3 Then what advantage remains to the Jew? [How is he favored?] Or what is the value or benefit of circumcision?

² Much in every way. To begin with, to the Jews were entrusted the oracles (the brief communications, the intentions, the utterances) of God.^(A)

³ What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity [to His Word]?

⁴ By no means! Let God be found true though every human being is false and a liar, as it is written, That You may be justified and shown to be upright in what You say, and prevail when You are judged [by sinful men].^(B)

⁵ But if our unrighteousness thus establishes and exhibits the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust and wrong to inflict His wrath upon us [Jews]? I speak in a [purely] human way.

⁶ By no means! Otherwise, how could God judge the world?

⁷ But [you say] if through my falsehood God’s integrity is magnified and advertised and abounds to His glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner?

⁸ And why should we not do evil that good may come?—as some slanderously charge us with teaching. Such [false teaching] is justly condemned by them.

⁹ Well then, are we [Jews] superior and better off than they? No, not at all. We have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), are under sin [held down by and subject to its power and control].

¹⁰ As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one.^(C)

¹¹ No one understands [no one intelligently discerns or comprehends]; no one seeks out God.^(D)

¹² All have turned aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one!

¹³ Their throat is a yawning grave; they use their tongues to deceive (to mislead and to deal treacherously). The venom of asps is beneath their lips.^(E)

¹⁴ Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.^(F)

¹⁵ Their feet are swift to shed blood.

¹⁶ Destruction [as it dashes them to pieces] and misery mark their ways.

¹⁷ And they have no experience of the way of peace [they know nothing about peace, for a peaceful way they do not even recognize].^(G)

¹⁸ There is no [reverential] fear of God before their eyes.^(H)

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that [the murmurs and excuses of] every mouth may be hushed and all the world may be held accountable to God.

²⁰ For no person will be justified (made righteous, acquitted, and judged acceptable) in His sight by observing the works prescribed by the Law. For [the real function of] the Law is to make men recognize and be conscious of sin [^[a]not mere perception, but an acquaintance with sin which works toward repentance, faith, and holy character].

²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been revealed independently and altogether apart from the Law, although actually it is attested by the Law and the Prophets,

²² Namely, the righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ (the Messiah). [And it is meant] for all who believe. For there is no distinction,

²³ Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory ^[b]which God bestows and receives.

²⁴ [All] are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is [provided] in Christ Jesus,

²⁵ Whom God put forward [^[c]before the eyes of all] as a mercy seat and propitiation by His blood [the cleansing and life-giving sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation, to be received] through faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over and ignored former sins without punishment.

²⁶ It was to demonstrate and prove at the present time (^[d]in the now season) that He Himself is righteous and that He justifies and accepts as righteous him who has [true] faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Then what becomes of [our] pride and [our] boasting? It is excluded (banished, ruled out entirely). On what principle? [On the principle] of doing good deeds? No, but on the principle of faith.

²⁸ For we hold that a man is justified and made upright by faith independent of and distinctly apart from good deeds (works of the Law). [The observance of the Law has nothing to do with justification.]

²⁹ Or is God merely [the God] of Jews? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

³⁰ Since it is one and the same God Who will justify the circumcised by faith [^[e]which germinated from Abraham] and the uncircumcised through their [newly acquired] faith. [For it is the same trusting faith in both cases, a firmly relying faith in Jesus Christ].

³¹ Do we then by [this] faith make the Law of no effect, overthrow it or make it a dead letter? Certainly not! On the contrary, we confirm and establish and uphold the Law.

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Book Two

Psalm 42

To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of the sons of Korah.

¹ As the hart pants and longs for the water brooks, so I pant and long for You, O God.

² My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?^(A)

³ My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, Where is your God?

⁴ These things I [earnestly] remember and pour myself out within me: how I went slowly before the throng and led them in procession to the house of God [like a bandmaster before his band, timing the steps to the sound of music and the chant of song], with the voice of shouting and praise, a throng keeping festival.

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.

⁶ O my God, my life is cast down upon me [and I find the burden more than I can bear]; therefore will I [earnestly] remember You from the land of the Jordan [River] and the [summits of Mount] Hermon, from the little mountain Mizar.

⁷ [Roaring] deep calls to [roaring] deep at the thunder of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your rolling waves have gone over me.

⁸ Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I will say to God my Rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

¹⁰ As with a sword [crushing] in my bones, my enemies taunt and reproach me, while they say continually to me, Where is your God?

¹¹ Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 43

¹ Judge and vindicate me, O God; plead and defend my cause against an ungodly nation. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!

² For You are the God of my strength [my Stronghold—in Whom I take refuge]; why have You cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

³ O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling.

⁴ Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy; yes, with the lyre will I praise You, O God, my God!

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the help of my [sad] countenance, and my God.

Psalm 44

To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of the sons of Korah. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem.

¹ We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us [what] work You did in their days, in the days of old.

² You drove out the nations with Your hand and it was Your power that gave [Israel] a home by rooting out the [heathen] peoples, but [Israel] You spread out.

³ For they got not the land [of Canaan] in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your countenance [did it], because You were favorable toward and did delight in them.

⁴ You are my King, O God; command victories and deliverance for Jacob (Israel).

⁵ Through You shall we push down our enemies; through Your name shall we tread them under who rise up against us.

⁶ For I will not trust in and lean on my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

⁷ But You have saved us from our foes and have put them to shame who hate us.

⁸ In God we have made our boast all the day long, and we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁹ But now You have cast us off and brought us to dishonor, and You go not out with our armies.

¹⁰ You make us to turn back from the enemy, and they who hate us take spoil for themselves.

¹¹ You have made us like sheep intended for mutton and have scattered us in exile among the nations.

¹² You sell Your people for nothing, and have not increased Your wealth by their price.

¹³ You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are round about us.

¹⁴ You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the heads among the people.

¹⁵ My dishonor is before me all day long, and shame has covered my face

¹⁶ At the words of the taunter and reviler, by reason of the enemy and the revengeful.

¹⁷ All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten You, neither have we been false to Your covenant [which You made with our fathers].

¹⁸ Our hearts are not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Your path,

¹⁹ Though You have distressingly broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with deep darkness, even with the shadow of death.

²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange god,

²¹ Would not God discover this? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

²² No, but for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.^(B)

²³ Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arouse Yourself, cast us not off forever!

²⁴ Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵ For our lives are bowed down to the dust; our bodies cleave to the ground.

²⁶ Rise up! Come to our help, and deliver us for Your mercy’s sake and because of Your steadfast love!