Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
55 Hear my prayer, O God, and do not hide Yourself from my supplication.
2 Hear me and answer me. I mourn in my prayer and make a noise
3 for the voice of the enemy, for the troubling of the wicked; because they have brought iniquity upon me and furiously hate me.
4 My heart trembles within me; and the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling have come upon me; and a horrible fear has covered me.
6 And I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away and rest!
7 “Behold, I would wander far off and lodge in the wilderness. Selah.
8 “He would hurry for my deliverance from the stormy wind and tempest.”
9 Destroy, O LORD, and divide their tongues; for I have seen cruelty and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof. Both iniquity and mischief are in the midst of it.
11 Wickedness is in the midst thereof. Deceit and guile do not depart from her streets.
12 Surely my enemy did not defame me (for I could have borne it); nor did my adversary exalt himself against me (for I would have hidden myself from him).
13 But it was you, O man, even my companion, my guide, and my intimate.
14 We delighted in consulting together; and went into the House of God as companions.
15 Let death seize them. Let them go down quick into the grave; for wickedness is in their dwellings, even in the midst of them.
15 “Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2 “Shall a wise man speak words of the wind, and fill his belly with the East wind?
3 “Shall he dispute with unprofitable words or with talk that is of no benefit?
4 “Surely, you have cast off fear and restrained prayer before God:
5 “For your mouth declares your iniquity, seeing you have chosen the tongue of the crafty.
6 “Your own mouth condemns you, and not me. And your lips testify against you.
7 “Are you the first man who was born? And were you made before the hills?
8 “Have you heard the secret counsel of God? And do you restrain wisdom to yourself?
9 “What do you know that we do not know, understand that is not in us?
10 “With us are both ancient and very aged men, far older than your father.
11 “Do the consolations of God seem small to you? Is this thing strange to you?
12 “Why does your heart take you away? And at what are you winking,
13 “that you answer to God at your pleasure and bring such words out of your mouth?
14 “What is man, that he would be clean? And he who is born of woman, that he would be just?
15 “Behold, He found no steadfastness in His saints. Yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.
16 “How much more abominable is man, and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water?
17 “I will tell you. Hear me, and I will declare that which I have seen,
18 “which wise men have told from their fathers and have not kept secret,
19 “to whom alone the land was given. And no stranger passed through them.
20 “The wicked man is continually as one who writhes in pain. And the number of years is hidden from the tyrant.
21 “A sound of fear is in his ears. In his prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22 “He does not believe he will return out of darkness, for he sees the sword before him.
23 “He wanders to and fro for bread. He knows that the day of darkness is at hand.
24 “Affliction and anguish shall make him afraid. They shall prevail against him as a king, ready to battle.
25 “For he has stretched out his hand against God and made himself strong against the Almighty.
26 “running upon Him, with the most thick part of his shield.
27 “Because he has covered his face with his fatness, and excess fat is in his loins.
28 “He dwells in desolate cities, in houses which no man inhabits, but have become heaps.
29 “He shall not be rich. Nor shall his substance continue. Nor shall he prolong its gain on the Earth.
30 “He shall never depart from darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. And he shall go away with the breath of His mouth.
31 “Let him not err in his trust of frivolity. For frivolity shall be his reward.
32 “His branch shall not be green, but shall be cut off before his day.
33 “God shall destroy him as the vine does her sour grape, and shall cast him off as the olive does her flower.
34 “For the congregation of the hypocrite shall be desolate. And fire shall devour the houses of bribes.
35 “They conceive mischief and bring forth emptiness. And their belly has prepared deceit.”
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old time, ‘You shall not commit adultery’.
28 “But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman, to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
29 “So if your right eye causes you to offend, pluck it out and cast it from you. For better it is for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body should be cast into Hell.
30 “Also if your right hand makes you offend, cut it off, and cast it from you. For better it is for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body should be cast into Hell.
31 “It has been said also, ‘Whoever shall divorce his wife, let him give her a bill of divorcement’.
32 “But I say to you, whoever shall divorce his wife (except for promiscuity) causes her to commit adultery. And whoever shall marry her who is divorced, commits adultery.
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old time, ‘You shall not swear false oaths, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord’.
34 “But I say to you do not swear at all, neither by Heaven (for it is the throne of God)
35 “nor by the Earth (for it is His footstool), nor by Jerusalem (for it is the city of the great King).
36 “Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.
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