Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵ Upon God alone, O my soul, rest peacefully; for my expectation is from him.

⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation; my high fortress: I shall not be moved.

⁷ With God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.

⁸ Confide in him at all times, ye people; pour out your heart before him: God is our refuge. Selah.

⁹ Men of low degree are only vanity; men of high degree, a lie: laid in the balance, they go up together [lighter] than vanity.

¹⁰ Put not confidence in oppression, and become not vain in robbery; if wealth increase, set not your heart upon it.

¹¹ Once hath God spoken, twice have I heard this, that strength [belongeth] unto God.

¹² And unto thee, O Lord, [belongeth] loving-kindness; for *thou* renderest to every man according to his work.

⁷ Jehovah, thou hast enticed me, and I was enticed; thou hast laid hold of me, and hast prevailed; I am become a derision the whole day: every one mocketh me.

⁸ For as oft as I speak, I cry out; I proclaim violence and spoil; for the word of Jehovah is become unto me a reproach and a derision all the day.

⁹ And I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: but it was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I became wearied with holding in, and I could not.

¹⁰ For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side: Report, and we will report it. All my familiars are watching for my stumbling: Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him; and we shall take our revenge on him.

¹¹ But Jehovah is with me as a mighty terrible one; therefore my persecutors shall stumble and shall not prevail; they shall be greatly ashamed, for they have not prospered: it shall be an everlasting confusion that shall not be forgotten.

¹² And thou, Jehovah of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

¹³ Sing ye unto Jehovah, praise Jehovah, for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

3 This, a second letter, beloved, I already write to you, in [both] which I stir up, in the way of putting you in remembrance, your pure mind,

² to be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the Lord and Saviour by your apostles;

³ knowing this first, that there shall come at [the] close of the days mockers with mocking, walking according to their own lusts,

⁴ and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep all things remain thus from [the] beginning of [the] creation.

⁵ For this is hidden from them through their own wilfulness, that heavens were of old, and an earth, having its subsistence out of water and in water, by the word of God,

⁶ through which [waters] the then world, deluged with water, perished.

⁷ But the present heavens and the earth by his word are laid up in store, kept for fire unto a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.