Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, and standeth not in the way of sinners, and sitteth not in the seat of scorners;

² But his delight is in Jehovah's law, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

³ And he [is] as a tree planted by brooks of water, which giveth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf fadeth not; and all that he doeth prospereth.

⁴ The wicked are not so; but are as the chaff which the wind driveth away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

¹⁸ There are three [things] too wonderful for me, and four that I know not:

¹⁹ The way of an eagle in the heavens, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid.

²⁰ Such is the way of an adulterous woman: she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

²¹ Under three [things] the earth is disquieted, and under four it cannot bear up:

²² Under a servant when he reigneth, and a churl when he is filled with meat;

²³ under an odious [woman] when she is married, and a handmaid when she is heir to her mistress.

²⁴ There are four [things] little upon the earth, and they are exceeding wise:

²⁵ The ants, a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer;

²⁶ the rock-badgers are but a feeble folk, yet they make their house in the cliff;

²⁷ the locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands;

²⁸ thou takest hold of the lizard with the hands, yet is she in kings' palaces.

²⁹ There are three [things] which have a stately step, and four are comely in going:

³⁰ The lion, mighty among beasts, which turneth not away for any;

³¹ a [horse] girt in the loins; or the he-goat; and a king, against whom none can rise up.

³² If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, [lay] the hand upon thy mouth.

³³ For the pressing of milk bringeth forth butter, and the pressing of the nose bringeth forth blood; and the pressing of anger bringeth forth strife.

²⁵ For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that ye may not be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the nations be come in;

²⁶ and so all Israel shall be saved. According as it is written, The deliverer shall come out of Zion; he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

²⁷ And this is the covenant from me to them, when I shall have taken away their sins.

²⁸ As regards the glad tidings, [they are] enemies on your account; but as regards election, beloved on account of the fathers.

²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God [are] not subject to repentance.

³⁰ For as indeed *ye* [also] once have not believed in God, but now have been objects of mercy through the unbelief of *these*;

³¹ so these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order that *they* also may be objects of mercy.

³² For God hath shut up together all in unbelief, in order that he might shew mercy to all.