Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

28 (Of Dovid) Unto Thee will I cry, Hashem my Tzur; do not turn a deaf ear to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.

² Shema (hear) kol (voice) of my supplications, when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands toward Thy Devir Kodesh (Innermost Sanctuary, Kodesh HaKodashim).

³ Draw me not away with the resha’im, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak shalom to their neighbors, but malice is in their hearts.

⁴ Give to them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give them after the work of their hands; render to them their gemul (deserts).

⁵ Because they regard not the Pe’ulot Hashem, nor the Ma’aseh of His hands, He shall tear them down, and not build them up.

⁶ Baruch Hashem, because He hath heard the kol (voice) of my supplications.

⁷ Hashem is my strength and my mogen; my lev trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my lev greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I thank Him.

⁸ Hashem is their oz (strength), and He is the Ma’oz Yeshu’ot (saving refuge) of His Moshiach.

⁹ Save Thy people, and bless Thine nachalah; shepherd them also, and carry them ad olam.

²⁹ And Reuven returned unto the bor; and, hinei, Yosef was not in the bor; and he made the keriah of his clothes [compare Mk 14:63 OJBC].

³⁰ And he returned unto his achim, and said, The yeled is not; and I, where shall I turn?

³¹ And they took the kesones Yosef, and did shachat the se’ir izzim (slaughtered the kid of the goats), and dipped the kesones in the dahm;

³² And they sent the kesones hapassim, and they brought it to Avihem; and said, This have we found; examine for identification purposes now whether it be the kesones Binecha or no.

³³ And he recognized it, and said, It is the kesones beni; a chayyah ra’ah hath devoured him; Yosef is without doubt torn in pieces.

³⁴ And Ya’akov made the keriah of his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for beno yamim rabbim.

³⁵ And all his banim and all his banot rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down to beni mourning to Sheol. Thus Aviv wept for him.

³⁶ And the Midyanim sold him into Mitzrayim unto Potiphar, a seris Pharaoh (courtier of Pharaoh), a sar hatabbachim (a captain of the slaughterers, executioners, i.e., captain of the guard).

⁴ For if Hashem did not spare malachim that sinned, but cast them into Gehinnom, consigning them to the sharsherot (chains) of choshech to be kept for Mishpat;

⁵ And if Hashem, when he brought a mabbul (flood) upon the world of resha’im (evildoers), did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noach, the eighth of the nefashot [in the Teva (Ark)] and a maggid of Tzidkanut (Righteousness);

⁶ And if Hashem judged the cities of S’dom and Amora, reducing them to ashes by a churban catastrophe, making them a mofet (an example) for the ones intending to be resha’im;

⁷ And if Hashem delivered Lot, a tzaddik distressed by the hitnahagut (conduct) of the mufkarim (lawless 2:8,10; 3:17) walking in darchei zimah (the ways of licentiousness)

⁸ —For that tzaddik, living among them day after day, was tortured in his nefesh hayesharah (honest soul) by the darchei mufkarim (the ways of lawless ones) that he saw and heard

⁹ —Then Hashem knows how to rescue the chasidim from trial and how to preserve the anshei resha (men of wickedness) for punishment for the Yom HaDin,

¹⁰ Especially the ones going after the basar (flesh) in ta’avah (lust) producing tum’a (defilement) and the ones despising kol samchut (Mt 28:18). Bold and selfwilled, these have no yirat Shomayim and therefore commit Chillul Hashem as they slander the glorious ones,