Psalm 73

English Standard Version

Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of ^(A)Asaph.

73 Truly God is good to ^(B)Israel,
    to those who are ^(C)pure in heart.
²But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
    my steps had nearly slipped.
³^(D)For I was ^(E)envious of the arrogant
    when I saw the ^(F)prosperity of the wicked.

⁴For they have no pangs until death;
    their bodies are fat and sleek.
⁵They are not in trouble as others are;
    they are not ^(G)stricken like the rest of mankind.
⁶Therefore pride is ^(H)their necklace;
    violence covers them as ^(I)a garment.
⁷Their ^(J)eyes swell out through fatness;
    their hearts overflow with follies.
⁸They scoff and ^(K)speak with malice;
    loftily they threaten oppression.
⁹They set their mouths against the heavens,
    and their tongue struts through the earth.
¹⁰Therefore his people turn back to them,
    and find ^(L)no fault in them.^[a]
¹¹And they say, ^(M)“How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
¹²Behold, these are the wicked;
    always at ease, they ^(N)increase in riches.
¹³All in vain have I ^(O)kept my heart clean
    and ^(P)washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴For all the day long I have been ^(Q)stricken
    and ^(R)rebuked ^(S)every morning.
¹⁵If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
    I would have betrayed ^(T)the generation of your children.

¹⁶But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me ^(U)a wearisome task,
¹⁷until I went into ^(V)the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their ^(W)end.

¹⁸Truly you set them in ^(X)slippery places;
    you make them fall to ruin.
¹⁹How they are destroyed ^(Y)in a moment,
    swept away utterly by ^(Z)terrors!
²⁰Like ^(AA)a dream when one awakes,
    O Lord, when ^(AB)you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
²¹When my soul was embittered,
    when I was pricked in heart,
²²I was ^(AC)brutish and ignorant;
    I was like ^(AD)a beast toward you.

²³Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you ^(AE)hold my right hand.
²⁴You ^(AF)guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will ^(AG)receive me to glory.
²⁵^(AH)Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
²⁶^(AI)My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is ^(AJ)the strength^[b] of my heart and my ^(AK)portion ^(AL)forever.

²⁷For behold, those who are ^(AM)far from you shall perish;
    you put an end to everyone who is ^(AN)unfaithful to you.
²⁸But for me it is good to ^(AO)be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my ^(AP)refuge,
    that I may ^(AQ)tell of all your works.

Footnotes

Psalm 73:10 Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them
Psalm 73:26 Hebrew rock

Exodus 27

English Standard Version

The Bronze Altar

27 “You shall make the ^(A)altar of acacia wood, five cubits^[a] long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. ²And you shall make ^(B)horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and ^(C)you shall overlay it with bronze. ³You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and ^(D)forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. ⁴You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. ⁵And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar. ⁶And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. ⁷And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. ⁸You shall make it hollow, with boards. ^(E)As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.

The Court of the Tabernacle

⁹^(F)“You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side the court shall have hangings of fine twined linen a hundred cubits long for one side. ¹⁰Its twenty pillars and their twenty bases shall be of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. ¹¹And likewise for its length on the north side there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, its pillars twenty and their bases twenty, of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. ¹²And for the breadth of the court on the west side there shall be hangings for fifty cubits, with ten pillars and ten bases. ¹³The breadth of the court on the front to the east shall be fifty cubits. ¹⁴The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. ¹⁵On the other side the hangings shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. ¹⁶For the gate of the court there shall be ^(G)a screen twenty cubits long, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. It shall have four pillars and with them four bases. ¹⁷All the pillars around the court shall be filleted with silver. Their hooks shall be of silver, and their bases of bronze. ¹⁸The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height five cubits, with hangings of fine twined linen and bases of bronze. ¹⁹All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, and all its pegs and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze.

Oil for the Lamp

²⁰^(H)“You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. ²¹^(I)In the tent of meeting, ^(J)outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel.

Footnotes

Exodus 27:1 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters

Matthew 21:1-22

English Standard Version

The Triumphal Entry

21 ^(A)Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to ^(B)the Mount of Olives, then Jesus ^(C)sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” ⁴This took place ^(D)to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

⁵^(E)“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
^(F)humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt,^[a] the foal of a beast of burden.’”

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. ⁷They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. ⁸Most of the crowd ^(G)spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ^(H)“Hosanna to ^(I)the Son of David! ^(J)Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna ^(K)in the highest!” ¹⁰And ^(L)when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹And the crowds said, “This is ^(M)the prophet Jesus, ^(N)from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹²^(O)And Jesus entered the temple^[b] and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of ^(P)the money-changers and the seats of those who sold ^(Q)pigeons. ¹³He said to them, “It is written, ^(R)‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but ^(S)you make it a den of robbers.”

¹⁴^(T)And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵^(U)But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, ^(V)“Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, ¹⁶and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; ^(W)have you never read,

^(X)“‘Out of the mouth of ^(Y)infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise’?”

¹⁷And ^(Z)leaving them, he ^(AA)went out of the city to ^(AB)Bethany and lodged there.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

¹⁸^(AC)In the morning, as he was returning to the city, ^(AD)he became hungry. ¹⁹^(AE)And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

²⁰When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” ²¹And Jesus answered them, ^(AF)“Truly, I say to you, ^(AG)if you have faith and ^(AH)do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ^(AI)‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ²²And ^(AJ)whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, ^(AK)if you have faith.”