Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

44 To victory, learning to the sons of Korah. God, we heard with our ears; our fathers told to us. The work, which thou wroughtest in the days of them; and in the old days. (To victory, for the sons of Korah, for their teaching. God, we heard with our ears, for our forefathers told us, of the work which thou hast wrought in their days; yea, in the old days.)

² Thine hand lost heathen men, and thou plantedest them (Thy hand destroyed the heathen/Thy power drove out the heathen, and thou plantedest our forefathers there); thou tormentedest (the) peoples, and castedest them out.

³ For the children of Israel wielded the land not by their sword; and the arm of them saved not them. But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the lightening of thy cheer; for thou were pleased in them. (For the children of Israel took the land not by their own swords; and their own power did not save them. But it was thy right hand, and thy power, and the shining of thy face; for thou gavest favour to them.)

⁴ Thou art thyself, my king, and my God; that sendest healths to Jacob. (Thou art my King, and my God; who sendest help to Jacob.)

⁵ By thee we shall winnow our enemies with [the] horn; and in thy name we shall despise them, that rise against us. (By thy power we shall winnow our enemies; and in thy name, we shall defeat those who rise up against us.)

⁶ For I shall not hope in my bow (For I shall not trust in my bow); and my sword shall not save me.

⁷ For thou hast saved us from men tormenting us; and thou hast shamed men hating us.

⁸ We shall be pleased in God all day; and in thy name we shall acknowledge to thee into the world. (We shall glory in God all day long; and we shall praise thy name forever.)

⁹ But now thou hast put us aback, and hast shamed us; and thou, Lord, shalt not go out in our virtues. (But now thou hast rejected us, and hast humbled us; and O Lord, thou no longer goeth out with our hosts, or our armies.)

¹⁰ Thou hast turned us away behind after our enemies; and they, that hated us, ravished diversely to themselves. (Thou hast made us turn back, or run away, from our enemies; and those, who hate us, took for themselves what was ours.)

¹¹ Thou hast given us as sheep of meats; and among heathen men thou hast scattered us. (Thou hast given us up like sheep for meat, or for food; and thou hast scattered us among the heathen.)

¹² Thou hast sold thy people without price; and multitude there was not in the (ex)changings of them. (Thou hast sold thy people for nothing; and there was no profit from their sale.)

¹³ Thou hast set us (as a) shame to our neighbours; mocking and scorn to them that be in our compass. (Thou hast made us a shame, or a reproach, to our neighbours; a mockery, and scorned by those who be all around us.)

¹⁴ Thou hast set us into likeness to heathen men; and stirring of the head/wagging of (the) head among peoples. (Thou hast made us into a likeness, or a byword, to the heathen; and they shook their heads over us among the nations.)

¹⁵ All day my shame is against me; and the shame of my face covered me. (All day long my shame is before me; and the shame on my face covered me.)

¹⁶ From the voice of [the] despiser, and evil speaker; from the face of the enemy, and [the] pursuer. (From the voice of him who despiseth, and speaketh evil; from before the enemy, and the pursuer.)

¹⁷ All these things came on us, and we have not forgotten thee; and we did not wickedly in thy testament. (All these things came upon us, but we did not forget thee; and we have not broken thy covenant.)

¹⁸ And our heart went not away behind; and thou hast (not) bowed away our paths from thy way. (And our hearts did not turn away from thee/And our hearts did not turn back from thee; and our steps have not turned away from thy way.)

¹⁹ For thou hast made us low in the place of torment; and the shadow of death covered us. (Though thou hast made us low, or hast humbled us, in the place of torment; and hast covered us with the shadow of death.)

²⁰ If we forgat the name of our God; and if we held forth our hands to an alien God. (And if we had forgotten the name of our God; or if we had held forth our hands to a foreign, or another, god;)

²¹ Whether God shall not seek these things? for he knoweth the hid things of heart. (shall not God seek out these things? for he knoweth the hidden things of the heart.)

²² For why we be slain all day for thee; we be deemed as sheep of slaying. (But we be killed all day long for thee; we be judged, or treated, like sheep for the slaughter.)

²³ Lord, rise up, why sleepest thou? rise up, and put not us away into the end (rise up, and do not shun us forever).

²⁴ Why turnest thou away thy face? thou forgettest our poverty, and our tribulation. (Why turnest thou away thy face? forgettest thou our poverty, and all our troubles?)

²⁵ For our life is made low in dust; our womb is glued together in the earth. (For our life is brought down low into the dust; our womb is glued together with the earth/and we lie flat on our backs.)

²⁶ Lord, rise up thou, and help us; and again-buy us for thy name. (Lord, rise thou up, and help us; and redeem us for the sake of thy name.)

¹⁴ For this thing lo! I shall give milk to it, and I shall bring it into wilderness, and I shall speak to the heart thereof. (And then lo! I shall give her milk, and I shall bring her into the wilderness again, and I shall speak to her heart/and I shall speak words of love to her.)

¹⁵ And I shall give to it vine-tillers thereof of the same place, and the valley of Achor, that is, of troubling, for to open hope. And it shall sing there by the days of her youth, and by the days of her going up from the land of Egypt. (And I shall give her back her vineyards from the same place, and turn the Valley of Achor, that is, the Valley of Trouble, into a door of hope. And she shall sing there like in the days of her youth, and like in the days of her going out of the land of Egypt.)

¹⁶ And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, she shall call me Mine husband, and she shall no more call me Baali; (And it shall be on that day, saith the Lord, that she shall call me Ishi, or My husband, and she shall no more call me Baali, or My Lord;)

¹⁷ and I shall take away the names of Baalim from her mouth, and she shall no more have mind of the name(s) of those. (and I shall take away the names of the Baalim from out of her mouth, and no more shall she remember their names.)

¹⁸ And I shall smite to them a bond of peace in that day, with the beast of the field, and with the bird of the air, and with the creeping beast of the earth. And I shall all-break bow, and sword, and battle from [the] earth; and I shall make them to sleep trustily. (And on that day, I shall strike a covenant for them with the wild beasts, and with the birds of the air, and with the creeping beasts of the earth. And I shall altogether break the bow, and the sword, and the battle from off the earth, and then they all shall be able to sleep with trust, or in peace.)

¹⁹ And I shall spouse thee to me [into] without end; and I shall spouse thee to me in rightfulness, and in doom, and in mercy, and in merciful doings. (And I shall betroth thee to me forever; and I shall betroth thee to me in righteousness, and in judgement, and in love, and in giving mercy.)

²⁰ And I shall spouse thee to me in faith; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. (And I shall betroth thee to me in faith; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.)

²¹ And it shall be, in that day I shall hear, saith the Lord, and I shall hear (the) heavens, and those shall hear the earth; (And it shall be, on that day, that I shall give an answer, saith the Lord, and I shall answer with the heavens, and they shall answer with the earth;)

²² and the earth shall hear (the) wheat, and wine, and oil, and these shall hear Jezreel. (and the earth shall answer with the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and all of them shall answer with Jezreel, that is, with Israel.)

²³ And I shall sow it to me into a land, and I shall have mercy on it that was without mercy. And I shall say to that, that is not my people, Thou art my people, and it shall say, Thou art my God. (And I shall sow Israel in the land for me, and I shall show love to Loruhamah, and I shall say to Loammi, Thou art my people, and they shall say to me/and he shall say to me, Thou art my God.)

3 And the Lord said to me, Yet go thou, and love a woman loved of a friend, and a woman adulteress, as the Lord loveth the sons of Israel; and they behold to alien gods, and love the dregs of grapes. (And the Lord said to me, Now go thou, and love a woman loved by a friend, yea, a woman who is an adulteress, like the Lord loveth the Israelites; even though they turn to strange, or foreign, gods, and love the dregs, or the lees, of grapes.)

² And I delved it to me by fifteen pence, and by a cor of barley, and by half a cor of barley. (And so I bought her back for me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a cor of barley, and for half a cor of barley.)

³ And I said to it, By many days thou shalt abide me; thou shalt not do fornication, and thou shalt not be with an husband, but also I shall abide thee. (And I said to her, For many days thou shalt wait for me; thou shalt not do adultery, or idolatry, and thou shalt not be with a husband, and also I shall wait for thee.)

⁴ For by many days the sons of Israel shall sit without king, without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without priest’s cloak, and without teraphim, that is, images. (And so for many days the Israelites shall sit without a king, and without a prince/yea, without a leader, and without sacrifices, and without altars, and without sacred pillars, and without teraphim, or idols.)

⁵ And after these things the sons of Israel shall turn again, and shall seek their Lord God, and David, their king; and they shall dread at the Lord, and at the good of him, in the last days. (And after these things the Israelites shall repent, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David, their king; and they shall fear the Lord, and shall receive good things from him, in the coming days.)

¹⁶ Therefore no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in part of feast day, or of new moon, or of sabbaths,

¹⁷ which be shadow of things to coming [which be shadow of things to come]; for the body is of Christ.

¹⁸ No man deceive you, willing to teach in meekness, and [the] religion of angels, those things which he hath not seen, walking vainly, swollen with wit of his flesh [in-blown with wit of his flesh],

¹⁹ and not holding the head, of which all the body, by bands and joinings together [by bonds and joinings together] under-ministered and made, waxeth into [the] increasing of God.

²⁰ For if ye be dead with Christ from the elements of the world, what yet as men living to the world deem ye?

²¹ That ye touch not, neither taste, neither treat with hands those things, [Neither ye shall touch, neither taste, neither treat with hands,]

²² which all be into death by that use, after the commandments and teachings of men;

²³ which have a reason of wisdom in vain religion and meekness [which be soothly having reason of wisdom in superstition, or vain religion, and meekness], and not to spare the body, not in any honour to the fulfilling of the flesh.

3 Therefore if ye have risen together with Christ, seek ye those things that be above, where Christ is sitting on the right half of God.