Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

² When I choose the right time,
I will judge fairly.
³ When the earth and everyone who lives on it begin to melt,
I will make its foundations as solid as rock. Selah
⁴ I said to those who brag, “Don’t brag,”
and to wicked people,
“Don’t raise your weapons.
⁵ Don’t raise your weapons so proudly
or speak so defiantly.”

⁶ The ⌞authority⌟ to reward someone does not ⌞come⌟
from the east,
from the west,
or ⌞even⌟ from the wilderness.
⁷ God alone is the judge.
He punishes one person and rewards another.
⁸ A cup is in the Lord’s hand.
(Its foaming wine is thoroughly mixed with spices.)
He will empty it,
⌞and⌟ all the wicked people on earth
will have to drink every last drop.

⁹ But I will speak ⌞about your miracles⌟ forever.
I will make music to praise the God of Jacob.
¹⁰ I will destroy all the weapons of wicked people,
but the weapons of righteous people will be raised proudly.

¹² “I will not be silent about Leviathan’s limbs,
its strength, or its graceful form.
¹³ Who can skin its hide?
Who can approach it with a harness?
¹⁴ Who can open its closed mouth?
Its teeth are surrounded by terror.
¹⁵ Its back has rows of scales that are tightly sealed.
¹⁶ One is so close to the other
that there is no space between them.
¹⁷ Each is joined to the other.
They are locked together and inseparable.
¹⁸ When Leviathan sneezes, it gives out a flash of light.
Its eyes are like the first rays of the dawn.
¹⁹ Flames shoot from its mouth.
Sparks of fire fly from it.
²⁰ Smoke comes from its nostrils
like a boiling pot heated over brushwood.
²¹ Its breath sets coals on fire,
and a flame pours from its mouth.
²² Strength resides in its neck,
and power dances in front of it.
²³ The folds of its flesh stick to each other.
They are solid and cannot be moved.
²⁴ Its chest is solid like a rock,
solid like a millstone.

²⁵ “The mighty are afraid when Leviathan rises.
Broken down, they draw back.
²⁶ A sword may strike it but not pierce it.
Neither will a spear, lance, or dart.
²⁷ It considers iron to be like straw
and bronze to be like rotten wood.
²⁸ An arrow won’t make it run away.
Stones from a sling turn to dust against it.
²⁹ It considers clubs to be like stubble,
and it laughs at a rattling javelin.
³⁰ Its underside is like sharp pieces of broken pottery.
It stretches out like a threshing ^[a] sledge on the mud.
³¹ It makes the deep sea boil like a pot.
It stirs up the ocean like a boiling kettle.
³² It leaves a shining path behind it
so that the sea appears to have silvery hair.
³³ Nothing on land can compare to it.
It was made fearless.
³⁴ It looks down on all high things.
It is king of everyone who is arrogant.”