Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Brevity of Human Life
For the music director. For Jeduthun.[a] A psalm of David.[b]
39 I said, “I will guard my ways
that I may not sin[c] with my tongue.
I will keep a muzzle over my mouth
as long as the wicked are before me.”
2 I was mute with silence. I was silent even from saying good things,
and my pain was stirred up.
3 My heart grew hot inside me;
in my sighing a fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue,
4 “Let me know, O Yahweh, my end,
and what is the measure of my days.
Let me know how transient I am.”
5 Look, you have made my days mere handbreadths,
and my lifespan as nothing next to you.
Surely every person standing firm is complete vanity. Selah
6 Surely a man walks about as a mere shadow;[d]
surely in vain they bustle about.
He heaps up possessions but does not know who will gather them in.
7 And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is for you.
8 From all my transgressions deliver me;
do not make me the taunt of the fool.
9 I am mute. I do not open my mouth,
for you, yourself, have done it.
10 Remove from me your affliction.
By the opposition of your hand I perish.
11 When with rebukes you chastise a man for sin,
you[e] consume[f] like a moth his delightful things.
Surely everyone is a mere vapor.[g] Selah
12 Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and listen to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my tears.
For I am an alien[h] with you,
a sojourner like all my ancestors.[i]
13 Look away from me that I may be cheerful,
before I depart and I am no more.
12 “But[a] from where will wisdom be found?
And where in the world[b] is the place of understanding?
13 A human being does not know its proper value,
and it is not found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
15 “Refined gold cannot be gotten in its place,
and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
16 It cannot be bought for the gold of Ophir,
for precious onyx or[c] sapphire.
17 Gold and glass cannot be compared with it,
and its substitution cannot be an ornament of refined gold.
18 Black corals and crystal will not be mentioned,
and wisdom’s price is more than red corals.
19 The topaz of Cush cannot be compared with it;
it cannot be bought for pure gold.
20 Indeed,[d] from where does wisdom come?
And where in the world[e] is the place of understanding?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living,
and it is concealed from the birds of the heaven.
22 Abaddon and Death say,
‘We heard its rumor with our ears.’
23 “God understands its way,
and he knows its place,
24 for he himself[f] looks to the end of the earth;
he sees under all the heaven.
25 When he gave[g] weight to the wind
and he apportioned the waters by measure,
26 when he made[h] a rule for the rain
and a way for the thunder’s lightning bolt,
27 then he saw it and talked about it;
he established it, and moreover, he explored it.
28 And to the human beings he said,
‘Look, the fear of the Lord is wisdom,
and to depart from evil is understanding.’”
Job’s Final Defense
29 Then[i] Job again took up his discourse and said,
2 “O that I were[j] as in the months before,
as in the days when God watched over me,
3 when his shining lamp was over my head—
by his light I walked through darkness—
4 as when I was in the days of my prime,
when God’s confiding was over my house,[k]
5 when Shaddaiwas still with me,
my children were all around me,
6 when my paths were washed in sour milk,
and the rock poured out streams of oil for me.
7 “At my going out the gate to the city,
I secured my seat in the square.
8 Young men saw me and stepped aside,
and the aged rose up and stood.
9 Officials refrained from talking,
and they laid their hand on their mouth.
10 The voices[l] of nobles were hushed,
and their tongue stuck to their palate.
The Opening of the Seventh Seal
8 And when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel who had a golden censer came and stood at the altar, and a large amount of incense was given to him, in order that he could offer the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense went up before God with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel. 5 And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire from the altar and threw it to the earth, and there were thunders and sounds and lightnings and an earthquake.
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