150 Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord!

Praise him in his Temple and in the heavens he made with mighty power.^{[a] 2} Praise him for his mighty works. Praise his unequaled greatness. ³ Praise him with the trumpet and with lute and harp. ⁴ Praise him with the drums and dancing. Praise him with stringed instruments and horns. ⁵ Praise him with the cymbals, yes, loud clanging cymbals.

⁶ Let everything alive give praises to the Lord! You praise him!

Hallelujah!

¹⁵ “I will abandon them and return to my home until they admit their guilt and look to me for help again, for as soon as trouble comes, they will search for me and say:

6 “‘Come, let us return to the Lord; it is he who has torn us—he will heal us. He has wounded—he will bind us up. ² In just a couple of days,^[a] or three at the most, he will set us on our feet again to live in his kindness! ³ Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him, and he will respond to us as surely as the coming of dawn or the rain of early spring.’”

⁴ “O Ephraim and Judah, what shall I do with you? For your love vanishes like morning clouds, and disappears like dew. ⁵ I sent my prophets to warn you of your doom; I have slain you with the words of my mouth, threatening you with death. Suddenly, without warning, my judgment will strike you as surely as day follows night.

⁶ “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me.

¹ From: John, the old Elder of the church.

To: That dear woman Cyria, one of God’s very own, and to her children whom I love so much, as does everyone else in the church. ² Since the Truth is in our hearts forever, ³ God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son will bless us with great mercy and much peace, and with truth and love.

⁴ How happy I am to find some of your children here and to see that they are living as they should, following the Truth, obeying God’s command.

⁵ And now I want to urgently remind you, dear friends, of the old rule God gave us right from the beginning, that Christians should love one another. ⁶ If we love God, we will do whatever he tells us to. And he has told us from the very first to love each other.