Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

94 God is Lord of vengeances; God of vengeance did freely. (God is the Lord of vengeance; O God of vengeance, show thyself!)

² Be thou enhanced that deemest the earth; yield thou (a) yielding to proud men. (Be thou raised up, who judgest the earth; and punish thou those, who be proud.)

³ Lord, how long sinners; how long shall sinners have glory? (Lord, how long shall the sinners, yea, how long shall the sinners have glory?)

⁴ They shall tell out, and shall speak wickedness; all men shall speak that work unrightfulness. (They boast, and they all speak wickedness; yea, all who work unrighteousness have glory in themselves.)

⁵ Lord, they have made low thy people; and they have dis-eased thine heritage. (Lord, they have beaten down thy people; and they have distressed thy inheritance.)

⁶ They killed a widow and a comeling; and they have slain fatherless children and motherless. (They have killed widows and newcomers, or strangers; and they have slain the fatherless and the motherless, or the orphans.)

⁷ And they said, The Lord shall not see (it); and, (The) God of Jacob shall not understand.

⁸ Ye unwise men in the people, understand; and, ye fools, learn sometime. (Understand this, ye ignorant among the people; and learn something, ye fools.)

⁹ Shall not he hear, that planted the ear; either beholdeth not he, that made the eye? (Shall he not hear, who formed the ear? shall he not see, who made the eye?)

¹⁰ Shall not he reprove, that chastiseth folks; (shall he not know,) which teacheth man knowing? (Shall he not rebuke, who chastiseth the nations? shall he not know, who teacheth the people knowledge?)

¹¹ The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men; that those be (in) vain. (The Lord knoweth, that the thoughts of the people be all in vain, that is, empty, and useless, or worthless.)

¹² Blessed is the man, whom thou, Lord, hast learned; and hast taught him of thy law. (Happy is the person whom thou, Lord, hast taught; yea, whom thou hast taught thy Law.)

¹³ That thou assuage him from evil days; till a ditch be digged to the sinner. (That thou assuage him from the evil days; until a ditch be dug for the sinners.)

¹⁴ For the Lord shall not put away his people; and he shall not forsake his heritage. (For the Lord shall not reject his people; and he shall not abandon his inheritance.)

¹⁵ Till rightfulness be turned (again) into doom; and who be nigh it, all that be of rightful heart. (For judgement shall return unto righteousness; and all who have an upright heart shall follow it.)

¹⁶ Who shall rise with me against mis-doers; either who shall stand with me against them that work wickedness? (Who shall rise up for me against the evil-doers? and who shall stand up for me against those who do evil?)

¹⁷ No but for the Lord helped me; almost my soul had dwelled in hell. (If the Lord had not helped me; soon I would have slept in Sheol, or in the land of the dead/soon I would have slept in the grave.)

¹⁸ If I said, My foot was stirred; Lord, thy mercy helped me. (But when I said, My foot is slipping! Lord, thy love held me up.)

¹⁹ After the multitude of my sorrows in mine heart; thy comforts made glad my soul. (And after a multitude of sorrows gathered together in my heart; once again thy comfort gladdened my soul.)

²⁰ Whether the seat of wickedness cleaveth to thee; that makest travail in commandment? (Shall the throne of wickedness cleave to thee; thou who makest trespass within the commandments?/thou who makest trespass by the commandments?)

²¹ They shall take (hold) against the soul of a just man; and they shall condemn innocent blood. (For they gather themselves together against the life of the righteous; and they condemn the innocent to death.)

²² And the Lord was made to me into refuge (But the Lord was made my refuge); and my God was made into the help of mine hope.

²³ And he shall yield to them the wickedness of them; and in the malice of them he shall lose them, our Lord God shall lose them. (And he shall punish them for their wickedness; he shall destroy them for their malice, yea, the Lord our God shall destroy them.)

¹⁸ Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I shall not make you into (a) [full] ending. (Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I shall not make an end of you.)

¹⁹ That if ye say, Why hath our Lord God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them, As ye forsook me, and served an alien god in your land, so ye shall serve alien gods in a land not yours. (And when they ask, Why hath the Lord our God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them, As ye deserted me, and served a strange, or a foreign, god in your own land, so now ye shall serve strange, or foreign, gods in a land not your own.)

²⁰ Tell ye this to the house of Jacob, and make ye (it) heard in Judah, and say ye,

²¹ Hear, thou fond people, that hast none heart; which have eyes, and see not, and ears, and hear not. (Listen, O foolish people, ye who have no heart; yea, ye who have eyes, but cannot see, and ears, but cannot hear.)

²² Therefore shall not ye dread me, saith the Lord, and shall not ye make sorrow for my face? Which have set gravel to be a term, either end, to the sea, an everlasting commandment, which it shall not pass; and the waves thereof shall be moved, and shall not have power; and shall wax great, and shall not pass it. (And so shall ye not fear me, saith the Lord, and shall ye not tremble before my face? Yea, before I, who hath set the sand to be the term, or the boundary, of the sea, by an everlasting commandment, which it shall not pass over; and its waves shall be moved, but they shall not have the power to pass over it; yea, they shall grow great, but they shall not pass over it.)

²³ Forsooth an heart unbelieveful and stirring (me) to wrath is made to this people; they departed, and went away, (But this people hath an unbelieving heart, and stirreth me to anger; they departed, and went away,)

²⁴ and they said not in their heart, Dread we our Lord God, that giveth to us rain timeful, and lateful in his time; that keepeth to us the plenty of harvest of the year. (and they did not say in their hearts, Let us fear the Lord our God/Let us revere the Lord our God, who giveth us timely rain, and late rain in its time; and who giveth us the plenty of the harvest every year.)

²⁵ Your wickednesses did away these things, and your sins forbidded good from (coming to) you.

²⁶ For there be found wicked men in my people, setting treason, as fowlers setting snares and traps, to take men. (For the wicked be found among my people, setting treason, like fowlers settings snares and traps, to take hold of, or to catch, people.)

²⁷ As a net, either a trap, (is) full of birds, so the houses of them be full of guile. (Like a net, or a trap, is full of birds, so their houses be full of deceit.)

²⁸ Therefore they be magnified, and made rich, made fat within, and made fat withoutforth, and they passed worst my words; they deemed not the cause of a widow, they (ad)dressed not the cause of a fatherless child, and they deemed not the doom of poor men. (And so they be magnified, or enlarged, and made rich, made fat within, and made fat outside, and their deeds surpassed even those of the very worst; they judged not justly a widow’s case, they did not even address the case of a fatherless child, and they judged not justly for the poor.)

²⁹ Whether I shall not visit on these things, saith the Lord, either shall not my soul take vengeance on such a folk? (Shall I not punish them for these things? saith the Lord, or shall I not take vengeance upon such a nation?)

³⁰ Wonder and marvelous things be made in the land; (A horrible and terrible thing is done in the land;)

³¹ prophets prophesied leasing, and priests joyed with their hands, and my people loved such things. What therefore shall be done in the last thing thereof? (prophets prophesied lies, and the priests clapped their hands, and my people loved such things. And so what shall be done in its last things, or at the end of it all?)

⁸ But, ye most dear, this one thing be not hid to you [be not unknown], that one day with God is as a thousand years, and a thousand years be as one day [and a thousand years as one day].

⁹ The Lord tarrieth not his promise, as some [men] guess, but he doeth patiently for you, and will not that any man perish [not willing any to perish], but that all turn again to penance.

¹⁰ For the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which heavens with great rush shall pass [in which heavens with great rush, or fierceness, shall pass], and elements shall be dissolved by heat, and the earth, and all the works that be in it, shall be burnt.

¹¹ Therefore when all these things shall be dissolved, what manner men behooveth it you to be in holy livings and piety [in holy livings and pieties],

¹² abiding and hieing into the coming of the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom heavens burning shall be dissolved, and elements shall fail by burning of fire^[a].

¹³ Also we abide by his promises [Soothly we abide after his promise] new heavens and new earth, in which rightwiseness dwelleth.