Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁴ My heart is in pain within me,
    and the terrors of death have fallen on me.
⁵ Fear and trembling come into me,
    and horror has overwhelmed me.
⁶ I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
    For then I would fly away and be at rest.
⁷ Indeed, then I would wander far off,
    and remain in the wilderness. Selah
⁸ I would hasten my escape
    from the windy storm and tempest.”

⁹ Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues,
    for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰ Day and night they go around it on its walls;
    trouble and sorrow are in its midst.
¹¹ Destruction is in its midst;
    oppression and treachery do not depart from its streets.

¹² For it is not an enemy who reproaches me;
    then I could bear it.
Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me;
    then I could hide from him.
¹³ But it was you, my peer,
    my guide, and my acquaintance.
¹⁴ We took pleasant counsel together,
    and walked to the house of God in company.

¹⁵ May death surprise them,
    and may their lives go down to Sheol,
    for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

² “Should a wise man reply with empty knowledge
    and fill his lungs with the east wind?
³ Should he reason with unprofitable talk
    or with speeches with which he can do no good?
⁴ Yes, you cast off reverence
    and hinder prayer before God.
⁵ For your mouth utters your iniquity,
    and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
    yes, your own lips testify against you.

⁷ “Are you the first man who was born?
    Or were you made before the hills?
⁸ Have you heard the counsel of God?
    And do you restrict wisdom to yourself?
⁹ What do you know that we do not know?
    What do you understand that is not in us?
¹⁰ Both the gray-haired and very aged are among us—
    much older than your father.
¹¹ Are the consolations of God too small for you?
    Or the word spoken gently to you?
¹² Why does your heart carry you away?
    And what do your eyes wink at,
¹³ that you turn your spirit against God,
    and let such words go out of your mouth?

¹⁴ “What is man that he should be pure?
    And he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
¹⁵ Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones,
    and the heavens are not pure in His sight.
¹⁶ How much more abhorred and corrupt is man,
    who drinks iniquity like water!

¹⁷ “I will tell you; hear me,
    and what I have seen I will declare,
¹⁸ what wise men have told,
    not hiding anything received from their fathers,
¹⁹ to whom alone the land was given,
    and no foreigner passed among them:
²⁰ The wicked man travails with pain all his days,
    and numbered are the years stored up for the oppressor.
²¹ A dreadful sound is in his ears;
    in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
²² He does not believe that he will return from darkness,
    and a sword awaits him.
²³ He wanders about for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
    He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
²⁴ Trouble and anguish will make him afraid;
    they will prevail against him as a king ready to the battle.
²⁵ For he stretches out his hand against God,
    and strengthens himself against the Almighty.
²⁶ He rushes upon Him, even on His neck,
    with his thick embossed shield.

²⁷ “He has covered his face with his fatness
    and gathered fat upon his waist.
²⁸ He dwells in desolate cities
    and in houses which no man inhabits,
    which are ready to become heaps.
²⁹ He will not be rich, nor will his wealth continue,
    nor will his possessions spread over the earth.
³⁰ He will not depart out of darkness;
    the flame will dry out his branches,
    and by the breath of His mouth he will go away.
³¹ Let him who is deceived not trust in futility,
    for futility will be his reward.
³² It will be accomplished before his time,
    and his branch will not be green.
³³ He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
    and will cast off his blossom like the olive.
³⁴ For the company of hypocrites will be desolate,
    and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
³⁵ They conceive mischief, and give birth to futility;
    their womb prepares deceit.”