Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

63 The psalm of David, when he was in the desert of Judah. God, my God, I wake to thee full early. My soul thirsted to thee; my flesh thirsted to thee full manyfold. In a land forsaken without way, and without water, (The song of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. God, my God, I wake up early, and I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh greatly thirsteth for thee. Here in a desert/ed land, without a way, and without water.)

² so I appeared to thee in holy; that I should see thy virtue, and thy glory. (So I came to thee in the holy place; so that I could see thy strength, and thy glory.)

³ For thy mercy is better than lives (For thy love is better than living/is better than life itself); my lips shall praise thee.

⁴ So I shall bless thee in my life; and in thy name I shall raise mine hands. (So I shall bless thee all my life; and in thy name I shall raise up my hands.)

⁵ My soul be [ful]filled as with inner fatness and uttermore fatness; and my mouth shall praise with lips of full out joying (and my mouth shall praise thee with lips of rejoicing).

⁶ So I had mind on thee on my bed, in the morrowtides I shall think of thee; (And I remember thee as I lie on my bed, and in the morning, I think of thee;)

⁷ for thou hast been mine helper. And in the covering of thy wings I shall make full out joy, (for thou hast been my helper. And under the covering of thy wings I shall make great joy,)

⁸ my soul cleaved after thee; thy right hand took me up. (for my soul cleaveth to thee/for my soul followeth after thee; thy right hand lifteth me up.)

⁹ Forsooth they sought in vain my life, they shall enter into the lower things of earth; (And they, who seek to take my life, shall enter into the lower things of the earth, that is, into Sheol;)

¹⁰ they shall be betaken into the hands of sword, they shall be made the parts of foxes. (they shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be made a portion for foxes.)

¹¹ But the king shall be glad in God; and all men shall be praised that swear in him; for the mouth of them, that speak wicked things, is stopped. (But the king shall rejoice in God; and all those who swear by him shall praise him; for the mouths of them who speak wicked things shall be stopped.)

¹⁵ Furthermore also he destroyed the altar that was in Bethel, and the high solemn thing, which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had made, that made Israel to do sin; and he destroyed that high altar, and burnt it, and all-brake it into powder, and cutted down also the [maumet] wood. (And furthermore he destroyed the altar that was in Bethel, and the hill shrine, which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had made, who had made Israel to do sin; and he destroyed that high altar, and burned it, and broke it all into powder, and also cut down the sacred pole of Asherah.)

¹⁶ And Josiah turned, and saw there sepulchres that were in the hill; and he sent, and took the bones from the sepulchres, and burnt those on the altar, and defouled it, after the word of the Lord, that the man of God spake, that before-said these words. (And Josiah turned, and saw the tombs, or the graves, that were there on the hill; and he sent for, and took all the bones from those tombs, or those graves, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, after the word of the Lord, that the man of God spoke, who foretold these things.)

¹⁷ And the king said, What is this burial, that I see? [Whose is this tomb that I see?] And the citizens of that city answered to him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, that came from Judah, and before-said these words (and foretold these things), which thou hast done upon the altar of Bethel.

¹⁸ And the king said, Suffer ye him (Do not ye touch him); no man move his bones. And (so) his bones dwelled untouched with the bones of the prophet, that came from Samaria.

¹⁹ Furthermore also Josiah did away all the temples of [the] high things, that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to stir the Lord to ire; and he did to those temples by all things which he had done in Bethel. (And furthermore Josiah did away all the temples of the hill shrines that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had built, and had so stirred the Lord to anger; and he did to those temples all the things which he had done to the temples in Bethel.)

²⁰ And he killed all the priests of [the] high things, that were there upon the altars, and he burnt men’s bones on those altars; and he turned again to Jerusalem; (And he killed all the priests of the hill shrines, who were there at the altars, and he burned the bones of people upon those altars; and then he returned to Jerusalem;)

²¹ and he commanded to all the people, and said, Make ye pask to the Lord your God, after that, that is written in the book of this bond of peace. (and he commanded to all the people, and said, Keep ye the Passover to the Lord your God, after what is written in this Book of the Covenant.)

²² Certainly such a pask was not made, from the days of judges that deemed Israel, and of all the days of the kings of Israel, and of Judah, (Certainly such a Passover was not kept, from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, or of Judah,)

²³ as this pask (that) was made to the Lord in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of king Josiah.

²⁴ But also Josiah did away men having fiends speaking in their wombs, and false diviners in altars, and he did away the figures of idols, and all [the] uncleannesses, and [the] abominations, that were in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he should do the words of the law, that were written in the book, that Hilkiah, the priest, found in the temple of the Lord. (And Josiah also did away men having fiends speaking in their wombs, and false diviners at altars, and the figures of idols, and all the uncleannesses, and the abominations, that were in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he would do all the words of the Law, that were written in the book that the High Priest Hilkiah had found in the Temple of the Lord.)

²⁵ No king before him was like him, that turned again to the Lord in all his heart, and in all his soul, and in all his strength, after all the law of Moses; neither after him rose (up) any like him. (There was no king like him before him, who had turned again to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, after all the Law of Moses; nor did there rise up any king like him after him.)

11 And a reed like a rod was given to me, and it was said to me, Rise thou, and mete the temple of God, and the altar, and men that worship in it.

² But cast thou out the foreyard, that is without the temple, and mete not it [Forsooth cast out the porch, that is without the temple, and mete it not]; for it is given to heathen men, and they shall defoul the holy city by forty months and twain [by forty months and two].

³ And I shall give to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand days two hundred and sixty, and [they] shall be clothed with sackcloths.

⁴ These be two olives, and two candlesticks, and they stand in the sight of the Lord of the earth [standing in the sight of the Lord of the earth].

⁵ And if any man will harm them, fire shall go out of the mouth of them, and shall devour their enemies. And if any [man] will hurt them, thus it behooveth him to be slain.

⁶ These have power to close heaven [These have power to shut heaven], that it rain not in the days of their prophecy; and they have power on [upon] waters, to turn them into blood; and to smite the earth with every plague [and to smite the earth with all plague, either vengeance], and as oft as they will.

⁷ And when they shall end their witnessing, the beast that ascendeth up from deepness [the beast that ascendeth up of the deepness], shall make battle against them, and shall overcome them, and shall slay them [and slay them].

⁸ And the bodies of them shall lie in the streets of the great city, that is called ghostly Sodom, and Egypt, where the Lord of them was crucified.

⁹ And some of the lineages, and of peoples, and of languages [and tongues], and of heathen men, shall see the bodies of them by three days and an half; and they shall not suffer the bodies of them to be put in burials.

¹⁰ And men inhabiting the earth shall have joy on [upon] them; and they shall make merry, and shall send gifts together, for these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.

¹¹ And after three days and an half, the Spirit of life of God entered into them; and they stood on their feet, and great dread fell on them that saw them [and they stood upon their feet, and great dread fell upon them that saw them].

¹² And they heard a great voice from heaven, saying to them, Come up hither. And they ascended [up] into heaven in a cloud, and the enemies of them saw them.

¹³ And in that hour a great earth-moving was made, and the tenth part of the city fell down [and the tenth part of the city fell]; and the names of men seven thousand were slain in the earth-moving [and there be slain in the earth-moving the names of men seven thousand]; and the others were sent into dread, and gave glory to God of heaven.

¹⁴ The second woe is gone, and lo! the third woe shall come soon.