Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁴ The wicked are not so
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.^(D)
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,^(E)
6 for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.^(F)

¹⁸ Three things are too wonderful for me;
    four I do not understand:
¹⁹ the way of an eagle in the sky,
    the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
    and the way of a man with a woman.

²⁰ This is the way of an adulteress:
    she eats and wipes her mouth
    and says, “I have done no wrong.”^(A)

²¹ Under three things the earth trembles;
    under four it cannot bear up:
²² a slave when he becomes king
    and a fool when glutted with food,^(B)
23 a contemptible woman when she gets a husband
    and a maid when she supplants her mistress.

²⁴ Four things on earth are small,
    yet they are exceedingly wise:
²⁵ the ants are a people without strength,
    yet they provide their food in the summer;^(C)
26 the badgers are a people without power,
    yet they make their homes in the rocks;^(D)
27 the locusts have no king,
    yet all of them march in rank;
²⁸ the lizard^[a] can be grasped in the hand,
    yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

²⁹ Three things are stately in their stride;
    four are stately in their gait:
³⁰ the lion, which is mightiest among wild animals
    and does not turn back before any;^(E)
31 the strutting rooster,^[b] the he-goat,
    and a king against whom none can stand.

³² If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,
    or if you have been devising evil,
    put your hand on your mouth.^(F)
33 For as pressing milk produces curds
    and pressing the nose produces blood,
    so pressing anger produces strife.^(G)

“Out of Zion will come the Deliverer;
    he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”^(B)
27 “And this is my covenant with them,
    when I take away their sins.”^(C)