1  ⁱI will sing of ^jthe steadfast love of the Lord, forever;

with my mouth I will make known your ^kfaithfulness to all generations.

2  For I said, ^j“Steadfast love will be built up forever;

in the heavens ^lyou will establish your ^kfaithfulness.”

3  You have said, “I have made ^ma covenant with my ⁿchosen one;

I have ^osworn to David my servant:

4  ‘I will establish your ^poffspring forever,

and build your ^qthrone for all generations.’” Selah

5  Let ^rthe heavens praise your ^swonders, O Lord,

your faithfulness in the assembly of ^tthe holy ones!

6  For ^uwho in the skies can be compared to the Lord?

^uWho among the heavenly beings² is like the Lord,

7  a God greatly ^vto be feared in the council of ^tthe holy ones,

and awesome above all ^wwho are around him?

8  O Lord God of hosts,

^xwho is mighty as you are, O ^yLord,

with your faithfulness all around you?

9  You rule the raging of the sea;

when its waves rise, you ^zstill them.

10  You ^acrushed ^bRahab like a carcass;

you ^cscattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

11  ^dThe heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;

^ethe world and all that is in it, you have ^ffounded them.

12  ^gThe north and the south, you have created them;

^hTabor and ⁱHermon ^jjoyously praise your name.

13  You have a mighty arm;

strong is your hand, high your right hand.

14  ^kRighteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;

^lsteadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

15  Blessed are the people who know ^mthe festal shout,

who walk, O Lord, in ⁿthe light of your face,

16  who exult in your ^oname all the day

and in your righteousness are ^pexalted.

17  For you are ^qthe glory of their strength;

by your favor our ^rhorn is exalted.

18  For our ^sshield belongs to the Lord,

our king to ^tthe Holy One of Israel.

19  ^uOf old you spoke in a vision to your godly one,³ and said:

“I have ^vgranted help to one who is ^wmighty;

I have exalted one ^xchosen from the people.

20  ^yI have found David, my servant;

with my holy oil I have ^zanointed him,

21  so that my ^ahand shall be established with him;

my arm also shall strengthen him.

22  The enemy shall not outwit him;

^bthe wicked shall not humble him.

23  I will ^ccrush his foes before him

and strike down those who hate him.

24  My ^dfaithfulness and my ^dsteadfast love shall be with him,

and in my name shall his ^ehorn be exalted.

25  I will set his hand on ^fthe sea

and his right hand on ^fthe rivers.

26  He shall cry to me, ‘You are my ^gFather,

my God, and ^hthe Rock of my salvation.’

27  And I will make him the ⁱfirstborn,

^jthe highest of the kings of the earth.

28  My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,

and my ^kcovenant will stand firm⁴ for him.

29  I will establish his ^loffspring forever

and his ^lthrone as ^mthe days of the heavens.

30  ⁿIf his children forsake my law

and do not walk according to my rules,⁵

31  if they violate my statutes

and do not keep my commandments,

32  then I will punish their transgression with ^othe rod

and their iniquity with stripes,

33  but I will not remove from him my steadfast love

or be false to my faithfulness.

34  I will not violate my ^kcovenant

or alter the word that went forth from my lips.

35  Once for all I have sworn ^pby my holiness;

I will not ^qlie to David.

36  His ^loffspring shall endure forever,

^rhis ^lthrone as long as ^sthe sun before me.

37  Like ^sthe moon it shall be established forever,

^ta faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

38  But now you have ^ucast off and rejected;

you are full of wrath against your ^vanointed.

39  You have ^wrenounced ^xthe covenant with your servant;

you have ^ydefiled his ^zcrown in the dust.

40  You have ^abreached all his walls;

you have laid his strongholds in ruins.

41  ^aAll who pass by plunder him;

he has become ^bthe scorn of his neighbors.

42  You have exalted the right hand of his foes;

you have made all his enemies rejoice.

43  You have also turned back the edge of his sword,

and you have not made him stand in battle.

44  You have made his splendor to cease

and cast his throne to the ground.

45  You have cut short ^cthe days of his youth;

you have ^dcovered him with shame. Selah

46  ^eHow long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?

How long will your wrath ^fburn like fire?

47  ^gRemember ^hhow short my ⁱtime is!

For what vanity you have created all the children of man!

48  ^jWhat man can live and never ^ksee death?

Who can deliver his soul from the power of ^lSheol? Selah

49  Lord, where is your ^msteadfast love of old,

which by your ^mfaithfulness you swore to David?

50  ⁿRemember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,

and how I bear in my ^oheart the insults⁶ of all the many nations,

51  with which your enemies mock, O Lord,

with which they mock ^pthe footsteps of your ^qanointed.

52  ^rBlessed be the Lord forever!

Amen and Amen.

2  “Plead with your mother, plead—

for ^zshe is not my wife,

and I am not her husband—

that she put away ^aher whoring from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts;

3  lest ^bI strip her naked

and make her as ^cin the day she was born,

and ^dmake her like a wilderness,

and make her like a parched land,

and kill her with thirst.

4  ^eUpon her children also I will have no mercy,

^fbecause they are children of whoredom.

5  For ^gtheir mother has played the whore;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For ^hshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who ⁱgive me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

6  Therefore ^jI will hedge up her⁴ way with thorns,

and ^kI will build a wall against her,

so that she cannot find her paths.

7  She shall pursue her lovers

but not overtake them,

and she shall seek them

but shall not find them.

^lThen she shall say,

‘I will go and return to ^mmy first husband,

^lfor it was better for me then than now.’

8  And ⁿshe did not know

that it was ^oI who gave her

^pthe grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished on ^qher silver and gold,

^rwhich they used for Baal.

9  Therefore ^sI will take back

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season,

and ^sI will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

10  Now ^tI will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

11  ^uAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,

her feasts, her ^vnew moons, her ^vSabbaths,

and all her ^wappointed feasts.

12  And ^xI will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

^yof which she said,

‘These are ^zmy wages,

which my lovers have given me.’

I will make them a forest,

^aand the beasts of the field shall devour them.

13  And ^bI will punish her for ^cthe feast days of the Baals

when she burned offerings to them

and ^dadorned herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers

and forgot me, declares the Lord.

14  “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and ^ebring her into the wilderness,

and ^fspeak tenderly to her.

15  And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor⁵ a door of hope.

And there she shall answer ^gas in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

21  “And ^pin that day ^qI will answer, declares the Lord,

I will answer the heavens,

and they shall answer the earth,

22  and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they shall answer ^rJezreel,⁷

23  and ^sI will sow her for myself in the land.

And ^tI ^uwill have mercy on No Mercy,⁸

and ^vI will say to Not My People,^{9 w}‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”