HOW long wilt thou forget me, O LORD; for ever? * how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
How long shall I seek counsel in my soul, and be so vexed in my heart? * how long shall mine enemy triumph over me?
Consider, and hear me, O LORD my God; * lighten mine eyes, that I sleep not in death;
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him: * for if I be cast down, they that trouble me will rejoice at it.
But my trust is in thy mercy, * and my heart is joyful in thy salvation.
I will sing of the LORD, because he hath dealt so lovingly with me; * yea, I will praise the Name of the Lord Most Highest.

THE fool hath said in his heart, * There is no God.
They are corrupt, and become abominable in their doings; * there is none that doeth good, no not one.
The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, * to see if there were any that would understand, and seek after God.
But they are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become abominable; * there is none that doeth good, no not one.
Have they no knowledge, that they are all such workers of mischief, * eating up my people as it were bread, and call not upon the LORD?
There were they brought in great fear, even where no fear was; * for God is in the generation of the righteous.
As for you, ye have made a mock at the counsel of the poor; * because he putteth his trust in the LORD.
Who shall give salvation unto Israel out of Sion? * When the LORD turneth the captivity of his people, then shall Jacob rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

O LORD God, who seest that we put not our trust in any thing we do; Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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