Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty
1 “At this also my heart trembles
and leaps out of its place.
2 iKeep listening to the thunder of his voice
and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go,
and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
4 After it his voice roars;
he jthunders with his kmajestic voice,
and he does not restrain the lightnings1 when his voice is heard.
5 God thunders wondrously with his voice;
he does great things lthat we cannot comprehend.
6 For to the msnow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’
likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.
7 He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men whom he made may know it.
8 Then the beasts go into their lairs,
and remain in their dens.
9 From its chamber comes the whirlwind,
and cold from the scattering winds.
10 By the breath of God ice is given,
and the broad waters are frozen fast.
11 He loads the thick cloud with moisture;
the clouds scatter his lightning.
12 They turn around and around by his guidance,
to accomplish all that he commands them
on the face of the habitable world.
13 Whether for correction or for his land
or for love, he causes it to happen.
14 “Hear this, O Job;
stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do you know how God lays his command upon them
and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16 nDo you know the balancings2 of the clouds,
the wondrous works of him who is operfect in knowledge,
17 you whose garments are hot
when the earth is still because of the south wind?
18 Can you, like him, pspread out the skies,
hard as a cast metal mirror?
19 Teach us what we shall say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.
20 Shall it be told him that I would speak?
Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?
21 “And now no one looks on the light
when it is bright in the skies,
when the wind has passed and cleared them.
22 Out of the north comes golden splendor;
God is qclothed with awesome majesty.
23 The Almighty—we cannot find him;
he is great in power;
rjustice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
24 Therefore men fear him;
he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”3
O Lord, Be Gracious to Me
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1 lBlessed is the one who considers the poor!1
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
2 the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not mgive him up to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.2
4 As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
nheal me,3 for oI have sinned against you!”
5 My enemies say of me in malice,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers iniquity;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.4
8 They say, “A deadly thing is poured out5 on him;
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
pwho ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10 But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them!
11 By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.
13 qBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
rAmen and Amen.
Genealogy of Those Who Returned with Ezra
1 These are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylonia, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king: 2 Of the sons of fPhinehas, Gershom. Of the sons of gIthamar, hDaniel. Of the sons of David, iHattush. 3 Of the sons of Shecaniah, who was of the sons of jParosh, Zechariah, with whom were registered 150 men. 4 Of the sons of kPahath-moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him 200 men. 5 Of the sons of lZattu,1 Shecaniah the son of Jahaziel, and with him 300 men. 6 Of the sons of mAdin, Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him 50 men. 7 Of the sons of nElam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him 70 men. 8 Of the sons of oShephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him 80 men. 9 Of the sons of pJoab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him 218 men. 10 Of the sons of Bani,2 Shelomith the son of Josiphiah, and with him 160 men. 11 Of the sons of qBebai, Zechariah, the son of Bebai, and with him 28 men. 12 Of the sons of rAzgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan, and with him 110 men. 13 Of the sons of sAdonikam, those who came later, their names being Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah, and with them 60 men. 14 Of the sons of tBigvai, Uthai and Zaccur, and with them 70 men.
Ezra Sends for Levites
15 I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there none of the sons of Levi. 16 Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, leading men, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of insight, 17 and sent them to Iddo, the leading man at the place Casiphia, telling them what to say to Iddo and his brothers and3 the temple servants at the place Casiphia, namely, to send us ministers for the house of our God. 18 And by uthe good hand of our God on us, they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, son of Israel, namely Sherebiah with his sons and kinsmen, 18; 19 also Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, with his kinsmen and their sons, 20; 20 besides 220 of the temple servants, whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites. These were all mentioned by name.
Fasting and Prayer for Protection
21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. 22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of vsoldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” 23 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
Priests to Guard Offerings
24 Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them. 25 And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. 26 I weighed out into their hand 650 talents4 of silver, and silver vessels worth 200 talents,5 and 100 talents of gold, 27 20 bowls of gold worth 1,000 darics,6 and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. 28 And I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. 29 Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel at Jerusalem, within the chambers of the house of the Lord.” 30 So the priests and the Levites took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.
31 Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way. 32 We came to Jerusalem, and there we remained three days. 33 On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed into the hands of wMeremoth the priest, son of Uriah, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui. 34 The whole was counted and weighed, and the weight of everything was recorded.
35 At that time those who had come from captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and as a sin offering xtwelve male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord. 36 They also delivered ythe king’s commissions to the king’s satraps7 and to the zgovernors of the province Beyond the River, and they aided the people and the house of God.
Woe to Nineveh
1 Woe to the xbloody city,
all full of lies and plunder—
no end to the prey!
2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3 Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and yglittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4 And all for the countless whorings of the zprostitute,
graceful and of deadly acharms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
and peoples with her charms.
5 bBehold, I am against you,
declares the Lord of hosts,
and will clift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at your nakedness
and kingdoms at your shame.
6 I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.
7 And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,
“Wasted is Nineveh; dwho will grieve for her?”
Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 eAre you better than fThebes1
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9 Cush was her strength;
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her2 helpers.
10 Yet gshe became an exile;
she went into captivity;
hher infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honored men ilots were cast,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be drunken;
you will go into hiding;
you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with jfirst-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops
are kwomen in your midst.
The lgates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you;
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust;
multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17 Your princes3 are like grasshoppers,
your scribes4 like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
mYour people are scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19 There is no easing your hurt;
nyour wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
oclap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?
A Living Stone and a Holy People
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure uspiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have vtasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, a living stone wrejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being xbuilt up as a spiritual yhouse, to be a holy zpriesthood, to offer aspiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
b“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a ccornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
d“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”1
8 and
e“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were fdestined to do.
9 But you are ga chosen race, ha royal priesthood, a holy nation, ia people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you jout of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 kOnce you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as lsojourners and mexiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, nwhich wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and oglorify God on the day of visitation.
Submission to Authority
13 pBe subject for the Lord’s sake qto every human institution,2 whether it be to the emperor3 as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, rthat by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but sliving as servants4 of God. 17 tHonor everyone. Love the ubrotherhood. vFear God. Honor the emperor.
18 wServants, xbe subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.5 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while ysuffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, zwhen you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because aChrist also suffered for you, leaving you an bexample, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 cHe committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 dWhen he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but econtinued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 fHe himself bore our sins in his body on the gtree, that we might hdie to sin and ilive to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were jstraying like sheep, but have now returned to the kShepherd and Overseer of your souls.
