Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
39 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked is before me.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart burned within me; the fire was kindled in my musing: I spoke with my tongue,
4 Make me to know, Jehovah, mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: I shall know how frail I am.
5 Behold, thou hast made my days [as] hand-breadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before thee; verily, every man, [even] the high placed, is altogether vanity. Selah.
6 Verily, man walketh in a vain show; verily they are disquieted in vain; he heapeth up [riches], and knoweth not who shall gather them.
7 And now, what wait I for, Lord? my hope is in thee.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; for *thou* hast done [it].
10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thy hand.
11 When thou with rebukes dost correct a man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely, every man is vanity. Selah.
12 Hear my prayer, Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry; be not silent at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, a sojourner, like all my fathers.
13 Look away from me, and let me recover strength, before I go hence and be no more.
12 But wisdom, where shall it be found? and where is the place of understanding?
13 Man knoweth not the value thereof; and it is not found in the land of the living.
14 The deep saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me.
15 Choice gold cannot be given for it, nor silver be weighed for its price.
16 It is not set in the balance with gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, and the sapphire.
17 Gold and glass cannot be compared to it, nor vessels of fine gold be its exchange.
18 Corals and crystal are no more remembered; yea, the acquisition of wisdom is above rubies.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not be compared to it, neither shall it be set in the balance with pure gold.
20 Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?
21 For it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the fowl of the heavens.
22 Destruction and death say, We have heard its report with our ears.
23 God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth its place:
24 For he looketh to the ends of the earth, he seeth under the whole heaven.
25 In making a weight for the wind, and meting out the waters by measure,
26 In appointing a statute for the rain, and a way for the thunder's flash:
27 Then did he see it, and declare it; he established it, yea, and searched it out;
28 And unto man he said, Lo, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
29 And Job continued his parable and said,
2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me;
3 When his lamp shone over my head, [and] by his light I walked through darkness;
4 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent,
5 When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me;
6 When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! …
7 When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway,
8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose [and] stood up;
9 Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth;
10 The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate.
8 And when it opened the seventh seal, there was silence in the heaven about half an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might give [efficacy] to the prayers of all saints at the golden altar which [was] before the throne.
4 And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints, out of the hand of the angel before God.
5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast [it] on the earth: and there were voices, and thunders and lightnings, and an earthquake.
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