Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

139 (For the one directing, Mizmor of Dovid). Hashem, Thou hast searched me, and known me.

² Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou hast binah of my thought from afar off.

³ Thou comprehendeth my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my drakhim.

⁴ For there is not a milah (word) in my leshon, but, lo, Hashem, Thou knowest it altogether.

⁵ Thou hast enclosed me achor (behind) and kedem (before), and laid Thine hand upon me.

⁶ Such da’as is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

¹³ For Thou hast created my inmost being; Thou didst interweave me in the beten immi.

¹⁴ I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are Thy ma’asim; and that my nefesh knoweth very well.

¹⁵ My atzamim (bones, frame) were not hid from Thee, when I was made beseter (in secret), and skillfully wrought in the depths of the Eretz.

¹⁶ Thine eyes did see my golem (embryo), yet being unformed; and in Thy Sefer (Book) all the yamim (days) ordained for me were written down, when as yet there were none of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O El! How great is the sum of them!

¹⁸ If I should count them, they are more in number than the chol (sand); when I awake, I am still with Thee.

¹⁰ Oy li, immi, that thou bore me, an ish riv (a man of strife) and an ish madon (a man of contention) to kol ha’aretz (the whole land)! I have neither lent, neither have any lent to me; yet every one of them doth curse me.

¹¹ Hashem said, Verily I will deliver thee for tov; verily I will cause the oyev (enemy) to supplicate thee in the time of ra’ah and in the time of tzarah (distress).

¹² Shall barzel (iron) break, barzel (iron) from tzafon (north)? Or nechoshet?

¹³ Thy wealth and thy otzerot (treasures) will I give as plunder without mekhir (price), and that for all thy chataim (sins), even in all thy territories.

¹⁴ And I will make thee to pass over thine oyevim (enemies) into an eretz which thou knowest not; for eish is kindled in Mine anger, which shall burn against you [plural].

¹⁵ Hashem, Thou knowest; remember me, and visit me, and take vengeance for me of my [pursuing] persecutors; in Thy patient forbearance take me not away; know that for Thy sake I have suffered cherpah (reproach).

¹⁶ Thy Devarim were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Davar was unto me the sasson and simchat levavi; for I am called by Thy Shem, Hashem Elohei Tzva’os.

¹⁷ I sat not in the sod (company) of merrymakers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Thy yad; for Thou hast filled me with za’am (indignation).

¹⁸ Why is my pain netzach (perpetual, never ending) and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt Thou be altogether unto me like achzav (deception) and mayim lo ne’emanu (waters that have not proved reliable)?

¹⁹ Therefore thus saith Hashem, If thou make teshuva (repentance), then will I restore thee, and thou shalt stand before Me [for service, ministry]; and if thou bring forth [utterance] of the precious rather than the worthless, thou shalt be as My Peh (Mouth): let them turn unto thee; but turn not thou unto them.

²⁰ And I will make thee unto HaAm Hazeh (this people) a fortified chomat nechoshet; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith Hashem.

²¹ And I will save thee out of the yad of the ra’im (wicked), and I will redeem thee out of the clutches of the ruthless.

²⁵ But I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, the Ach b’Moshiach and fellow po’el (worker) and fellow chaiyal (soldier) of mine, but your shliach and keli kodesh (minister) of my need [4:18].

²⁶ I am sending him to you, because he was yearning after you all and was under zeiyar (extremely great) stress, because you heard that he was ill.

²⁷ For indeed he was ill, coming near to death, but Hashem had mercy on him not on him only but also on me, lest I should have agmat nefesh upon agmat nefesh.

²⁸ Therefore, I am all the more eager to dispatch him to you, in order that when you have seen him again, you may have simcha and I may have less agmat nefesh.

²⁹ Therefore, receive him in Adoneinu with all simcha and hold esteem for such klei kodesh (ministers) [1C 16:16,8; 1Ti 5:17],

³⁰ Because he came near to death on account of the avodas kodesh of Moshiach, performing an act of Messianic mesirat nefesh (whole-hearted devotion to the cause of Moshiach, even at risk of life) having risked his life, that he might make up for the ministry to me that you could not give.