The Greatest Commandment
1 “Now this is zthe commandment—the statutes and the rules1—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that ayou may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and bthat your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, cas the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Hear, O Israel: dThe Lord our God, the Lord is one.2 5 You eshall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And fthese words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 gYou shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 hYou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 iYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities jthat you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 kthen take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is lthe Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and mby his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not ngo after other gods, othe gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for pthe Lord your God in your midst qis a jealous God—rlest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
16 s“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, tas you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall udiligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 vAnd you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers 19 wby thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.
20 x“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son, y‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And zthe Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, ato fear the Lord our God, bfor our good always, that che might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25 And dit will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’
I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord
A Maskil1 of hEthan the Ezrahite.
1 iI will sing of jthe steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your kfaithfulness to all generations.
2 For I said, j“Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens lyou will establish your kfaithfulness.”
3 You have said, “I have made ma covenant with my nchosen one;
I have osworn to David my servant:
4 ‘I will establish your poffspring forever,
and build your qthrone for all generations.’” Selah
5 Let rthe heavens praise your swonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of tthe holy ones!
6 For uwho in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
uWho among the heavenly beings2 is like the Lord,
7 a God greatly vto be feared in the council of tthe holy ones,
and awesome above all wwho are around him?
8 O Lord God of hosts,
xwho is mighty as you are, O yLord,
with your faithfulness all around you?
9 You rule the raging of the sea;
when its waves rise, you zstill them.
10 You acrushed bRahab like a carcass;
you cscattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
11 dThe heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;
ethe world and all that is in it, you have ffounded them.
12 gThe north and the south, you have created them;
hTabor and iHermon jjoyously praise your name.
13 You have a mighty arm;
strong is your hand, high your right hand.
14 kRighteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
lsteadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
15 Blessed are the people who know mthe festal shout,
who walk, O Lord, in nthe light of your face,
16 who exult in your oname all the day
and in your righteousness are pexalted.
17 For you are qthe glory of their strength;
by your favor our rhorn is exalted.
18 For our sshield belongs to the Lord,
our king to tthe Holy One of Israel.
19 uOf old you spoke in a vision to your godly one,3 and said:
“I have vgranted help to one who is wmighty;
I have exalted one xchosen from the people.
20 yI have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have zanointed him,
21 so that my ahand shall be established with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him;
bthe wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will ccrush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24 My dfaithfulness and my dsteadfast love shall be with him,
and in my name shall his ehorn be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on fthe sea
and his right hand on fthe rivers.
26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my gFather,
my God, and hthe Rock of my salvation.’
27 And I will make him the ifirstborn,
jthe highest of the kings of the earth.
28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,
and my kcovenant will stand firm4 for him.
29 I will establish his loffspring forever
and his lthrone as mthe days of the heavens.
30 nIf his children forsake my law
and do not walk according to my rules,5
31 if they violate my statutes
and do not keep my commandments,
32 then I will punish their transgression with othe rod
and their iniquity with stripes,
33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love
or be false to my faithfulness.
34 I will not violate my kcovenant
or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
35 Once for all I have sworn pby my holiness;
I will not qlie to David.
36 His loffspring shall endure forever,
rhis lthrone as long as sthe sun before me.
37 Like sthe moon it shall be established forever,
ta faithful witness in the skies.” Selah
38 But now you have ucast off and rejected;
you are full of wrath against your vanointed.
39 You have wrenounced xthe covenant with your servant;
you have ydefiled his zcrown in the dust.
40 You have abreached all his walls;
you have laid his strongholds in ruins.
41 aAll who pass by plunder him;
he has become bthe scorn of his neighbors.
42 You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
you have made all his enemies rejoice.
43 You have also turned back the edge of his sword,
and you have not made him stand in battle.
44 You have made his splendor to cease
and cast his throne to the ground.
45 You have cut short cthe days of his youth;
you have dcovered him with shame. Selah
46 eHow long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
How long will your wrath fburn like fire?
47 gRemember hhow short my itime is!
For what vanity you have created all the children of man!
48 jWhat man can live and never ksee death?
Who can deliver his soul from the power of lSheol? Selah
49 Lord, where is your msteadfast love of old,
which by your mfaithfulness you swore to David?
50 nRemember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,
and how I bear in my oheart the insults6 of all the many nations,
51 with which your enemies mock, O Lord,
52 rBlessed be the Lord forever!
Amen and Amen.
Judgment on the Nations
1 Draw near, vO nations, to hear,
and give attention, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host;
he has wdevoted them to destruction,1 has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
and xthe stench of their corpses shall rise;
ythe mountains shall flow with their blood.
4 zAll the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall,
as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon aEdom,
upon the people bI have devoted to destruction.
6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;
it is gorged with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
cFor the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 dWild oxen shall efall with them,
and fyoung steers with fthe mighty bulls.
Their land shall drink its fill of blood,
and their soil shall be gorged with fat.
8 gFor the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 hAnd the streams of Edom2 shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day iit shall not be quenched;
jits smoke shall go up forever.
kFrom generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it forever and ever.
11 lBut the hawk and the porcupine3 shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
mHe shall stretch the line of nconfusion4 over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 oThorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of pjackals,
an abode for ostriches.5
14 qAnd wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird6 settles
and finds for herself a resting place.
15 There the owl nests and lays
and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there rthe hawks are gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 sHe has cast the lot for them;
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
The Throne in Heaven
1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me flike a trumpet, said, g“Come up here, and hI will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once iI was in the Spirit, and behold, ja throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of kjasper and carnelian, and around the throne was la rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were mtwenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, nclothed in white garments, with ogolden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came pflashes of lightning, and rumblings1 and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning qseven torches of fire, rwhich are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was sas it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are tfour living creatures, ufull of eyes in front and behind: 7 vthe first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, weach of them with six wings, are xfull of eyes all around and within, and yday and night they never cease to say,
z“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
awho was and is and is to come!”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, bwho lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders cfall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast dtheir crowns before the throne, saying,
11 e“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for fyou created all things,
and gby your will they existed and were created.”
