Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

137 We sat by the rivers of Babel; and there we wept when we remembered Zion.

² We hung our harps upon the willows, in the midst thereof.

³ Those who led us into captivity required songs and glee from us when we had hung up our harps, saying, “Sing us the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How shall we sing a song of the LORD in a strange land?

⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget,

⁶ if I do not remember you. Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not prefer Jerusalem to my chief joy.

⁷ Remember the children of Edom, O LORD, on the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it to the foundation thereof!”

⁸ O Daughter of Babel, worthy to be destroyed. Blessed is he who rewards you as you have served us.

⁹ Blessed is he who takes and dashes your children against the stones. A Psalm of David

¹⁶ For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed.

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands, and there is no one to comfort her. The LORD has appointed the enemies of Jacob all around him. Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman in the midst of them.

¹⁸ The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against His Commandment. Hear, please, all people, and behold my sorrow! My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

¹⁹ I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city while they sought their food to refresh their souls.

²⁰ Behold, O LORD, how I am troubled! My bowels swell! My heart is turned within me, for I am full of heaviness! The sword bereaves in the street, as death does at home.

²¹ They have heard that I mourn. There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble and are glad that You have done it. You will bring the day that You have pronounced; and they shall be like me.

²² Let all their wickedness come before You. Do to them as You have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many and my heart is heavy.

² My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials,

³ knowing that the trying of your faith brings forth patience.

⁴ And let patience have her perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

⁵ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives liberally to all and reproaches no one. And it shall be given him.

⁶ But let him ask in faith, and do not waver. For the one who wavers is like a wave of the sea, tossed by the wind and carried away.

⁷ Do not let that man think he shall receive anything from the Lord.

⁸ A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

⁹ Let the brother of low degree rejoice, in that he is exalted;

¹⁰ likewise the one who is rich, in that he is made low. For as the flower of the grass, he shall vanish away.

¹¹ For when the Sun rises with heat, the grass withers, its flower falls away and its good shape perishes. So, also, shall the rich man wither away in all his ways.