Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ A Song of Ascents.
Those who trust in Adonai are like Mount Zion—
it cannot be moved, but endures forever.
² As the mountains are around Jerusalem,
so Adonai is all around His people,
both now and forever.
³ For a scepter of wickedness will not rest
over the land of the righteous—
lest the righteous set their hands to evil.
⁴ Do good, Adonai, to the good,
and to those upright in their hearts.
⁵ But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways,
Adonai will lead them away with evildoers.
Shalom be upon Israel.

² to acquire wisdom and discipline,
to understand the words of insight,
³ to receive instruction in wise behavior,
righteousness, justice and fairness,
⁴ to give discernment to the naïve,
knowledge and discretion to the youth
⁵ (let the wise listen and increase learning
and the discerning obtain wise counsel)
⁶ to understand a proverb and a puzzle,
the sayings of the wise and their riddles.

⁷ The fear of Adonai is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
⁸ Hear, my son, your father’s instruction
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
⁹ For they are a garland of grace for your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in.
¹¹ Suppose they say: “Come with us!
Let’s lie in wait for blood!
Let’s ambush the innocent—for no reason!
¹² Let’s swallow them alive like Sheol—
    still healthy, as they go down to the Pit!
¹³ We’ll find all sorts of valuable things,
    we’ll fill our homes with loot!
¹⁴ Throw your lot in with us—
    we’ll all have one wallet.”
¹⁵ My son, do not go along with them,
keep your foot from their path—
¹⁶ for their feet run to evil
    and they are swift to shed blood.
¹⁷ Surely it is useless to spread a net
in the eyes of all winged creatures!
¹⁸ But they lie in wait for their own blood.
They ambush their own lives.
¹⁹ Such is the fate of all gaining by violence.
It takes the life of its possessor.