Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

Aleph

^34 (A)“Then the land shall enjoy^[a] its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. ³⁶ And as for those of you who are left, ^(B)I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The ^(C)sound of a ^(D)driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. ³⁷ They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And ^(E)you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. ³⁸ And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. ³⁹ And those of you who are left shall ^(F)rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.

⁴⁰ “But if ^(G)they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they ^(H)committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, ⁴¹ so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their ^(I)uncircumcised heart is ^(J)humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, ⁴² then I will ^(K)remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will ^(L)remember the land. ⁴³ But ^(M)the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, ^(N)I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and ^(O)break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, ^(P)whom I brought out of the land of Egypt ^(Q)in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”

^46 (R)These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses ^(S)on Mount Sinai.

The New Commandment

⁷ Beloved, I am writing you ^(A)no new commandment, but ^(B)an old commandment ^(C)that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. ⁸ At the same time, it is ^(D)a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because^{[a] (E)}the darkness is passing away and ^(F)the true light is already shining. ⁹ Whoever says he is in the light and ^(G)hates his brother is still in darkness. ¹⁰ Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him^[b] there is no ^(H)cause for stumbling. ¹¹ But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and ^(I)walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do Not Love the World

^15 (P)Do not love the world or the things in the world. ^(Q)If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—^(R)the desires of the flesh and ^(S)the desires of the eyes and pride of life^[c]—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷ And ^(T)the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.