Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

120 (Shir HaMa’a- lot [Song of Ascents]) In my tzoros I cried unto Hashem, and He heard me.

² Save my nefesh, Hashem, from sefat sheker (lying lips), and from lashon remiyyah (a tongue of deceit).

³ What shall be given unto thee? Or what shall be done unto thee, thou lashon remiyyah?

⁴ Sharp khitzim (arrows) of the gibbor, with burning (charcoal) coals of the broom plant.

⁵ Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell in the ohalim of Kedar!

⁶ My nefesh hath long dwelt with him that hateth shalom.

⁷ I am for shalom; but when I speak, they are for milchamah (war).

1 Now in the first year [539 B.C.E.] of Koresh Melech Paras (Persia), that the Devar Hashem by the mouth of Yirmeyah might be fulfilled, Hashem stirred up the ruach of Koresh Melech Paras (Persia), so that he made a proclamation throughout all his Malchut, and put it also in writing, saying,

² Thus saith Koresh Melech Paras (Persia), Hashem Elohei HaShomayim hath given me all the kingdoms of ha’aretz; and he hath charged me to build him Beis [Hamikdash] at Yerushalayim, which is in Yehudah.

³ Who is there among you of all His people, Elohav be with him, let him go up to Yerushalayim, which is in Yehudah, and build the Beis Hashem Elohei Yisroel, (He is HaElohim) which is in Yerushalayim.

⁴ And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with kesef, and with zahav, and with goods, and with livestock, beside the nedavah (freewill offering) for the Beis HaElohim that is in Yerushalayim.

⁵ Then rose up the chief of the avot of Yehudah and Binyamin, and the kohanim, and the Levi’im, with all them whose ruach HaElohim had stirred up, to go up to build the Beis Hashem which is in Yerushalayim.

⁶ And all they that were about them did strengthen their hands with vessels of kesef, with zahav, with goods, and with livestock, and with precious things, in addition to all their nedavot (freewill offerings).

⁷ Also HaMelech Koresh brought forth the vessels of the Beis Hashem, which Nevuchadnetzar had carried off out of Yerushalayim, and had put them in the bais (temple) of his g-ds;

⁸ Even those did Koresh Melech Paras (Persia) bring forth by the hand of Mitredat the treasurer, and counted them unto Sheshbatzar, the Nasi of Yehudah.

⁹ And this is the number of them; thirty basins of zahav, a thousand basins of kesef, nine and twenty knives,

¹⁰ Thirty bowls of zahav, kesef basins of a second kind four hundred and ten, and other vessels one thousand.

¹¹ All the vessels of zahav and of kesef were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbatzar bring up with them of the Golus that were brought up from Bavel unto Yerushalayim.

¹² For our glorying is in this: the edut (testimony) of our matzpun (conscience) [MJ 13:18] is that without remiyah (guile, fraud, deceit) and with lev tahor ("pure heart" TEHILLIM 51:12) with the sincerity of Hashem [2C 2:17] and not in the "chochmah" of the basar [1C 1:17] but in the Chen v’Chesed of Hashem, we conducted ourselves in the Olam Hazeh, and more especially toward you.

¹³ For we write nothing so shver (complex) to you that you cannot read and have binah (understanding), and I have tikvah that you will have da’as shlemah until HaKetz,

¹⁴ As you have already had da’as of us in part, as also we are your kavod [2C 5:12], even as also you are ours in the Yom Hashem of Adoneinu Yehoshua. [Pp 2:16]

¹⁵ And with this bitachon (confidence) I planned previously to come to you, that a second benefit you might have.

¹⁶ It was my cheshbon (plan) to visit you by way of Macedonia and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be sent on to Yehudah (Judea Ac 19:21; 1C 16:5,6).

¹⁷ This was my matarah (aim, goal); surely then I did not act with vacillation? Or when I make plans [2C 5:16], do I have a cheshbon according to the basar, ready with "Ken, Ken!" and then, "Lo! Lo!"

¹⁸ Al emunat Hashem (in the faithfulness of G-d), our dvar to you has not been "Ken" and "Lo."

¹⁹ For the Ben HaElohim, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua, the One having been proclaimed among you by us, by Sila and Timotiyos and me [Ac 18:5], was not a "Ken and Lo"; but in Him it has always been "Ken."