Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
90 Lord, *thou* hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, and thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from eternity to eternity thou art God.
3 Thou makest [mortal] man to return to dust, and sayest, Return, children of men.
4 For a thousand years, in thy sight, are as yesterday when it is past, and [as] a watch in the night.
5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are [as] a sleep: in the morning they are like grass [that] groweth up:
6 In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth.
7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy fury are we troubled.
8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret [sins] in the light of thy countenance.
9 For all our days pass away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a [passing] thought.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if, by reason of strength, they be fourscore years, yet their pride is labour and vanity, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? and thy wrath according to the fear of thee?
12 So teach [us] to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart.
13 Return, Jehovah: how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
14 Satisfy us early with thy loving-kindness; that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days [wherein] thou hast afflicted us, according to the years [wherein] we have seen evil.
16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy majesty unto their sons.
17 And let the beauty of Jehovah our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it.
17 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of them a staff, a staff for each father's house, of all their princes according to the houses of their fathers, twelve staves: thou shalt write each one's name upon his staff.
3 And Aaron's name shalt thou write upon the staff of Levi; for one staff shall be for [each] head of their fathers' houses.
4 And thou shalt lay them up in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you.
5 And it shall come to pass, that the man whom I shall choose, his staff shall bud forth; and I will make to cease from before me the murmurings of the children of Israel, that they murmur against you.
6 And Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and all their princes gave him a staff, one staff for each prince according to their fathers' houses, twelve staves, and the staff of Aaron was among their staves.
7 And Moses laid the staves before Jehovah in the tent of the testimony.
8 And it came to pass, when on the morrow Moses went into the tent of the testimony, behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and ripened almonds.
9 And Moses brought out all the staves from before Jehovah to all the children of Israel, and they looked and took each one his staff.
10 And Jehovah said to Moses, Bring Aaron's staff again before the testimony, to be kept as a token for the sons of rebellion, that thou mayest put an end to their murmurings before me, that they may not die.
11 And Moses did so: as Jehovah had commanded him, so did he.
3 This, a second letter, beloved, I already write to you, in [both] which I stir up, in the way of putting you in remembrance, your pure mind,
2 to be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the Lord and Saviour by your apostles;
3 knowing this first, that there shall come at [the] close of the days mockers with mocking, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep all things remain thus from [the] beginning of [the] creation.
5 For this is hidden from them through their own wilfulness, that heavens were of old, and an earth, having its subsistence out of water and in water, by the word of God,
6 through which [waters] the then world, deluged with water, perished.
7 But the present heavens and the earth by his word are laid up in store, kept for fire unto a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8 But let not this one thing be hidden from you, beloved, that one day with [the] Lord [is] as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 [The] Lord does not delay his promise, as some account of delay, but is longsuffering towards you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of [the] Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and [the] elements, burning with heat, shall be dissolved, and [the] earth and the works in it shall be burnt up.
11 All these things then being to be dissolved, what ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness,
12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, by reason of which [the] heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and [the] elements, burning with heat, shall melt?
13 But, according to his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, as ye wait for these things, be diligent to be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless;
15 and account the longsuffering of our Lord [to be] salvation; according as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you according to the wisdom given to him,
16 as also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; among which some things are hard to be understood, which the untaught and ill-established wrest, as also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 *Ye* therefore, beloved, knowing [these] things before, take care lest, being led away along with the error of the wicked, ye should fall from your own stedfastness:
18 but grow in grace, and in [the] knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him [be] glory both now and to [the] day of eternity. Amen.
Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)