Save Me, O My God

A Psalm of David, ^(A)when he fled from Absalom his son.

Bless the Lord, O My Soul

Of David.

Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart

Blessed Is the One Who Finds Wisdom

Isaiah's Vision of the Lord

6 In the year that ^(A)King Uzziah died I ^(B)saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train^[a] of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had ^(C)six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called to another and said:

⁴ And ^(F)the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and ^(G)the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! ^(H)For I am lost; ^(I)for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the ^(J)King, the Lord of hosts!”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he ^(K)touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah's Commission from the Lord

⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for ^(L)us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” ⁹ And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

7 In the days of ^(V)Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, ^(W)Rezin the king of Syria and ^(X)Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. ² When the house of David was told, ^(Y)“Syria is in league with^{[h] (Z)}Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz^[i] and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

³ And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and ^(AA)Shear-jashub^[j] your son, at the end of ^(AB)the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. ⁴ And say to him, ^(AC)‘Be careful, ^(AD)be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two ^(AE)smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and ^(AF)the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Because Syria, with Ephraim and ^(AG)the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it^[k] for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” ⁷ thus says the Lord God:

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰ Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: ¹¹ “Ask ^(AL)a sign of the Lord your^[m] God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” ¹³ And he^[n] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you ^(AM)weary my God also? ¹⁴ Therefore the ^(AN)Lord himself will give you a sign. ^(AO)Behold, the ^(AP)virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name ^(AQ)Immanuel.^{[o] 15} He shall eat ^(AR)curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. ^16 (AS)For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be ^(AT)deserted. ^17 (AU)The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that ^(AV)Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will ^(AW)whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and ^(AX)in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.^[p]

²⁰ In that day ^(AY)the Lord will ^(AZ)shave with a razor that is ^(BA)hired beyond ^(BB)the River^[q]—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

^21 (BC)In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, ²² and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat ^(BD)curds and honey.

²³ In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels^[r] of silver, will become ^(BE)briers and thorns. ^24 (BF)With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. ^25 (BG)And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear ^(BH)of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

Uzziah Reigns in Judah

26 And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. ² He built Eloth and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers. ³ Uzziah was ^(A)sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. ⁴ And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He set himself to seek God ^(B)in the days of Zechariah, ^(C)who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

⁶ He went out and ^(D)made war against the Philistines and broke through the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. ⁷ God helped him ^(E)against the Philistines and against the Arabians who lived in Gurbaal and against the ^(F)Meunites. ⁸ The Ammonites ^(G)paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread even to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong. ⁹ Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at ^(H)the Corner Gate and at ^(I)the Valley Gate and at ^(J)the Angle, and fortified them. ¹⁰ And he built towers in the wilderness and ^(K)cut out many cisterns, for he had large herds, both in the Shephelah and in the plain, and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil. ¹¹ Moreover, Uzziah had an army of soldiers, fit for war, in divisions according to the numbers in the muster made by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's commanders. ¹² The whole number of the heads of fathers' houses of mighty men of valor was 2,600. ¹³ Under their command was an army of ^(L)307,500, who could make war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. ¹⁴ And Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, ^(M)coats of mail, bows, and stones for slinging. ¹⁵ In Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.

Uzziah's Pride and Punishment

¹⁶ But when ^(N)he was strong, ^(O)he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. ¹⁷ But ^(P)Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, ¹⁸ and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, ^(Q)“It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, ^(R)but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.” ¹⁹ Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, ^(S)leprosy^[a] broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense. ²⁰ And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him. ^21 (T)And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived ^(U)in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land.

²² Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, ^(V)Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz wrote. ²³ And Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, “He is a leper.” And Jotham his son reigned in his place.

Jotham Reigns in Judah

27 ^(W)Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done, ^(X)except he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people still followed corrupt practices. ³ He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord and did much building on the wall of ^(Y)Ophel. ⁴ Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and forts and towers on the wooded hills. ⁵ He fought with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them. And the Ammonites gave him that year 100 talents^[b] of silver, and 10,000 cors^[c] of wheat and 10,000 of barley. The Ammonites paid him the same amount in the second and the third years. ⁶ So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God. ^7 (Z)Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸ He was ^(AA)twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. ⁹ And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

Greeting

1 Paul, ^(A)a servant^[a] of Christ Jesus, ^(B)called to be an apostle, ^(C)set apart for the gospel of God, ² which ^(D)he promised beforehand ^(E)through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ concerning his Son, ^(F)who was descended from David^{[b] (G)}according to the flesh ⁴ and ^(H)was declared to be the Son of God ^(I)in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵ through whom ^(J)we have received grace and ^(K)apostleship ^(L)to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name ^(M)among all the nations, ⁶ including you who are ^(N)called to belong to Jesus Christ,

⁷ To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

^(O)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Longing to Go to Rome

⁸ First, ^(P)I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, ^(Q)because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. ^9 (R)For God is my witness, ^(S)whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, ^(T)that without ceasing I mention you ¹⁰ always in my prayers, asking that somehow ^(U)by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For ^(V)I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— ¹² that is, that we may be mutually encouraged ^(W)by each other's faith, both yours and mine. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,^[c] that ^(X)I have often intended to come to you (but ^(Y)thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some ^(Z)harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. ^14 (AA)I am under obligation both to Greeks and to ^(AB)barbarians,^[d] both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

¹⁶ For ^(AC)I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is ^(AD)the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew ^(AE)first and also to ^(AF)the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it ^(AG)the righteousness of God is revealed ^(AH)from faith for faith,^{[e] (AI)}as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”^[f]

God's Wrath on Unrighteousness

¹⁸ For ^(AJ)the wrath of God ^(AK)is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be ^(AL)known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, ^(AM)have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,^[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they ^(AN)became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ^22 (AO)Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and ^(AP)exchanged the glory of ^(AQ)the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

²⁴ Therefore ^(AR)God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to ^(AS)the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for ^(AT)a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, ^(AU)who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶ For this reason ^(AV)God gave them up to ^(AW)dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, ^(AX)men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ^(AY)God gave them up to ^(AZ)a debased mind to do ^(BA)what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Though they know ^(BB)God's righteous decree that those who practice such things ^(BC)deserve to die, they not only do them but ^(BD)give approval to those who practice them.