Psalm 138

English Standard Version

Give Thanks to the Lord

Of David.

138 ^(A)I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
    before ^(B)the gods I sing your praise;
²I bow down ^(C)toward your ^(D)holy temple
    and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
    for you have exalted above all things
    your name and your word.^[a]
³On the day I called, you answered me;
    my strength of soul you increased.^[b]

⁴^(E)All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord,
    for they have heard the words of your mouth,
⁵and they shall sing of ^(F)the ways of the Lord,
    for great is the glory of the Lord.
⁶^(G)For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly,
    but the haughty he knows from afar.

⁷^(H)Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
    you ^(I)preserve my life;
you ^(J)stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
    and your ^(K)right hand delivers me.
⁸The Lord will ^(L)fulfill his purpose for me;
    ^(M)your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
    Do not forsake ^(N)the work of your hands.

Footnotes

Psalm 138:2 Or you have exalted your word above all your name
Psalm 138:3 Hebrew you made me bold in my soul with strength

Jeremiah 25

English Standard Version

Seventy Years of Captivity

25 ^(A)The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ²which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ³“For twenty-three years, ^(B)from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken ^(C)persistently to you, ^(D)but you have not listened. ⁴^(E)You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord ^(F)persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, ⁵saying, ^(G)‘Turn now, every one of you, ^(H)from his evil way and evil deeds, and ^(I)dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. ⁶^(J)Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, ^(K)or provoke me to anger ^(L)with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’ ⁷^(M)Yet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, ^(N)that you might provoke me to anger ^(O)with the work of your hands to your own harm.

⁸“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, ⁹^(P)behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^(Q)my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, ^(R)and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. ¹⁰Moreover, ^(S)I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^(T)the grinding of the millstones and ^(U)the light of the lamp. ¹¹^(V)This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and ^(W)these nations shall serve the king of Babylon ^(X)seventy years. ¹²Then after ^(Y)seventy years are completed, ^(Z)I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, ^(AA)the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, ^(AB)making the land an everlasting waste. ¹³I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written ^(AC)in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴^(AD)For many nations ^(AE)and great kings shall make slaves even of them, ^(AF)and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

The Cup of the Lord's Wrath

¹⁵Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ^(AG)“Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of ^(AH)the sword that I am sending among them.”

¹⁷So I took the cup from the Lord's hand, ^(AI)and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: ¹⁸^(AJ)Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials, ^(AK)to make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse, as at this day; ¹⁹^(AL)Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, all his people, ²⁰and ^(AM)all the mixed tribes among them; all the kings of ^(AN)the land of Uz and all the kings of ^(AO)the land of the Philistines (^(AP)Ashkelon, ^(AQ)Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of ^(AR)Ashdod); ²¹^(AS)Edom, ^(AT)Moab, and the sons of ^(AU)Ammon; ²²all the kings of ^(AV)Tyre, all the kings of ^(AW)Sidon, and the kings of the coastland across ^(AX)the sea; ²³^(AY)Dedan, ^(AZ)Tema, ^(BA)Buz, and all who cut ^(BB)the corners of their hair; ²⁴all the ^(BC)kings of Arabia and all the kings of ^(BD)the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert; ²⁵all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of ^(BE)Elam, and all the kings of ^(BF)Media; ²⁶all the kings of ^(BG)the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of ^(BH)Babylon^[a] shall drink.

²⁷“Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(BI)Drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of ^(BJ)the sword that I am sending among you.’

²⁸“And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(BK)You must drink! ²⁹For behold, ^(BL)I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, ^(BM)for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts.’

³⁰“You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:

^(BN)“‘The Lord will roar from on high,
    and from his holy habitation utter his voice;
he will roar mightily against his fold,
    ^(BO)and shout, like those who tread grapes,
    against all the inhabitants of the earth.
³¹The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth,
    for ^(BP)the Lord has an indictment against the nations;
^(BQ)he is entering into judgment with all flesh,
    and the wicked he will put to the sword,
declares the Lord.’

³²“Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Behold, disaster is going forth
from nation to nation,
^(BR)and a great tempest is stirring
^(BS)from the farthest parts of the earth!

³³^(BT)“And those pierced by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. ^(BU)They shall not be lamented, ^(BV)or gathered, or buried; ^(BW)they shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

³⁴^(BX)“Wail, ^(BY)you shepherds, and cry out,
    ^(BZ)and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock,
for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come,
    and you shall fall like a choice vessel.
³⁵No refuge will remain ^(CA)for the shepherds,
    nor escape for the lords of the flock.
³⁶A voice—the cry ^(CB)of the shepherds,
    ^(CC)and the wail of the lords of the flock!
For the Lord is laying waste their pasture,
³⁷    ^(CD)and the peaceful folds are devastated
    ^(CE)because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
³⁸Like a lion ^(CF)he has left his lair,
    for their land has become a waste
because of ^(CG)the sword of the oppressor,
    ^(CH)and because of his fierce anger.”

Footnotes

Jeremiah 25:26 Hebrew Sheshach, a code name for Babylon

2 Corinthians 2:5-17

English Standard Version

Forgive the Sinner

⁵Now ^(A)if anyone has caused pain, ^(B)he has caused it not to me, but ^(C)in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. ⁶For such a one, ^(D)this punishment by the majority is enough, ⁷so ^(E)you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹For this is why I wrote, that I might ^(F)test you and know ^(G)whether you are obedient in everything. ¹⁰Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, ¹¹so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for ^(H)we are not ignorant of his designs.

Triumph in Christ

¹²When ^(I)I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though ^(J)a door was opened for me in the Lord, ¹³my spirit ^(K)was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴But ^(L)thanks be to God, who in Christ always ^(M)leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads ^(N)the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵For we are the aroma of Christ to God among ^(O)those who are being saved and among ^(P)those who are perishing, ¹⁶^(Q)to one a fragrance from death to death, ^(R)to the other a fragrance from life to life. ^(S)Who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

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2 Corinthians 3

English Standard Version

Ministers of the New Covenant

3 ^(A)Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, ^(B)as some do, ^(C)letters of recommendation to you, or from you? ²^(D)You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our^[a] hearts, to be known and read by all. ³And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of ^(E)the living God, not on ^(F)tablets of stone but on ^(G)tablets of ^(H)human hearts.^[b]

⁴^(I)Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ⁵^(J)Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but ^(K)our sufficiency is from God, ⁶who has made us sufficient to be ^(L)ministers of ^(M)a new covenant, not of ^(N)the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but ^(O)the Spirit gives life.

⁷Now if ^(P)the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory ^(Q)that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, ⁸will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? ⁹For if there was glory in ^(R)the ministry of condemnation, ^(S)the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. ¹⁰Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

¹²Since we have such a hope, ^(T)we are very bold, ¹³not like Moses, ^(U)who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. ¹⁴But ^(V)their minds were ^(W)hardened. For to this day, ^(X)when they read ^(Y)the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. ¹⁶But when ^(Z)one^[c] turns to the Lord, ^(AA)the veil is removed. ¹⁷Now the Lord^[d] is the Spirit, and where ^(AB)the Spirit of the Lord is, there is ^(AC)freedom. ¹⁸And we all, with unveiled face, ^(AD)beholding ^(AE)the glory of the Lord,^[e] ^(AF)are being transformed into the same image ^(AG)from one degree of glory to another.^[f] For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.