The Glories of the City of God

A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song.

The Command to Leave Sinai

33 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you ^(A)and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ^(B)‘To your descendants I will give it.’ ^2 (C)And I will send My Angel before you, ^(D)and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ³ Go up ^(E)to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest ^(F)I ^[a]consume you on the way, for you are a ^(G)stiff-necked^[b] people.”

⁴ And when the people heard this bad news, ^(H)they mourned, ^(I)and no one put on his ornaments. ⁵ For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ^[c]ornaments, that I may ^(J)know what to do to you.’ ” ⁶ So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

Moses Meets with the Lord

⁷ Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and ^(K)called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who ^(L)sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. ⁸ So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood ^(M)at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. ⁹ And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord ^(N)talked with Moses. ¹⁰ All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and ^(O)worshiped, each man in his tent door. ¹¹ So ^(P)the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but ^(Q)his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

The Promise of God’s Presence

¹² Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^(R)You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ^(S)‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, I pray, ^(T)if I have found grace in Your sight, ^(U)show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is ^(V)Your people.”

¹⁴ And He said, ^(W)“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you ^(X)rest.”

¹⁵ Then he said to Him, ^(Y)“If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, ^(Z)except You go with us? So we ^(AA)shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

¹⁷ So the Lord said to Moses, ^(AB)“I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

¹⁸ And he said, “Please, show me ^(AC)Your glory.”

¹⁹ Then He said, “I will make all My ^(AD)goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. ^(AE)I will be gracious to whom I will be ^(AF)gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” ²⁰ But He said, “You cannot see My face; for ^(AG)no man shall see Me, and live.” ²¹ And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. ²² So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you ^(AH)in the cleft of the rock, and will ^(AI)cover you with My hand while I pass by. ²³ Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall ^(AJ)not be seen.”

Principles of Separation^(A)

13 On that day ^(B)they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and in it was found written ^(C)that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God, ² because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but ^(D)hired Balaam against them to curse them. ^(E)However, our God turned the curse into a blessing. ³ So it was, when they had heard the Law, ^(F)that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.

The Reforms of Nehemiah

⁴ Now before this, ^(G)Eliashib the priest, having authority over the storerooms of the house of our God, was allied with ^(H)Tobiah. ⁵ And he had prepared for him a large room, ^(I)where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine and oil, ^(J)which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers, and the offerings for the priests. ⁶ But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, ^(K)for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, ⁷ and I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in ^(L)preparing a room for him in the courts of the ^[a]house of God. ⁸ And it grieved me bitterly; therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. ⁹ Then I commanded them to ^(M)cleanse the rooms; and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

¹⁰ I also realized that the portions for the Levites had ^(N)not been given them; for each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to ^(O)his field. ¹¹ So ^(P)I contended with the rulers, and said, ^(Q)“Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their place. ^12 (R)Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the oil to the storehouse. ^13 (S)And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouse Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah; and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were considered ^(T)faithful, and their task was to distribute to their brethren.

^14 (U)Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for its services!

¹⁵ In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses ^(V)on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, ^(W)which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. ¹⁶ Men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.

¹⁷ Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day? ^18 (X)Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

¹⁹ So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it ^(Y)began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath. ^(Z)Then I posted some of my servants at the gates, so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ Now the merchants and sellers of all kinds of ^[b]wares ^[c]lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.

²¹ Then I warned them, and said to them, “Why do you spend the night ^[d]around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you!” From that time on they came no more on the Sabbath. ²² And I commanded the Levites that ^(AA)they should cleanse themselves, and that they should go and guard the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day.

Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of Your mercy!

²³ In those days I also saw Jews who ^(AB)had married women of ^(AC)Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. ²⁴ And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one or the other people.

²⁵ So I ^(AD)contended with them and ^[e]cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them ^(AE)swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves. ^26 (AF)Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, ^(AG)who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel. ^(AH)Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin. ²⁷ Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil, ^(AI)transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women?”

²⁸ And one of the sons ^(AJ)of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of ^(AK)Sanballat the Horonite; therefore I drove him from me.

^29 (AL)Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and ^(AM)the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

^30 (AN)Thus I cleansed them of everything pagan. I also ^(AO)assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service, ³¹ and to bringing ^(AP)the wood offering and the firstfruits at appointed times.

^(AQ)Remember me, O my God, for good!

Immorality Defiles the Church

5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even ^[a]named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s ^(A)wife! ^2 (B)And you are ^[b]puffed up, and have not rather ^(C)mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. ^3 (D)For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. ⁴ In the ^(E)name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, ^(F)with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^5 (G)deliver such a one to ^(H)Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord ^[c]Jesus.

^6 (I)Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that ^(J)a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷ Therefore ^[d]purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed ^(K)Christ, our ^(L)Passover, was sacrificed ^[e]for us. ⁸ Therefore ^(M)let us keep the feast, ^(N)not with old leaven, nor ^(O)with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Immorality Must Be Judged

⁹ I wrote to you in my epistle ^(P)not to ^[f]keep company with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go ^(Q)out of the world. ¹¹ But now I have written to you not to keep company ^(R)with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—^(S)not even to eat with such a person.

¹² For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? ¹³ But those who are outside God judges. Therefore ^(T)“put away from yourselves the evil person.”