Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
128 (Shir HaMa’alot) Ashrei kol yerei (fearers of) Hashem; that walketh in His drakhim.
2 For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be tov with thee.
3 Thy isha shall be as a fruitful gefen inside thine bais; thy banim like olive shoots around thy shulchan.
4 Hinei, thus shall the gever be blessed that feareth Hashem.
5 Hashem shall bless thee out of Tziyon; and thou shalt see the tov of Yerushalayim all the days of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy bnei banim, and shalom upon Yisroel.
27 Boast not thyself of yom makhar (tomorrow), for thou hast no da’as of what a yom may bring forth.
2 Let another praise thee, and not thine own peh (mouth); a nokhri (stranger), and not thine own sfatayim (lips).
3 An even (stone) is heavy, and the chol (sand) weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.
4 Chemah (anger) is cruel, and fury is a torrent, but who is able to stand before kinah (jealousy, envy)?
5 Open tovah tokhakhat (good, constructive reproof) is better than secret ahavah.
6 Ne’emanim (faithful) are the wounds of an ohev (friend); but deceitful the neshikot (kisses) of an enemy.
7 The full nefesh trampleth a honeycomb, but to the hungry nefesh every mar (bitter thing) is sweet.
8 As a tzippor that wandereth from her ken (nest), so is an ish that wandereth from his makom (place, home).
9 Shemen and ketoret rejoice the lev; so doth the sweet discourse of a re’a (friend) from an atzat nefesh (a counselling of the soul).
10 Thine own re’a (friend), and the re’a avicha, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s bais in the yom of thy calamity; for better is a shakhen (neighbor) that is near than a brother far off.
11 Beni (my son), be chacham, and make my lev glad, that I may answer my accusers.
12 A prudent man foreseeth ra’ah, and hideth himself; but the naïve ones trudge on, and are punished.
13 Take his beged (garment) that is collateral for a zar; seize the pledge given for surety for a nokhriyah (strange woman, foreign woman, seductress).
14 He that maketh a bracha on his re’a (friend) with a kol gadol (loud voice), rising early in the boker, it shall be counted a kelalah to him.
15 A continual dripping in a very rainy day and a quarrelsome isha are alike;
16 To restrain her is like restraining the ruach (wind), and like grasping shemen in the right hand.
17 Barzel (iron) sharpeneth barzel (iron); so one ish sharpeneth another.
18 He who is guard over the te’enah (fig tree) shall eat the p’ri (fruit) thereof, so he that is shomer over his adon shall be honored.
19 As mayim reflecteth the face, so one lev ha’adam reflects another.
20 Sheol and Avaddon are never full; so the eynayim of adam are never satisfied.
21 As the crucible is for kesef, and the furnace for zahav; so is an ish tested by the praise he receives.
22 Though thou shouldest grind a fool in the makhtesh (mortar) among grain with the pestle, yet will not his folly be removed from him.
23 Be thou diligent to know the condition of thy tzon, and look well to thy adarim (flocks).
24 For riches are not l’olam (forever); and doth the nezer (crown) endure dor vador?
25 The hay is removed, and the deshe (tender grass) showeth itself, and herbs of the harim are gathered,
26 The kevasim (lambs) are for thy clothing, and the goats are the purchase price of the sadeh.
27 And thou shalt have cholov of izzim (goats) enough for thy lechem, for the lechem of thy bais, and for the nourishment of thy na’arot (servant girls).
8 Draw near to Hashem and Hashem will draw near to you. Cleanse your yadayim (hands), you chote’im (sinners)! And purify your levavot, you anashim of double mind! [TEHILLIM 73:28; ZECHARYAH 1:3; MALACHI 3:7; YESHAYAH 1:16; TEHILLIM 24:4; 119:113; YIRMEYAH 4:14]
9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let the tzechok (laughter) of you be changed to avelut (mourning), and the simcha of you be turned to tugah (sadness).
10 Be humbled before Hashem and He will exalt you. [IYOV 5:11]
11 Do not speak lashon hora against an Ach b’Moshiach. The one speaking against an Ach b’Moshiach or setting himself up as a shofet (judge) of his Ach b’Moshiach speaks against the Torah and sets himself up as shofet of the Torah. Now if the Torah you judge, you are not Shomrei HaTorah but a shofet.
12 One is the Mekhokek (Law-Giver) and HaShofet (The Judge), the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you, the one who has set yourself up as the shofet of your re’a (neighbor)?
13 Come now, you who say, "Hayom (today) or makhar (tomorrow) we will go into this or that city and we will do business there a year and will sell and make a revach (profit)."
14 Yet you do not even have da’as of what tomorrow’s "yom" may bring. Look at your life! Are you not an ed (mist), appearing a short time, then indeed disappearing? [IYOV 7:7; TEHILLIM 39:5; 102:3; 144:4; YESHAYAH 2:22]
15 Instead of this, you ought to say "Im yirtzeh Hashem" ("if the L-rd wills") "we will live, also we will do this or that."
16 But now you boast in your pretensions. All such ravrevanut (boastfulness) is ra’ah (evil, wickedness).
17 To the one having da’as, therefore, knowing to do tov and not doing it, to him it is chet.
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