing whereof you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

² But for fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

³ Let the husband render the debt to his wife, and the wife also in like manner to the husband.

⁴ The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife.

⁵ Defraud not one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer; and return together again, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency.

⁶ But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment.

⁷ For I would that all men were even as myself: but every one hath his proper gift from God; one after this manner, and another after that.

⁸ But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they so continue, even as I.

⁹ But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be burnt.