Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David.
55 Listen to my prayer, God.
Don’t hide yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and answer me.
I am restless in my complaint,
and moan 3 because of the voice of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they bring suffering on me.
In anger they hold a grudge against me.
4 My heart is severely pained within me.
The terrors of death have fallen on me.
5 Fearfulness and trembling have come on me.
Horror has overwhelmed me.
6 I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove!
Then I would fly away, and be at rest.
7 Behold, then I would wander far off.
I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah.
8 “I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.”
9 Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language,
for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they prowl around on its walls.
Malice and abuse are also within her.
11 Destructive forces are within her.
Threats and lies don’t depart from her streets.
12 For it was not an enemy who insulted me,
then I could have endured it.
Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me,
then I would have hidden myself from him.
13 But it was you, a man like me,
my companion, and my familiar friend.
14 We took sweet fellowship together.
We walked in God’s house with company.
15 Let death come suddenly on them.
Let them go down alive into Sheol.[a]
For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling.
8 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
2 “How long will you speak these things?
Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
3 Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
4 If your children have sinned against him,
he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.
5 If you want to seek God diligently,
make your supplication to the Almighty.
6 If you were pure and upright,
surely now he would awaken for you,
and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.
7 Though your beginning was small,
yet your latter end would greatly increase.
8 “Please inquire of past generations.
Find out about the learning of their fathers.
9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
because our days on earth are a shadow.)
10 Shall they not teach you, tell you,
and utter words out of their heart?
11 “Can the papyrus grow up without mire?
Can the rushes grow without water?
12 While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down,
it withers before any other reed.
13 So are the paths of all who forget God.
The hope of the godless man will perish,
14 whose confidence will break apart,
whose trust is a spider’s web.
15 He will lean on his house, but it will not stand.
He will cling to it, but it will not endure.
16 He is green before the sun.
His shoots go out along his garden.
17 His roots are wrapped around the rock pile.
He sees the place of stones.
18 If he is destroyed from his place,
then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
19 Behold, this is the joy of his way.
Out of the earth, others will spring.
20 “Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man,
neither will he uphold the evildoers.
21 He will still fill your mouth with laughter,
your lips with shouting.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame.
The tent of the wicked will be no more.”
7 Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3 Let the husband give his wife the affection owed her,[a] and likewise also the wife her husband. 4 The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6 But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment. 7 Yet I wish that all men were like me. However, each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind. 8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am. 9 But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. For it’s better to marry than to burn with passion.
by Public Domain. The name "World English Bible" is trademarked.