Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³ The voice of the Eternal echoes over the great waters;
    God’s magnificence roars like thunder.
    The Eternal’s presence hovers over all the waters.
⁴ His voice explodes in great power over the earth.
    His voice is both regal and grand.

⁵ The Eternal’s voice shatters the cedars;
    His power splinters the great cedars of Lebanon.
⁶ He speaks, and Lebanon leaps like a young calf;
    Sirion jumps like a wild, youthful ox.

⁷ The voice of the Eternal cuts through with flames of fire.
⁸ The voice of the Eternal rumbles through the wilderness
    with great quakes;
    He causes Kadesh to tremble.

⁹ The Eternal’s voice brings life from the doe’s womb;
    His voice strips the forest bare,
    and all the people in the temple declare, “Glory!”

¹⁰ The Eternal is enthroned over the great flood;
    His reign is unending.
¹¹ We ask You, Eternal One, to give strength to Your people;
    Eternal One, bless them with the gift of peace.

² Teacher: Life is fleeting, like a passing mist.
        It is like trying to catch hold of a breath;
    All vanishes like a vapor; everything is a great vanity.
³     What good does it do anyone to work so hard again and again,
        sun up to sundown? All his labor to gain but a little?
⁴     One generation comes, another goes;
        but the earth continues to remain.
⁵     The sun rises and the sun sets,
        laboring to come up quickly to its place again and again.
⁶     The wind in its travels blows toward the south,
        then swings back around to the north.
    Back and forth,
        returning in its circuit again and again.
⁷     All rivers flow to the sea,
        but the sea is never full.
    To the place where the rivers flow,
        there the water returns to flow once again.
⁸     Words, words, words! So many words! They are wearisome things;
        and yet people cannot refrain from speaking.
    No eye has ever surveyed the world and said, “I have seen enough”;
        no ear has ever listened to creation and said, “I have heard enough.”
⁹     What has been, that will be;
        what has been done, that will be done.
    Nothing is new under the sun;
        the future only repeats the past.
¹⁰     One person may say of some idea,
        “Pay attention to this; it’s original!”
    But that same idea has already been expressed;
        it’s been with us through the ages.
¹¹     We do not remember those people and events of long ago,
        as future generations will not remember what is yet to come.

I will put an end to the wisdom of the so-called wise,
    and I will invalidate the insight of your so-called experts.^[a]