Add parallel Print Page Options

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.(A)

Read full chapter

But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”(A)

Read full chapter

Psalm 139

The Inescapable God

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.(A)
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.(B)
You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.(C)
Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.(D)
You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.(E)
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.(F)

Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?(G)
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.(H)
If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.(I)
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and night wraps itself around me,”[a](J)
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.(K)

13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.(L)
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.(M)
15     My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.(N)
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.[b]
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!(O)
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end[c]—I am still with you.

19 O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
    and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—(P)
20 those who speak of you maliciously
    and lift themselves up against you for evil![d](Q)
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?(R)
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
    I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my thoughts.(S)
24 See if there is any wicked[e] way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.[f](T)

Footnotes

  1. 139.11 Q ms: MT and the light around me become night
  2. 139.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. 139.18 Or I awake
  4. 139.20 Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain
  5. 139.24 Heb hurtful
  6. 139.24 Or the ancient way

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.(A) Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.(B) And God is able to provide you with every blessing[a] in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.(C) As it is written,

“He scatters abroad; he gives to the poor;
    his righteousness[b] endures forever.”(D)

10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.[c]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 9.8 Gk gift or grace
  2. 9.9 Or benevolence
  3. 9.10 Or benevolence

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[a] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?(A) 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?(B) 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?[b] 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God[c] and his[d] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.(C)

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 6.25 Other ancient authorities lack or what you will drink
  2. 6.27 Or add one cubit to your height
  3. 6.33 Other ancient authorities lack of God
  4. 6.33 Or its