Bohairic Coptic Old Testament

For the sea wastes in length of time, and a river fails and is dried up.

Thou hast been scourged for but few of thy sins: thou hast spoken haughtily and extravagantly.

He has attacked me with the keen glances of his eyes; with his sharp spear he has smitten me down upon my knees; and they have run upon me with one accord.

My days have passed in groaning, and my heart-strings are broken.

Let pains destroy him round about, and let many enemies come about him,

And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.

His bones have been filled with vigour of his youth, and it shall lie down with him in the dust.

And they remain as an unfailing flock, and their children play before them, taking up the psaltery and harp;

The pillars of heaven are prostrate and astonished at his rebuke.

Yet now I will tell you what is in the hand of the Lord: I will not lie concerning the things which are with the Almighty.

And he has laid bare the depths of rivers, and has brought his power to light.

For the ear heard, and blessed me; and the eye saw me, and turned aside.

For the rage of anger is not to be controlled, in the case of defiling another man's wife.

The light has proved darkness to thee, and water has covered thee on thy lying down.

Hearken to my words; for I will speak in your hearing, until ye shall have tried the matter with words:

And he has put my foot in the stocks, and has watched all my ways.

Yea, he renders to a man accordingly as each of them does, and in a man's path he will find him.

who makes me to differ from the four-footed beasts of the earth, and from the birds of the sky?

If they should hear and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in honour.

And if a cloud obscures what is precious to him, his light will disperse the cloud.

And I said to it, Hitherto shalt thou come, but thou shalt not go beyond, but thy waves shall be confined within thee.

And dost thou trust him, because his strength is great? and wilt thou commit thy works to him?

Behold now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.

Out of his nostrils proceeds smoke of a furnace burning with fire of coals.

And all his brethren and his sisters heard all that had happened to him, and they came to him, and so did all that had known him from the first: and they ate and drank with him, and comforted him, and wondered at all that the Lord had brought upon him: and each one gave him a lamb, and four drachms' weight of gold, even of unstamped gold.

Judge them, O God; let them fail of their counsels: cast them out according to the abundance of their ungodliness; for they have provoked thee, O Lord.

Let all mine enemies be put to shame and sore troubled: let them be turned back and grievously put to shame speedily.

My help is righteous, coming from God who saves the upright in heart.

And let them that know thy name hope in thee: for thou, O Lord, hast not failed them that diligently seek thee.

because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

They have enclosed themselves with their own fat: their mouth has spoken pride.

And he mounted on cherubs and flew: he flew on the wings of winds.

Let his children wander without a dwelling-place, and beg: let them be cast out of their habitations.

Who will bring me into the fortified city? or who will guide me to Idumea?

To be desired more than gold, and much precious stone: sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb.

Thou shalt destroy their fruit from the earth, and their seed from among the sons of men.

I was cast on thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is this king of glory.

All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to them that seek his covenant and his testimonies.

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has taken me to himself.

The Lord will dwell on the waterflood: and the Lord will sit a king for ever.

The Lord heard, and had compassion upon me; the Lord is become my helper.

For my life is spent with grief, and my years with groanings: my strength has been weakened through poverty, and my bones are troubled.

Many are the scourges of the sinner: but him that hopes in the Lord mercy shall compass about.

The Lord frustrates the counsels of the nations; he brings to nought also the reasonings of the peoples, and brings to nought the counsels of princes.

The rich have become poor and hungry: but they that seek the Lord diligently shall not want any good thing. Pause.

All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like to thee? delivering the poor out of the hand of them that are stronger than he, yea, the poor and needy one from them that spoil him.

Extend thy mercy to them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

And yet a little while, and the sinner shall not be, and thou shalt seek for his place, and shalt not find it.

My heart is troubled, my strength has failed me; and the light of mine eyes is not with me.

Remove thy scourges from me: I have fainted by reason of the strength of thine hand.

I have not hid thy truth within my heart, and I have declared thy salvation; I have not hid thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.

But thou, O Lord, have compassion upon me, and raise me up, and I shall requite them.

While my bones were breaking, they that afflicted me reproached me; while they said to me daily, Where is thy God?

Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear; forget also thy people, and thy father's house.

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

According to thy name, O God, so is also thy praise to the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.

When he shall see wise men dying, the fool and the senseless one shall perish together; and they shall leave their wealth to strangers.

For all the wild beasts of the thicket are mine, the cattle on the mountains, and oxen.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit in my inward parts.

Day and night he shall go round about it upon its walls: iniquity and sorrow and unrighteousness are in the midst of it;

In God, will I praise his word; in the Lord will I praise his saying.

For thy mercy has been magnified even to the heavens, and thy truth to the clouds.

The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the ungodly: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.

As for my God, his mercy shall go before me: my God will shew me vengeance on mine enemies.

Trust not in unrighteousness, and lust not after robberies: if wealth should flow in, set not your heart upon it.

Saturate her furrows, multiply her fruits; the crop springing up shall rejoice in its drops.

For thou, O God, has proved us; thou hast tried us with fire as silver is tried.

Thy creatures dwell in it: thou hast in thy goodness prepared for the poor.

even them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, fettered in poverty and iron;

And I bowed down my soul with fasting, and that was made my reproach.

As an eagle would watch over his brood, and yearns over his young, receives them having spread his wings, and takes them up on his back:

For mine enemies have spoken against me; and they that lay wait for my soul have taken counsel together,

The kings of Tharsis, and the isles, shall bring presents: the kings of the Arabians and Saba shall offer gifts.

Therefore shall my people return hither: and full days shall be found with them.

How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? shall the enemy provoke thy name forever?

For the inward thought of man shall give thanks to thee: and the memorial of his inward thought shall keep a feast to thee.

And I said, Now I have begun; this is the change of the right hand of the Most High.

They kept not the covenant of God, and would not walk in his law.

And he saved them out of the hand of them that hated them, and redeemed them out of the hand of the enemy.

Lets haply they should say among the heathen, Where is their God? and let the avenging of thy servant's blood that has been shed be known among the heathen before our eyes.

Its shadow covered the mountains, and its shoots equalled the goodly cedars.

For I am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

They were utterly destroyed at Aendor: they became as dung for the earth.

For one day in thy courts is better than thousands. I would rather be an abject in the house of God, than dwell in the tents of sinners.

Mercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

For thou art great, and doest wonders: thou art the only and the great God.

Wilt thou work wonders for the dead? or shall physicians raise them up, that they shall praise thee?

Thou has brought down the proud as one that is slain; and with the arm of thy power thou has scattered thine enemies.

As for the days of our years, in them are seventy years; and if men should be in strength, eighty years: and the greater part of them would be labour and trouble; for weakness overtakes us, and we shall be chastened.

No evils shall come upon thee, and no scourge shall draw nigh to thy dwelling.

But my horn shall be exalted as the horn of a unicorn; and mine old age with rich mercy.

He that chastises the heathen, shall not he punish, even he that teaches man knowledge?

Say among the heathen, The Lord reigns: for he has established the world so that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people in righteousness.

Ye that love the Lord, hate evil; the Lord preserves the souls of his saints; he shall deliver them from the hand of sinners.