Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
39 I said, “I will take heed of my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”
2 I was dumb with silence; I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:
4 “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am.
5 Behold, Thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, and mine age is as nothing before Thee; verily every man in his best state is altogether vanity. Selah
6 “Surely every man walketh in a vain show; surely they are disquieted in vain; he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
7 “And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in Thee.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it.
10 Remove Thy stroke away from me; I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand.
11 When with rebukes Thou dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to be consumed away like a moth; surely every man is vanity. Selah
12 “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not Thy peace at my tears; for I am a stranger with Thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 O spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence and am no more.”
12 But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
13 Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
14 The deep saith, ‘It is not in me’; and the sea saith, ‘It is not with me.’
15 It cannot be gotten for gold; neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire.
17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it; neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20 “Whence then cometh wisdom? And where is the place of understanding—
21 seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air?
22 Destruction and death say, ‘We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.’
23 God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof.
24 For He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven,
25 to make the weight for the winds, and He weigheth the waters by measure.
26 When He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
27 then did He see it and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
28 And unto man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord: that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’”
29 Moreover Job continued his parable and said:
2 “Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
3 when His candle shone upon my head, and when by His light I walked through darkness,
4 as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
5 when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
6 when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
7 when I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
8 The young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood up.
9 The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
10 The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
8 And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.
4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire from the altar, and cast it onto the earth; and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings, and an earthquake.
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