Old/New Testament
Trust the Rock of Ages
26 In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city.
He appoints salvation
as its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates![a]
Let the righteous nation enter—
one that keeps faith.
3 You keep in perfect peace
one whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in Adonai forever,
for the LORD Adonai is a Rock of ages.
5 For He humbles those dwelling on high,
leveling the lofty city,
leveling it to the ground,
bringing it down to the dust.
6 Feet will trample it down,
feet of the afflicted,
the footsteps of the poor.
7 The way of the righteous is straight.
Upright One, You make smooth the path of the righteous.
8 Yes, in the way of Your judgments,
Adonai, we have waited for You.
Your Name and Your remembrance
is the desire of our soul.
9 My soul longs for You at night,
yes, my spirit within me seeks You.
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 Though grace is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness.
Even in a land of uprightness he will act wrongly,
not perceiving the majesty of Adonai.
11 Adonai, Your hand is lifted up,
yet they do not see it;
They will see Your zeal for the people and be put to shame.
Yes, fire will devour Your enemies.
Your Dead Will Live!
12 Adonai, You will establish shalom for us,
for all our works You have done for us.
13 Adonai Eloheinu, other lords beside You have had dominion over us,
but we remember Your Name alone.
14 The dead do not live—
dead souls do not rise.
Thus You punished and destroyed them
and wiped out all memory of them.
15 You have increased the nation, Adonai,
You have increased the nation.
You are glorified as You have expanded
all the borders of the land.
16 Adonai, they sought You in distress,
they poured out a whispered prayer
when Your discipline was upon them.
17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so we were before You, Adonai.
18 We have been with child,
we have been in pain,
yet we gave birth to wind.
We are accomplishing no deliverance for the earth,
nor are inhabitants of the world coming to life.
19 Yet it will be:
“Your dead will live!
My corpses will rise!
Awake and shout for joy,
you who dwell in the dust!
Your dew is like the dew of the dawn.
The land of dead souls will come to life!
20 Go, my people, enter your rooms,
and shut your doors behind you.
Hide for a little while,
until the wrath is past.
21 For behold, Adonai is coming out from His place
to punish inhabitants of the earth for iniquity.
The earth will disclose her bloodshed,
no longer covering up her slain.
Leviathan the Dragon
27 In that day Adonai will punish
Leviathan the fleeing serpent
with His fierce, great, strong sword,
Leviathan the twisted serpent!
He will slay the dragon in the sea.
Second Song of the Vineyard
2 “In that day sing to her,
‘A vineyard of delight!’
3 I, Adonai, watch over it,
I water it every moment.
I guard it day and night,
so that no one may harm it.
4 It is not that I have wrath.
Who would give me thorns and thistles?
Into battle I would march against them!
I would burn them up altogether!
5 Rather let them rely on My strength.
Let them make peace with Me—
make peace with Me.”
Israel Will Blossom Again
6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and bud
and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Did He strike Israel
as He struck those who struck them?
Or were they slain
as their slayers were slain?
8 You contended with her by banishing her,
by driving her away.
With His fierce wind He expelled them
on the day of the east wind.
9 So by this will Jacob’s sin be atoned
and this the full price to remove his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
like shattered chalk stones,
so that the Asherah poles and incense
rise no more.
10 The fortified city is a lonely habitation,
forlorn and forsaken like the desert.
There the calf will graze,
there lie down
and consume its branches.
11 When the boughs are withered,
they will be broken off.
Women come and set them on fire,
for it is a people of no understanding.
Therefore their Maker will show them no mercy—
He who formed them will give them no grace.
12 It will come about in that day,
Adonai will thresh from the channel of the River to the Wadi of Egypt,
and you will be gathered one by one, Bnei-Yisrael.
13 It will also come about in that day, a great shofar will be blown.[b] Those perishing in the land of Assyria and the exiles in the land of Egypt will come and worship Adonai on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
Messiah’s Example of Humility
2 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Messiah, if there is any comfort of love, if there is any fellowship of the Ruach, if there is any mercy and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, united in spirit, with one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfishness or conceit, but with humility consider others as more important than yourselves, 4 looking out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves, which also was in Messiah Yeshua,
6 Who, though existing in the form of God,
did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped.
7 But He emptied Himself—
taking on the form of a slave,
becoming the likeness of men
and being found in appearance as a man.
8 He humbled Himself—
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
9 For this reason God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow,[a]
in heaven and on the earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue profess that Yeshua the Messiah is Lord—
to the glory of God the Father.
Work Out Your Salvation
12 Therefore, my loved ones, just as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence—work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For the One working in you is God—both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you might be blameless and innocent, children of God in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.[b] Among them you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that I may boast in the day of Messiah that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. 18 The same way, you also—rejoice and share your joy with me!
Sending and Receiving Encouragement
19 But I hope in the Lord Yeshua to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too might be encouraged when I know the news about you. 20 I have no one else like him who will genuinely care about you— 21 for all seek after their own interests, not those of Messiah Yeshua. 22 But you know Timothy’s proven character, that he served with me in spreading the Good News like a son with his father. 23 Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me. 24 And I trust in the Lord that soon I too will come myself.
25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and co-worker and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and aide to my need. 26 For he was longing for you all and troubled because you heard that he was sick. 27 He certainly was sick, close to death. But God had mercy on him—and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I have sent him with special urgency, so that when you see him again you might rejoice and I might be less worried about you. 29 So welcome him in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Messiah, risking his life to make up for what was lacking in your service to me.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.