You Keep Him in Perfect Peace
1 In that day ethis song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up fsalvation
as walls and bulwarks.
2 gOpen the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
3 hYou keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
5 iFor he has humbled
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of jthe poor,
the steps of jthe needy.”
7 The path of the righteous is level;
kyou make level the way of the righteous.
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
are the desire of our soul.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
mFor when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 nIf favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, oyour hand is lifted up,
but pthey do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let qthe fire for your adversaries consume them.
12 O Lord, you will ordain rpeace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
13 O Lord our God,
sother lords besides you have ruled over us,
tbut your name alone we bring to remembrance.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 uBut you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
vyou have enlarged all the borders of the land.
16 O Lord, win distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
17 xLike a pregnant woman
who writhes and cries out in her pangs
when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
18 xwe were pregnant, we writhed,
but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19 yYour dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For zyour dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.
You Keep Him in Perfect Peace
1 In that day ethis song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up fsalvation
as walls and bulwarks.
You Must Be Born Again
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named hNicodemus, ia ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus1 jby night and said to him, k“Rabbi, lwe know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do munless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is nborn oagain2 he cannot psee the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born qof water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 rThat which is born of the flesh is sflesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.3 7 tDo not marvel that I said to you, ‘You4 must be born uagain.’ 8 vThe wind5 blows wwhere it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, x“How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel yand yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, zwe speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but zyou6 do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 aNo one has bascended into heaven except che who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.7 14 And das Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man ebe lifted up, 15 that whoever believes fin him gmay have eternal life.8
For God So Loved the World
16 “For hGod so loved ithe world,9 jthat he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not kperish but have eternal life. 17 For lGod did not send his Son into the world mto condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 nWhoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not obelieved in the name of the only Son of God. 19 pAnd this is the judgment: qthe light has come into the world, and rpeople loved the darkness rather than the light because stheir works were evil. 20 tFor everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, ulest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever vdoes what is true wcomes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
John the Baptist Exalts Christ
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and xwas baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for yJohn had not yet been put in prison).
