The Majesty of God in Judgment

To the Chief Musician. On ^[a]stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.

^29 (A)Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the ^(B)God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be ^(C)cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; ^(D)because there is no other God who can deliver like this.”

David’s Praise to God

¹⁰ Therefore David blessed the Lord before all the assembly; and David said:

²³ for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:

Nebuchadnezzar’s Second Dream

The Glory of God in Zion

A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

The Jews Guilty as the Gentiles

^17 [a]Indeed ^(A)you are called a Jew, and ^(B)rest^[b] on the law, ^(C)and make your boast in God, ¹⁸ and ^(D)know His will, and ^(E)approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, ¹⁹ and ^(F)are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, ^(G)having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. ^21 (H)You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? ²² You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, ^(I)do you rob temples? ²³ You who ^(J)make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? ²⁴ For ^(K)“the name of God is ^(L)blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

Circumcision of No Avail

^25 (M)For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ Therefore, ^(N)if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? ²⁷ And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, ^(O)judge you who, even with your ^[c]written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? ²⁸ For ^(P)he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew ^(Q)who is one inwardly; and ^(R)circumcision is that of the heart, ^(S)in the Spirit, not in the letter; ^(T)whose ^[d]praise is not from men but from God.

God’s Judgment Defended

3 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? ² Much in every way! Chiefly because ^(U)to them were committed the ^[e]oracles of God.