Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

126 The song of degrees. When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion; we were made as comforted. (When the Lord returned the captives to Zion/When the Lord returned prosperity to Zion; we were made like in a dream.)

² Then our mouth was filled with joy; and our tongue with full out joying. Then they shall say among heathen men; The Lord magnified to do with them. (Then our mouths were filled with joy; and ours tongues with rejoicing. And the heathen said to each other, The Lord hath done great things for them.)

³ The Lord magnified to do with us; we be made glad. (Yea, the Lord did great things for us; and we were glad.)

⁴ Lord, turn thou (again) our captivity; as a strand in the south. (Lord, return thou the captives/return thou our prosperity; like the streams return to the south.)

⁵ They that sow in tears; shall reap in full out joying. (Then they who sowed in tears; shall reap with rejoicing.)

⁶ They going, went, and wept; sending their seeds. But they coming, shall come with full out joying; bearing their handfuls (They going, went, and wept; sending out their seeds. But when they shall return, they shall come back rejoicing; carrying their harvest.)

⁸ Lead thou forth the blind people, and having eyes; the deaf people, and ears be to it. (Lead thou forth the people who have eyes, but be blind; the people who have ears, but be deaf.)

⁹ All heathen men be gathered together, and lineages be gathered together. Who among you, who shall tell this, and shall make you to hear those things, that be the first? give they [the] witnesses of them, and be they justified, and hear they, and say, (That is the truth). (All the heathen be gathered together, and the tribes be gathered together. Who among you, who shall tell out this, and shall help us to understand the former things? bring they in their witnesses, and be they justified, or proven right, and listen they, and say, That is the truth.)

¹⁰ Verily ye be my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant(s), whom I chose; that ye know, and believe to me, and understand, for I myself am; before me is no God former, and after me shall none be. (Truly ye be my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servants, whom I chose; so that ye would know me, and believe me, and understand, that I am he; before me no God was formed, and there shall be no one after me.)

¹¹ I am, I am the Lord, and without me is no saviour. (I am, yea, I am the Lord, and there is no other saviour besides me.)

¹² I told, and saved; I made hearing, and none alien God was among you (I have told it out, and I have saved; I have made it heard, when there was no foreign, or strange, god among you). Ye be my witnesses, saith the Lord; and I am God,

¹³ from the beginning, I myself am, and none there is that delivereth from mine hand; I shall work, and who shall destroy it? (yea, from the beginning, I am he, and there is no one who taketh anything from my hand; I shall do my work, and who shall be able to destroy it?)

¹⁴ The Lord, your again-buyer, the Holy of Israel, saith these things, For you I sent out into Babylon, and I drew down all bars, and [the] Chaldees having glory in their ships. (The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, saith these things, For your sakes I have sent to Babylon, and I have brought down all their bars, or all their gates, and the Chaldeans having glory in their ships.)

¹⁵ I am the Lord, your Holy, your king, making Israel of nought. (I am the Lord, your Holy One, your King, making Israel out of nothing.)

²⁵ And I guessed it needful to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and even-worker, and mine even-knight, but your apostle, and the minister of my need.

²⁶ For he desired you all, and he was sorrowful, therefore that ye heard that he was sick.

²⁷ For he was sick [till] to the death, but God had mercy on him; and not only on him, but also on me, lest I had heaviness on heaviness [lest I had heaviness upon heaviness].

²⁸ Therefore more hastily I sent him, that when ye have seen him, ye have joy again, and I be without heaviness.

²⁹ Therefore receive ye him with all joy in the Lord, and have ye such with all honour.

³⁰ For the work of Christ he went to death, giving his life, that he should fulfill that that failed of you with my service. [For why for the work of Christ unto the death he went, giving his life, that he should fulfill that that failed to you with my service.]

3 Henceforward, my brethren, have ye joy in the Lord. To write to you the same things, to me it is not slow, and to you it is necessary.