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.)

27 In that day the Lord shall visit in his hard sword, and great, and strong, on leviathan, (the) serpent, a bar, and on leviathan, the crooked serpent; and he shall slay the whale, which is in the sea. (On that day the Lord shall punish with his hard sword, yea, with his great and strong sword, Leviathan, that piercing serpent, Leviathan, that twisting, wriggling serpent, and he shall kill this monster which is in the sea.)

² In that day the vinery of clean wine and good shall sing to him. (On that day, sing ye to the vineyard of rich good wine,)

³ I am the Lord that keep that vinery; suddenly I shall give drink to it, lest peradventure it be visited against it; night and day I keep it, (I am the Lord who keepeth that vineyard; I shall water it continually; and peradventure, lest anyone come to harm it, night and day I shall keep it safe,)

⁴ indignation is not to me. Who shall give me a thorn and [a] briar? In battle I shall go on it, I shall burn it (al)together. (but indignation is not to me. Who shall give me a thorn and a briar? I shall go against them in battle, and I shall burn them all up.)

⁵ Whether rather I shall hold my strength? It shall make peace to me, it shall make peace to me, (Or rather shall I hold back my strength? Then let them make peace with me, yea, let them make peace with me.)

⁶ for the merit of them that shall go out with fierceness from Jacob (In the days to come, the sons and daughters of Jacob shall take root). Israel shall flower and bring forth seed, and they shall fill the face of the world with seed.

⁷ Whether he smote it by the wound of the people of Jews smiting him? either as it killed the slain men of him, so it was slain? (Did the Lord strike down the Jews like he hath killed those who struck them down? or were as many of them killed as they who killed them?)

⁸ In measure against measure, when it shall be cast away, he shall deem it; he bethought in his hard spirit, by the day of heat. (In measure for measure, when they were cast away, he judged them; he took them away into exile, with his hard wind from the east.)

⁹ Therefore on this thing wickedness shall be forgiven to the house of Jacob, and this shall be all the fruit, that the sin thereof be done away, when it hath set all the stones of the altar as the stones of ashes hurtled down. Woods and temples shall not stand. (And so by this shall the wickedness of the house of Jacob be forgiven, and this shall be all the fruit, when its sin is done away; yea, when he hath made all the stones of the foreign altars like the stones of ashes, or like the chalkstones, that be hurtled down; and the woods and the temples dedicated to idols shall no longer stand.)

¹⁰ Forsooth the strong city shall be (made) desolate, the fair city shall be left, and shall be (as) forsaken as a desert; there a calf shall be pastured, and shall lie (down) there, and shall waste the highness thereof.

¹¹ In the dryness of ripe corn thereof women coming, and they that teach it, shall be all-broken. Forsooth it is not a wise people; therefore he that made it, shall not have mercy on it, and he that formed it, shall not spare it. (In the dryness of its branches, they shall be all-broken; the women shall come, and shall set them on fire. For they be not a wise people; and so he who made them, shall not have mercy on them, and he who formed them, shall not spare them.)

¹² And it shall be, in that day the Lord shall smite thee, from the bottom of the flood till to the strand of Egypt; and ye sons of Israel, shall be gathered one and one. (And it shall be, on that day the Lord shall strike thee, from the bottom of the Euphrates River unto the River of Egypt; and then ye Israelites shall be gathered one by one.)

¹³ And it shall be, in that day men shall come with a great trump, and they that were lost, shall come from the land of Assyrians, and they that were cast out, shall come from the land of Egypt; and they shall worship the Lord, in the holy hill of Jerusalem. (And it shall be, on that day people shall come at the call of a great trumpet, and they who were lost, shall come from the land of Assyria, and they who were cast out, shall come from the land of Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord, on the holy hill in Jerusalem.)

⁴⁵ And he entered into the temple, and began to cast out men selling therein and buying,

⁴⁶ and said [saying] to them, It is written, That mine house is an house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.

⁴⁷ And he was teaching every day in the temple. And the princes of priests, and the scribes, and the princes of the people sought to destroy him [Forsooth the prince of priests, and the scribes, and the princes of the people sought to lose him];

⁴⁸ and they found not, what they should do to him, for all the people was [all] occupied, and heard him.^[a]