40 How often they trebelled against him in the wilderness
and ugrieved him in vthe desert!
41 They wtested God again and again
and provoked xthe Holy One of Israel.
42 They ydid not remember his power1
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 zwhen he performed his asigns in Egypt
and his bmarvels in cthe fields of Zoan.
44 He dturned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of eflies, which devoured them,
and ffrogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to gthe destroying locust
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hhail
and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their icattle to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of jdestroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck down every kfirstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of lHam.
52 Then he led out his people mlike sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 nHe led them in safety, so that they owere not afraid,
but pthe sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his qholy land,
rto the mountain which his right hand had swon.
55 He tdrove out nations before them;
he uapportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they vtested and wrebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like xa deceitful bow.
58 For they yprovoked him to anger with their zhigh places;
they amoved him to jealousy with their bidols.
59 When God heard, he was full of cwrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He dforsook his dwelling at eShiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
61 and delivered his fpower to captivity,
his gglory to the hand of the foe.
62 He hgave his people over to the sword
and ivented his wrath on his heritage.
63 jFire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no kmarriage song.
64 Their lpriests fell by the sword,
and their mwidows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord nawoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he oput his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 He rejected the tent of pJoseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he qloves.
69 He rbuilt his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He schose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tfollowing the nursing ewes he brought him
to ushepherd Jacob his people,
Israel his vinheritance.
72 With wupright heart he shepherded them
and xguided them with his skillful hand.
Rebuilding the Altar
1 kWhen the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and lZerubbabel the son of mShealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, nas it is written in the Law of Moses the oman of God. 3 They set the altar in its place, pfor fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and qthey offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. 4 rAnd they kept the Feast of Booths, sas it is written, tand offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, 5 and after that the regular burnt uofferings, the offerings at the new moon vand at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. 7 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, wand food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians xto bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, yaccording to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
Rebuilding the Temple
8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, zZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and zJeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They aappointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to bsupervise the work of the house of the Lord. 9 And zJeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together bsupervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the csons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, daccording to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
e“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”
And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, fold men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: mnot many of you were wise according to worldly standards,1 not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But nGod chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; oGod chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even pthings that are not, to qbring to nothing things that are, 29 so rthat no human being2 might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him3 you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us swisdom from God, trighteousness and usanctification and vredemption, 31 so that, as it is written, w“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,4 xdid not come proclaiming to you ythe testimony5 of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except zJesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And aI was with you bin weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of cthe Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men6 but din the power of God.
Wisdom from the Spirit
6 Yet among ethe mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not fa wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, gwho are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, hwhich God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of ithe rulers of this age understood this, for jif they had, they would not have crucified kthe Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
l“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
10 these things oGod has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even pthe depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts qexcept the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now rwe have received not sthe spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this tin words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, uinterpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.7
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are vfolly to him, and whe is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The xspiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 y“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But zwe have the mind of Christ.
