Daily Office

¹Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me, *
and consider my voice when I cry to you.

²Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as the incense; *
and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.

³Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, *
and keep the door of my lips.

⁶We can never ransom ourselves, *
or deliver to God the price of our life;

⁷For the ransom of our life is so great, *
that we should never have enough to pay it,

⁸In order to live for ever and ever, *
and never see the grave.

⁹For we see that the wise die also; like the dull and stupid they perish *
and leave their wealth to those who come after them.

¹⁰Their graves shall be their homes for ever, their dwelling places from generation to generation, *
though they call the lands after their own names.

¹¹Even though honored, they cannot live for ever; *
they are like the beasts that perish.

¹²Such is the way of those who foolishly trust in themselves, *
and the end of those who delight in their own words.

¹³Like a flock of sheep they are destined to die; Death is their shepherd; *
they go down straightway to the grave.

¹⁴Their form shall waste away, *
and the land of the dead shall be their home.

¹⁵But God will ransom my life; *
he will snatch me from the grasp of death.

²“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” ³What does man gain from all his labour in which he labours under the sun? ⁴One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever. ⁵The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises. ⁶The wind goes towards the south, and turns around to the north. It turns around continually as it goes, and the wind returns again to its courses. ⁷All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.

¹O sing to the Lord a new song, *
for he has done marvelous things.

²With his own right hand and with his holy arm *
he has won himself the victory.

³The Lord declared his salvation; *
his righteousness he has openly shown in the sight of the nations.

⁴He has remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel, *
and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God.

⁵Show yourselves joyful to the Lord, all you lands; *
sing, rejoice, and give thanks.

⁶Praise the Lord upon the harp; *
sing to the harp with a psalm of thanksgiving.

⁷With trumpets also and the sound of the horn, *
O show yourselves joyful before the Lord the King.

⁸Let the sea make a noise, and all that is in it, *
the round world, and those who dwell therein.

⁹Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, *
for he has come to judge the earth.

¹⁰With righteousness shall he judge the world, *
and the peoples with equity.