Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

60 To victory, on the witnessing of (the) rose, the sweet song of David, to teach men, when he fought against Aram of floods, and Syria of Zobah; and Joab turned again, and smote Edom in the valley of salt pits, twelve thousand. God, thou hast put away us, and thou hast destroyed us; thou were wroth, and thou hast done mercy to us. (To victory, on the teaching of the lily, the sweet song of David, to teach men, when he fought against Aramnaharaim, and Aramzobah; and Joab returned, and struck down twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of the Salt Pits. God, thou hast cast us away, and thou hast destroyed us; thou were angry, but now, show thou thy mercy to us/show thou us thy mercy.)

² Thou movedest the earth, and thou troubledest it; make thou whole (again) the sorrows thereof, for it is moved. (Thou hast shaken the earth, and thou hast troubled it; but now heal thou its wounds, for it is broken in pieces.)

³ Thou showedest hard things to thy people; thou gavest drink to us with the wine of compunction. (Thou hast shown thy people hard times; and thou hast made us stagger, as though we were drunk with wine.)

⁴ Thou hast given a signifying to them that dread thee; that they flee from the face of the bow. (Thou hast given a sign, or a warning, to those who fear thee/to those who revere thee; so that they can flee, or escape, from the face of the bow.)

⁵ That thy darlings be delivered; make thou safe with thy right hand, and hear thou me. (Save thy dear ones; yea, save thou us with thy right hand, and answer thou me.)^[a]

⁶ God spake by his holy (place); I shall be glad, and I shall part Shechem, and I shall mete the great valley of tabernacles. (God spoke in his holiness/God spoke from his sanctuary, and he said, I shall be glad, and I shall divide Shechem; and I shall measure out the Succoth Valley.)

⁷ Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; and Ephraim is the strength of mine head. Judah is my king; (Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, and Judah is my sceptre.)

⁸ Moab is the pot of mine hope. Into Idumea I shall stretch forth my shoe; aliens be made subject to me. (But Moab is my washbowl. And I shall throw my shoes at Edom; and Philistia shall be made subject to me.)

⁹ Who shall lead me into a city made strong; who shall lead me into Idumea? (Who shall lead me into the strengthened, or the fortified, city? who shall lead me unto Edom?)

¹⁰ Whether not thou, God, that hast put away us; and shalt thou not, God, go out in our virtues? (Shalt not thou, O God, even though thou hast cast us off, or rejected us? or shalt not thou, O God, go out with our hosts, or our armies, any more?)

¹¹ Lord, give thou to us help (out) of tribulation; for the help of man is vain. (Lord, give thou us help in the time of trouble; for the help of man is worthless, yea, but an empty hope.)

¹² In God we shall make virtue; and he shall bring to nought them that trouble us/that disturb us. (With God’s help, we shall do valiantly/we shall have the victory; and he shall bring down those who trouble us into nothing.)

13 For Ephraim spake, hideousness assailed Israel; and he trespassed in Baal, and was dead. (For when the people of Ephraim spoke, fear, or terror, assailed the other Israelites; and they trespassed by worshipping Baal, and many died.)

² And now they added to do sin, and made to them a molten image of their silver, as the likeness of idols; all is the making of craftsmen. To these they say, A! ye men, offer, and worship calves. (And they added to do more sin, and made for themselves a cast image, and idols made out of silver; yea, all the making of craftsmen. To whom they say, O! ye men, offer to these, and worship the calves.)

³ Therefore they shall be as a morrowtide cloud, and as the dew of morrowtide, that passeth forth, as dust ravished by whirlwind from the cornfloor, and as smoke of a chimney. (And so they shall be like a morning cloud, and like the morning dew, that passeth away, and like the dust that is taken up by the whirlwind from the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of a chimney.)

⁴ Forsooth I am thy Lord God from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt not know God, except me, and no saviour is, except me. (But I am the Lord thy God since thy days in the land of Egypt; and thou shalt know no other god, except me, and there is no other saviour, except me.)

⁵ I knew thee in the desert, in the land of wilderness.

⁶ By their pastures they were filled, and had abundance; they raised [up] their heart, and forgat me (then they raised up their hearts, and forgot me).

⁷ And I shall be as a lioness to them, as a leopard in the way of Assyrians. (And I shall be like a lioness to them, I shall watch them like a leopard by the wayside.)

⁸ I as a female bear, when the whelps be ravished, shall meet them; and shall break the inner things of the maw of them. And I as a lion shall waste them there; a beast of the field shall rend them. (I shall meet them like a female bear, robbed of her cubs, and I shall break the inner things of their maw/and I shall tear apart their innards. And like a lion I shall destroy them there; and I shall tear them apart like a wild beast.)

⁹ Israel, thy perdition is of thee; thine help is only of me. (Israel, thy perdition is from me; now who can help thee?/and now only I can help thee!)

¹⁰ Where is thy king? mostly save he thee now in all thy cities; and where be thy judges, of which thou saidest, Give thou to me a king and princes? (Where is thy king now? let him save thee in all thy cities; and where be thy rulers, of whom thou saidest, Give thou me a king and princes?)

¹¹ I shall give to thee a king in my strong vengeance, and I shall take away in mine indignation. (I gave thee a king in my strong vengeance, and then in my indignation I took him away.)

¹² The wickedness of Ephraim is bound together; his sin is hid. (The wickedness of Ephraim is recorded; and the records of his sins be hidden away.)

¹³ The sorrows of a woman travailing of child shall come to him; he is a son not wise. For now he shall not stand in the defouling of sons. (The sorrows of a woman labouring with child shall come to him; he is not a wise son, for he would not leave the place of his conceiving.)

¹⁴ I shall deliver them from the hand of death, and I shall again-buy them from death. Thou death, I shall be thy death; thou hell, I shall be thy morsel. Comfort is hid from mine eyes, (But I shall not save, or rescue, them from the hand of death, and I shall not buy them back from death. O death, bring on thy death; O Sheol/O grave, bring on thy destruction. Mercy is hid from my eyes,)

¹⁵ for he shall part betwixt brethren. The Lord shall bring a burning wind, going up from desert; and it shall make dry the veins thereof, and it shall make desolate the well(s) thereof; and he shall ravish the treasure of each desirable vessel. (and I shall divide between brothers. Yea, the Lord shall bring in a burning wind, going up from the desert; and it shall dry up their springs, and make their wells desolate; and it shall take away all their valuable treasures.)

¹⁶ (Let) Samaria perish, for it stirred his God to bitterness; perish it by sword. The little children of them be hurtled down, and the women with child thereof be carved. (And so Samaria shall perish, for she stirred her God to bitterness; she shall perish by the sword. Their little children shall be hurtled down, and their women with child shall be carved, or cut, up.)

² Be ye busy in prayer, and wake in it, in doing of thankings;

³ and pray each for other, and for us [praying together and for us], that God open to us the door of word, to speak the mystery of Christ; for which also I am bound,

⁴ that I show it, so as it behooveth me to speak.

⁵ Walk ye in wisdom to them that be withoutforth, again-buying time.

⁶ Your word be savoured with salt evermore in grace; that ye know, how it behooveth you to answer to each man.