Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

77 To the victory on Jeduthun, the psalm of Asaph. (To victory, to Jeduthun, the song of Asaph.) With my voice I cried to the Lord, with my voice to God; and he gave attention to me.

² In the day of my tribulation I sought God with mine hands; in the night before him/in the night toward him, and I am not deceived. My soul forsook to be comforted; (In the day of my trouble I sought out God; all night long, I raised up my hands before him/I raised up my hands toward him. But my soul forsook to be comforted;)

¹¹ I had mind on the works of the Lord; for I shall have mind from the beginning of thy marvels. (But I remembered the works of the Lord; I shall always remember thy marvellous deeds done in the beginning.)

¹² And I shall think on all thy works; and I shall be exercised, either occupied, in thy findings. (And I shall think about all thy works; and about all thy deeds.)

¹³ God, thy way was in the holy (place); what God is great as our God? (God, thy way is in the holy place, or in the sanctuary/God, thy way is holy; and what god is as great as our God?)

¹⁴ thou art God, that doest marvels. Thou madest thy virtue known among peoples; (thou art God, who doest marvellous deeds. Thou madest thy strength known among the nations;)

¹⁵ thou again-boughtest in thine arm thy people, the sons of Jacob and of Joseph. (with thy arm thou hast redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and of Joseph.)

¹⁶ God, waters saw thee, waters saw thee, and dreaded; and depths of waters were troubled. (God, the waters saw thee, the waters saw thee, and were afraid; and the depths of the waters were troubled.)

¹⁷ The multitude of the sound of waters; clouds gave voice. For why thine arrows pass [through]; (The clouds gave forth water, or the rain; the heavens sent out a multitude of sounds. Thy arrows passed through them;)

¹⁸ the voice of thy thunder was in a wheel. Thy lightnings shined to the world; the earth was moved, and trembled. (the sound of thy thunder was in the whirlwind. Thy lightnings shone upon the world; the earth was shaken, and trembled.)

¹⁹ Thy way in the sea, and thy paths in many waters; and thy steps shall not be known.

²⁰ Thou leddest forth thy people as sheep; in the hand of Moses and Aaron. (Thou leddest forth thy people like sheep; by the guidance of Moses and Aaron.)

²⁹ Therefore the king of Israel ascended, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, into Ramoth of Gilead. (And so the king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth of Gilead.)

³⁰ Therefore the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Take thou armours, and enter thou into battle, and be thou clothed in thy clothes, that is, in (the) noble signs of the king. Certainly the king of Israel changed his clothing, and entered into battle. (And so the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Take thou up thy arms, or thy weapons, and enter thou into the battle, and be thou clothed in thy clothes, that is, in the noble signs of the king. But the king of Israel changed his own clothes, and only then entered into the battle.)

³¹ Soothly the king of Syria had commanded to [the] two and thirty princes of chariots, and said, Ye shall not fight against any man [the] less, either [the] more, but against the king of Israel only. (And the king of Syria had commanded to the thirty-two leaders of his chariots, and said, Ye shall not fight against any lesser man, or against any greater man, but only against the king of Israel.)

³² Therefore when the princes of (the) chariots had seen Jehoshaphat, they supposed that he was (the) king of Israel, and by fierceness made, they fought against him. And Jehoshaphat cried [out], calling (for) God’s help, and declaring his banner;

³³ and the princes of [the] chariots understood, that it was not the king of Israel, and they ceased from (pursuing) him.

³⁴ Soothly some man bent a bow, and directed an arrow into uncertain, and by hap he smote the king of Israel betwixt the lung and the stomach. And the king said to his charioteer, Turn thine hand, and cast me out of the host, for I am wounded grievously (And the king said to his charioteer, Turn thy hand, and take me out of the battle, for I am grievously wounded).

³⁵ Therefore [the] battle was joined in that day, and the king of Israel stood in his chariot against (the) men of Syria, and he was dead at eventide. Forsooth the blood of the wound floated down into the bottom of the chariot. (And so the battle was joined on that day, and the king of Israel stood in his chariot facing the Syrians, and then he died that evening. And the blood from his wound flowed down into the bottom of his chariot.)

³⁶ And a crier sounded in all the host, before that the sun went down, and said, Each man turn again into his city, and into his land (Each man return to his own city, and to his own land).

³⁷ Forsooth the king was dead, and was borne into Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.

³⁸ And they washed his chariot in the cistern of Samaria, and dogs licked his blood, and they washed the armours, by the word of the Lord which he had spoken. (And they washed his chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and they washed his arms, or his weapons/and the whores washed themselves in it, according to the word which the Lord had spoken.)

³⁹ Soothly the residue of [the] words of Ahab, and all things which he did, and the house of ivory which he builded, and of all [the] cities which he builded (and the ivory house and all the cities which he built), whether these be not written in the book of [the] words of [the] days of the kings of Israel?

⁴⁰ Therefore Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah, his son, reigned for him. (And so Ahab died, and his son Ahaziah reigned for him.)

⁵¹ Forsooth Ahaziah, [the] son of Ahab, began to reign on Israel, in Samaria, in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; and Ahaziah reigned on Israel two years.

⁵² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went in the way of his father, and of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam, [the] son of Nebat, that made Israel to do sin.

⁵³ And he served Baal, and worshipped him, and wrathed the Lord God of Israel, by all things which his father had done. (And he served Baal, and worshipped him, and stirred the Lord God of Israel to anger, by doing all the evil things which his father had done.)

⁵ Assay yourselves, if ye be in the faith; ye yourselves prove. Whether ye know not yourselves, for Christ Jesus is in you? but (it) happens ye be reprovable [no but peradventure, ye be reprovable].

⁶ But I hope, that ye know, that we be not reprovable.

⁷ And we pray the Lord, that ye do nothing of evil; not that we seem approved [not that we seem proved], but that ye do that that is good, and that we be as reprovable.

⁸ For we be able to do nothing against truth, but for the truth. [Forsooth we may do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.]

⁹ For we joy, when we be frail [when we be sick], but ye be mighty; and we pray this thing, your perfection.

¹⁰ Therefore I absent write these things, that I present do not harder, by the power, which the Lord gave to me into edification, and not into your destruction^[a].