Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

104 Bless Jehovah, O my soul! Jehovah my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with majesty and splendour;

² Covering thyself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent-curtain;—

³ Who layeth the beams of his upper chambers in the waters, who maketh clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind;

⁴ Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flame of fire.

⁵ He laid the earth upon its foundations: it shall not be removed for ever.

⁶ Thou hadst covered it with the deep, as with a vesture; the waters stood above the mountains:

⁷ At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away;—

⁸ The mountains rose, the valleys sank, unto the place which thou hadst founded for them;—

⁹ Thou hast set a bound which they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth.

²⁴ How manifold are thy works, O Jehovah! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

³⁵ Sinners shall be consumed out of the earth, and the wicked shall be no more. Bless Jehovah, O my soul. Hallelujah!

39 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? dost thou mark the calving of the hinds?

² Dost thou number the months that they fulfil? and knowest thou the time when they bring forth?

³ They bow themselves, they give birth to their young ones, they cast out their pains;

⁴ Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open field, they go forth, and return not unto them.

⁵ Who hath sent out the wild ass free? and who hath loosed the bands of the onager,

⁶ Whose house I made the wilderness, and the salt plain his dwellings?

⁷ He laugheth at the tumult of the city, and heareth not the shouts of the driver;

⁸ The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.

⁹ Will the buffalo be willing to serve thee, or will he lodge by thy crib?

¹⁰ Canst thou bind the buffalo with his cord in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

¹¹ Wilt thou put confidence in him, because his strength is great? and wilt thou leave thy labour to him?

¹² Wilt thou trust him to bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy threshing-floor?

¹³ The wing of the ostrich beats joyously—But is it the stork's pinion and plumage?

¹⁴ For she leaveth her eggs to the earth, and warmeth them in the dust,

¹⁵ And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the beast of the field may trample them.

¹⁶ She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers; her labour is in vain, without her concern.

¹⁷ For +God hath deprived her of wisdom, and hath not furnished her with understanding.

¹⁸ What time she lasheth herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.

¹⁹ Hast thou given strength to the horse? hast thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane?

²⁰ Dost thou make him to leap as a locust? His majestic snorting is terrible.

²¹ He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in [his] strength; he goeth forth to meet the armed host.

²² He laugheth at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from before the sword.

²³ The quiver rattleth upon him, the glittering spear and the javelin.

²⁴ He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage, and cannot contain himself at the sound of the trumpet:

²⁵ At the noise of the trumpets he saith, Aha! and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶ Doth the hawk fly by thine intelligence, [and] stretch his wings toward the south?

²⁷ Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make his nest on high?

²⁸ He inhabiteth the rock and maketh his dwelling on the point of the cliff, and the fastness:

²⁹ From thence he spieth out the prey, his eyes look into the distance;

³⁰ And his young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there is he.

²⁴ And there was also a strife among them which of them should be held to be [the] greatest.

²⁵ And he said to them, The kings of the nations rule over them, and they that exercise authority over them are called benefactors.

²⁶ But *ye* [shall] not [be] thus; but let the greater among you be as the younger, and the leader as he that serves.

²⁷ For which [is] greater, he that is at table or he that serves? [Is] not he that is at table? But *I* am in the midst of you as the one that serves.

²⁸ But *ye* are they who have persevered with me in my temptations.

²⁹ And *I* appoint unto you, as my Father has appointed unto me, a kingdom,

³⁰ that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.