Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

139 To victory, the psalm of David. Lord, thou hast proved me, and hast known me; (To victory, the song of David. Lord, thou hast assayed, or tested, me, and thou knowest me;)

² thou hast known my sitting, and my rising again. Thou hast understood my thoughts from [a]far; (thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up. Thou hast understood my thoughts from afar;)

³ thou hast inquired (of) my path and my cord. And thou hast before-seen all my ways; (thou hast examined my path, and my resting places. And thou hast foreseen all my ways.)

⁴ for no word is in my tongue. Lo! Lord, thou hast known all things, (Yea, there is no word on my tongue, lo! Lord; but that thou not knowest it first.)

⁵ the new things and eld; thou hast formed me, and hast set thine hand on me. (Thou art behind me, and before me; and thou hast set thy hand upon me.)

⁶ Thy knowing is made wonderful of me; it is comforted, and I shall not be able to it. (Thy abundant knowledge is so wonderful to me; yea, it is so very great, and I shall never be able to comprehend it all.)

¹³ For thou haddest in possession my reins; thou tookest me up from the womb of my mother. (For thou haddest my reins in thy possession/For thou formedest my inner parts; yea, thou madest me in my mother’s womb.)

¹⁴ I shall acknowledge to thee, for thou art magnified dreadfully; thy works be wonderful, and my soul shall know (that) full much. (I shall praise thee, for thou art greatly to be feared/for thou hath filled me with awe; thy works be wonderful, and I truly know that.)

¹⁵ My bone, which thou madest in private, is not hid from thee; and my substance (formed) in the lower parts of earth. (My bones, which thou madest in secret, be not a mystery to thee; yea, when my substance was formed in the lower parts of the earth.)

¹⁶ Thine eyes saw mine unperfect thing, and all men shall be written in thy book; days shall be formed, and no man is in those. (Thine eyes saw my imperfect substance, and all was written in thy Book; but when those days were formed, no man was there.)

¹⁷ Forsooth, God, thy friends be made honourable full much to me; the princehood of them is comforted full much. (But, God, how deep be thy thoughts to me; and how many of them there be!)

¹⁸ I shall number them, and they shall be multiplied above the gravel; I rose up, and yet I am with thee. (If I tried to count them all up, their number would be more than all the grains of sand. And then I awake; and still I am with thee.)

¹⁶ And the Lord raised judges, that delivered them from the hands of destroyers, (And then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them from the hands of their destroyers,)

¹⁷ but they would not hear them, and they did fornication, that is, idolatry, with alien gods, and worshipped them. Soon they forsook the way, by which their fathers entered; and they heard the commandments of the Lord, and did all things contrary. (but they would not listen to them, and they did fornication, that is, idolatry, with foreign, or other, gods, and worshipped them. And soon they deserted the way, by which their fathers went; and they heard the commandments of the Lord, but they did all things to the contrary.)

¹⁸ And when the Lord raised up judges in their days, he was bowed by mercy, and he heard the wailings of them that were tormented, and he delivered them from the slaying of their destroyers.

¹⁹ Soothly after that the judge was dead, they turned again, and did many things greater in evil than their fathers did; and they followed alien gods, and served them, and worshipped them; they left not their own findings, and the hardest way by which they were wont to go. (But after that the judge died, they returned to their old ways, and did many things even greater in evil than what their fathers did; and they followed foreign, or other, gods, and served them, and worshipped them; they did not cease from doing whatever they wanted to do, and the stubborn, or willful, ways by which they were wont to go.)

²⁰ And the strong vengeance of the Lord was wroth against Israel, and he said, For this people hath made void my covenant which I covenanted with their fathers, and (for they) have despised to hear my voice;

²¹ also I shall not do away the folks, which Joshua left, and was dead; (yea, I shall not do away the nations, which Joshua left alive, when he died;)

²² that in them I assay Israel (so that through them I can test Israel), (to see) whether they keep the way of the Lord, and go therein, as their fathers kept it, either nay.

²³ Therefore the Lord left alive all these nations, and he would not destroy them soon (and he would not soon destroy them), neither he betook them into the hands of Joshua.

¹⁶ And Paul rose, and with hand bade silence, and said, Men of Israel, and ye that dread God, hear ye. [Forsooth Paul rising, and with hand bidding silence, saith, Men of Israel, and ye that dread God, hear.]

¹⁷ God of the people of Israel chose our fathers, and enhanced the people, when they were comelings in the land of Egypt, and in an high arm he led them out of it;

¹⁸ and by the time of forty years he suffered their manners in desert.

¹⁹ And he destroyed seven folks in the land of Canaan, and by lot parted to them their land, [And he destroying seven folks in the land of Canaan, by sort parted to them the land of them,]

²⁰ as after four hundred and fifty years. And after these things he gave doomsmen, [till] to Samuel, the prophet.

²¹ And from that time [And from thence] they asked a king, and God gave to them Saul, the son of Cis, a man of the lineage of Benjamin, by forty years.

²² And when he was done away, he raised to them David the king, to whom he bare witnessing, and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine heart, which shall do all my will.

²³ Of whose seed by the promise God hath led out to Israel a Saviour Jesus, [Of whose seed after promise God led out to Israel a Saviour Jesus,]

²⁴ when John preached before the face of his coming the baptism of penance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵ But when John filled his course, he said, I am not he, whom ye deem me to be; but lo! he cometh after me, and I am not worthy to do off the shoes of his feet.^[a]