Psalms 119 Cross References - MSB

¹ Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law of the LORD. ² Blessed are those who keep His testimonies and seek Him with all their heart. ³ They do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. ⁴ You have ordained Your precepts, that we should keep them diligently. ⁵ Oh, that my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes! ⁶ Then I would not be ashamed when I consider all Your commandments. ⁷ I will praise You with an upright heart when I learn Your righteous judgments. ⁸ I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me. ⁹ How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word. ¹⁰ With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me stray from Your commandments. ¹¹ I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. ¹² Blessed are You, O LORD; teach me Your statutes. ¹³ With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of Your mouth. ¹⁴ I rejoice in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches. ¹⁵ I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways. ¹⁶ I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. ¹⁷ Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word. ¹⁸ Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law. ¹⁹ I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me. ²⁰ My soul is consumed with longing for Your judgments at all times. ²¹ You rebuke the arrogant—the cursed who stray from Your commandments. ²² Remove my scorn and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies. ²³ Though rulers sit and slander me, Your servant meditates on Your statutes. ²⁴ Your testimonies are indeed my delight; they are my counselors. ²⁵ My soul cleaves to the dust; revive me according to Your word. ²⁶ I recounted my ways, and You answered me; teach me Your statutes. ²⁷ Make clear to me the way of Your precepts; then I will meditate on Your wonders. ²⁸ My soul melts with sorrow; strengthen me according to Your word. ²⁹ Remove me from the path of deceit and graciously grant me Your law. ³⁰ I have chosen the way of truth; I have set Your ordinances before me. ³¹ I cling to Your testimonies, O LORD; let me not be put to shame. ³² I run in the path of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart. ³³ Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep them to the end. ³⁴ Give me understanding that I may obey Your law, and follow it with all my heart. ³⁵ Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight. ³⁶ Turn my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetous gain. ³⁷ Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word. ³⁸ Establish Your word to Your servant, to produce reverence for You. ³⁹ Turn away the disgrace I dread, for Your judgments are good. ⁴⁰ How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness. ⁴¹ May Your loving devotion come to me, O LORD, Your salvation, according to Your promise. ⁴² Then I can answer him who taunts, for I trust in Your word. ⁴³ Never take Your word of truth from my mouth, for I hope in Your judgments. ⁴⁴ I will always obey Your law, forever and ever. ⁴⁵ And I will walk in freedom, for I have sought Your precepts. ⁴⁶ I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed. ⁴⁷ I delight in Your commandments because I love them. ⁴⁸ I lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love, and I meditate on Your statutes. ⁴⁹ Remember Your word to Your servant, upon which You have given me hope. ⁵⁰ This is my comfort in affliction, that Your promise has given me life. ⁵¹ The arrogant utterly deride me, but I do not turn from Your law. ⁵² I remember Your judgments of old, O LORD, and in them I find comfort. ⁵³ Rage has taken hold of me because of the wicked who reject Your law. ⁵⁴ Your statutes are songs to me in the house of my pilgrimage. ⁵⁵ In the night, O LORD, I remember Your name, that I may keep Your law. ⁵⁶ This is my practice, for I obey Your precepts. ⁵⁷ The LORD is my portion; I have promised to keep Your words. ⁵⁸ I have sought Your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise. ⁵⁹ I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your testimonies. ⁶⁰ I hurried without hesitating to keep Your commandments. ⁶¹ Though the ropes of the wicked bind me, I do not forget Your law. ⁶² At midnight I rise to give You thanks for Your righteous judgments. ⁶³ I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts. ⁶⁴ The earth is filled with Your loving devotion, O LORD; teach me Your statutes. ⁶⁵ You are good to Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word. ⁶⁶ Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments. ⁶⁷ Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I keep Your word. ⁶⁸ You are good, and You do what is good; teach me Your statutes. ⁶⁹ Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep Your precepts with all my heart. ⁷⁰ Their hearts are hard and callous, but I delight in Your law. ⁷¹ It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes. ⁷² The law from Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. ⁷³ Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments. ⁷⁴ May those who fear You see me and rejoice, for I have hoped in Your word. ⁷⁵ I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. ⁷⁶ May Your loving devotion comfort me, I pray, according to Your promise to Your servant. ⁷⁷ May Your compassion come to me, that I may live, for Your law is my delight. ⁷⁸ May the arrogant be put to shame for subverting me with a lie; I will meditate on Your precepts. ⁷⁹ May those who fear You turn to me, those who know Your testimonies. ⁸⁰ May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, that I may not be put to shame. ⁸¹ My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word. ⁸² My eyes fail, looking for Your promise; I ask, “When will You comfort me?” ⁸³ Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes. ⁸⁴ How many days must Your servant wait? When will You execute judgment on my persecutors? ⁸⁵ The arrogant have dug pits for me in violation of Your law. ⁸⁶ All Your commandments are faithful; I am persecuted without cause—help me! ⁸⁷ They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken Your precepts. ⁸⁸ Revive me according to Your loving devotion, that I may obey the testimony of Your mouth. ⁸⁹ Your word, O LORD, is everlasting; it is firmly fixed in the heavens. ⁹⁰ Your faithfulness continues through all generations; You established the earth, and it endures. ⁹¹ Your ordinances stand to this day, for all things are servants to You. ⁹² If Your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. ⁹³ I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have revived me. ⁹⁴ I am Yours; save me, for I have sought Your precepts. ⁹⁵ The wicked wait to destroy me, but I will ponder Your testimonies. ⁹⁶ I have seen a limit to all perfection, but Your commandment is without limit. ⁹⁷ Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation. ⁹⁸ Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me. ⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰ I discern more than the elders, for I obey Your precepts. ¹⁰¹ I have kept my feet from every evil path, that I may keep Your word. ¹⁰² I have not departed from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. ¹⁰³ How sweet are Your words to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth! ¹⁰⁴ I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way. ¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ¹⁰⁶ I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments. ¹⁰⁷ I am severely afflicted, O LORD; revive me through Your word. ¹⁰⁸ Accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me Your judgments. ¹⁰⁹ I constantly take my life in my hands, yet I do not forget Your law. ¹¹⁰ The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from Your precepts. ¹¹¹ Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. ¹¹² I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes, even to the very end. ¹¹³ The double-minded I despise, but Your law I love. ¹¹⁴ You are my hiding place and my shield; I put my hope in Your word. ¹¹⁵ Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may obey the commandments of my God. ¹¹⁶ Sustain me as You promised, that I may live; let me not be ashamed of my hope. ¹¹⁷ Uphold me, and I will be saved, that I may always regard Your statutes. ¹¹⁸ You reject all who stray from Your statutes, for their deceitfulness is in vain. ¹¹⁹ All the wicked on earth You discard like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies. ¹²⁰ My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments. ¹²¹ I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors. ¹²² Ensure Your servant’s well-being; do not let the arrogant oppress me. ¹²³ My eyes fail, looking for Your salvation, and for Your righteous promise. ¹²⁴ Deal with Your servant according to Your loving devotion, and teach me Your statutes. ¹²⁵ I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies. ¹²⁶ It is time for the LORD to act, for they have broken Your law. ¹²⁷ Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, even the purest gold. ¹²⁸ Therefore I admire all Your precepts and hate every false way. ¹²⁹ Wonderful are Your testimonies; therefore I obey them. ¹³⁰ The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs the simple. ¹³¹ I open my mouth and pant, longing for Your commandments. ¹³² Turn to me and show me mercy, as You do to those who love Your name. ¹³³ Order my steps in Your word; let no sin rule over me. ¹³⁴ Redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may keep Your precepts. ¹³⁵ Make Your face shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes. ¹³⁶ My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed. ¹³⁷ Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments. ¹³⁸ The testimonies You have laid down are righteous and altogether faithful. ¹³⁹ My zeal has consumed me because my foes forget Your words. ¹⁴⁰ Your promise is completely pure; therefore Your servant loves it. ¹⁴¹ I am lowly and despised, but I do not forget Your precepts. ¹⁴² Your righteousness is everlasting and Your law is true. ¹⁴³ Trouble and distress have found me, but Your commandments are my delight. ¹⁴⁴ Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live. ¹⁴⁵ I call with all my heart; answer me, O LORD! I will obey Your statutes. ¹⁴⁶ I call to You; save me, that I may keep Your testimonies. ¹⁴⁷ I rise before dawn and cry for help; in Your word I have put my hope. ¹⁴⁸ My eyes anticipate the watches of night, that I may meditate on Your word. ¹⁴⁹ Hear my voice, O LORD, according to Your loving devotion; give me life according to Your justice. ¹⁵⁰ Those who follow after wickedness draw near; they are far from Your law. ¹⁵¹ You are near, O LORD, and all Your commandments are true. ¹⁵² Long ago I learned from Your testimonies that You have established them forever. ¹⁵³ Look upon my affliction and rescue me, for I have not forgotten Your law. ¹⁵⁴ Defend my cause and redeem me; revive me according to Your word. ¹⁵⁵ Salvation is far from the wicked because they do not seek Your statutes. ¹⁵⁶ Great are Your mercies, O LORD; revive me according to Your ordinances. ¹⁵⁷ Though my persecutors and foes are many, I have not turned from Your testimonies. ¹⁵⁸ I look on the faithless with loathing because they do not keep Your word. ¹⁵⁹ Consider how I love Your precepts, O LORD; give me life according to Your loving devotion. ¹⁶⁰ The entirety of Your word is truth, and all Your righteous judgments endure forever. ¹⁶¹ Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart fears only Your word. ¹⁶² I rejoice in Your promise like one who finds great spoil. ¹⁶³ I hate and abhor falsehood, but Your law I love. ¹⁶⁴ Seven times a day I praise You for Your righteous judgments. ¹⁶⁵ Abundant peace belongs to those who love Your law; nothing can make them stumble. ¹⁶⁶ I wait for Your salvation, O LORD, and I carry out Your commandments. ¹⁶⁷ I obey Your testimonies and love them greatly. ¹⁶⁸ I obey Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You. ¹⁶⁹ May my cry come before You, O LORD; give me understanding according to Your word. ¹⁷⁰ May my plea come before You; rescue me according to Your promise. ¹⁷¹ My lips pour forth praise, for You teach me Your statutes. ¹⁷² My tongue sings of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous. ¹⁷³ May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts. ¹⁷⁴ I long for Your salvation, O LORD, and Your law is my delight. ¹⁷⁵ Let me live to praise You; may Your judgments sustain me. ¹⁷⁶ I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.

³ “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

²⁰ So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the LORD his God. ²¹ He was diligent in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, in order to seek his God. And so he prospered.

¹ There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.

⁸ Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil.”

¹ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. ² But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. ³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.

¹ Of David. A Maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ² Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

² I will ponder the way that is blameless—when will You come to me? I will walk in my house with integrity of heart.

⁶ My eyes favor the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way of integrity shall minister to me.

¹ Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.

¹ A song of ascents. Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in His ways!

²⁰ The perverse in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but the blameless in their walk are His delight.

⁶ Righteousness guards the man of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner.

²⁰ so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

⁹ Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them but the rebellious stumble in them.

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. ⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. ⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. ⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. ⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. ¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹ Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say every evil thing against you because of Me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

⁶ Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord.

²⁸ But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”

¹⁷ If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

¹⁶ In this hope, I strive always to maintain a clear conscience before God and man.

¹² And this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the integrity and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

¹ Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. So you should do so all the more. ² For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

¹¹ For the saving grace of God has appeared to everyone. ¹² It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

²⁵ But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.

¹⁴ Blessed are those who do His commandments, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.

²⁹ But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁵ And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

¹⁷ You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you.

³ And keep the charge of the LORD your God to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances, and decrees, as is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you turn,

²¹ He was diligent in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, in order to seek his God. And so he prospered.

¹⁰ All the LORD’s ways are loving and faithful to those who keep His covenant and His decrees.

⁴⁵ that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah!

¹⁰ With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me stray from Your commandments.

²² Remove my scorn and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies.

¹⁴⁶ I call to You; save me, that I may keep Your testimonies.

²⁶ My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.

¹³ You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

²⁷ And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.

²³ Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.

⁹ Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

¹⁸ We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; the One who was born of God protects Himself, and the evil one cannot touch him.

¹ Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

⁹ Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

²⁹ If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever. ³⁰ Go and tell them: ‘Return to your tents.’ ³¹ But you stand here with Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and statutes and ordinances you are to teach them to follow in the land that I am giving them to possess.” ³² So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left. ³³ You must walk in all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

¹³ So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

²² For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—

³² See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

¹ “Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God: ³ You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. ⁴ The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. ⁵ Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed. ⁶ You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ⁷ The LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you in one direction but flee from you in seven. ⁸ The LORD will decree a blessing on your barns and on everything to which you put your hand; the LORD your God will bless you in the land He is giving you. ⁹ The LORD will establish you as His holy people, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you. ¹¹ The LORD will make you prosper abundantly—in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land—in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. ¹² The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none. ¹³ The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am giving you today. ¹⁴ Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them.

¹⁶ For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

⁷ Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

²³ but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.

²⁰ and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.”

¹⁵ If you love Me, keep My commandments.

²¹ Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

³² I run in the path of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.

³⁶ Turn my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetous gain.

⁴⁴ I will always obey Your law, forever and ever. ⁴⁵ And I will walk in freedom, for I have sought Your precepts.

¹³¹ I open my mouth and pant, longing for Your commandments.

¹⁵⁹ Consider how I love Your precepts, O LORD; give me life according to Your loving devotion.

¹⁷³ May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts.

³³ “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. ²³ But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

⁵ May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

²¹ equip you with every good work to do His will. And may He accomplish in you what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

²⁶ Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

³¹ I cling to Your testimonies, O LORD; let me not be put to shame.

⁸⁰ May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, that I may not be put to shame.

¹²⁸ Therefore I admire all Your precepts and hate every false way.

² And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt. ³ Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.

¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you.

¹⁰ Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

²⁸ And now, little children, remain in Christ, so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.

²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God,

¹³ Now therefore, our God, we give You thanks, and we praise Your glorious name. ¹⁴ But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You. ¹⁵ For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. ¹⁶ O LORD our God, from Your hand comes all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy Name, and all of it belongs to You. ¹⁷ I know, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness. All these things I have given willingly and with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to You.

¹ For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Death of the Son.” A Psalm of David. I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart; I will recount all Your wonders.

⁴ Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. ⁵ Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; all day long I wait for You.

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way. ⁹ He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. ¹⁰ All the LORD’s ways are loving and faithful to those who keep His covenant and His decrees.

¹² I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify Your name forever. ¹³ For great is Your loving devotion to me; You have delivered me from the depths of Sheol.

¹² Blessed are You, O LORD; teach me Your statutes.

¹⁸ Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law. ¹⁹ I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.

²⁷ Make clear to me the way of Your precepts; then I will meditate on Your wonders.

³³ Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep them to the end. ³⁴ Give me understanding that I may obey Your law, and follow it with all my heart.

⁶⁴ The earth is filled with Your loving devotion, O LORD; teach me Your statutes.

⁷³ Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.

¹²⁴ Deal with Your servant according to Your loving devotion, and teach me Your statutes.

¹⁷¹ My lips pour forth praise, for You teach me Your statutes.

¹⁰ Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

¹⁷ Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.

⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me—

¹⁵ But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”

²¹ Do not forsake me, O LORD; be not far from me, O my God. ²² Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.

¹¹ Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

⁹ Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.

¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

¹⁶ I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

¹⁰⁶ I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments.

¹¹⁵ Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may obey the commandments of my God. ¹¹⁶ Sustain me as You promised, that I may live; let me not be ashamed of my hope. ¹¹⁷ Uphold me, and I will be saved, that I may always regard Your statutes.

¹⁷⁶ I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.

¹³ I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

⁶ These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁸ When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

¹⁶ Therefore now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for Your servant, my father David, what You promised when You said: ‘You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants guard their way to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’

⁵ And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

²⁶ For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.

⁷ The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple. ⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. ⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, being altogether righteous. ¹⁰ They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. ¹¹ By them indeed Your servant is warned; in keeping them is great reward.

⁷ Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O LORD.

¹¹ Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He has performed. ⁵ For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, ⁶ that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children ⁷ that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments. ⁸ Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

¹¹ I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.

⁹⁷ Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation. ⁹⁸ Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me. ⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰ I discern more than the elders, for I obey Your precepts. ¹⁰¹ I have kept my feet from every evil path, that I may keep Your word. ¹⁰² I have not departed from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. ¹⁰³ How sweet are Your words to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth! ¹⁰⁴ I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way. ¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

⁴ To impart prudence to the simple and knowledge and discretion to the young,

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them.

¹ Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

¹⁰ Listen, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be many. ¹¹ I will guide you in the way of wisdom; I will lead you on straight paths. ¹² When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble. ¹³ Hold on to instruction; do not let go. Guard it, for it is your life. ¹⁴ Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. ¹⁵ Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by. ¹⁶ For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall. ¹⁷ For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

⁷ So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, ⁹ lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; ¹⁰ lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. ¹¹ At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, ¹² and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! ¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors. ¹⁴ I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.” ¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. ¹⁶ Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? ¹⁷ Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. ¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: ¹⁹ A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever. ²⁰ Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger? ²¹ For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths. ²² The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him. ²³ He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. ²¹ Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck. ²² When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. ²³ For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life, ²⁴ to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. ²⁵ Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. ²⁶ For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. ²⁷ Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? ²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet? ²⁹ So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. ³⁰ Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger. ³¹ Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house. ³² He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. ³³ Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away. ³⁴ For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance. ³⁵ He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.

⁷ I saw among the simple, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking judgment,

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

¹³ After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.

³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

²² Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

¹⁵ From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

⁴ In this way they can train the young women to love their husbands and children, ⁵ to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited. ⁶ In the same way, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls. ²² Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. ²³ For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, ²⁴ and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.

³ Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”

¹⁵ And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it with all their heart. They had sought Him earnestly, and He was found by them. So the LORD gave them rest on every side.

³ He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.

³⁷ Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

² Blessed are those who keep His testimonies and seek Him with all their heart.

²¹ You rebuke the arrogant—the cursed who stray from Your commandments.

³⁴ Give me understanding that I may obey Your law, and follow it with all my heart.

⁵⁸ I have sought Your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise.

⁶⁹ Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep Your precepts with all my heart.

¹¹⁸ You reject all who stray from Your statutes, for their deceitfulness is in vain.

¹³³ Order my steps in Your word; let no sin rule over me.

⁵ But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.

⁸ Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul. ⁹ Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD; I flee to You for refuge. ¹⁰ Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

¹³ from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁶ The man who strays from the path of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.

⁸ And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it—only those who walk in the Way—and fools will not stray onto it.

¹⁰ Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.

⁶ My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’

² Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars.

⁵ those who bow on the rooftops to worship the host of heaven, those who bow down and swear by the LORD but also swear by Milcom, ⁶ and those who turn back from following the LORD, neither seeking the LORD nor inquiring of Him.”

²⁴ No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

²² Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only to please them while they are watching, but with sincerity of heart and fear of God.

¹⁵ They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness. ¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. ¹⁷ These men are springs without water and clouds driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is forever reserved for them. ¹⁸ With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. ²⁰ If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. ²² Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

²² Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.

² But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.

¹³ Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed of great transgression.

³¹ The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not falter.

⁸ I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”

⁹⁷ Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation.

¹ My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul. ¹¹ Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you,

⁷ Listen to Me, you who know what is right, you people with My law in your hearts: Do not fear the scorn of men; do not be broken by their insults.

¹⁶ Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.

¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

⁵¹ Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to the Lord.

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O LORD, that I may walk in Your truth. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.

²⁶ I recounted my ways, and You answered me; teach me Your statutes. ²⁷ Make clear to me the way of Your precepts; then I will meditate on Your wonders.

³³ Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep them to the end.

⁶⁶ Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments.

⁶⁸ You are good, and You do what is good; teach me Your statutes.

⁷¹ It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes. ⁷² The law from Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.

¹⁰⁸ Accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me Your judgments.

⁴⁵ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.

¹¹ that agrees with the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

¹⁵ which the blessed and only Sovereign One—the King of kings and Lord of lords—will bring about in His own time.

²⁷ And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.

³⁰ The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.

⁹ I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know. ¹⁰ I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation; I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness from the great assembly.

¹⁵ My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure. ¹⁶ I will enter in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will proclaim Your righteousness—Yours alone. ¹⁷ O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds. ¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

¹⁷ I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done.

⁴⁶ I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed.

¹⁷² My tongue sings of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous.

²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.

³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

²⁰ For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

¹² I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.

⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, being altogether righteous. ¹⁰ They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

⁴⁷ I delight in Your commandments because I love them.

⁷² The law from Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.

⁷⁷ May Your compassion come to me, that I may live, for Your law is my delight.

¹¹¹ Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.

¹²⁷ Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, even the purest gold.

¹⁶² I rejoice in Your promise like one who finds great spoil.

⁴⁴ Again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.

⁴¹ Those who gladly embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day. ⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ A sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many wonders and signs. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need. ⁴⁶ With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

⁶ Then I would not be ashamed when I consider all Your commandments.

²³ Though rulers sit and slander me, Your servant meditates on Your statutes.

⁴⁸ I lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love, and I meditate on Your statutes.

⁷⁸ May the arrogant be put to shame for subverting me with a lie; I will meditate on Your precepts.

¹¹⁷ Uphold me, and I will be saved, that I may always regard Your statutes.

¹⁴⁸ My eyes anticipate the watches of night, that I may meditate on Your word.

¹⁴ I rejoice in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches.

²⁴ Your testimonies are indeed my delight; they are my counselors.

³⁵ Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight.

⁷⁰ Their hearts are hard and callous, but I delight in Your law.

⁸³ Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes.

⁹² If Your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. ⁹³ I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have revived me.

¹⁰⁹ I constantly take my life in my hands, yet I do not forget Your law.

¹⁴¹ I am lowly and despised, but I do not forget Your precepts.

¹ My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;

²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.

¹⁶ “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.” ¹⁷ Then He adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

²³ For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, ²⁴ and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

⁶ I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.

⁷ Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

⁶⁵ You are good to Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word.

¹³² Turn to me and show me mercy, as You do to those who love Your name.

¹⁶ From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

² For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁷ Each one should give what he decides in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written: “He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.” ¹⁰ Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way to be generous on every occasion, so that through us your giving will produce thanksgiving to God.

⁴ But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

¹⁰ For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

¹⁹ And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

²⁹ If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.

³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, ⁴ because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.

⁹⁶ I have seen a limit to all perfection, but Your commandment is without limit.

¹⁰ For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers. ¹¹ And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” ¹² Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.”

¹⁸ On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

³ Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

¹² Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.

¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven.

³⁹ Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”

¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

¹³ We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ But their minds were closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed. ¹⁵ And even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

⁴ The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. ¹⁸ I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,

⁵ The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

¹ For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

⁹ “My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”

¹⁵ For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.

¹⁷ For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.

¹² Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.

¹⁷ Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

⁴⁵ But they did not understand this statement. It was veiled from them so that they could not comprehend it, and they were afraid to ask Him about it.

⁶ Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.

¹³ All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴ Now those who say such things show that they are seeking a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

¹¹ My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside. ¹² I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.

¹⁰ Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

¹ For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. ² My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and appear in God’s presence?

¹ A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.

² My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

³ Blessed are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.

⁴⁰ How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness.

¹⁷⁴ I long for Your salvation, O LORD, and Your law is my delight.

¹² Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

¹⁷ A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

⁸ O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you, if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick with love.

¹⁵ I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! ¹⁶ So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!

³ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

¹¹ Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for He did this when they treated Israel with arrogance.”

¹⁵ ‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁶ ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁷ ‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁸ ‘Cursed is he who lets a blind man wander in the road.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁹ ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁰ ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²¹ ‘Cursed is he who lies with any animal.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²² ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²³ ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁴ ‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁵ ‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁶ ‘Cursed is he who does not put the words of this law into practice.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁵ If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,

¹⁶ But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.

²⁹ You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly shrugged their shoulders; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.

¹¹ Unleash the fury of your wrath; look on every proud man and bring him low. ¹² Look on every proud man and humble him; trample the wicked where they stand.

¹¹⁰ The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from Your precepts.

⁶ Though the LORD is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.

¹¹ The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. ¹² For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted—it will be humbled—

¹² So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes.

²⁴ Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law.

²⁸ So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”

⁹ Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and of the kings of Judah and their wives, as well as the wickedness that you and your wives committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed My instruction or the statutes that I set before you and your fathers. ¹¹ Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I will set My face to bring disaster and to cut off all Judah.

¹⁶ “As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!

²⁸ Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs! ²⁹ This will be a sign to you that I will punish you in this place, declares the LORD, so that you may know that My threats of harm against you will surely stand.

² “Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord GOD says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god. ³ Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you! ⁴ By your wisdom and understanding you have gained your wealth and amassed gold and silver for your treasuries. ⁵ By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has grown proud because of it. ⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you regard your heart as the heart of a god, ⁷ behold, I will bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations. They will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and will defile your splendor. ⁸ They will bring you down to the Pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas. ⁹ Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you. ¹⁰ You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners. For I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.”

³⁷ Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all His works are true and all His ways are just. And He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

²² But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this. ²³ Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways. ²⁴ Therefore He sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

¹ “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹⁴ I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

⁶ But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁵ Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility, being subject to one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

¹⁰ But Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters.

³⁹ On hearing that Nabal was dead, David said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has upheld my cause against the reproach of Nabal and has restrained His servant from evil. For the LORD has brought the wickedness of Nabal down upon his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking for her in marriage.

⁷ And as he yelled curses, Shimei said, “Get out, get out, you worthless man of bloodshed! ⁸ The LORD has paid you back for all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, you have come to ruin because you are a man of bloodshed!”

²⁰ My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.

² “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words? ³ Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.

³ Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness like the dawn, your justice like the noonday sun.

⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of fools.

¹⁰ Like the crushing of my bones, my enemies taunt me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

⁹ You sent abundant rain, O God; You refreshed Your weary inheritance. ¹⁰ Your flock settled therein; O God, from Your bounty You provided for the poor. ¹¹ The Lord gives the command; a great company of women proclaim it:

¹⁹ Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God of our salvation. Selah ²⁰ Our God is a God of deliverance; the Lord GOD is our rescuer from death.

³⁹ Turn away the disgrace I dread, for Your judgments are good.

⁴² Then I can answer him who taunts, for I trust in Your word.

³ Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt. ⁴ We have endured much scorn from the arrogant, much contempt from the proud.

¹³ Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore.

²⁰ How is it to your credit if you are beaten for doing wrong and you endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you as evildoers may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

¹⁴ If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Indeed, on their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. ¹⁵ Indeed, none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or wrongdoer, or even as a meddler. ¹⁶ But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God in this matter.

³¹ For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingship shall be established. Now send for him and bring him to me, for he must surely die!”

⁷ Then Saul said to his servants, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Is the son of Jesse giving all of you fields and vineyards and making you commanders of thousands or hundreds? ⁸ Is that why all of you have conspired against me? Not one of you told me that my own son had made a covenant with the son of Jesse. Not one of you has shown concern for me or revealed to me that my son has stirred up my own servant to lie in wait against me, as is the case today.” ⁹ But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with Saul’s servants, answered: “I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob. ¹⁰ Ahimelech inquired of the LORD for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” ¹¹ Then the king sent messengers to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and his father’s whole family, who were priests at Nob. And all of them came to the king. ¹² “Listen now, son of Ahitub,” said Saul. “Here I am, my lord,” he replied. ¹³ And Saul asked him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me? You gave him bread and a sword and inquired of God for him so that he could rise up against me to lie in wait, as he is doing today.”

¹ Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? ² The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One:

⁶⁶ At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and scribes, met together. They led Jesus into their Sanhedrin and said,

¹ Then the whole council rose and led Jesus away to Pilate. ² And they began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this man subverting the nation, forbidding payment of taxes to Caesar, and proclaiming Himself to be Christ, a King.”

¹⁰ Meanwhile, the chief priests and scribes stood there, vehemently accusing Him. ¹¹ And even Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked Him. Dressing Him in a fine robe, they sent Him back to Pilate.

¹⁸ When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes. ²⁰ Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.

⁸ This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

¹¹ By them indeed Your servant is warned; in keeping them is great reward.

⁹² If Your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction.

⁹⁷ Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation. ⁹⁸ Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me. ⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰ I discern more than the elders, for I obey Your precepts.

¹⁴³ Trouble and distress have found me, but Your commandments are my delight.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. ²¹ Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck. ²² When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. ²³ For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,

²⁰ To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

¹⁰ To whom can I give this warning? Who will listen to me? Look, their ears are closed, so they cannot hear. See, the word of the LORD has become offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.

⁶ The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

²⁷ For You, O LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed this to Your servant when You said, ‘I will build a house for you.’ Therefore Your servant has found the courage to offer this prayer to You. ²⁸ And now, O Lord GOD, You are God! Your words are true, and You have promised this goodness to Your servant. ²⁹ Now therefore, may it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You. For You, O Lord GOD, have spoken, and with Your blessing the house of Your servant will be blessed forever.”

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.

²⁵ For our soul has sunk to the dust; our bodies cling to the earth.

²⁰ Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.

¹⁸ Then we will not turn away from You; revive us, and we will call on Your name.

³⁷ Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.

⁸⁸ Revive me according to Your loving devotion, that I may obey the testimony of Your mouth.

⁹³ I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have revived me.

¹⁰⁷ I am severely afflicted, O LORD; revive me through Your word.

¹⁴⁹ Hear my voice, O LORD, according to Your loving devotion; give me life according to Your justice.

¹⁵⁶ Great are Your mercies, O LORD; revive me according to Your ordinances.

¹¹ For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble.

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the food of the serpent will be dust. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.

²³ But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

² For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,

¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

³⁶ then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.

⁴ Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths.

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way. ⁹ He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path, because of my oppressors.

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

¹⁸ Yes, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. ² Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. ³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. ⁴ Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge. ⁵ Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. ⁶ Surely You desire truth in the inmost being; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. ⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. ⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice. ⁹ Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. ¹¹ Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You. ¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness. ¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. ¹⁶ For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. ¹⁸ In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Your altar.

¹³ He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

¹⁴ In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹⁵ And when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of man and beast. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb, but I redeem all the firstborn of my sons.’

⁶ to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”

¹⁷ O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He has performed.

² Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wonders.

⁴ He has caused His wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate.

⁵ the glorious splendor of Your majesty. And I will meditate on Your wondrous works. ⁶ They will proclaim the power of Your awesome deeds, and I will declare Your greatness.

¹¹ both Jews and converts to Judaism; Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

³ and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!

²⁵ May the bolts of your gate be iron and bronze, and may your strength match your days.”

¹¹ When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.

²⁴ “The LORD has surely delivered the entire land into our hands,” they said to Joshua. “Indeed, all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of us.”

² May He send you help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.

¹⁴ Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the LORD!

¹¹ The LORD gives His people strength; the LORD blesses His people with peace.

²⁶ They mounted up to the heavens, then sunk to the depths; their courage melted in their anguish.

²⁹ He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.

³¹ But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

¹² I will strengthen them in the LORD, and in His name they will walk,” declares the LORD.

¹⁶ I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

¹⁰ And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.

⁵ Oh, that my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes!

¹⁰⁴ I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every false way.

¹⁶³ I hate and abhor falsehood, but Your law I love.

³ Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. ⁴ Do not let my heart be drawn to any evil thing or take part in works of wickedness with men who do iniquity; let me not feast on their delicacies.

⁸ Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.

²⁰ He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

¹⁹ O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.

³³ “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. ³⁴ No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”

⁸ Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.

²² to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. ²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.

¹⁰ For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. ¹¹ No longer will each one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.

⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁴ If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

¹⁵ But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,

²⁹ Remove me from the path of deceit and graciously grant me Your law.

⁵² I remember Your judgments of old, O LORD, and in them I find comfort.

²⁹ For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.

⁴² But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”

¹⁹ And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.”

⁴⁵ But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me!

² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow,

⁴ I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father has commanded us.

⁴ But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

²⁰ You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.

² in You, my God, I trust. Do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.

²⁰ Guard my soul and deliver me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in You.

¹¹⁵ Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may obey the commandments of my God.

²³ Invest in truth and never sell it—in wisdom and instruction and understanding.

¹⁷ But Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you will not be put to shame or humiliated, to ages everlasting.

²³ Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”

¹⁸ Let my persecutors be put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be terrified, but do not let me be terrified. Bring upon them the day of disaster and shatter them with double destruction.

³¹ So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples.

²³ When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.

⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

²⁹ And God gave Solomon wisdom, exceedingly deep insight, and understanding beyond measure, like the sand on the seashore.

¹⁵ God rescues the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears in oppression. ¹⁶ Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and broad place, to a table full of richness.

³⁶ You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.

⁴⁵ And I will walk in freedom, for I have sought Your precepts.

⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry! May the king bring me to his chambers. We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. It is only right that they adore you.

⁵ Then you will look and be radiant, and your heart will tremble and swell with joy, because the riches of the sea will be brought to you, and the wealth of the nations will come to you.

¹ The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners,

⁷⁴ deliverance from the hands of our enemies, that we may serve Him without fear, ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives.

³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

¹¹ We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our hearts are open wide.

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us.

¹⁶ Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.

⁸ I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me.

¹¹² I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes, even to the very end.

¹³ Then all your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their prosperity.

²² You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

¹³ But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

⁷ Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁶ being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us. ²⁰ You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.

²⁶ And to the one who overcomes and continues in My work until the end, I will give authority over the nations.

⁶ Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

²⁸ And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts gain rich understanding. His praise endures forever!

⁵ then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. ⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

¹⁹ So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴ Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them I will liken to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

¹⁷ If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.

⁵ Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

⁸ If you really fulfill the royal law stated in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. ¹¹ For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. ¹² Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. ¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.

¹¹ Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother and judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.

¹⁷ All her ways are pleasant, and all her paths are peaceful.

¹¹ I will guide you in the way of wisdom; I will lead you on straight paths.

¹⁸ The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

²⁰ I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,

³ And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

¹³ If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words, ¹⁴ then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.

¹³ For God it is who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.

²¹ Furthermore, select capable men from among the people—God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

⁵⁸ May He incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep the commandments and statutes and ordinances He commanded our fathers.

³ For the wicked man boasts in the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.

⁴ Do not let my heart be drawn to any evil thing or take part in works of wickedness with men who do iniquity; let me not feast on their delicacies.

³⁹ I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

¹⁹ And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, ²⁰ so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

³¹ So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

⁹ Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!

²¹ For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, adultery, sexual immorality, murder, theft, ²² greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

¹⁵ And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus.

³ But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.

⁵ Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

⁹ Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

¹⁷ Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in the living God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.

⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

³ In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction will not sleep.

¹⁴ Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.

³⁹ These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.

²¹ When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

² One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

¹ “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

²⁵ My soul cleaves to the dust; revive me according to Your word.

²⁵ Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

⁵ When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

¹⁵ He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

²⁵ And now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house. Do as You have promised, ²⁶ so that Your name will be magnified forever when it is said, ‘The LORD of Hosts is God over Israel.’ And the house of Your servant David will be established before You.

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to their children’s children—

⁴⁹ Remember Your word to Your servant, upon which You have given me hope.

¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.

¹¹ The LORD is pleased with those who fear Him, who hope in His loving devotion.

³⁹ I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me. ⁴¹ Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

²⁰ For all the promises of God are “Yes” in Christ. And so in Him, our “Amen” is spoken to the glory of God.

⁸ And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

¹⁴ Nevertheless, because by this deed you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD, the son born to you will surely die.”

⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, being altogether righteous.

³ He reaches down from heaven and saves me; He rebukes those who trample me. Selah God sends forth His loving devotion and His truth.

²⁰ My soul is consumed with longing for Your judgments at all times.

⁴³ Never take Your word of truth from my mouth, for I hope in Your judgments.

⁷⁵ I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

¹²³ My eyes fail, looking for Your salvation, and for Your righteous promise.

⁸ Yes, we wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.

² And we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

⁷ Furthermore, he must have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the snare of the devil.

¹⁴ So I advise the younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their households, denying the adversary occasion for slander.

⁸ and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us.

² For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand.”

⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father cried out with tears, “Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief!”

²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.

²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

⁴⁵ So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

¹ Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

¹⁷ For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.

⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

² Beloved, I pray that in every way you may prosper and enjoy good health, as your soul also prospers.

¹⁶ Answer me, O LORD, for Your loving devotion is good; turn to me in keeping with Your great compassion.

⁴ Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation, ⁵ that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, and give glory with Your inheritance.

⁷⁶ May Your loving devotion comfort me, I pray, according to Your promise to Your servant. ⁷⁷ May Your compassion come to me, that I may live, for Your law is my delight.

²⁸ Simeon took Him in his arms and blessed God, saying: ²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as You have promised, You now dismiss Your servant in peace. ³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation, ³¹ which You have prepared in the sight of all people, ³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Your people Israel.”

¹² And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. ¹⁵ But My loving devotion will never be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I moved out of your way. ¹⁶ Your house and kingdom will endure forever before Me, and your throne will be established forever.”

¹⁸ and crossed at the ford to carry over the king’s household and to do what was good in his sight. When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell down before the king ¹⁹ and said, “My lord, do not hold me guilty, and do not remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart. ²⁰ For your servant knows that I have sinned, so here I am today as the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”

³ but God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for My Name, because you are a man of war who has spilled blood.’ ⁴ Yet the LORD, the God of Israel, chose me out of all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For He chose Judah as leader, and from the house of Judah He chose my father’s household, and from my father’s sons He was pleased to make me king over all Israel. ⁵ And of all my sons—for the LORD has given me many sons—He has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel. ⁶ And He said to me, ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build My house and My courts, for I have chosen him as My son, and I will be his Father.

² Many say of me, “God will not deliver him.” Selah

⁴ In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

¹⁰ In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, ¹¹ in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

¹⁰ For my enemies speak against me, and those who lie in wait for my life conspire, ¹¹ saying, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for there is no one to rescue him.”

¹⁹ You once spoke in a vision; to Your godly ones You said, “I have bestowed help on a warrior; I have exalted one chosen from the people. ²⁰ I have found My servant David; with My sacred oil I have anointed him. ²¹ My hand will sustain him; surely My arm will strengthen him. ²² No enemy will exact tribute; no wicked man will oppress him. ²³ I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. ²⁴ My faithfulness and loving devotion will be with him, and through My name his horn will be exalted. ²⁵ I will set his hand over the sea, and his right hand upon the rivers. ²⁶ He will call to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock of my salvation.’ ²⁷ I will indeed appoint him as My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. ²⁸ I will forever preserve My loving devotion for him, and My covenant with him will stand fast. ²⁹ I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure. ³⁰ If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, ³¹ if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments, ³² I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes. ³³ But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him, nor ever betray My faithfulness. ³⁴ I will not violate My covenant or alter the utterance of My lips. ³⁵ Once and for all I have sworn by My holiness—I will not lie to David— ³⁶ his offspring shall endure forever, and his throne before Me like the sun, ³⁷ like the moon, established forever, a faithful witness in the sky.” Selah

²⁵ I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.

⁷⁴ May those who fear You see me and rejoice, for I have hoped in Your word.

⁸¹ My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word.

¹¹ Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart, so that I can answer him who taunts me.

⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” ⁴¹ In the same way, the chief priests, scribes, elders, and Pharisees mocked Him, saying, ⁴² “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself. If He is the King of Israel, let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God deliver Him now if He wants Him. For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

⁶³ “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’

²⁵ So take courage, men, for I believe God that it will happen just as He told me.

⁶ Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment. ⁷ Let the assembled peoples gather around You; take Your seat over them on high. ⁸ The LORD judges the peoples; vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and integrity. ⁹ Put an end to the evil of the wicked, but establish the righteous, O righteous God who searches hearts and minds.

⁴ For You have upheld my just cause; You sit on Your throne judging righteously.

¹⁶ The LORD is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion Selah

¹ Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; deliver me from deceitful and unjust men.

¹⁶ To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?

¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness. ¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.

¹³ With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of Your mouth.

¹²⁰ My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.

¹⁷⁵ Let me live to praise You; may Your judgments sustain me.

²¹ “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,” says the LORD.

¹³ And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.

²³ When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.

¹⁵ For this reason, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.

¹¹ Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy.”

¹⁹ I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.

⁷¹ It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.

⁹⁴ I am Yours; save me, for I have sought Your precepts.

⁴ if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure, ⁵ then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.

¹² When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble.

¹ He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound judgment.

¹³ And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,

³⁹ You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me,

³⁰ As Jesus spoke these things, many believed in Him. ³¹ So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³ “We are Abraham’s descendants,” they answered. “We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?” ³⁴ Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

¹² Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.

¹⁹ They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

¹ Of David. I give You thanks with all my heart; before the gods I sing Your praises.

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. ¹⁷ If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.”

¹ King Nebuchadnezzar, To the people of every nation and language who dwell in all the earth: May your prosperity be multiplied. ² I am pleased to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. ³ How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation.

²⁵ You will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling will be with the beasts of the field. You will feed on grass like an ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes. ²⁶ As for the command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots, your kingdom will be restored to you as soon as you acknowledge that Heaven rules. ²⁷ Therefore, may my advice be pleasing to you, O king. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”

¹⁸ On My account, you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to respond or what to say. In that hour you will be given what to say.

³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

¹ Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense: ² “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today to defend myself against all the accusations of the Jews,

²⁴ At this stage of Paul’s defense, Festus exclaimed in a loud voice, “You are insane, Paul! Your great learning is driving you to madness!” ²⁵ But he answered, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus; I am speaking words of truth and sobriety. ²⁶ For the king knows about these matters, and I can speak freely to him. I am confident that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. ²⁷ King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.” ²⁸ Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Can you persuade me in such a short time to become a Christian?” ²⁹ “Short time or long,” Paul replied, “I wish to God that not only you but all who hear me this day may become what I am, except for these chains.”

¹⁶ I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.

²⁰ I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

⁸ So do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me, His prisoner. Instead, join me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

¹⁶ May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he has often refreshed me and was unashamed of my chains.

⁷ The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple. ⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

¹⁴⁰ Your promise is completely pure; therefore Your servant loves it.

¹⁶⁷ I obey Your testimonies and love them greatly.

³⁴ Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.

¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.

⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus:

²¹ For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:

¹² Arise, O LORD! Lift up Your hand, O God! Do not forget the helpless.

¹⁵ I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways.

¹² Because they ministered before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I swore with an uplifted hand concerning them that they would bear the consequences of their iniquity, declares the Lord GOD.

⁹ Your hand will be lifted over your foes, and all your enemies will be cut off.

²¹ Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

¹ But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.

⁹ Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’

² Even in times past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them back. And to you the LORD said, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be ruler over them.’”

²⁵ And now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house. Do as You have promised,

⁷ Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

¹⁴ But I will always hope and will praise You more and more.

⁴² For He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant.

⁴ Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation,

⁴⁵ And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

¹⁴⁷ I rise before dawn and cry for help; in Your word I have put my hope.

⁶ On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD shall take no rest for yourselves,

¹³ Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹³ Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

²¹ Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him; and so your faith and hope are in God.

¹³ Still I am certain to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I give thanks to Him with my song.

⁸ The LORD decrees His loving devotion by day, and at night His song is with me as a prayer to the God of my life.

¹¹ Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.

¹⁹ When anxiety overwhelms me, Your consolation delights my soul.

¹⁰ So I prophesied as He had commanded me, and the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet—a vast army.

⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit and they are life.

³ Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

⁴ For what was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

¹⁷ So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath. ¹⁸ Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

¹¹ No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it. ¹² Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

¹¹ My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.

¹⁸ Our hearts have not turned back; our steps have not strayed from Your path.

¹⁵⁷ Though my persecutors and foes are many, I have not turned from Your testimonies.

³ saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established justice on the earth. In His law the islands will put their hope.”

⁷ You have deceived me, O LORD, and I was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus. ¹⁵ So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.

³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers with them sneered at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the Chosen One of God.”

²³ I only know that in town after town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions await me. ²⁴ But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course with joy and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus—the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. ² Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

²⁹ But the Israelites had walked through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and on their left. ³⁰ That day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.

³ They came together against Moses and Aaron and told them, “You have taken too much upon yourselves! For everyone in the entire congregation is holy, and the LORD is in their midst. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” ⁴ When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. ⁵ Then he said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the LORD will reveal who belongs to Him and who is holy, and He will bring that person near to Himself. The one He chooses, He will bring near to Himself. ⁶ You, Korah, and all your followers are to do as follows: Take censers, ⁷ and tomorrow you are to place fire and incense in them in the presence of the LORD. Then the man the LORD chooses will be the one who is holy. It is you sons of Levi who have taken too much upon yourselves!” ⁸ Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you sons of Levi! ⁹ Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel and brought you near to Himself to perform the work at the LORD’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them? ¹⁰ He has brought you near, you and all your fellow Levites, but you are seeking the priesthood as well. ¹¹ Therefore, it is you and all your followers who have conspired against the LORD! As for Aaron, who is he that you should grumble against him?” ¹² Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, “We will not come! ¹³ Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Must you also appoint yourself as ruler over us? ¹⁴ Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!” ¹⁵ Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, “Do not regard their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them or mistreated a single one of them.” ¹⁶ And Moses said to Korah, “You and all your followers are to appear before the LORD tomorrow—you and they and Aaron. ¹⁷ Each man is to take his censer, place incense in it, and present it before the LORD—250 censers. You and Aaron are to present your censers as well.” ¹⁸ So each man took his censer, put fire and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁹ When Korah had gathered his whole assembly against them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the LORD appeared to the whole congregation. ²⁰ And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.” ²² But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?” ²³ Then the LORD said to Moses, ²⁴ “Tell the congregation to move away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.” ²⁵ So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ And he warned the congregation, “Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” ²⁷ So they moved away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Meanwhile, Dathan and Abiram had come out and stood at the entrances to their tents with their wives and children and infants. ²⁸ Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things, for it was not my own doing: ²⁹ If these men die a natural death, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them and all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.” ³¹ As soon as Moses had finished saying all this, the ground beneath them split open, ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households—all Korah’s men and all their possessions. ³³ They went down alive into Sheol with all they owned. The earth closed over them, and they vanished from the assembly. ³⁴ At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled, saying, “The earth may swallow us too!” ³⁵ And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

³⁵ “Not one of the men of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your fathers, ³⁶ except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land on which he has set foot, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.”

³ Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴ But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

⁵ I considered the days of old, the years long in the past.

¹¹ I will remember the works of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. ¹² I will reflect on all You have done and ponder Your mighty deeds.

¹⁸ to those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts.

⁵ Remember the wonders He has done, His marvels, and the judgments He has pronounced,

⁵ I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I consider the work of Your hands.

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; ⁵ if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight; ⁶ if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly; ⁷ and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

³ When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down in horror.

¹⁴ shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

⁶ Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and walked to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. And while he stayed there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.

²⁵ I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

³⁰ If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments,

¹³⁶ My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed.

¹⁵⁸ I look on the faithless with loathing because they do not keep Your word.

¹⁷ But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

¹⁹ For a time, Daniel, who was also known as Belteshazzar, was perplexed, and his thoughts alarmed him. So the king said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation alarm you.” “My lord,” replied Belteshazzar, “may the dream apply to those who hate you, and its interpretation to your enemies!

¹⁶ I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the people who invade us.

⁴¹ As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it ⁴² and said, “If only you had known, even you, at least on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.

¹ I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit. ² I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

²¹ I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.

¹⁸ For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

¹ Why, O LORD, do You stand far off? Why do You hide in times of trouble?

¹ A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the loving devotion of the LORD forever; with my mouth I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations.

²⁴ So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled. ²⁶ Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied. ²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”

⁹ Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty. ¹⁰ But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,

⁶ When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.

⁶ At night I remembered my song; in my heart I mused, and my spirit pondered:

¹⁷ Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.

¹⁸ If I were to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; and when I awake, I am still with You.

⁹ My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

¹² In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.

¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

¹⁸ They confronted me in my day of calamity, but the LORD was my support. ¹⁹ He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me. ²⁰ The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; He has repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands. ²¹ For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God. ²² For all His ordinances are before me; I have not disregarded His statutes.

¹⁶⁵ Abundant peace belongs to those who love Your law; nothing can make them stumble.

¹⁹ And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence: ²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God, ²² and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight. ²³ And this is His commandment: that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and we should love one another just as He commanded. ²⁴ Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us.

¹⁷ Today you have proclaimed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and ordinances, and listen to His voice. ¹⁸ And today the LORD has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments,

¹⁸ And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God!”

²¹ “No!” replied the people. “We will serve the LORD!”

²⁴ So the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey His voice.” ²⁵ On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he established for them a statute and ordinance. ²⁶ Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was near the sanctuary of the LORD. ²⁷ And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”

²⁹ hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to carefully obey all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord. ³⁰ We will not give our daughters in marriage to the people of the land, and we will not take their daughters for our sons. ³¹ When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow, and will cancel every debt. ³² We also place ourselves under the obligation to contribute a third of a shekel yearly for the service of the house of our God: ³³ for the showbread, for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings, for the Sabbath offerings, for the New Moons and appointed feasts, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the duties of the house of our God. ³⁴ We have cast lots among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood by our families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring it to the house of our God to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law. ³⁵ We will also bring the firstfruits of our land and of every fruit tree to the house of the LORD year by year. ³⁶ And we will bring the firstborn of our sons and our livestock, as it is written in the Law, and will bring the firstborn of our herds and flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God. ³⁷ Moreover, we will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God the firstfruits of our dough, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees, and of our new wine and oil. A tenth of our produce belongs to the Levites, so that they shall receive tithes in all the towns where we labor. ³⁸ A priest of Aaron’s line is to accompany the Levites when they collect the tenth, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of these tithes to the storerooms of the treasury in the house of our God. ³⁹ For the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of grain, new wine, and oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers stay. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God.”

⁵ The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.

¹⁴ the vows that my lips promised and my mouth spoke in my distress.

²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

⁵ I cry to You, O LORD: “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”

¹⁶ The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance—the LORD of Hosts is His name.

²⁴ “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

⁶ Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him as it was before.

¹⁹ You will lie down without fear, and many will court your favor.

⁶ Many ask, “Who can show us the good?” Shine the light of Your face upon us, O LORD.

⁸ My heart said, “Seek His face.” Your face, O LORD, I will seek.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. ² Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. ³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

¹⁰ In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,

¹ A prayer of David. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. ² Preserve my soul, for I am godly. You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You. ³ Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I call to You all day long.

⁴¹ May Your loving devotion come to me, O LORD, Your salvation, according to Your promise.

⁷⁶ May Your loving devotion comfort me, I pray, according to Your promise to Your servant.

¹⁷⁰ May my plea come before You; rescue me according to Your promise.

² I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness; You have exalted Your name and Your word above all else.

¹⁴ They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me.

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

²² let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

³⁰ When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.

⁴ So you are to tell them this is what the LORD says: “Do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not return? ⁵ Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. ⁶ I have listened and heard; they do not speak what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has pursued his own course like a horse charging into battle.

¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God. ¹⁹ After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

⁴⁰ Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.

²⁸ Because he considered and turned from all the transgressions he had committed, he will surely live; he will not die.

³⁰ Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

¹⁴ But if I tell the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and does what is just and right— ¹⁵ if he restores a pledge, makes restitution for what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without practicing iniquity—then he will surely live; he will not die. ¹⁶ None of the sins he has committed will be held against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.

¹⁹ But if a wicked man turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live because of this.

¹³ So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.

⁵ Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.

⁷ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.

¹⁷ Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food? But here I am, starving to death! ¹⁸ I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

⁵ Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you actually fail the test?

⁷ For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. Today, if you hear His voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,

¹ Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

¹⁰ Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

⁶ When the LORD commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from within the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel. ⁷ Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand and took some of the fire that was among them. And he put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who received it and went out. ⁸ (The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.)

¹⁶ to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood,

⁹ and said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Look, David intends to harm you’? ¹⁰ Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the LORD delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’ ¹¹ See, my father, look at the corner of your robe in my hand. For I cut it off, but I did not kill you. See and know that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands. I have not sinned against you, even though you are hunting me down to take my life.

⁹ But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can lift a hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?” ¹⁰ David added, “As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD Himself will strike him down; either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. ¹¹ But the LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. Instead, take the spear and water jug by his head, and let us go.”

³ When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴ So David and the troops with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no strength left to weep. ⁵ David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel, had been taken captive.

¹⁷ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹ A Psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom. O LORD, how my foes have increased! How many rise up against me!

⁹⁵ The wicked wait to destroy me, but I will ponder Your testimonies.

⁵ The proud hide a snare for me; the cords of their net are spread along the path, and lures are set out for me. Selah

²⁹ Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay the man according to his work.”

⁹ Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody. ¹⁸ If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

⁷ I will praise You with an upright heart when I learn Your righteous judgments.

¹³⁷ Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments.

¹⁶⁴ Seven times a day I praise You for Your righteous judgments.

³⁵ Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and slipped out to a solitary place to pray.

³ As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.

⁷⁹ May those who fear You turn to me, those who know Your testimonies.

⁷ Free my soul from prison, that I may praise Your name. The righteous will gather around me because of Your goodness to me.

²⁰ He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

¹⁶ At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD and honored His name. ¹⁷ “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. ¹⁸ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

¹⁴ Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” ¹⁷ “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love his brother remains in death.

⁵ The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His loving devotion.

¹³ He waters the mountains from His chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of His works.

²⁶ I recounted my ways, and You answered me; teach me Your statutes.

⁹ The LORD is good to all; His compassion rests on all He has made.

¹⁷ Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go. ¹⁸ If only you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea.

²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

¹⁴ But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You.

⁵ The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure. ⁶ The lines of my boundary have fallen in pleasant places; surely my inheritance is delightful.

³⁵ You have given me Your shield of salvation; Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness exalts me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ⁶ Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

¹¹ You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

¹⁵ And again they cried out to the LORD, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

⁹ Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

²⁸ When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

¹³ You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. ¹⁴ You revealed to them Your holy Sabbath and gave them commandments and statutes and laws through Your servant Moses.

¹ Of Solomon. Endow the king with Your justice, O God, and the son of the king with Your righteousness. ² May he judge Your people with righteousness and Your afflicted with justice.

¹⁶⁰ The entirety of Your word is truth, and all Your righteous judgments endure forever.

¹ My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you, ² if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding, ³ if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, ⁴ if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure, ⁵ then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. ⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. ⁷ He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity, ⁸ to guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His saints. ⁹ Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path.

² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD. ³ And He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what His eyes see, and He will not decide by what His ears hear, ⁴ but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.

¹¹ He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

¹⁵ But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁹ When all the kings who were subject to Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them. So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.

² One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. ³ So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” ⁴ Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home. ⁵ And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” ⁶ At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing with the war. ⁸ Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ And David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” “Haven’t you just arrived from a journey?” David asked Uriah. “Why didn’t you go home?” ¹¹ Uriah answered, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!” ¹² “Stay here one more day,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and he got Uriah drunk. And in the evening Uriah went out to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home. ¹⁴ The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.” ¹⁶ So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he saw the strongest enemy soldiers. ¹⁷ And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died. ¹⁸ Joab sent to David a full account of the battle ¹⁹ and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king all the details of the battle, ²⁰ if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall? ²¹ Who was the one to strike Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If so, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’” ²² So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say. ²³ The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. ²⁴ Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.” ²⁵ Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.” ²⁶ When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. ²⁷ And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

⁹ So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites. ¹⁰ And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen. ¹¹ So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon. ¹² And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. ¹³ And when he prayed to Him, the LORD received his plea and heard his petition; so He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

⁵ They are free of the burdens others carry; they are not afflicted like other men. ⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace; a garment of violence covers them. ⁷ From their prosperity proceeds iniquity; the imaginations of their hearts run wild. ⁸ They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. ⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut across the earth. ¹⁰ So their people return to this place and drink up waters in abundance. ¹¹ The wicked say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?” ¹² Behold, these are the wicked—always carefree as they increase their wealth. ¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in innocence I have washed my hands. ¹⁴ For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning. ¹⁵ If I had said, “I will speak this way,” then I would have betrayed Your children. ¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this, it was troublesome in my sight ¹⁷ until I entered God’s sanctuary; then I discerned their end. ¹⁸ Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin. ¹⁹ How suddenly they are laid waste, completely swept away by terrors! ²⁰ Like one waking from a dream, so You, O Lord, awaken and despise their form. ²¹ When my heart was grieved and I was pierced within, ²² I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You. ²³ Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand. ²⁴ You guide me with Your counsel, and later receive me in glory. ²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You. ²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ²⁷ Those far from You will surely perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You. ²⁸ But as for me, it is good to draw near to God. I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may proclaim all Your works.

³² For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

²¹ I warned you when you were secure. You said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from youth, that you have not obeyed My voice.

⁶ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way. ⁷ She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’

¹⁵ Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. ⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” ⁷ Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸ If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live? ¹⁰ Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

¹⁰ Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Please show me Your glory.” ¹⁹ “I will cause all My goodness to pass before you,” the LORD replied, “and I will proclaim My name—the LORD—in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

⁶ Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

⁵ For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.

¹ Hallelujah! Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

⁷ They will extol the fame of Your abundant goodness and sing joyfully of Your righteousness. ⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion. ⁹ The LORD is good to all; His compassion rests on all He has made.

⁷ I will make known the LORD’s loving devotion and His praiseworthy acts, because of all that the LORD has done for us—the many good things for the house of Israel according to His great compassion and loving devotion.

⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

¹⁷ “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “There is no one who is good but God. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸ “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.

¹⁹ “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.

⁴ You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.

¹¹ Hostile witnesses come forward; they make charges I know nothing about.

² For wicked and deceitful mouths open against me; they speak against me with lying tongues. ³ They surround me with hateful words and attack me without cause.

⁵¹ The arrogant utterly deride me, but I do not turn from Your law.

² Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to reside there.’ ³ Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death or exile us to Babylon!”

⁵⁹ Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking false testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death. ⁶⁰ But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two false witnesses came forward ⁶¹ and declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” ⁶² So the high priest stood up and asked Him, “Have You no answer? What are these men testifying against You?” ⁶³ But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to Him, “I charge You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.” ⁶⁴ “You have said it yourself,” Jesus answered. “But I say to all of you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ⁶⁵ At this, the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “He has blasphemed! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy. ⁶⁶ What do you think?” “He deserves to die,” they answered. ⁶⁷ Then they spit in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him ⁶⁸ and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who hit You?”

⁵ We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,

¹³ Nor can they prove any of their charges against me.

⁸ He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

¹⁰ They have closed their callous hearts; their mouths speak with arrogance.

⁷ From their prosperity proceeds iniquity; the imaginations of their hearts run wild.

¹⁰ Make the hearts of this people calloused; deafen their ears and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

²⁷ For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’

¹² Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD, and teach from Your law, ¹³ to grant him relief from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.

⁶⁷ Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I keep Your word.

⁹ Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

³² But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

¹⁰ They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

¹⁴ for she is more profitable than silver, and her gain is better than fine gold. ¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire compares with her.

¹⁰ Receive my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold. ¹¹ For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire compares with her.

¹⁹ My fruit is better than gold, pure gold, and my harvest surpasses choice silver.

¹⁶ How much better to acquire wisdom than gold! To gain understanding is more desirable than silver.

⁴⁴ Again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field. ⁴⁵ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. ⁴⁶ When he found one very precious pearl, he went away and sold all he had and bought it.

¹² Above all, may the LORD give you insight and understanding when He puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the Law of the LORD your God.

¹² And Hiram added: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth! He has given King David a wise son with insight and understanding, who will build a temple for the LORD and a royal palace for himself.

⁸ Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me? ⁹ Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust? ¹⁰ Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? ¹¹ You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

¹⁵ Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

⁸ But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

³ Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

¹²⁵ I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies.

¹⁴⁴ Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live.

¹⁶⁹ May my cry come before You, O LORD; give me understanding according to Your word.

⁸ The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me. O LORD, Your loving devotion endures forever—do not abandon the works of Your hands.

¹⁴ I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.

⁷ Consider what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all things.

¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me. ¹² But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”

² My soul boasts in the LORD; let the oppressed hear and rejoice. ³ Magnify the LORD with me; let us exalt His name together. ⁴ I sought the LORD, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. ⁵ Those who look to Him are radiant with joy; their faces shall never be ashamed. ⁶ This poor man called out, and the LORD heard him; He saved him from all his troubles.

¹⁶ Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for me.

⁷ God has spoken from His sanctuary: “I will triumph! I will parcel out Shechem and apportion the Valley of Succoth.

¹⁶ At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD and honored His name.

³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

⁴ He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

²³ For God need not examine a man further or have him approach for judgment.

³⁰ If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, ³¹ if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments, ³² I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes. ³³ But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him, nor ever betray My faithfulness.

⁶² At midnight I rise to give You thanks for Your righteous judgments.

¹ Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

⁴ Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.” ⁵ But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.

¹⁹ Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. ⁵ For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

²² Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. ²³ They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

¹⁸ Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.

¹⁰ For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. ¹¹ No longer will each one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹² For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins and lawless acts no more.”

¹⁰ Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the LORD delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’ ¹¹ See, my father, look at the corner of your robe in my hand. For I cut it off, but I did not kill you. See and know that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands. I have not sinned against you, even though you are hunting me down to take my life. ¹² May the LORD judge between you and me, and may the LORD take vengeance on you, but my hand will never be against you.

¹⁷ and said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good, though I have rewarded you with evil.

¹⁸ And he continued, “Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done? What evil is in my hand?

³ O LORD my God, if I have done this, if injustice is on my hands, ⁴ if I have rewarded my ally with evil, if I have plundered my foe without cause, ⁵ then may my enemy pursue me and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah

³ Surely none who wait for You will be put to shame; but those who are faithless without cause will be disgraced.

⁷ For without cause they laid their net for me; without reason they dug a pit for my soul.

²⁶ May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.

⁴ Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me—my enemies for no reason. Though I did not steal, I must repay.

³ They surround me with hateful words and attack me without cause.

⁸⁵ The arrogant have dug pits for me in violation of Your law. ⁸⁶ All Your commandments are faithful; I am persecuted without cause—help me!

³² The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities to consume all those around him.”

²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’

⁷ Let the assembled peoples gather around You; take Your seat over them on high.

⁶³ I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.

¹⁶ The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these statutes and ordinances. You must be careful to follow them with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹⁴ And Rehoboam did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.

¹⁷ The high places were not removed from Israel, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted all his days.

² And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not wholeheartedly.

² in You, my God, I trust. Do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. ³ Surely none who wait for You will be put to shame; but those who are faithless without cause will be disgraced.

²¹ May integrity and uprightness preserve me, because I wait for You.

² Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

²³ Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.

⁹ I will bring you out of the city and deliver you into the hands of foreigners, and I will execute judgments against you.

¹¹⁴ You are my hiding place and my shield; I put my hope in Your word.

³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand.

³ I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

¹⁷ Show me a sign of Your goodness, that my enemies may see and be ashamed; for You, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

¹³ Return, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants. ¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with Your loving devotion, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. ¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil.

¹¹ I said, “I will never again see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.

¹¹ My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.

³⁰ My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.

³ For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers. ⁴ My heart is afflicted, and withered like grass; I even forget to eat my bread.

⁶¹ Though the ropes of the wicked bind me, I do not forget Your law.

⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. ⁷ Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness. ⁸ The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.

⁶ Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.

⁴ “Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. ⁵ You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

⁴⁷ Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men! ⁴⁸ What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

¹² So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.

¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers, were killed, just as they had been killed.

¹⁵ He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

¹¹ Let not the foot of the proud come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.

¹ For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David. Do you indeed speak justly, O rulers? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men? ² No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth.

²⁷ A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.

²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

¹ A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite. O LORD my God, I take refuge in You; save me and deliver me from all my pursuers, ² or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

¹⁹ Let not my enemies gloat over me without cause, nor those who hate me without reason wink in malice.

¹⁹ Many are my enemies without cause, and many hate me without reason.

³ See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O LORD. ⁴ For no fault of my own, they move swiftly to attack me. Arise to help me, and take notice.

⁵ But I am poor and needy; hurry to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.

²⁶ Help me, O LORD my God; save me according to Your loving devotion.

¹³⁸ The testimonies You have laid down are righteous and altogether faithful.

¹⁴² Your righteousness is everlasting and Your law is true.

¹⁵¹ You are near, O LORD, and all Your commandments are true.

⁴ Look to my right and see; no one attends to me. There is no refuge for me; no one cares for my soul. ⁵ I cry to You, O LORD: “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” ⁶ Listen to my cry, for I am brought quite low. Rescue me from my pursuers, for they are too strong for me.

⁹ Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD; I flee to You for refuge.

³ But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”

²⁶ Saul was proceeding along one side of the mountain, and David and his men along the other side. Even though David was hurrying to get away, Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them. ²⁷ Then a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Come quickly, for the Philistines have raided the land!”

⁶ So he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed. May I never lift my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed.” ⁷ With these words David restrained his men, and he did not let them rise up against Saul. Then Saul left the cave and went on his way.

⁹ But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can lift a hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?”

²⁴ As surely as I valued your life today, so may the LORD value my life and rescue me from all trouble.”

¹⁶ Now send quickly and tell David, ‘Do not spend the night at the fords of the wilderness, but be sure to cross over. Otherwise the king and all the people with him will be swallowed up.’”

² For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”

²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

⁵ For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

¹² If your sons keep My covenant and the testimony I will teach them, then their sons will also sit on your throne forever and ever.”

² For I have said, “Loving devotion is built up forever; in the heavens You establish Your faithfulness.”

¹⁵² Long ago I learned from Your testimonies that You have established them forever.

¹⁸ For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

³⁴ Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

²⁵ but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.

¹³ But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

⁹ Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone, ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁵ Your loving devotion, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds.

¹ A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the loving devotion of the LORD forever; with my mouth I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations. ² For I have said, “Loving devotion is built up forever; in the heavens You establish Your faithfulness.”

¹¹ The heavens are Yours, and also the earth. The earth and its fullness You founded.

¹ The LORD reigns! He is robed in majesty; the LORD has clothed and armed Himself with strength. The world indeed is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

⁵ For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.

⁵ He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.

⁶ He established them forever and ever; He issued a decree that will never pass away.

⁴ Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loving devotion to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from the days of old.

⁵ But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water, ⁶ through which the world of that time perished in the flood. ⁷ And by His word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

²² As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”

¹⁹ When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

¹² On the day that the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” ¹³ So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance upon its enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? “So the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.”

²⁰ From the heavens the stars fought; from their courses they fought against Sisera.

⁵ Let them praise the name of the LORD, for He gave the command and they were created. ⁶ He established them forever and ever; He issued a decree that will never pass away.

¹³ Surely My own hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand up together.

²⁵ This is what the LORD says: If I have not established My covenant with the day and the night and the fixed order of heaven and earth,

⁹ For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell one to go, and he goes; and another to come, and he comes. I tell my servant to do something, and he does it.”

¹⁸ If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loving devotion, O LORD, supports me. ¹⁹ When anxiety overwhelms me, Your consolation delights my soul.

⁵⁰ This is my comfort in affliction, that Your promise has given me life.

²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and forever enduring word of God.

⁴ “Come up and help me. We will attack Gibeon, because they have made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.” ⁵ So the five kings of the Amorites—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon—joined forces and advanced with all their armies. They camped before Gibeon and made war against it. ⁶ Then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come quickly and save us! Help us, because all the kings of the Amorites from the hill country have joined forces against us.”

² Preserve my soul, for I am godly. You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You.

⁸ “But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend— ⁹ I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said, ‘You are My servant.’ I have chosen and not rejected you. ¹⁰ Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness.

² This is the word of the LORD, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and who will help you: “Do not be afraid, O Jacob My servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

⁵ One will say, ‘I belong to the LORD,’ another will call himself by the name of Jacob, and still another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and will take the name of Israel.”

⁸ But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. ⁹ Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people! ¹⁰ Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.

¹⁷ The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”

²³ For just last night an angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood beside me ²⁴ and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And look, God has granted you the lives of all who sail with you.’

²⁰ Now, O king, come down whenever your soul desires, and we will be responsible for delivering him into your hand.” ²¹ “May you be blessed by the LORD,” replied Saul, “for you have had compassion on me. ²² Please go and prepare further. Investigate and watch carefully where he goes and who has seen him there, for I am told that he is extremely cunning. ²³ Observe and find out all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with certainty, and I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will search him out among all the clans of Judah.”

¹ Furthermore, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David. ² I will attack him while he is weak and weary; I will throw him into a panic, and all the people with him will flee; I will strike down only the king ³ and bring all the people back to you as a bride returning to her husband. You seek the life of only one man; then all the people will be at peace.” ⁴ This proposal seemed good to Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

⁸ He lies in wait near the villages; in ambush he slays the innocent; his eyes watch in stealth for the helpless. ⁹ He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net. ¹⁰ They are crushed and beaten down; the hapless fall prey to his strength.

² When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh, my enemies and foes stumbled and fell.

³² Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them,

¹² Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long.

⁸⁵ The arrogant have dug pits for me in violation of Your law. ⁸⁶ All Your commandments are faithful; I am persecuted without cause—help me! ⁸⁷ They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken Your precepts.

¹²⁹ Wonderful are Your testimonies; therefore I obey them.

³ At that time the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, ⁴ and they conspired to arrest Jesus covertly and kill Him. ⁵ “But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

¹¹ Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”

²¹ Do not let them persuade you, because more than forty men are waiting to ambush him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him; they are ready now, awaiting your consent.”

³ to grant them a concession against Paul by summoning him to Jerusalem, because they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way.

² And he had a son named Saul, choice and handsome, without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the people.

⁸ And Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and array yourselves for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose one of your men and have him come down against me.

⁴⁹ Then David reached into his bag, took out a stone, and slung it, striking the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. ⁵⁰ Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. ⁵¹ David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword and pulled it from its sheath and killed him; and he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.

⁴ Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run it through me, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. ⁵ When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him.

²⁵ Now there was not a man in all Israel as handsome and highly praised as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head, he did not have a single flaw.

²³ Now in those days the advice of Ahithophel was like the consultation of the word of God. Such was the regard that both David and Absalom had for Ahithophel’s advice.

²³ When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his affairs in order and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb.

¹⁴ But Joab declared, “I am not going to wait like this with you!” And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak tree.

¹⁷ They took Absalom, cast him into a large pit in the forest, and piled a huge mound of stones over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled, each to his home.

⁷ The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple. ⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

⁵ You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah ⁶ Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

² “Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!” ³ What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?

¹¹ Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

²⁰ Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

⁸ “Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”

³⁷ Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “This is the most important of all the commandments: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.’ ³¹ The second, like it, is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” ³² “Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him, ³³ and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your soul and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely, He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question Him any further.

⁷ What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

¹² For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

¹⁹ It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes.

¹¹³ The double-minded I despise, but Your law I love.

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul.

⁵ So David marched out and prospered in everything Saul sent him to do, and Saul set him over the men of war. And this was pleasing in the sight of all the people, and of Saul’s officers as well.

¹⁴ and he continued to prosper in all his ways, because the LORD was with him.

³⁰ Every time the Philistine commanders came out for battle, David was more successful than all of Saul’s officers, so that his name was highly esteemed.

³⁰ I have chosen the way of truth; I have set Your ordinances before me.

⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁶ Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ⁷ For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him? ⁸ And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

²⁴ Zadok was also there, and all the Levites with him were carrying the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until the people had passed out of the city. ²⁵ Then the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and let me see both it and His dwelling place again. ²⁶ But if He should say, ‘I do not delight in you,’ then here I am; let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him.”

¹¹ David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. ¹² And he said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families. You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves so that you may bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. ¹³ It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.”

¹⁵ When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to cleanse the house of the LORD, according to the command of the king by the words of the LORD. ¹⁶ So the priests went inside the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out to the courtyard all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the LORD. Then the Levites took these things and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the LORD. For eight more days they consecrated the house of the LORD itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month. ¹⁸ Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported, “We have cleansed the entire house of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the showbread with all its utensils. ¹⁹ Moreover, we have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz in his unfaithfulness cast aside during his reign. They are now in front of the altar of the LORD.” ²⁰ Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials and went up to the house of the LORD. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And the king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD. ²² So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. They slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³ Then they brought the goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, who laid their hands on them. ²⁴ And the priests slaughtered the goats and put their blood on the altar for a sin offering, to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel. ²⁵ Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres according to the command of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet. For the command had come from the LORD through His prophets. ²⁶ The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷ And Hezekiah ordered that the burnt offering be sacrificed on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD and the trumpets began as well, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸ The whole assembly was worshiping, the singers were singing, and the trumpeters were playing. All this continued until the burnt offering was completed. ²⁹ When the offerings were completed, the king and all those present with him bowed down and worshiped. ³⁰ Then King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to the LORD in the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed their heads and worshiped. ³¹ Then Hezekiah said, “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings. ³² The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. ³³ And the consecrated offerings were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. ³⁴ However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had been consecrated. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been. ³⁵ Furthermore, the burnt offerings were abundant, along with the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. So the service of the house of the LORD was established. ³⁶ Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had prepared for the people, because everything had been accomplished so quickly.

²² And Hezekiah encouraged all the Levites who performed skillfully before the LORD. For seven days they ate their assigned portion, sacrificing fellowship offerings and giving thanks to the LORD, the God of their fathers.

⁸ The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

⁸ How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us,’ when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has produced a deception? ⁹ The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what wisdom do they really have?

²⁵ At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

⁶ then he need not honor his father or mother with it. Thus you nullify the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition. ⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: ⁸ ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouths, and they honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. ⁹ They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

¹⁴ Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

²⁴ You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. ²⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and unrighteousness. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well. ²⁷ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. ²⁹ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers. ³³ You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell? ³⁴ Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute in town after town. ³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

¹² Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!

⁶ Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked. ⁷ They replied, “If you will be a servant to these people and serve them this day, and if you will respond by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.” ⁸ But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him. ⁹ He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” ¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹ Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’” ¹² After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.” ¹³ And the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice of the elders ¹⁴ and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word He had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

¹² Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.

⁹ What do you know that we do not? What do you understand that is not clear to us? ¹⁰ Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side—men much older than your father.

⁴ Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because the others were older than he.

⁷ I thought that age should speak, and many years should teach wisdom. ⁸ But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. ⁹ It is not only the old who are wise, or the elderly who understand justice. ¹⁰ Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; I too will declare what I know.’

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

²³ And I have been blameless before Him and kept myself from iniquity.

⁵⁹ I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your testimonies. ⁶⁰ I hurried without hesitating to keep Your commandments.

¹²⁶ It is time for the LORD to act, for they have broken Your law.

¹⁵ my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path.

⁶ We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

³⁶ How unstable you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

¹ Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. ² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow,

¹⁰ For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. ¹¹ He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.

²¹ For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God.

⁷ So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me.

²⁰ But this is not the way you came to know Christ. ²¹ Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him—in keeping with the truth that is in Jesus— ²² to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

¹³ And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the true word of God—the word which is now at work in you who believe.

¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.

⁵ My soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods; with joyful lips my mouth will praise You.

¹¹ For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire compares with her.

¹³ Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste. ¹⁴ Know therefore that wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, there is a future for you, and your hope will never be cut off.

² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is more delightful than wine. ³ The fragrance of your perfume is pleasing; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens adore you. ⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry! May the king bring me to his chambers. We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. It is only right that they adore you.

¹ I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink; drink freely, O beloved.

⁴ Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.

¹⁰ Hate evil, O you who love the LORD! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

³ I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

²⁹ Remove me from the path of deceit and graciously grant me Your law. ³⁰ I have chosen the way of truth; I have set Your ordinances before me.

⁹⁸ Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me.

¹⁰⁰ I discern more than the elders, for I obey Your precepts.

¹³ To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

¹² There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

¹⁵ Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

¹³ Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

⁹ Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.

³ when His lamp shone above my head, and by His light I walked through the darkness,

²⁸ For You, O LORD, light my lamp; my God lights up my darkness.

⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

³ Send out Your light and Your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy mountain, and to the place where You dwell.

²³ For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,

¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.

¹⁹ We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

³ So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

¹³ And whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, would be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. ¹⁴ They took an oath to the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting, trumpets, and rams’ horns.

²⁹ hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to carefully obey all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord.

¹² Your vows are upon me, O God; I will render thank offerings to You.

¹³ I will enter Your house with burnt offerings; I will fulfill my vows to You— ¹⁴ the vows that my lips promised and my mouth spoke in my distress.

⁴ When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, because He takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow. ⁵ It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.

³³ Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’

⁵ And not only did they do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, because it was the will of God.

¹ For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments, according to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me. ¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. ¹⁶ For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet. ¹⁷ I can count all my bones; they stare and gloat over me. ¹⁸ They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.

³⁹ You are to present these offerings to the LORD at your appointed times, in addition to your vow and freewill offerings, whether burnt offerings, grain offerings, drink offerings, or peace offerings.”

¹³⁰ The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs the simple.

² Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.

¹⁵ Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.

³ When I saw that you would not save me, I risked my life and crossed over to the Ammonites, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come today to fight against me?”

⁵ He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”

¹⁴ Why do I put myself at risk and take my life in my own hands?