Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁹⁷ [Mem]. Lord, how loved I thy law; all day it is my thinking. (Lord, how I love thy Law! I think about it all day long.)

⁹⁸ Above mine enemies thou madest me prudent by thy commandment; for it is to me [into] without end. (By thy commandments, thou hast made me more prudent than all my enemies; for thy commandments shall be with me forever.)

⁹⁹ I understood over all men teaching me; for thy witnessings is my thinking. (I have more understanding than all those who teach me; because I think about thy teachings.)

¹⁰⁰ I understood above eld men; for I sought thy commandments. (I have more understanding than the old men, that is, the elders; because I have kept thy precepts.)

¹⁰¹ I forbade my feet from all evil way; that I keep thy words (so that I obey thy commands).

¹⁰² I bowed not from thy dooms; for thou hast set law to me. (I turned not away from thy judgements; for thou thyself hast taught me.)

¹⁰³ Thy speeches be full sweet to my cheeks; above honey to my mouth. (Thy words be exceedingly sweet to my taste; yea, sweeter in my mouth than honey.)

¹⁰⁴ I understood of thy behests; therefore I hated all the ways of wickedness. (I gained understanding through thy precepts; and now I hate all wicked ways.)

¹⁶ And the princes and all the people said to the priests and prophets, Doom of death is not to this man; for he spake to us in the name of our Lord God. (And the princes, or the leaders, and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, A judgement, or a sentence, of death should not be given to this man; for he spoke to us in the name of the Lord our God.)

¹⁷ Therefore men of the elder men of the land rose up, and said to all the company of the people, and spake, (And so some of the elders of the land rose up, and spoke to all the company of the people, and said,)

¹⁸ Micah of Moresheth was a prophet in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah; and he said to all the people of Judah, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, Zion shall be eared as a field, and Jerusalem shall be into an heap of stones, and the hill of the house of the Lord shall be into high things of woods. (Micah of Moresheth was a prophet in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah; and he said to all the people of Judah, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones, and the hill of the House of the Lord shall become the high places of a forest.)

¹⁹ Whether Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah condemned him by death? Whether they dreaded not the Lord, and besought the face of the Lord? and it repented the Lord of the evil which he spake against them. Therefore do we not great evil against our souls. (Did Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and all Judah condemn him to death? Rather, did they not fear the Lord, and besought the face of the Lord? and then the Lord repented for the evil which he spoke against them. And so let us not do this great evil against ourselves.)

²⁰ Also Urijah, the son of Shemaiah, of Kiriathjearim, was a man prophesying in the name of the Lord; and he prophesied against this city, and against this land, by all the words of Jeremy (with words like those of Jeremiah).

²¹ And king Jehoiakim, and all the mighty men, and princes of them (and their leaders), heard these words; and the king sought to slay him; and Urijah heard, and dreaded, and he fled, and entered into Egypt.

²² And king Jehoiakim sent men into Egypt, (namely,) Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and (the other) men with him, into Egypt;

²³ and they led Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him to king Jehoiakim; and the king killed him with sword, and casted forth his carrion in the sepulchres of the common people unnoble. (and they led Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him to King Jehoiakim; and the king killed him with a sword, and cast forth his dead body onto the graves of the common, or the unnoble, people.)

²⁴ Therefore the hand of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, was with Jeremy, that he was not betaken into the hands of the people, and that it killed not him (And so the hand, or the power, of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah, so that he was not delivered into the hands of the people, and so that they did not kill him.)

¹⁴ Teach thou these things [Forsooth these things I admonish], witnessing before God. Do not thou strive in words; for to nothing it is profitable, but to the subverting of men that hear.

¹⁵ Busily keep [Busily care, or keep,] to give thyself an approved, praiseable workman to God, without shame, rightly treating the word of truth.

¹⁶ But eschew thou unholy and vain speeches, for why those profit much to unfaithfulness, [Forsooth shun thou unholy and vain speeches, soothly they profit much to unpiety,]

¹⁷ and the word of them creepeth as a canker. Of whom Philetus is, and Hymenaeus,

¹⁸ which felled down [the which fell down] from the truth, saying that the rising again is now done, and they subverted the faith of some men [and turned upside-down the faith of some men].

¹⁹ But the firm foundament of God standeth, having this mark [having this mark, either signet], The Lord knoweth which be his, and, Each man that nameth the name of the Lord, departeth from wickedness [depart from wickedness].

²⁰ But in a great house be not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of tree and of earth; and so some be into honour, and some into despite.

²¹ Therefore, if any man cleanseth himself from these [Therefore if any man shall cleanse himself from these], he shall be a vessel hallowed into honour, and profitable to the Lord, ready to all good work [ready into all good work].

²² And flee thou [the] desires of youth, but follow thou rightwiseness, faith, charity, peace, with them that inwardly call the Lord [that in-call the Lord] of a clean heart.

²³ And eschew thou foolish questions, and without knowing [Forsooth shun thou foolish questions, and without discipline], witting that those gender chidings.

²⁴ But it behooveth the servant of the Lord to chide not [to not chide]; but to be mild to all men, able to teach, patient,

²⁵ with temperance reproving them that against-stand the truth, that sometime God give to them repenting, that they know the truth [that sometime God give them penance to know the truth],

²⁶ and that they rise again from the snares of the devil, of whom they be held prisoners at his will [of whom they be holden captive at his will].