Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the director: With instruments. A maskil of David.
55 God, hear my prayer.
Don’t ignore my cry for help.
2 Please listen and answer me.
Let me speak to you and tell you what upsets me.
3 My enemies shout at me and threaten me.
In their anger they attack me.
They bring troubles crashing down on me.
4 My heart is pounding inside me.
I am afraid to die.
5 I am trembling with fear.
I am terrified!
6 Oh, I wish I had wings like a dove.
I would fly away and find a place to rest.
7 I would go far into the desert and stay there. Selah
8 I would run away.
I would escape from this storm of trouble.
9 My Lord, confuse their words and stop their plans.
I see so much cruelty and fighting in this city.
10 Day and night, in every neighborhood,
the city is filled with evil and trouble.
11 There is so much crime in the streets.
People who hurt and cheat others are everywhere.
12 If it were an enemy insulting me,
I could bear it.
If it were my enemies attacking me,
I could hide.
13 But it is you, the one so close to me,
my companion, my good friend, who does this.
14 We used to share our secrets with one another,
as we walked through the crowds together in God’s Temple.
15 I wish death would take my enemies by surprise!
I wish the earth would open up and swallow them alive,[a]
because they plan such terrible things together.
Bildad Speaks to Job
8 Then Bildad from Shuah answered:
2 “How long will you talk like that?
Your words are nothing but hot air!
3 God is always fair.
God All-Powerful does what is right.
4 If your children sinned against God, he punished them.
They paid for their sins.
5 But now, look to God
and pray to the All-Powerful.
6 If you are pure and good,
he will quickly come to help you.
He will give your family back to you.
7 Then you will have a lot more
than you had in the beginning!
8 “Ask those who are now old.
Find out what their ancestors learned.
9 It seems as though we were born yesterday.
We are too young to know anything.
Our days on earth are very short, like a shadow.
10 Maybe the old people can tell you something.
Maybe they will teach you what they learned.
11 “Can papyrus grow tall on a dry land?
Can reeds grow without water?
12 No, they will dry up before harvest.
They will be too small to cut and use.
13 People who forget God are like that.
Those who oppose him have no hope.
14 They have put their trust in something weak.
It is like a spider’s web.
15 When they lean against it,
it will break.
When they reach out for it,
it will not hold them up.
16 Such people are like a vine that gets plenty of water and sunshine,
and its branches spread throughout the garden.
17 Its roots spread among the rocks,
searching for good soil.
18 But if you move it, it will die,
and no one can tell it was ever there.
19 Everything might have been going well,
but another vine will take its place.
20 God does not support evil people,
and he does not abandon the innocent.
21 So perhaps you might laugh again.
Maybe shouts of joy will come from your lips.
22 Maybe your enemies will be humiliated
and the homes of the wicked destroyed.”
About Marriage
7 Now I will discuss the things you wrote me about. You asked if it is better for a man not to have any sexual relations at all. 2 But sexual sin is a danger, so each man should enjoy his own wife, and each woman should enjoy her own husband. 3 The husband should give his wife what she deserves as his wife. And the wife should give her husband what he deserves as her husband. 4 The wife does not have power over her own body. Her husband has the power over her body. And the husband does not have power over his own body. His wife has the power over his body. 5 Don’t refuse to give your bodies to each other. But you might both agree to stay away from sex for a while so that you can give your time to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not be able to tempt you in your weakness. 6 I say this only to give you permission to be separated for a time. It is not a rule. 7 I wish everyone could be like me. But God has given each person a different ability. He makes some able to live one way, others to live a different way.
8 Now for those who are not married and for the widows I say this: It is good for you to stay single like me. 9 But if you cannot control your body, then you should marry. It is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International