The Lord Is My Strength and My Shield

Of David.

²⁹ When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he ^(A)tore his clothes ³⁰ and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy ^(B)is gone, and I, where shall I go?” ³¹ Then they took ^(C)Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. ³² And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.” ³³ And he identified it and said, “It is my son's robe. ^(D)A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” ³⁴ Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ All his sons and all his daughters ^(E)rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, ^(F)I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. ³⁶ Meanwhile ^(G)the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, ^(H)the captain of the guard.

⁴ For if God did not spare ^(A)angels when they sinned, but ^(B)cast them into hell^[a] and committed them to chains^[b] of gloomy darkness ^(C)to be kept until the judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world, but ^(D)preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ^(E)a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ if by ^(F)turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, ^(G)making them an example of ^(H)what is going to happen to the ungodly;^{[c] 7} and ^(I)if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, ^(J)he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹ then ^(K)the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,^[d] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially ^(L)those who indulge^[e] in the lust of defiling passion and ^(M)despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble ^(N)as they blaspheme the glorious ones,