Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
120 The song of degrees. When I was set in tribulation, I cried to the Lord; and he heard me. (When I was beset with troubles, I cried to the Lord; and he answered me.)
2 Lord, deliver thou my soul from wicked lips; and from a guileful tongue. (Lord, save thou me from wicked lips; and from a deceitful tongue.)
3 What shall be given to thee, either what shall be laid to thee; to a guileful tongue? (What shall be given to thee; that is, how shall he punish thee, O deceitful tongue?)
4 Sharp arrows of the mighty; with coals that make desolate. (With sharp arrows from the mighty; and with coals that shall make thee desolate.)
5 Alas to me! for my dwelling in an alien land is made long, I dwelled with men dwelling in Kedar; (Alas for me! for my stay here in Mesech is prolonged, and I must live among the people, or in the tents, of Kedar!)
6 my soul was much (time) a comeling. I was peaceable with them that hated peace; (I am here too long as a newcomer, or a stranger; yea, too long living with those who hate peace.)
7 when I spake to them, they impugned, either against-said, me without cause. (I am for peace; but whenever I speak of it to them, they be for war.)
1 In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremy should be fulfilled (so that the word of the Lord through Jeremiah would be fulfilled), the Lord raised (up) the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia; and he published a voice in all his realm, yea, by writing, he sent out his letters, (to be read aloud,) and said,
2 (I,) Cyrus, the king of Persia, saith these things, The Lord God of heaven hath given to me all the realms of [the] earth, and he hath commanded to me, that I should build to him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah (and he hath commanded me, to build a House for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah).
3 Who is among you of all his people? his God be with him; and go he up into Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build he (again) the house of the Lord God of Israel; he is God, which is in Jerusalem. (Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him; and go he up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and help he to rebuild the House of the Lord God of Israel; he is the God, who is worshipped in Jerusalem/whose city is Jerusalem.)
4 And all other men, that dwell wherever in all places, help him; the men of their place help in silver, and gold, and chattel, and sheep, besides that that they offer willfully to the temple of God, which is in Jerusalem. (And let all the other people, wherever they may live in every place, help him; let people from every place help him with silver, and gold, and chattel/and cattle, and sheep, besides what they offer by free will for the Temple of God, which was, and shall be again, in Jerusalem.)
5 And then [the] princes of the fathers of Judah and of Benjamin rose up, and the priests, and the deacons, and each man whose spirit God raised, for to go up to build (again) the temple of the Lord, that was in Jerusalem. (And then the leaders of the families of the tribes of Judah and of Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, and each man whose spirit God had raised up, rose up to go up to rebuild the Temple of the Lord, that was in Jerusalem.)
6 And all men that were in compass about helped the hands of them (And all the people who were round about helped them), with vessels of silver, and of gold, with their substance, with purtenance of household, and with work beasts, besides, or over, these things which they offered by their (own) free will.
7 And king Cyrus brought forth the vessels of the temple of the Lord (And King Cyrus brought forth the vessels from the Temple of the Lord), which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem, and had set them in the temple of his god.
8 And Cyrus, the king of Persia, brought forth those vessels by the hand of Mithredath, the son of Gizbar; and numbered those to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. (And Cyrus, the king of Persia, put Mithredath, the treasurer, in charge of these vessels; and Mithredath listed them for Sheshbazzar, the governor of Judah.)
9 And this is the number of the vessels; golden vials, thirty; silveren vials, a thousand; great knives, nine and twenty; (And this is the number of the vessels; thirty gold basins, one thousand silver basins; twenty-nine other kinds of vessels;)
10 (small) golden basins, thirty; (small) silveren basins, two thousand four hundred and ten; and other vessels, a thousand; (thirty gold bowls; four hundred and ten silver bowls; and a thousand other vessels;)
11 all the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. And Sheshbazzar took all these vessels, with them that went up from the transmigration of Babylon, into Jerusalem. (in all, there were five thousand four hundred gold and silver vessels. And Sheshbazzar took all of these vessels with him, when he, and others of the captivity, left Babylon, and went to Jerusalem.)
12 For our glory is this, the witnessing of our conscience, that in simpleness and cleanness of God, and not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we lived in this world, but more plenteously to you.
13 And we write not other things to you, than those that ye have read and know, and I hope that into the end ye shall know,
14 as also ye have known us a part [as and ye have known us of part]; for we be your glory, as also ye be ours in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 And in this trusting I would first come to you, that ye should have the second grace,
16 and pass by you into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia come to you, and of you be led into Judaea.
17 But when I would this thing, whether I used unsteadfastness, either those things that I think, I think after the flesh, that at me be, it is and it is not?[a]
18 But God is true, for our word that was at you, is and is not, is not therein, but is is in it.[b]
19 For why Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which is preached among you by us, by me, and Silvanus, and Timothy, there was not in him, is and is not, but is was in him[c].
2001 by Terence P. Noble