Lamentations 1-2

New American Standard Bible

The Sorrows of Zion

1 How ^(A)lonely sits the city
That once had ^(B)many people!
She has become like a ^(C)widow
Who was once ^(D)great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the ^[a]provinces
Has become a ^(E)forced laborer!
²She ^(F)weeps bitterly in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She has no one to comfort her
Among all her ^(G)lovers.
All her friends have ^(H)dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.
³^(I)Judah has gone into exile out of affliction
And ^[b]harsh servitude;
She lives ^(J)among the nations,
But she has not found a resting place;
All those who ^(K)pursued her have overtaken her
In the midst of ^[c]distress.
⁴The roads ^[d]of Zion are in mourning
Because ^(L)no one comes to an appointed feast.
All her gates are ^(M)deserted;
Her priests groan,
Her ^(N)virgins are worried,
And as for Zion herself, it is ^(O)bitter for her.
⁵Her adversaries have become ^[e]her masters,
Her enemies are ^[f]secure;
For the Lord has ^[g]^(P)caused her grief
Because of the multitude of her wrongdoings;
Her little ones have gone away
As captives ^[h]led by the enemy.
⁶All of her ^(Q)splendor
Is gone from the daughter of Zion;
Her leaders have become like deer
That have found no pasture,
And they have ^[i]^(R)fled without strength
^[j]From the pursuer.
⁷In the days of her affliction and homelessness
^(S)Jerusalem remembers all her treasures
That were hers since the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And ^(T)no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her,
They ^(U)laughed at her ^[k]ruin.
⁸Jerusalem sinned ^(V)greatly,
Therefore ^(W)she has become an ^[l]object of ridicule.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even ^(X)she herself groans and turns away.
⁹Her ^(Y)uncleanness was in her garment’s seams;
She ^[m]did not think of her ^(Z)future.
So she has ^[n]^(AA)fallen in an astonishing way;
^(AB)She has no comforter.
“^(AC)See, Lord, my affliction,
For the enemy has ^[o]^(AD)honored himself!”
¹⁰The adversary has stretched out his hand
Over all her precious things,
For she has seen the ^(AE)nations enter her sanctuary,
The ones whom You commanded
That they were ^(AF)not to enter Your congregation.
¹¹All her people groan, ^(AG)seeking bread;
They have given their treasures for food
To ^(AH)restore their ^[p]lives.
“See, Lord, and look,
For I am ^(AI)despised.”
¹²“Is it ^(AJ)nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
Which was inflicted on me,
With which the ^(AK)Lord tormented me on the day of His ^(AL)fierce anger.
¹³From ^[q]the height He sent fire into my ^(AM)bones,
And it dominated them.
He has spread a ^(AN)net for my feet;
He has turned me back;
He has made me ^(AO)desolate,
^[r]Faint all day long.
¹⁴The ^(AP)yoke of my wrongdoings is bound;
By His hand they are woven together.
They have ^(AQ)come upon my neck;
He has made my strength ^[s]fail.
The Lord ^(AR)has handed me over
To those against whom I am not able to stand.
¹⁵The ^(AS)Lord has thrown away all my strong men
In my midst;
He has called an appointed ^[t]time against me
To crush my ^(AT)young men;
The Lord has ^(AU)trodden as in a wine press
The virgin daughter of Judah.
¹⁶For these things I ^(AV)weep;
^[u]My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a ^(AW)comforter,
One to restore my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed.”
¹⁷Zion ^(AX)stretches out with her hands;
There is no one to comfort her;
The Lord has ^(AY)commanded regarding Jacob
That those around him become his adversaries;
^(AZ)Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.
¹⁸“The Lord is ^(BA)righteous,
For I have ^(BB)rebelled against His ^[v]command;
Hear now, all peoples,
And ^(BC)see my pain;
^(BD)My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
¹⁹I ^(BE)called to my lovers, but they deserted me;
My ^(BF)priests and my elders perished in the city
While they sought food to ^(BG)restore their ^[w]strength themselves.
²⁰See, Lord, for I am in distress;
My ^[x]^(BH)spirit is greatly troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very ^(BI)rebellious.
In the street the sword has made women childless;
In the house it is like death.
²¹They have heard that I ^(BJ)groan;
There is no one to comfort me,
All my enemies have heard of my disaster;
They are ^(BK)joyful that You have done it.
Oh, that You would bring the day which You have proclaimed,
So that they will become ^(BL)like me.
²²May all their wickedness come before You;
And ^(BM)deal with them just as You have dealt with me
For all my wrongdoings.
For my groans are many and my heart is faint.”

God’s Anger over Israel

2 How the Lord has ^[y]^(BN)covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He has ^(BO)hurled
The ^(BP)glory of Israel from heaven to earth,
And has not remembered His ^(BQ)footstool
In the day of His anger.
²The Lord has ^[z]^(BR)destroyed; He has not spared
All the settlements of Jacob.
In His wrath He has ^(BS)overthrown
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah,
He has ^(BT)hurled them down to the ground;
He has ^(BU)profaned the kingdom and its leaders.
³In fierce anger He has cut off
^[aa]All the ^(BV)strength of Israel;
He has ^(BW)pulled back His right hand
From the enemy.
And He has ^(BX)burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming on all sides.
⁴He has bent His ^(BY)bow like an enemy;
His right hand is positioned like an adversary,
And He has killed everything that was ^(BZ)pleasant to the eye.
In the tent of the daughter of Zion
He has ^(CA)poured out His wrath like fire.
⁵The Lord has become like an ^(CB)enemy.
He has ^(CC)engulfed Israel;
He has engulfed all its ^(CD)palaces,
He has destroyed its strongholds
And ^(CE)caused great mourning and grieving in the daughter of Judah.
⁶And He has treated His ^[ab]tabernacle violently, like a despised garden;
He has ^(CF)destroyed His appointed ^[ac]meeting place.
The Lord has ^(CG)caused
The appointed feast and Sabbath in Zion to be forgotten,
And He has ^(CH)despised king and priest
In the indignation of His anger.
⁷The Lord has ^(CI)rejected His altar,
He has ^[ad]repudiated His sanctuary;
He ^(CJ)has handed over
The walls of her palaces to the enemy.
They have made a ^(CK)noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of an appointed feast.
⁸The Lord determined to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has ^(CL)stretched out a line,
He has not restrained His hand from ^[ae]destroying,
And He has ^(CM)caused rampart and wall to mourn;
They have languished together.
⁹Her ^(CN)gates have sunk into the ground,
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her leaders are among the nations;
The ^(CO)Law is gone.
Her prophets, too, find
^(CP)No vision from the Lord.
¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion
^(CQ)Sit on the ground and ^[af]^(CR)are silent.
They have thrown ^(CS)dust on their heads;
They have put on ^(CT)sackcloth.
The ^(CU)virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.
¹¹My ^(CV)eyes fail because of tears,
My ^[ag]^(CW)spirit is greatly troubled;
My ^[ah]^(CX)heart is poured out on the earth
^(CY)Because of the ^[ai]destruction of the daughter of my people,
When ^(CZ)little ones and infants languish
In the streets of the city.
¹²They say to their mothers,
“^(DA)Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded person
In the streets of the city,
As their ^(DB)lives are poured out
^[aj]In their mothers’ arms.
¹³How shall I admonish you?
What ^(DC)shall I compare to you,
Daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I liken to you as I comfort you,
^(DD)Virgin daughter of Zion?
For your collapse is as vast as the sea;
Who can ^(DE)heal you?
¹⁴Your ^(DF)prophets have seen for you
Worthless and deceptive visions;
And they have not ^(DG)exposed your wrongdoing
So as to restore you from captivity,
But they have ^(DH)seen for you worthless and misleading pronouncements.
¹⁵All who pass along the way
^(DI)Clap their hands in ridicule at you;
They ^(DJ)^[ak]hiss and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘^(DK)Perfect in beauty,
^(DL)A joy to all the earth’?”
¹⁶All ^(DM)your enemies
Have opened their mouths wide against you;
They ^[al]hiss and ^(DN)gnash their teeth.
They say, “We have ^(DO)engulfed her!
This certainly is the ^(DP)day which we awaited;
We have reached it, we have seen it!”
¹⁷The Lord has ^(DQ)done what He determined;
He has accomplished His word
Which He commanded from days of old.
He has torn down ^(DR)without sparing,
And He has helped the enemy to ^(DS)rejoice over you;
He has ^(DT)exalted the ^[am]might of your adversaries.
¹⁸Their ^(DU)heart cried out to the Lord:
“You ^(DV)wall of the daughter of Zion,
Let your ^(DW)tears stream down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief,
Let ^[an]your eyes have no rest.
¹⁹Arise, whimper in the ^(DX)night
At the beginning of the night watches;
^(DY)Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Raise your hands to Him
For the ^(DZ)life of your little ones
Who ^(EA)languish because of hunger
At the head of every street.
²⁰See, Lord, and look!
With ^(EB)whom have You dealt this way?
Should women really ^(EC)eat their ^[ao]children,
The little ones who were ^[ap]born healthy?
Should ^(ED)priest and prophet really be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
²¹On the ground in the streets
Lie ^(EE)young and old;
My ^(EF)virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the sword.
You have put them to death on the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered, ^(EG)without sparing.
²²You called as on the day of an appointed feast
My ^(EH)terrors on every side;
And there was ^(EI)no one who survived or escaped
On the day of the Lord’s anger.
As for those ^(EJ)whom I brought forth healthy and whom I raised,
My enemy annihilated them.”

Footnotes

Lamentations 1:1 Or districts
Lamentations 1:3 Lit great
Lamentations 1:3 Or narrow places
Lamentations 1:4 Or to
Lamentations 1:5 Lit head
Lamentations 1:5 Or at ease
Lamentations 1:5 Or tormented her
Lamentations 1:5 Lit before
Lamentations 1:6 Lit gone
Lamentations 1:6 Lit Before
Lamentations 1:7 Lit cessation
Lamentations 1:8 Or abomination
Lamentations 1:9 Or remember her final end
Lamentations 1:9 Lit gone down
Lamentations 1:9 Or boasted
Lamentations 1:11 Lit soul
Lamentations 1:13 I.e., heaven
Lamentations 1:13 Or Sick
Lamentations 1:14 Lit falter
Lamentations 1:15 Another reading is feast
Lamentations 1:16 Lit My eye, my eye
Lamentations 1:18 Lit mouth
Lamentations 1:19 Lit soul
Lamentations 1:20 Lit inward parts are in ferment
Lamentations 2:1 Or scorned...Zion in His anger
Lamentations 2:2 Lit engulfed
Lamentations 2:3 Lit Every horn
Lamentations 2:6 Or booth
Lamentations 2:6 Or feast
Lamentations 2:7 I.e., scornfully rejected
Lamentations 2:8 Lit engulfing
Lamentations 2:10 Another reading is wail
Lamentations 2:11 Lit inward parts are in ferment
Lamentations 2:11 Lit liver
Lamentations 2:11 Lit breaking
Lamentations 2:12 Lit on...breast
Lamentations 2:15 Or whistle
Lamentations 2:16 Or whistle
Lamentations 2:17 Lit horn
Lamentations 2:18 Lit the daughter of your eye
Lamentations 2:20 Lit fruit
Lamentations 2:20 Or tenderly cared for

Philemon

New American Standard Bible

Salutation

¹^(A)Paul, ^(B)a prisoner of ^(C)Christ Jesus, and ^(D)Timothy ^[a]our brother,

To Philemon our beloved brother and ^(E)fellow worker, ²and to Apphia ^[b]^(F)our sister, and to ^(G)Archippus our ^(H)fellow soldier, and to ^(I)the church in your house: ³^(J)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon’s Love and Faith

⁴^(K)I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, ⁵because I ^(L)hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the ^[c]saints; ⁶and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective ^[d]through the ^(M)knowledge of every good thing which is in you ^[e]for the sake of Christ. ⁷For I have had great ^(N)joy and comfort in your love, because the ^[f]hearts of the ^[g]saints have been ^(O)refreshed through you, brother.

⁸Therefore, ^(P)though I have ^[h]enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is ^(Q)proper, ⁹yet for love’s sake I rather ^(R)appeal to you—since I am such a person as Paul, ^[i]an ^(S)old man, and now also ^(T)a prisoner of ^(U)Christ Jesus—

Plea for Onesimus, a Free Man

¹⁰I ^(V)appeal to you for my ^(W)^[j]son ^[k]^(X)Onesimus, whom I ^[l]fathered in my ^[m]imprisonment, ¹¹who previously was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. ¹²I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart, ¹³whom I wanted to keep with me, so that in your behalf he might be at my service in my ^[n]^(Y)imprisonment for the gospel; ¹⁴but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness would ^(Z)not be, in effect, by compulsion, but of your own free will. ¹⁵For perhaps it was ^(AA)for this reason that he was separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, ¹⁶^(AB)no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, ^(AC)a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both ^(AD)in the flesh and in the Lord.

¹⁷If then you regard me as a ^(AE)partner, accept him as you would me. ¹⁸But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account; ¹⁹^(AF)I, Paul, have written this with my own hand, I will repay it (^(AG)not to ^[o]mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well). ²⁰Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; ^(AH)refresh my heart in Christ.

²¹^(AI)Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say.

²²At the same time also prepare me a ^(AJ)guest room, for ^(AK)I hope that through ^(AL)your prayers ^(AM)I will be given to you.

²³^(AN)Epaphras, my ^(AO)fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, ²⁴as do ^(AP)Mark, ^(AQ)Aristarchus, ^(AR)Demas, and ^(AS)Luke, my ^(AT)fellow workers.

²⁵^(AU)The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be ^(AV)with your spirit.^[p]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Philemon 1:1 Lit the
Philemon 1:2 Lit the
Philemon 1:5 Lit holy ones; i.e., God’s people
Philemon 1:6 Or in
Philemon 1:6 Lit toward Christ
Philemon 1:7 Lit inward parts
Philemon 1:7 See note v 5
Philemon 1:8 Lit much
Philemon 1:9 Or an ambassador
Philemon 1:10 Or child
Philemon 1:10 I.e., useful
Philemon 1:10 I.e., led to the Lord
Philemon 1:10 Lit bonds
Philemon 1:13 Lit bonds
Philemon 1:19 Lit say
Philemon 1:25 One early ms adds Amen

Psalm 101

New American Standard Bible

The Psalmist’s Profession of Uprightness.

A Psalm of David.

101 I will ^(A)sing of mercy and ^[a]justice;
To You, Lord, I will sing praises.
²I will ^(B)carefully attend to the ^[b]blameless way.
When will You come to me?
I will walk within my house in the ^[c]^(C)integrity of my heart.
³I will set no ^(D)worthless thing before my eyes;
I hate the ^[d]work of those who ^(E)fall away;
It shall not cling to me.
⁴A ^(F)perverse heart shall leave me;
I will know no evil.
⁵Whoever secretly ^(G)slanders his neighbor, him I will ^[e]destroy;
I will not endure one who has a ^(H)haughty look and an arrogant heart.

⁶My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me;
One who walks in a ^[f]^(I)blameless way is one who will serve me.
⁷One who ^(J)practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;
One who speaks lies ^(K)shall not ^[g]maintain his position before me.
⁸^(L)Every morning I will ^[h]^(M)destroy all the wicked of the land,
So as to ^(N)eliminate from the ^(O)city of the Lord all those who do injustice.