I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord
A Maskil1 of hEthan the Ezrahite.
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,
52 rBlessed be the Lord forever!
Amen and Amen.
Judgment for Idolatry
1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt, at iMigdol, at jTahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of kPathros, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day lthey are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, 3 because of the evil that they committed, mprovoking me to anger, nin that they went to make offerings oand serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. 4 pYet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ 5 qBut they did not listen qor incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods. 6 rTherefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, sand they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day. 7 And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil tagainst yourselves, to cut off from you uman and woman, uinfant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant? 8 mWhy do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, nmaking offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become va curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, wthe evil of the kings of Judah, xthe evil of their1 wives, your own evil, yand the evil of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They have not humbled themselves even to this day, znor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.
11 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: aBehold, I will set my face against you for harm, to cut off all Judah. 12 I will take the remnant of Judah who have bset their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. cIn the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine cthey shall be consumed. dFrom the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, eand they shall become an oath, a horror, va curse, and a taunt. 13 fI will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, 14 gso that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive hor return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, iexcept some fugitives.”
15 Then all the men who knew that jtheir wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in kPathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: 16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, lwe will not listen to you. 17 mBut we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to nthe queen of heaven oand pour out drink offerings to her, pas we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to nthe queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything qand have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” 19 And the women said,2 “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven rand poured out drink offerings to her, was it swithout our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”
20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, tmen and women, all the people who had given him this answer: 21 u“As for the offerings that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, vdid not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his mind? 22 wThe Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and xthe abominations that you committed. yTherefore your land has become za desolation and a waste and a curse, awithout inhabitant, as it is this day. 23 It is because you made offerings band because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies cthat this disaster has happened to you, as at this day.”
24 Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, dall you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: eYou and your wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made, fto make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Then confirm your vows and perform your vows! 26 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, dall you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: gBehold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, hthat my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, isaying, ‘As the Lord God lives.’ 27 jBehold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. kAll the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them. 28 lAnd those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, mfew in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who came to the land of Egypt to live, nshall know whose word will stand, mine or theirs. 29 This shall be the sign to you, declares the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, in order that you may know that omy words will surely stand against you for harm: 30 Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give pPharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies qand into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave rZedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.”
