Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

74 The learning of Asaph. God, why hast thou put (us) away into the end; thy strong vengeance is wroth on the sheep of thy pasture? (The teaching of Asaph. God, why hast thou deserted us? is it forever? and why is thy anger, yea, thy fury, so strong against the sheep of thy pasture?)

² Be thou mindful of thy gathering together; which thou haddest in possession from the beginning. Thou again-boughtest the rod of thine heritage; the hill of Zion, in which thou dwelledest therein. (Remember thy congregation; whom thou haddest in possession since the old days. Thou redeemedest this tribe for thy inheritance. And remember Mount Zion; where thou dwelledest.)

³ Raise thine hands into the prides of them; how great things the enemy did wickedly in the holy (place). (How greatly wicked were the things that the enemy did in the holy place; raise up thy hands against their pride.)

⁴ And they that hated thee; had glory in the midst of thy solemnity. They setted their signs, either banners, to be signs on the highest (place), as in the out-going; and they knew not. (For they who hated thee, had glory in the midst of thy holy place. They set up their signs, or their banners, there, as signs of victory.)

⁵ As in a wood of trees, they hewed down with axes the gates thereof into itself; (Like in a forest, they hewed down its gates with their axes, as if they were woodsmen;)

⁶ they casted down it with an ax, and a broad falling ax. (they threw them down with their axes, yea, with their broad falling axes.)

⁷ They burnt with fire thy saintuary; they defouled the tabernacle of thy name in earth. (They burned thy sanctuary with fire; they defiled the Temple of thy name, and razed it to the ground.)

⁸ The kindred of them said together in their heart; Make we all the feast days of God to cease in the earth. (They said in their hearts, Let us altogether destroy them; and they burned down all the synagogues of God in the land/and they burned down all the holy places of God in the land.)

⁹ We have not seen our signs, now there is no prophet; and he shall no more know us. (We cannot see our signs, that is, the future, for now there is no prophet here; and none of us know how long this shall last.)

¹⁰ God, how long shall the enemy say despite? the adversary stirreth to ire thy name into the end. (God, how long shall the enemy show their despising of us? shall the adversary scorn thy name forever?)

¹¹ Why turnest thou away thine hand, and to (not) draw out thy right hand from the midst of thy bosom, till into the end? (Why turnest thou away thy hand, and why draw thou not out thy right hand from the midst of thy bosom?)

¹² Forsooth God our king before worlds, wrought health in the midst of earth. (But God, our King forever, hath given salvation, or deliverance, all the world over.)

¹³ Thou madest firm the sea by thy virtue; thou hast troubled the heads of the dragons in waters. (Thou dividedest the sea by thy strength, or thy power; thou hast broken the heads of the dragons in the water/thou hast broken the heads of the Dragon in the water.)

¹⁴ Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon; thou hast given him to be meat to the peoples of Ethiopians. (Thou hast broken the heads of the Dragon, or of Leviathan; thou hast given him to be food for the peoples of the desert.)

¹⁵ Thou hast broken wells, and strands; thou madest dry the floods of Eitan. (Thou hast broken open the wells, or the springs, and the streams; thou hast dried up the mighty rivers.)

¹⁶ The day is thine, and the night is thine; thou madest the morrowtide and the sun.

¹⁷ Thou madest all the ends of the earth; summer, and ver time, either springing time (or spring time), thou formedest those.

¹⁸ Be thou mindful of this thing, the enemy hath said shame to the Lord; and the unwise people hath excited to ire thy name. (Remember this, that the enemy hath said shame to the Lord; and that the foolish and the ignorant have scorned thy name.)

¹⁹ Betake thou not (over) to beasts men acknowledging to thee; and forget thou not into the end the souls of thy poor men. (Give thou not over to beasts those who confess thee; and forget thou not forever the suffering of thy poor.)

²⁰ Behold into thy testament; for they that be made dark of (the) earth, be [full-]filled with the houses of wickednesses. (Remember thy covenant; for the dark places of the earth, be filled full with the houses of wickedness.)

²¹ A meek man be not turned away made ashamed; a poor man and needy shall praise thy name. (Let not the humble be turned away, and be made ashamed; yea, let the poor and the needy praise thy name.)

²² God, rise up, deem thou thy cause; be thou mindful of thy shames, either upbraidings, of those that be all day of the unwise man. (God, rise up, defend thou thy own case; remember the reproaches, or the upbraidings, that come to thee all day long, from the foolish and the ignorant.)

²³ Forget thou not the voices of thine enemies; the pride of them that hate thee ascendeth ever[more]. (Do not thou forget the words, or the shouts, of thy enemies; the noise of those who hate thee goeth up forevermore.)

⁸ Woe to you that join house to house, and couple field to field, till to the end of (the) place. Whether ye alone shall dwell in the midst of the land? (Woe to you who join house to house, and couple field to field, until the end of the place. Shall ye live alone in the midst of the land, with no room for anyone else?)

⁹ These things be in the ears of me, (yea,) the Lord of hosts (hath said); If many houses be not forsaken, great and fair, without dweller (If many houses be not abandoned, yea, large and beautiful, but with no inhabitants), believe ye not to me.

¹⁰ For why ten acres of vines shall make one pottle, and thirty bushels of seed shall make three bushels.

¹¹ Woe to you that rise altogether early to follow drunkenness, and to drink till to eventide, that ye burn with wine. (Woe to you who rise up early to follow drunkenness, and drink until the evening, so that ye burn with wine.)

¹² Harp, and gittern, and tympan, and pipe, and wine be in your feasts; and ye behold not the work of the Lord, neither ye behold the works of his hands. (Harp, and lute, and drum, or tambourine, and pipe, and wine be at your feasts; but ye do not see the work of the Lord, nor do ye see the works of his hands.)

¹³ Therefore my people is led captive, either prisoner, for it had not knowing; and the noblemen thereof perished in hunger, and the multitude thereof was dry in thirst. (And so my people be led away as prisoners, for they had no knowledge, or no understanding; and their noble people perished from hunger, and their multitude were dry with thirst.)

¹⁴ Therefore hell hath alarged his soul, and opened his mouth without any end (And so hell hath enlarged itself, and opened its mouth wide); and the strong men thereof, and the people thereof, and the high men (thereof), and the glorious men thereof, shall go down (in)to it.

¹⁵ And a man shall be bowed down, and a man of age shall be made low; and the eyes of high men shall be pressed down.

¹⁶ And the Lord of hosts shall be enhanced in doom, and [the] holy God shall be hallowed in rightfulness. (And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgement, and the Holy God shall be consecrated in righteousness.)

¹⁷ And lambs shall be fed by their order, and comelings shall eat (of the) desert places turned into plenty.

¹⁸ Woe to you that draw wickedness in the cords of vanity, and draw sin as the bond of a wain; (Woe to you who draw along wickedness with the cords of emptiness and futility, and draw along sin as if it were the rope of a cart;)

¹⁹ and ye say, The work of him hasten, and come soon, that we see (it); and the counsel of the Holy (One) of Israel (draw) nigh, and come, and we shall know it.

²⁰ Woe to you that say evil good, and good evil; and put darknesses light, and light darknesses; and put bitter thing into sweet, and sweet thing into bitter. (Woe to you who say that evil is good, and that good is evil; and turn darkness into light, and light into darkness; and make a bitter thing sweet, and a sweet thing bitter.)

²¹ Woe to you that be wise men in your eyes, and be prudent before yourselves. (Woe to you who be wise in your own eyes, and think yourselves to be prudent.)

²² Woe to you that be mighty to drink wine, and be strong to meddle drunkenness; (Woe to you who be mighty to drink wine, and be strong to mix up drunkenness;)

²³ and ye justify a wicked man for gifts, and ye take away the rightfulness of a just man from him. (and ye acquit the wicked for gifts, or for bribes, and ye deny justice for the righteous.)

4 Most dear brethren, do not ye believe to each spirit, but prove ye the spirits, if they be of God; for many false prophets went out into the world.

² In this thing the Spirit of God is known; each spirit that acknowledgeth that Jesus Christ hath come in flesh, is of God;

³ and each spirit that undoeth Jesus, is not of God. And this is antichrist, of whom ye have heard, that he cometh; and right now he is in the world.

⁴ Ye, little sons, be of God, and ye have overcome him; for he that is in you is more, than he that is in the world.

⁵ They be of the world, therefore they speak of the world, and the world heareth them.

⁶ We be of God; he that knoweth God, heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us. In this thing we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.