Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

89 The learning of Ethan, (the) Ezrahite. I shall sing [into] without end; the mercies of the Lord. In generation and into generation; I shall tell thy truth with my mouth. (The teaching of Ethan, the Ezrahite. I shall sing of the Lord’s constant love forever. To all generations, I shall tell out thy faithfulness with my mouth.)

² For thou saidest, [Into] Without end mercy shall be builded in heavens; thy truth shall be made ready in those. (For thy love shall last forever; thy faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens.)

³ I disposed a testament to my chosen men; I swore to David, my servant, (Thou saidest, I made a covenant with my chosen man; I swore to my servant David,)

⁴ Till into without end I shall make ready thy seed. And I shall build thy seat; in generation, and into generation. (that I shall establish thy children, or thy descendants, forever. And I shall preserve thy throne; for all generations.)

¹⁹ Then thou spakest in revelation to thy saints, and saidest, I have set help in the mighty (man); and I have enhanced the chosen man of my people. (Then thou spokest in revelation to thy saints, and saidest, I have given help to the mighty man; yea, I have exalted, or lifted up, the chosen man of my people.)

²⁰ I found David, my servant; I anointed him with mine holy oil. (I found my servant David; and I anointed him with my holy oil.)

²¹ For mine hand shall help him; and mine arm shall confirm him. (For my hand shall help him; and my arm, or my power, shall strengthen him.)

²² The enemy shall nothing profit in him (The enemy shall not gain any advantage over him); and the son of wickedness shall not lay to/shall not put to, for to harm him.

²³ And I shall slay his enemies from his face; and I shall turn into flight them that hate him. (And I shall kill all his enemies before his face; and I shall turn to flight, or make to flee, those who hate him.)

²⁴ And my truth and mercy shall be with him; and his horn shall be enhanced in my name. (And my faithfulness and love shall be with him; and in my name his horn shall be exalted/his head shall be lifted up on high.)

²⁵ And I shall set his hand in the sea; and his right hand in floods. (And I shall extend his power unto the Mediterranean Sea; and his right hand unto the Euphrates River.)

²⁶ He shall inwardly call me, (saying,) Thou art my father; my God, and the up-taker of mine health. (And he shall say to me, Thou art my father; yea, my God, and my defender, my saviour.)

² Forsooth a man was of Zorah, of the kindred of Dan (And there was a man of Zorah, of the tribe of Dan), Manoah by name, and he had a barren wife.

³ To which wife an angel of the Lord appeared, and said to her, Thou art barren, and without free children; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.

⁴ Therefore be thou ware, lest thou drink wine, and cider (or cider), neither eat thou any unclean thing;

⁵ for thou shalt conceive, and bear a son, whose head a razor shall not touch; for he shall be a Nazarite, that is, holy of God, from his young age, and from the mother’s womb (for he shall be a Nazarite, that is, holy to God, from his mother’s womb); and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of [the] Philistines.

⁶ And when she had come to her husband, she said to him, A man of God came to me, and he had an angel’s cheer, and he was full fearedful (and he had the face of an angel, and he was most frightening); and when I had asked him, who he was, and from whence he came, and by what name he was called, he would not say to me;

⁷ but he answered thus, Lo! thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; (but) be thou ware, that thou drink no wine nor cider, neither eat any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazarite, that is, holy of the Lord, from his young age, and from the mother’s womb, till to the day of his death (for the child shall be a Nazarite, that is, holy to the Lord, from his mother’s womb, until the day of his death).

⁸ Therefore Manoah prayed the Lord, and said, Lord, I beseech, that the man of God, whom thou sentest, come again, and teach us, what we ought to do of the child, that shall be born (what we ought to do with the child, who shall be born to us).

⁹ And the Lord heard Manoah praying; and the angel of the Lord appeared again to his wife sitting in the field; forsooth Manoah, her husband, was not with her.

¹⁰ And when she had seen the angel, she hasted, and ran to her husband, and told to him, and said, Lo! the man whom I saw before, (hath) appeared to me (again).

¹¹ Which rose (And he arose), and followed his wife; and he came to the man, and said to him, Art thou he, that hast spoken to the woman? And he answered, I am.

¹² To whom Manoah said, When thy word shall be fulfilled, what wilt thou, that the child do, either from what thing shall he keep himself? (and from what things should he keep himself?)

¹³ And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Abstain he himself from all things which I spake to thy wife. (And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Thy wife should abstain from all the things which I spoke to her about.)

¹⁴ And eat he not whatever thing cometh forth of the vine, drink he not wine, and cider, eat he not any unclean thing, and fulfill he; and keep that, that I commanded to him. (She should not eat anything that cometh forth from the vine, nor should she drink wine, or cider, or eat any unclean thing; she must fulfill, and obey what I have commanded to her.)

¹⁵ Therefore Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, I beseech, that thou assent to my prayers, and we array to thee, that is, make ready to meat, a kid of the goats. (And then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, I beseech thee, that thou assent to my prayers, and let us prepare a meal for thee, yea, a goat kid.)

¹⁶ To whom the angel of the Lord answered, Though thou (shalt) constrain me, I shall not eat thy bread; but if thou wilt make (a) burnt sacrifice, offer thou it to the Lord. And Manoah knew not, that it was an angel of the Lord (For Manoah did not know that he was an angel of the Lord).

¹⁷ And Manoah said to him, What name is to thee, that if thy word be fulfilled, we (can) honour thee?

¹⁸ To whom he answered, Why askest thou my name, which is hid, either unknown?

¹⁹ Therefore Manoah took a goat kid, and flowing sacrifices (and the proper grain offering), and he put (them) upon a stone, and he offered them to the Lord that doeth wonderful things. And he and his wife beheld.

²⁰ And when the flame of the altar ascended into heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended together in the flame (the angel of the Lord went up in the flame). And when Manoah and his wife had seen this, they felled low to the earth.

²¹ And the angel of the Lord appeared no more to them. And at once Manoah understood, that he was the angel of the Lord.

²² And he said to his wife, We shall die by death, for we have seen the Lord.

²³ To whom the woman answered, If the Lord would slay us, he would not have taken of our hands burnt sacrifices, and moist sacrifices, but neither he would have showed all these things to us, neither have said to us (of) those things, that be to coming. (To whom the woman answered, If the Lord intended to kill us, he would not have received out of our hands the burnt sacrifice, and the grain offering, nor would he have shown all these things to us, nor would he have told us of the things to come.)

²⁴ And so she childed a son, and called his name Samson; and the child increased (in age), and the Lord blessed him.

⁴⁰ Therefore of that company, when they had heard these words of him, they said, This is verily a prophet.

⁴¹ Others said, This is Christ. But some said, Whether Christ cometh from Galilee?

⁴² Whether the scripture saith not, that of the seed of David, and of the castle of Bethlehem, where David was, Christ cometh?

⁴³ Therefore dissension was made among the people for him. [And so dissension is made in the company for him.]

⁴⁴ And some of them would have taken him, but no man set hands on him.

⁴⁵ Therefore the ministers came to the bishops and Pharisees, and they said to them, Why brought ye not him?

⁴⁶ The ministers answered, Never man spake so, as this man speaketh.

⁴⁷ Therefore the Pharisees answered to them, Whether ye be deceived also?

⁴⁸ whether any of the princes or of the Pharisees believed in him?

⁴⁹ But this people, that knoweth not the law, be cursed.

⁵⁰ Nicodemus saith to them, he that came to him by night, that was one of them,

⁵¹ Whether our law deemeth a man, but it have first heard of him [no but first it hear of him], and know what he doeth?

⁵² They answered, and said to him, Whether thou art a man of Galilee also [Whether and thou art a man of Galilee]? Seek thou scriptures, and see thou, that a prophet riseth not of Galilee [for a prophet riseth not of Galilee].