God Shall Scatter His Enemies
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.
1 mGod shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;
and those who hate him shall flee before him!
2 nAs smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away;
as wax melts before fire,
so the wicked shall perish before God!
3 But the righteous shall be glad;
they shall oexult before God;
they shall be jubilant with joy!
4 Sing to God, psing praises to his name;
lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts;
his name is the Lord;
exult before him!
5 qFather of the fatherless and protector of widows
is God in rhis holy habitation.
6 sGod settles the solitary in a home;
he tleads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
7 O God, uwhen you went out before your people,
vwhen you marched through the wilderness, Selah
8 wthe earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God,1 the God of Israel.
9 Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad;
you restored your inheritance as it languished;
10 your flock2 found a dwelling in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.
11 The Lord gives the word;
xthe women who announce the news are a great host:
12 “The kings of the armies—they flee, they flee!”
The women at home divide the spoil—
13 though you men lie among the sheepfolds—
the wings of a dove covered with silver,
its pinions with shimmering gold.
14 When the Almighty scatters kings there,
let snow fall on Zalmon.
15 O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan;
O many-peaked3 mountain, mountain of Bashan!
16 Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain,
at the mount that yGod desired for his abode,
yes, where the Lord will dwell forever?
17 The zchariots of God are twice ten thousand,
thousands upon thousands;
the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary.
18 aYou ascended on high,
leading a host of captives in your train
and receiving gifts among men,
even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.
19 Blessed be the Lord,
who daily bbears us up;
God is our salvation. Selah
20 Our God is a God of salvation,
and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.
21 But God will cstrike the heads of his enemies,
the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways.
22 The Lord said,
“I will bring them back from Bashan,
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
23 that you may strike your dfeet in their blood,
that ethe tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe.”
24 Your procession is4 seen, O God,
the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary—
25 the singers in front, the musicians last,
between them virgins playing tambourines:
26 “Bless God in the great congregation,
the Lord, O you5 who are of Israel’s fountain!”
27 There is Benjamin, fthe least of them, in the lead,
the princes of Judah in their throng,
the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.
28 Summon your power, O God,6
the power, O God, by which you have worked for us.
29 Because of your temple at Jerusalem
gkings shall bear hgifts to you.
30 Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds,
the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples.
Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute;
scatter the peoples who delight in war.7
31 Nobles shall come from Egypt;
iCush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.
32 O jkingdoms of the earth, sing to God;
sing praises to the Lord, Selah
33 to him who krides in the heavens, the ancient heavens;
behold, he sends out his voice, his lmighty voice.
34 mAscribe power to God,
whose majesty is over Israel,
and whose power is in the skies.
35 Awesome is God from his8 sanctuary;
the God of Israel—he is the one who ngives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!
Jerusalem Refused to Repent
1 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
look and take note!
Search her squares to see
if you can find a man,
one who does justice
and seeks truth,
that I may pardon her.
2 Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
yet they fswear falsely.
3 O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
You have gstruck them down,
but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
but they refused to htake correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to repent.
4 Then I said, “These are only the poor;
they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
the ijustice of their God.
5 I will go to the great
and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had jburst the bonds.
6 Therefore a klion from the forest shall strike them down;
a lwolf from the desert shall devastate them.
A mleopard is watching their cities;
everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
their apostasies are great.
7 “How can I pardon you?
Your children have nforsaken me
and have osworn by those who are pno gods.
When I fed them to the full,
they committed adultery
and trooped to the houses of whores.
8 They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
each qneighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9 rShall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord;
and shall I not savenge myself
on a nation such as this?
10 “Go up through her tvine rows and destroy,
but umake not a full end;
strip away her branches,
for they are not the Lord’s.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been utterly vtreacherous to me,
declares the Lord.
12 They have spoken falsely of the Lord
and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
wno disaster will come upon us,
xnor shall we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets will become wind;
the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”
The Lord Proclaims Judgment
14 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, yI am making my words in your mouth a fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
15 Behold, zI am bringing against you
a nation afrom afar, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is like an open tomb;
they are all mighty warriors.
17 They shall beat up your harvest and your food;
they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your cflocks and your herds;
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your fortified cities in which you trust
they shall beat down with the sword.”
18 “But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, d‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”
Jesus Ministers to Great Crowds
23 zAnd he went throughout all Galilee, ateaching in their synagogues and bproclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his cfame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having dseizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
The Sermon on the Mount
1 eSeeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
The Beatitudes
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the fpoor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be gcomforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for hthey shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who ihunger and thirst for jrighteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the kmerciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the lpure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the mpeacemakers, for they shall be ncalled sons1 of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are opersecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 pRejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light
13 q“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
14 “You are the rlight of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 sNor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that2 they may tsee your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Christ Came to Fulfill the Law
17 “Do not think that I have come to uabolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to vfulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, wnot an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes xone of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called yleast in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never zenter the kingdom of heaven.
