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.)

²⁴ For this thing, as the tongue of fire devoureth stubble, and the heat of flame burneth, so the root of them shall be as a dead spark, and the seed of them shall ascend as dust; for they casted away the law of the Lord of hosts, and blasphemed the speech of the Holy of Israel (for they threw away the Law of the Lord of hosts, and blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel).

²⁵ Therefore the strong vengeance of the Lord was wroth against his people, and he stretched forth his hand on it, and smote it (and he stretched forth his hand against them, and struck them down); and (the) hills were troubled, and the dead bodies of them were made as a turd in the midst of streets. In all these things the strong vengeance of him was not turned away, but yet his hand was stretched forth.

²⁶ And he shall raise [up] a sign among nations afar, and he shall hiss to him from the ends of [the] earth; and lo! he shall hasten, and shall come swiftly. (And he shall raise up a sign among the nations far away, and he shall whistle for them to come from the ends of the earth; and lo! they shall make haste, and shall swiftly come.)

²⁷ None is failing neither travailing in that host; he shall not nap, neither sleep, neither the girdle of his reins shall be undone, neither the lace of his shoe shall be broken. (No one is failing, or stumbling, in that army; no one is napping, or sleeping, nor is the girdle of his loins undone, nor is his shoe lace broken.)

²⁸ His arrows be sharp, and all his bows be bent; the hoofs of his horses be as flint, and his wheels be as the fierceness of tempest. (Their arrows be sharp, and all their bows be bent; the hooves of their horses be like flint, and their wheels be like the fierceness of a tempest.)

²⁹ His roaring shall be as of a lion; he shall roar as the whelps of lions; and he shall gnash, and shall hold prey, and shall embrace, and none shall be, that shall deliver. (Their roaring is like that of a lion; yea, they shall roar like the whelps of lions; and they shall gnash, and shall take hold of their prey, and shall not let it go, and there shall be no one who can rescue, or who can take, it from them.)

³⁰ And he shall sound on it in that day, as doeth the sound of the sea; we shall behold into the earth, and lo! darknesses of tribulation, and light is made dark in the darkness thereof. (And they shall sound against it on that day, like the sound of the sea; and we shall behold the earth, and lo! the darkness of tribulation, yea, even the light is made dark in its darkness.)

⁴⁴ The tabernacle of witnessing was with our fathers in desert, as God assigned to them, and spake to Moses [as God disposed to them, speaking to Moses], that he should make it after the form that he saw.

⁴⁵ Which also our fathers took with Jesus, and brought into the possession of heathen men, which God putted away [the which God put away] from the face of our fathers, till into the days of David,

⁴⁶ that found grace with God, and asked that he should find a tabernacle to God of Jacob.

⁴⁷ But Solomon builded the house to him. [Solomon forsooth built an house to him.]

⁴⁸ But the high God [But the alder-highest] dwelleth not in things made by hand, as he saith by the prophet,

⁴⁹ Heaven is a seat to me, and the earth is the stool of my feet; what house shall ye build to me, saith the Lord, either what place is of my resting [or which is the place of my resting]?

⁵⁰ Whether mine hand made not all these things?

⁵¹ With hard neck [With hard nol], and uncircumcised hearts and ears ye withstand evermore the Holy Ghost; and as your fathers, so ye.

⁵² Whom of the prophets have not your fathers pursued, and have slain them that before-told of the coming of the rightful man [and have slain them that before-told of the coming of the just man], whose traitors and manslayers ye were now?

⁵³ Which took the law in ordinance of angels, and have not kept it.