Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

137 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.

² We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

³ For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that made us wail [required] mirth, [saying,] Sing us [one] of the songs of Zion.

⁴ How should we sing a song of Jehovah's upon a foreign soil?

⁵ If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [its skill];

⁶ If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to my palate: if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

⁷ Remember, O Jehovah, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, Lay [it] bare, Lay [it] bare, down to its foundation!

⁸ Daughter of Babylon, who art to be laid waste, happy he that rendereth unto thee that which thou hast meted out to us.

⁹ Happy he that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock.

¹⁶ For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water: for the comforter that should revive my soul is far from me; my children are desolate, for the enemy hath prevailed.

¹⁷ Zion spreadeth forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Jehovah hath commanded concerning Jacob, [that] his adversaries [should be] round about him; Jerusalem is as an impurity among them.

¹⁸ Jehovah is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.

¹⁹ I called for my lovers, they have deceived me; my priests and mine elders have expired in the city, while they sought them food to revive their soul.

²⁰ See, Jehovah, for I am in distress, my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled: without, the sword hath bereaved [me], within, it is as death.

²¹ They have heard that I sigh: I have no comforter: all mine enemies have heard of my calamity; they are glad that thou hast done it. Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.

²² Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

² Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations,

³ knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance.

⁴ But let endurance have [its] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵ But if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him:

⁶ but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed about;

⁷ for let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord;

⁸ [he is] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹ But let the brother of low degree glory in his elevation,

¹⁰ and the rich in his humiliation, because as [the] grass's flower he will pass away.

¹¹ For the sun has risen with its burning heat, and has withered the grass, and its flower has fallen, and the comeliness of its look has perished: thus the rich also shall wither in his goings.