Elihu Extols God’s Greatness
1 And Elihu continued, and said:
2 “Bear with me a little, and I will show you,
for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.
3 I will get my knowledge from afar
and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly my words are not false;
one who is rperfect in knowledge is with you.
5 “Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any;
he is smighty in strength of understanding.
6 He does not keep the wicked alive,
but tgives the afflicted their right.
7 He does not withdraw his ueyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne
he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
8 And if they are bound in chains
and caught in the cords of affliction,
9 then he declares to them their work
and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
10 He opens their ears to instruction
and commands that they return from iniquity.
11 vIf they listen and serve him,
they complete their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasantness.
12 But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword
and die wwithout knowledge.
13 “The godless in heart cherish anger;
they do not cry for help when he binds them.
14 They die xin youth,
and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.
15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction
and opens their ear by adversity.
16 He also allured you out of distress
into a ybroad place where there was no cramping,
and what was set on your ztable was full of fatness.
17 “But you are full of the judgment on the wicked;
judgment and justice seize you.
18 Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing,
and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
19 Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress,
or all the force of your strength?
20 Do not long for the night,
when peoples vanish in their place.
21 Take care; do not turn to iniquity,
for this you have chosen rather than affliction.
22 Behold, God is exalted in his power;
who is a teacher like him?
23 aWho has prescribed for him his way,
or who can say, b‘You have done wrong’?
24 “Remember to extol his work,
of which men have sung.
25 All mankind has looked on it;
man beholds it from afar.
26 Behold, cGod is great, and we know him not;
dthe number of his years is eunsearchable.
27 For he draws up the drops of water;
they distill his mist in rain,
28 which the skies pour down
and drop on mankind abundantly.
29 fCan anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
the thunderings of his pavilion?
30 Behold, he scatters his lightning about him
and covers the roots of the sea.
31 For by these he gjudges peoples;
hhe gives food in abundance.
32 He covers his hands with the lightning
and commands it to strike the mark.
33 Its crashing declares his presence;1
the cattle also declare that he rises.
My Help and My Deliverer
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the ymiry bog,
and set my feet zupon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his atrust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet bthey are more than can be told.
6 cIn sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.1
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
8 I ddelight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance2
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O Lord.
10 I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
11 As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
your mercy from me;
your esteadfast love and your faithfulness will
ever preserve me!
12 For evils have encompassed me
beyond number;
fmy iniquities have overtaken me,
and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
my heart fails me.
13 gBe pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
O Lord, hmake haste to help me!
14 iLet those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt!
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, j“Aha, Aha!”
16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
but kthe Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!
Ezra Sent to Teach the People
1 Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, qEzra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, 2 son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, 3 son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, 4 son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, 5 son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest— 6 this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and rthe king granted him all that he asked, for sthe hand of the Lord his God was on him.
7 And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. 8 And Ezra1 came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9 For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to tteach his statutes and rules in Israel.
11 uThis is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel:2 12 “Artaxerxes, vking of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven. Peace.3 And now 13 I make a decree that anyone of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom, who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. 14 For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand, 15 and also to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, wwhose xdwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests, vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. 17 With this money, then, you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, and lambs, ywith their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. 18 Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do, according to the will of your God. 19 The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem. 20 And whatever else is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it zout of the king’s treasury.
21 “And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: aWhatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence, 22 up to 100 talents4 of silver, 100 cors5 of wheat, 100 baths6 of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. 23 Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the bking and his sons. 24 We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose ctribute, custom, or toll on anyone of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.
25 “And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and djudges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach. 26 Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.”
27 Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, 28 and who eextended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.
The Destruction of Nineveh
1 The scatterer has come up against you.
Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle;1
collect all your strength.
2 For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
rhis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers;
they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower2 is set up.
6 The river sgates are opened;
the palace melts away;
7 its mistress3 is stripped;4 she is carried off,
her slave girls lamenting,
moaning tlike doves
and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.5
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
uHearts melt and knees tremble;
anguish is in all loins;
vall faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 wBehold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your6 chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
Greeting
1 aPeter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the bDispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the cforeknowledge of God the Father, in the dsanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for esprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Born Again to a Living Hope
3 fBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be gborn again to a living hhope ithrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an jinheritance that is kimperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation lready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you mrejoice, though now nfor a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the otested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the prevelation of Jesus Christ. 8 qThough you have not seen him, you love him. rThough you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours ssearched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time1 the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he tpredicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent uglories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things vthat have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you wby the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, xthings into which angels long to look.
Called to Be Holy
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action,2 and being ysober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, zdo not be conformed to the apassions of your bformer ignorance, 15 but as he who ccalled you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, d“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges eimpartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your fexile, 18 knowing that you were gransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, hnot with perishable things such as isilver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a jlamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was kmade manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 lwho through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him mglory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a nsincere brotherly love, olove one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of pimperishable, qthrough the rliving and abiding word of God; 24 for
s“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is tthe good news that was preached to you.
