Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Make Me Know the Number of My Days
Psalm 39
1 For the music director, for Jeduthun, a psalm of David.
2 I said:
“I will guard my ways, so I will not sin with my tongue.
I will muzzle my mouth while the wicked are before me.”
3 So I became utterly speechless,
kept silent even from good,
but my anguish was stirred up.
4 My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing, the fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue:
5 “Let me know, Adonai, my end
and what the number of my days is.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
6 Behold, You made my days mere hand-breadths,
and my lifetime as nothing before You.
Surely all humanity is but vapor. Selah
7 Everyone goes about as a mere phantom.
Surely they are making an uproar in vain, heaping up stuff—
yet not knowing who will gather it.[a]
8 And now, my Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
9 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of a fool.
10 I am speechless, not opening my mouth
—for You have done it.
11 Remove Your scourge from me.
I perish by the blow of Your hand.
12 With rebukes You chasten one for iniquity
and You consume like a moth what he finds pleasure in.
Surely all humanity is but a vapor. Selah
13 Hear my prayer, Adonai,
and listen to my cry—
do not keep silent at my tears.
For with You I am an outsider, a sojourner,
as all my fathers were.
14 Turn your gaze away from me, so I may smile again,
before I go, and am no more.”
12 “But where can wisdom be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
13 No mortal comprehends its worth;
it cannot be found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, ‘It is not in me’—
The sea says, ‘It’s not with me.’
15 Pure gold cannot be given for it,
nor can its price be weighed in silver.
16 It cannot be weighed in gold from Ophir,
in precious onyx, or sapphire.
17 Neither gold or crystal can compare with it,
nor vessels of fine gold exchanged for it.
18 No mention will be made of coral or jasper;
the price of wisdom is more than pearls.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare to it;
nor can it be valued in pure gold.
20 Where then does wisdom come from?
Where is the place of understanding?
21 It has been hidden from the eyes of all living things,
concealed from the birds of the sky.
22 Abaddon and Death say,
‘With our ears we have heard a rumor of it.’
23 “God understands its way
and He knows its place.
24 He looks to the ends of the earth,
and sees everything under the heavens.
25 When He made the force of the wind,
and measured out the waters,
26 when He set a limit for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm,
27 then He looked at it and assessed it
established it and examined it.
28 And He said to mankind,
‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.”’
Job Remembers Better Days
29 Again Job took up his discourse saying:
2 “O that I could be as in the months gone by,
as in the days when God watched over me,
3 when His lamp shone above my head,
when by His light I walked through darkness;
4 as I was in the days of my prime,
when God’s intimate friendship was upon my tent,
5 when Shaddai was still with me,
and my children surrounded me;
6 when my steps were bathed with butter,
and the rock poured out for me streams of oil.
7 When I went out to the city gate,
and secured my seat in the public square,
8 young men would see me and hide,
old men would rise and stand;
9 princes refrained from talking
and put their hand over their mouths;
10 the voice of the nobles was hushed
and their tongue stuck to their palate.
The Seventh Seal and Seven Trumpets
8 Now when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets[a] were given to them. 3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden incense burner.[b] He was given much incense to offer up along with the prayers of all the kedoshim upon the golden altar before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the kedoshim,[c] rose before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the incense burner and filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there were clashes of thunder and rumblings and flashes of lightning and earthquakes.[d]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.