Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
34 (Of Dovid, when he feigned insanity before Avimelech, who drove him away, and he went out) 1 (2) I will make a bracha of praise unto Hashem at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 (3) My nefesh shall make its boast in Hashem; the anavim (humble) shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 (4) O magnify Hashem with me, and let us exalt Shmo together.
4 (5) I sought Hashem, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 (6) They looked unto Him, and were radiant; and their panim were not ashamed.
6 (7) The oni (poor man) cried, and Hashem heard him, and saved him out of all his tzoros.
7 (8) The Malach Hashem encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.
8 (9) O taste and see that Hashem is tov; ashrei is the man that taketh refuge in Him.
19 (20) Many are the afflictions of the tzaddik; but Hashem delivereth him out of them all.
20 (21) He keepeth shomer over all his bones; not one of them is broken [Yn 19:36].
21 (22) Evil shall slay the resha’im; and they that hate the tzaddik shall be desolate.
22 (23) Hashem redeemeth the nefesh of His avadim; and none of them that take refuge in Him shall be condemned [see Ro 5:1; 8:1 OJBC].
1 The Divrei Nechemyah ben Chachalyah. And it came to pass in the month Kislev, in the twentieth year [i.e., 445 B.C.E.], as I was in Shushan the capital [of Persia],
2 That Chanani, one of my achim [see 7:2], came, he and certain men, from Yehudah; and I asked them concerning the remnant of the Yehudim that had survived the Exile [the Golus], and concerning Yerushalayim.
3 And they said unto me, The remnant that have survived the Exile [the Golus] there in the province are in ra’ah gedolah and reproach; the Chomat Yerushalayim also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with eish.
4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for several yamim, and did a tzom, and davened before Elohei HaShomayim,
5 And said, O Hashem Elohei HaShomayim, HaEl HaGadol vHaNora, that is shomer habrit vachesed for them that love Him and are shomer mitzvot over His commandments,
6 Let Thine ear now be attentive, and Thine eyes open, that Thou mayest hear the tefillah of Thy eved, which I am davening before Thee now, yomam valailah, for the Bnei Yisroel Thy avadim, and mitvaddeh al chattot (confess the sins) of the Bnei Yisroel, which we have sinned against Thee. Both I and the Bais Avi have sinned.
7 We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and have not been shomer mitzvot, neither over the chukkim, nor the mishpatim, which Thou commandedst Moshe Thy eved.
8 Remember, the word that Thou commandedst Moshe Thy eved, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations,
9 But if ye make teshuvah and turn unto Me, and are shomer over My mitzvot, and do them; though there were of you those exiled unto the uttermost part of HaShomayim, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them unto the place [i.e., Yerushalayim] that I have chosen to make dwell Shmi (My Name) there.
10 Now these are Thy Avadim and Thy Am, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy ko’ach hagadol, and by Thy Yad HaChazakah.
11 O Adonoi, let now Thine ear be attentive to the tefillah of Thy eved, and to the tefillah of Thy Avadim, who desire to fear Thy Shem; and give success to Thy eved today, and grant him rachamim in the sight of this man. For I was the Mashkeh L’Melech.
11 Now if shleimut (completeness) had been attainable through the Kehunah of Levi‖for under it came the Mattan Torah (giving of the Torah) to the Am Brit‖what further need would there have been to speak of another KOHEN arising "according to the order of Malki-Tzedek" TEHILLIM 110:4) rather than "al divrati Aharon"?
12 For when there is a "changing of the guard" of the Kehunah (Priesthood), this behechrach (necessarily) also affects the Torah [Isa 42:4].
13 For the One about whom these things are said belonged to a different shevet (tribe), from which no one has officiated at the Mizbe’ach.
14 For it is ugeret (easily seen, evident) that Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu was descended from Yehudah, and in connection with that shevet (tribe), Moshe Rabbeinu said nothing about kohanim.
15 And it is even more evident if another Kohen arises resembling Malki-Tzedek,
16 One who became a kohen, not by means of a mitzvat haTorah concerning yichus (lineage), but according to the gevurah of a Chayyei Ein Sof (Endless Life).
17 For of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach comes the solemn eidus, "ATAH KOHEN L’OLAM AL DIVRATI MALKI TZEDEK" ("You are a kohen forever according to the order of Malki Tzedek" TEHILLIM 110:4).
18 For, on the one hand, there is an abrogation of an earlier mitzvah because of its weakness and ineffectuality
19 —For the Torah brought nothing to shleimut (perfection); on the other hand, there is the mavo (introduction) of a tikvah tovah yoter (a better hope) through which we draw near to Hashem—
20 This was attested with a shevu’ah (oath); for others who became kohanim were installed in the office of kehunah without a shevu’ah;
21 But the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach became a kohen with a shevu’ah (oath) through the One saying to Him, "Hashem has made an oath and will not change his mind, You are a kohen forever" [TEHILLIM 110:4].
22 According to such a shevu’ah of Hashem, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua has become the arev (surety, guarantee) of a tovah yoter HaBrit.
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