Psalm 28

English Standard Version

The Lord Is My Strength and My Shield

Of David.

28 To you, O Lord, I call;
    ^(A)my rock, be not deaf to me,
lest, if you ^(B)be silent to me,
    I become like those who ^(C)go down to the pit.
²^(D)Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,
    when I cry to you for help,
when I ^(E)lift up my hands
    ^(F)toward your most holy sanctuary.^[a]

³Do not ^(G)drag me off with the wicked,
    with the workers of evil,
^(H)who speak peace with their neighbors
    while evil is in their hearts.
⁴^(I)Give to them according to their work
    and according to the evil of their deeds;
give to them according to the work of their hands;
    ^(J)render them their due reward.
⁵Because they ^(K)do not regard the works of the Lord
    or the work of his hands,
he will tear them down and build them up no more.

⁶Blessed be the Lord!
    For he has ^(L)heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
⁷The Lord is my strength and ^(M)my shield;
    in him my heart ^(N)trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
    and with my ^(O)song I give thanks to him.

⁸The Lord is the strength of his people;^[b]
he is ^(P)the saving refuge of his anointed.
⁹Oh, save your people and bless ^(Q)your heritage!
^(R)Be their shepherd and ^(S)carry them forever.

Footnotes

Psalm 28:2 Hebrew your innermost sanctuary
Psalm 28:8 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts is their strength

Jeremiah 45-46

English Standard Version

Message to Baruch

45 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to ^(A)Baruch the son of Neriah, ^(B)when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, ^(C)in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: ²“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: ³You said, ^(D)‘Woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain. ^(E)I am weary with my groaning, ^(F)and I find no rest.’ ⁴Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord: ^(G)Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land. ⁵And ^(H)do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, ^(I)I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you ^(J)your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.”

Judgment on Egypt

46 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet ^(K)concerning the nations.

²About Egypt. ^(L)Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in ^(M)the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

³^(N)“Prepare buckler and shield,
    and advance for battle!
⁴^(O)Harness the horses;
    mount, O horsemen!
Take your stations with your helmets,
    ^(P)polish your spears,
    put on your armor!
⁵Why have I seen it?
They are dismayed
    and have turned backward.
Their ^(Q)warriors are beaten down
    and have fled in haste;
^(R)they look not back—
    ^(S)terror on every side!
declares the Lord.

⁶“The swift cannot flee away,
nor the warrior escape;
^(T)in the north by the river Euphrates
^(U)they have stumbled and fallen.

⁷“Who is this, ^(V)rising like the Nile,
    like rivers ^(W)whose waters surge?
⁸Egypt rises like the Nile,
    like rivers ^(X)whose waters surge.
He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth,
    I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.’
⁹^(Y)Advance, O horses,
    and rage, O chariots!
Let the warriors go out:
    men of Cush and ^(Z)Put who handle the shield,
    ^(AA)men of Lud, skilled in handling the bow.
¹⁰^(AB)That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts,
    ^(AC)a day of vengeance,
    ^(AD)to avenge himself on his foes.
^(AE)The sword shall devour and be sated
    and drink its fill of their blood.
For the Lord God of hosts holds ^(AF)a sacrifice
    ^(AG)in the north country ^(AH)by the river Euphrates.
¹¹^(AI)Go up to Gilead, and take ^(AJ)balm,
    O virgin daughter of Egypt!
In vain you have used many medicines;
    ^(AK)there is no healing for you.
¹²The nations have heard of your shame,
    and the earth is full of your cry;
^(AL)for warrior has stumbled against warrior;
    they have both fallen together.”

¹³The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of ^(AM)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:

¹⁴“Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in ^(AN)Migdol;
    proclaim in ^(AO)Memphis and ^(AP)Tahpanhes;
say, ^(AQ)‘Stand ready and be prepared,
    for ^(AR)the sword shall devour around you.’
¹⁵Why are your mighty ones face down?
    They do not stand^[a]
    because the Lord thrust them down.
¹⁶He made many stumble, ^(AS)and they fell,
    and they said one to another,
‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people
    and to the land of our birth,
    ^(AT)because of the sword of the oppressor.’
¹⁷Call the name of ^(AU)Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
    ‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’

¹⁸^(AV)“As I live, declares the King,
    ^(AW)whose name is the Lord of hosts,
like ^(AX)Tabor among the mountains
    and like ^(AY)Carmel by the sea, shall one come.
¹⁹^(AZ)Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,
    O ^(BA)inhabitants of Egypt!
For ^(BB)Memphis shall become a waste,
    a ruin, ^(BC)without inhabitant.

²⁰“A beautiful ^(BD)heifer is Egypt,
    but a biting fly ^(BE)from the north has come upon her.
²¹Even her hired soldiers in her midst
    are like ^(BF)fattened calves;
yes, they have turned and fled together;
    they did not stand,
for the day of their calamity has come upon them,
    ^(BG)the time of their punishment.

²²“She makes ^(BH)a sound like a serpent gliding away;
    for her enemies march in force
and come against her with axes
    ^(BI)like those who fell trees.
²³^(BJ)They shall cut down her forest,
declares the Lord,
    though it is impenetrable,
because ^(BK)they are more numerous than locusts;
    they are without number.
²⁴The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame;
    she shall be delivered into the hand of ^(BL)a people from the north.”

²⁵The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon ^(BM)Amon of ^(BN)Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt ^(BO)and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶^(BP)I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. ^(BQ)Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited ^(BR)as in the days of old, declares the Lord.

²⁷^(BS)“But fear not, O Jacob my servant,
    nor be dismayed, O Israel,
for behold, I will save you from far away,
    and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
    and none shall make him afraid.
²⁸^(BT)Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
declares the Lord,
    for I am with you.
I will make a full end of all the nations
    to which I have driven you,
    but of you I will not make a full end.
^(BU)I will discipline you in just measure,
    and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”

Footnotes

Jeremiah 46:15 Hebrew He does not stand

Romans 7

English Standard Version

Released from the Law

7 Or do you not know, brothers^[a]—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ²For ^(A)a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.^[b] ³Accordingly, ^(B)she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴Likewise, my brothers, ^(C)you also have died ^(D)to the law ^(E)through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, ^(F)in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work ^(G)in our members ^(H)to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the ^(I)new way of ^(J)the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.^[c]

The Law and Sin

⁷What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, ^(K)I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if ^(L)the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸But sin, ^(M)seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. ^(N)For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰The very commandment ^(O)that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹For sin, ^(P)seizing an opportunity through the commandment, ^(Q)deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So ^(R)the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, ^(S)sold under sin. ¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions. For ^(T)I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with ^(U)the law, that it is good. ¹⁷So now ^(V)it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells ^(W)in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹^(X)For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, ^(Y)it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²²For ^(Z)I delight in the law of God, ^(AA)in my inner being, ²³but I see in my members ^(AB)another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from ^(AC)this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.