¹³ You in Your mercy and loving-kindness have led forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.

¹⁴ The peoples have heard of it; they tremble; pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia.

¹⁵ Now the chiefs of Edom are dismayed; the mighty men of Moab [renowned for strength], trembling takes hold of them; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away—little by little.

¹⁶ Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of Your arm they are as still as a stone—till Your people pass by and over [into Canaan], O Lord, till the people pass by whom You have purchased.

¹⁷ You will bring them in [to the land] and plant them on Your own mountain, the place, O Lord, You have made for Your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.

¹⁸ The Lord will reign forever and ever.

¹⁹ For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the Israelites walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.

²⁰ Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing.

²¹ And Miriam responded to them, Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously and is highly exalted; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea.

26 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: ^[a]We have a strong city; [the Lord] sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.

² Open the gates, that the [uncompromisingly] righteous nation which keeps her faith and her troth [with God] may enter in.

³ You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.

⁴ So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].

⁵ For He has brought down the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city; He lays it low, lays it low to the ground; He brings it even to the dust.

⁶ The foot has trampled it down—even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

⁷ The way of the [consistently] righteous (those living in moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relationship of their lives) is level and straight; You, O [Lord], Who are upright, direct aright and make level the path of the [uncompromisingly] just and righteous.

⁸ Yes, in the path of Your judgments, O Lord, we wait [expectantly] for You; our heartfelt desire is for Your name and for the remembrance of You.

⁹ My soul yearns for You [O Lord] in the night, yes, my spirit within me seeks You earnestly; for [only] when Your judgments are in the earth will the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God).

¹⁰ Though favor is shown to the wicked, yet they do not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness they deal perversely and refuse to see the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹ Though Your hand is lifted high to strike, Lord, they do not see it. Let them see Your zeal for Your people and be ashamed; yes, let the fire reserved for Your enemies consume them.

¹² Lord, You will ordain peace (God’s favor and blessings, both temporal and spiritual) for us, for You have also wrought in us and for us all our works.

¹³ O Lord, our God, other masters besides You have ruled over us, but we will acknowledge and mention Your name only.

¹⁴ They [the former tyrant masters] are dead, they shall not live and reappear; they are powerless ghosts, they shall not rise and come back. Therefore You have visited and made an end of them and caused every memory of them [every trace of their supremacy] to perish.

¹⁵ You have increased the nation, O Lord; You have increased the nation. You are glorified; You have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ Lord, when they were in trouble and distress, they sought and visited You; they poured out a prayerful whisper when Your chastening was upon them.

¹⁷ As a woman with child drawing near the time of her delivery is in pain and writhes and cries out in her pangs, so we have been before You (at Your presence), O Lord.

¹⁸ We have been with child, we have been writhing and in pain; we have, as it were, brought forth [only] wind. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world [of Israel] have not yet been born.

¹⁹ Your dead shall live [O Lord]; the bodies of our dead [saints] shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For Your dew [O Lord] is a dew of [sparkling] light [heavenly, supernatural dew]; and the earth shall cast forth the dead [to life again; for on the land of the shades of the dead You will let Your dew fall].^(A)

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the [Lord’s] wrath is past.

²¹ For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place [heaven] to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also will disclose the blood shed upon her and will no longer cover her slain and conceal her guilt.

24 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had made ready.

² And they found the stone rolled back from the tomb,

³ But when they went inside, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴ And while they were perplexed and wondering what to do about this, behold, two men in dazzling raiment suddenly stood beside them.

⁵ And as [the women] were frightened and were bowing their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among [those who are] dead?

⁶ He is not here, but has risen! Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee

⁷ That the Son of Man must be given over into the hands of sinful men (men ^[a]whose way or nature is to act in opposition to God) and be crucified and on the third day rise [^[b]from death].^(A)

⁸ And they remembered His words.

⁹ And having returned from the tomb, they reported all these things [taken together] to the eleven apostles and to all the rest.

¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who reported these things to the apostles.

¹¹ But these reports seemed to the men an idle tale (^[c]madness, ^[d]feigned things, ^[e]nonsense), and they did not believe the women.

¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; and stooping down and looking in, he saw the linen cloths alone by themselves, and he went away, wondering about and marveling at what had happened.

1 Peter, an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ, [writing] to the elect exiles of the dispersion scattered (sowed) abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

² Who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and to be sprinkled with [His] blood: May grace (spiritual blessing) and peace be given you in increasing abundance [that spiritual peace to be ^[a]realized in and through Christ, ^[b]freedom from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts].

³ Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴ [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,

⁵ Who are being guarded (garrisoned) by God’s power through [your] faith [till you fully inherit that ^[c]final] salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last time.

⁶ [You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations,

⁷ So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed.

⁸ Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy.

⁹ [At the same time] you receive the result (outcome, consummation) of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰ The prophets, who prophesied of the grace (divine blessing) which was intended for you, searched and inquired earnestly about this salvation.

¹¹ They sought [to find out] to whom or when this was to come which the Spirit of Christ working within them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow [them].

¹² It was then disclosed to them that the services they were rendering were not meant for themselves and their period of time, but for you. [It is these very] things which have now already been made known plainly to you by those who preached the good news (the Gospel) to you by the [same] Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Into these things [the very] angels long to look!

¹³ So brace up your minds; be sober (circumspect, morally alert); set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed.