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Psalm 9

1  I will give thanks to you, Lord, with my whole heart; ♦︎
   I will tell of all your marvellous works.
2  I will be glad and rejoice in you; ♦︎
   I will make music to your name, O Most High.
3  When my enemies are driven back, ♦︎
   they stumble and perish at your presence.
4  For you have maintained my right and my cause; ♦︎
   you sat on your throne giving righteous judgement.
5  You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; ♦︎
   you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
6  The enemy was utterly laid waste. ♦︎
   You uprooted their cities;
      their very memory has perished.
7  But the Lord shall endure for ever; ♦︎
   he has made fast his throne for judgement.
8  For he shall rule the world with righteousness ♦︎
   and govern the peoples with equity.
9  Then will the Lord be a refuge for the oppressed, ♦︎
   a refuge in the time of trouble.
10  And those who know your name will put their trust in you, ♦︎
   for you, Lord, have never failed those who seek you.
11  Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion; ♦︎
   declare among the peoples the things he has done.
12  The avenger of blood has remembered them; ♦︎
   he did not forget the cry of the oppressed.
13  Have mercy upon me, O Lord; ♦︎
   consider the trouble I suffer from those who hate me,
      you that lift me up from the gates of death;
14  That I may tell all your praises in the gates of the city of Zion ♦︎
   and rejoice in your salvation.

Job Reaffirms His Innocence

16Then Job answered:
² ‘I have heard many such things;
   miserable comforters are you all.
³ Have windy words no limit?
   Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?
⁴ I also could talk as you do,
   if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you,
   and shake my head at you.
⁵ I could encourage you with my mouth,
   and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶ ‘If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
   and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
⁷ Surely now God has worn me out;
   he has^* made desolate all my company.
⁸ And he has^* shrivelled me up,
   which is a witness against me;
my leanness has risen up against me,
   and it testifies to my face.
⁹ He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me;
   he has gnashed his teeth at me;
   my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
¹⁰ They have gaped at me with their mouths;
   they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
   they mass themselves together against me.
¹¹ God gives me up to the ungodly,
   and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, and he broke me in two;
   he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
¹³   his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy;
   he pours out my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ He bursts upon me again and again;
   he rushes at me like a warrior.
¹⁵ I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,
   and have laid my strength in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
   and deep darkness is on my eyelids,
¹⁷ though there is no violence in my hands,
   and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ ‘O earth, do not cover my blood;
   let my outcry find no resting-place.
¹⁹ Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven,
   and he that vouches for me is on high.
²⁰ My friends scorn me;
   my eye pours out tears to God,
²¹ that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God,
   as^* one does for a neighbour.

The Faithful or the Unfaithful Slave

45 ‘Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves^* their allowance of food at the proper time? ⁴⁶Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. ⁴⁷Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸But if that wicked slave says to himself, “My master is delayed”, ⁴⁹and he begins to beat his fellow-slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, ⁵⁰the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. ⁵¹He will cut him in pieces^* and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.