Psalm 49

English Standard Version

Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of ^(A)the Sons of Korah.

49 ^(B)Hear this, all peoples!
    Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
²^(C)both low and high,
    rich and poor together!
³My mouth shall speak ^(D)wisdom;
    the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
⁴I will incline my ear to ^(E)a proverb;
    I will solve my ^(F)riddle to the music of the lyre.

⁵^(G)Why should I fear in ^(H)times of trouble,
    when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
⁶those who ^(I)trust in their wealth
    and boast of the abundance of their riches?
⁷Truly no man ^(J)can ransom another,
    or ^(K)give to God ^(L)the price of his life,
⁸for ^(M)the ransom of their life is costly
    and can never suffice,
⁹that he should live on forever
    and ^(N)never see the pit.

¹⁰For he sees ^(O)that even the wise die;
    ^(P)the fool and the stupid alike must perish
    and ^(Q)leave their wealth to others.
¹¹Their ^(R)graves are their homes forever,^[a]
    their dwelling places ^(S)to all generations,
    though they ^(T)called lands by their own names.
¹²Man in his pomp ^(U)will not remain;
    ^(V)he is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This is the path of those who have ^(W)foolish confidence;
    yet after them people approve of their boasts.^[b] Selah
¹⁴Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
    death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright ^(X)shall rule over them in the morning.
    ^(Y)Their form shall be consumed ^(Z)in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
¹⁵But God will ^(AA)ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
    for he will ^(AB)receive me. Selah

¹⁶Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
    when the glory of his house increases.
¹⁷^(AC)For when he dies he will ^(AD)carry nothing away;
    his glory will not go down after him.
¹⁸For though, while he lives, he counts himself ^(AE)blessed—
    and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
¹⁹his soul will ^(AF)go to the generation of his fathers,
    who will never again ^(AG)see light.
²⁰^(AH)Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Footnotes

Psalm 49:11 Septuagint, Syriac, Targum; Hebrew Their inward thought was that their homes were forever
Psalm 49:13 Or and of those after them who approve of their boasts

Jeremiah 18

English Standard Version

The Potter and the Clay

18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Arise, and go down to ^(A)the potter's house, and there I will let you hear^[a] my words.” ³So I went down to ^(B)the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴And the vessel he was making of clay was ^(C)spoiled in the potter's hand, and ^(D)he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶“O house of Israel, ^(E)can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^(F)Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^(G)pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^(H)turns from its evil, ^(I)I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. ⁹And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^(J)build and plant it, ¹⁰and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. ¹¹Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. ^(K)Return, every one from his evil way, and ^(L)amend your ways and your deeds.’

¹²“But they say, ^(M)‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to ^(N)the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹³“Therefore thus says the Lord:
^(O)Ask among the nations,
    Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
    has done ^(P)a very horrible thing.
¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon leave
    the crags of Sirion?^[b]
Do the mountain waters run dry,^[c]
    the cold flowing streams?
¹⁵^(Q)But my people have forgotten me;
    they make offerings to ^(R)false gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
    ^(S)in the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
    ^(T)not the highway,
¹⁶making their land ^(U)a horror,
    a thing ^(V)to be hissed at forever.
^(W)Everyone who passes by it is horrified
    ^(X)and shakes his head.
¹⁷^(Y)Like the east wind ^(Z)I will scatter them
    before the enemy.
^(AA)I will show them my back, not my face,
    in the day of their calamity.”

¹⁸Then they said, ^(AB)“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^(AC)for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^(AD)Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

¹⁹Hear me, O Lord,
    and ^(AE)listen to the voice of my adversaries.
²⁰^(AF)Should good be repaid with evil?
    Yet ^(AG)they have dug a pit for my life.
^(AH)Remember how I stood before you
    to speak good for them,
    to turn away your wrath from them.
²¹Therefore ^(AI)deliver up their children to famine;
    give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless ^(AJ)and widowed.
    May their men meet death by pestilence,
    their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
²²^(AK)May a cry be heard from their houses,
    when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For ^(AL)they have dug a pit to take me
    ^(AM)and laid snares for my feet.
²³Yet ^(AN)you, O Lord, know
    all their plotting to kill me.
^(AO)Forgive not their iniquity,
    nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
    deal with them in the time of your anger.

Footnotes

Jeremiah 18:2 Or will cause you to hear
Jeremiah 18:14 Hebrew of the field
Jeremiah 18:14 Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up

1 Corinthians 3

English Standard Version

Divisions in the Church

3 But I, brothers,^[a] could not address you as ^(A)spiritual people, but as ^(B)people of the flesh, as ^(C)infants in Christ. ²^(D)I fed you with milk, not solid food, for ^(E)you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, ³for you are still of the flesh. For while there is ^(F)jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? ⁴For ^(G)when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” ^(H)are you not being merely human?

⁵What then is Apollos? What is Paul? ^(I)Servants through whom you believed, ^(J)as the Lord assigned to each. ⁶^(K)I planted, ^(L)Apollos watered, ^(M)but God gave the growth. ⁷So ^(N)neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸He who plants and he who waters are one, and each ^(O)will receive his wages according to his labor. ⁹For we are ^(P)God's fellow workers. You are God's field, ^(Q)God's building.

¹⁰^(R)According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled^[b] master builder I laid a ^(S)foundation, and ^(T)someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. ¹¹For no one can lay a ^(U)foundation other ^(V)than that which is laid, ^(W)which is Jesus Christ. ¹²Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³^(X)each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed ^(Y)by fire, and ^(Z)the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. ¹⁴If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, ^(AA)he will receive a reward. ¹⁵If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, ^(AB)but only as through fire.

¹⁶^(AC)Do you not know that you^[c] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For ^(AD)God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

¹⁸^(AE)Let no one deceive himself. ^(AF)If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹For ^(AG)the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ^(AH)“He catches the wise in their craftiness,” ²⁰and again, ^(AI)“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” ²¹So ^(AJ)let no one boast in men. For ^(AK)all things are yours, ²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³and ^(AL)you are Christ's, and ^(AM)Christ is God's.