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.

11 ¶ Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered and said,

² Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be justified?

³ Should thy lies make men be silent? Shalt thou mock, and shall no man make thee ashamed?

⁴ For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean before thine eyes.

⁵ But oh, that God would speak and open his lips against thee

⁶ and that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom! For thou dost deserve double according to sound wisdom; and thou dost know that God has forgotten thee because of thine iniquity.

⁷ ¶ Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou come unto the perfection of the Almighty?

⁸ It is higher than the heavens; what canst thou do? It is deeper than Sheol; how canst thou know it?

⁹ The measure of it is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.

¹⁰ If he cuts off, or shuts up, or gathers together, then who can hinder him?

¹¹ For he knows the vain men; and he sees the iniquity; will he not then understand it?

¹² The vain man shall make himself understood, though man is born like a wild ass’s colt.

¹³ ¶ If thou would prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands toward him;

¹⁴ if there is any iniquity in thy hand and thou dost put it far away and dost not consent that wickedness dwell in thy habitations,

¹⁵ then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; thou shalt be strongly established and shalt not fear;

¹⁶ and thou shalt forget thy misery and remember it as waters that passed away;

¹⁷ and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.

¹⁸ And thou shalt trust because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig and sleep in safety;

¹⁹ thou shalt lie down, and no one shall make thee afraid; and many shall make requests unto thee.

²⁰ But the eyes of the wicked shall consume themselves, and they shall have no refuge, and their hope shall be agony of the soul.

¹⁰ ¶ And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife separate from her husband;

¹¹ and if she separates, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband, and let not the husband put away his wife.

¹² But to the rest I speak, not the Lord: If any brother has a wife that does not believe, and she consents to dwell with him, let him not put her away.

¹³ And the woman who has a husband that does not believe and if he consents to dwell with her, let her not leave him.

¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

¹⁵ But if the unbelieving spouse separates, let them separate. The brother or the sister is not under slavery in such cases, but God has called us to peace.

¹⁶ For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or what knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?