Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A song to sing as we climb.
A happy family
128 If people respect the Lord
and they obey his commands,
God has blessed them!
2 You will eat the food that you have worked hard to grow.
You will have everything that you need.
You will be happy!
3 Your wife will be like a vine that grows in your home,
and it gives many grapes.
Your children will sit around your table,
like the branches of an olive tree that are around you.[a]
4 Yes, if a man respects the Lord,
that is how God blesses him.
5 The Lord rules from Zion,
and I pray that he will bless you.[b]
Then you will see that Jerusalem is a good place to live in
for as long as you live.
6 I pray that you will live to see your grandchildren.
May Israel have peace!
9 Two people who work together
are better than one person who works alone.
They can help each other to work well.
10 If one of them falls down,
his friend can help him to get up.
But it is terrible if you fall down when you are alone.
There is nobody who can help you to stand up again.
11 Also, if two people sleep together,
they help each other to be warm.
But if you sleep alone,
it is difficult to be warm.
12 If you are alone, one person might attack you and hurt you.
But two people together can help each other to win the fight.
If you use three strings to make a rope,
it is difficult for anyone to break it.
13 A young man may be very poor. But if he is wise, he is better than a king who is foolish. When the king is old, he may not listen to his friends' advice. 14 A young man who is wise may even become king himself one day. He may have been in prison. He may have been born in a poor family in that kingdom. But he may later rule there as king.
15 I thought about all the people who live on the earth. I realized that one of them would also become king one day. He would rule instead of the other young man who became king. 16 Large crowds of people give him honour as their king. But in future years, nobody will praise him. I realized that this has no purpose. It is like somebody who tries to catch the wind.
Troubles for rich people
5 Now, listen to me, you rich people. Weep and cry aloud, because many troubles will soon happen to you. 2 Your money no longer has any value. Insects have eaten your beautiful clothes and they have spoiled them. 3 You have stored silver and gold coins to spend for yourselves. But dirt has spoiled those coins. That dirt will show that you are guilty. It will become like fire that is burning your bodies. In the last days of this world you have stored all this money for yourselves. 4 But you have not paid the workers in your fields the money that you should have paid them. You have cheated them. Now they are shouting against you. The Lord of great power has heard them when they cry to him for help. 5 During your life here on this earth, you have had all that you wanted. You have lived like kings. You have eaten as much food as you want. So now you are like fat animals that are ready for men to kill. 6 You say that a righteous person is guilty. You have even killed him and he could not stop you.
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