Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Make Me Know the Number of My Days
Psalm 39
1 For the music director, for Jeduthun, a psalm of David.
2 I said:
“I will guard my ways, so I will not sin with my tongue.
I will muzzle my mouth while the wicked are before me.”
3 So I became utterly speechless,
kept silent even from good,
but my anguish was stirred up.
4 My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing, the fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue:
5 “Let me know, Adonai, my end
and what the number of my days is.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
6 Behold, You made my days mere hand-breadths,
and my lifetime as nothing before You.
Surely all humanity is but vapor. Selah
7 Everyone goes about as a mere phantom.
Surely they are making an uproar in vain, heaping up stuff—
yet not knowing who will gather it.[a]
8 And now, my Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
9 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of a fool.
10 I am speechless, not opening my mouth
—for You have done it.
11 Remove Your scourge from me.
I perish by the blow of Your hand.
12 With rebukes You chasten one for iniquity
and You consume like a moth what he finds pleasure in.
Surely all humanity is but a vapor. Selah
13 Hear my prayer, Adonai,
and listen to my cry—
do not keep silent at my tears.
For with You I am an outsider, a sojourner,
as all my fathers were.
14 Turn your gaze away from me, so I may smile again,
before I go, and am no more.”
Parable of Eagles and Branches
17 The word of Adonai came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, propose a riddle and tell a parable to the house of Israel.” 3 Say, thus says Adonai Elohim: “A great eagle with large wings and broad wings, full of feathers which had varied colors, came to Lebanon and took hold of the top of the cedar. 4 He plucked off its topmost twigs, carried them to the land of trade and set it in a city of merchants. 5 Then he took some of the seed of the land and planted it in fruitful soil. He placed it beside abundant waters. He set it like a willow twig. 6 Then it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine, with its branches turned toward him, but its roots grew under him. So it became a vine, produced branches and sent out shoots.
7 “There was also another great eagle with large wings and many feathers. Behold, this vine bent its roots toward him and shot forth its branches toward him from the bed where it was planted, so that he might water it. 8 It was planted in good soil by much water, so it would bring forth branches, bear fruit and be a glorious vine.”
9 Say, thus says Adonai Elohim: “Will it thrive? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so it withers? All its new roots will wither. It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots. 10 Behold, though planted, will it thrive? Will it not completely wither when the east wind strikes it? In the beds where it grew it will wither.”
12 For all who have sinned outside of Torah will also perish outside of Torah, and all who have sinned according to Torah will be judged by Torah. 13 For it is not the hearers of Torah who are righteous before God; rather, it is the doers of Torah who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the Torah, do by nature the things of the Torah, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the Torah. 15 They show that the work of the Torah is written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts switching between accusing or defending them 16 on the day when God judges the secrets of men according to my Good News through Messiah Yeshua.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.