Ezekiel 31:1-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Lofty Cedar
31 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 Mortal, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes:
Whom are you like in your greatness?(A)
3 Consider Assyria, a cedar of Lebanon,
with fair branches and forest shade,
and of great height,
its top among the clouds.(B)
4 The waters nourished it;
the deep made it grow tall,
flowing with its rivers
around the place it was planted,
sending forth its streams
to all the trees of the field.(C)
5 So it towered high
above all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large
and its branches long,
from abundant water in its shoots.(D)
6 All the birds of the air
made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the animals of the field
gave birth to their young,
and in its shade
all great nations lived.(E)
Ezekiel 31:7-9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
7 It was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches,
for its roots went down
to abundant water.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it
nor the fir trees equal its boughs;
the plane trees were as nothing
compared with its branches;
no tree in the garden of God
was like it in beauty.(A)
9 I made it beautiful
with its mass of branches,
the envy of all the trees of Eden
that were in the garden of God.
Ezekiel 31:10-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because it[a] towered high and set its top among the clouds and its heart was proud of its height,(A) 11 I gave it into the hand of the prince of the nations; he has dealt with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out.(B) 12 Foreigners from the most terrible of the nations have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in all the watercourses of the land, and all the peoples of the earth went away from its shade and left it.(C)
13 On its fallen trunk settle
all the birds of the air,
and among its boughs lodge
all the wild animals.(D)
14 All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to lofty height or set their tops among the clouds and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height.
For all of them are handed over to death,
to the world below;
along with mortals,
with those who go down to the Pit.(E)
Footnotes
- 31.10 Syr Vg: Heb you
Psalm 92
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 92
Thanksgiving for Vindication
A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath Day.
1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High,(A)
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning
and your faithfulness by night,(B)
3 to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.(C)
4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
5 How great are your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep!(D)
6 The dullard cannot know;
the stupid cannot understand this:
7 though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever,(E)
8 but you, O Lord, are on high forever.(F)
9 For your enemies, O Lord,
for your enemies shall perish;
all evildoers shall be scattered.(G)
10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
you have anointed me with fresh oil.
11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.(H)
12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.(I)
13 They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 In old age they still produce fruit;
they are always green and full of sap,(J)
15 showing that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.(K)
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 For we know that, if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.(A) 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to be further clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 for surely when we have been clothed in it[a] we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan under our burden because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.(B) 5 The one who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a down payment.(C)
6 So we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.(D) 8 Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. 10 For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive due recompense for actions done in the body, whether good or evil.(E)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 5.3 Other ancient authorities read taken it off
Mark 4:26-34
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Parable of the Growing Seed
26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground(A) 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.”(B)
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?(C) 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
The Use of Parables
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it;(D) 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.(E)
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.