Old/New Testament
To the Director: A song by the Sons of Korah.
The Destiny of the Wicked and the Upright
49 Listen to this, all you people!
Pay attention, all you who live in the world,
2 both average people and those of means,[a]
the rich and the poor together.
3 My mouth will speak wisely,
and I will understand what I think about.
4 I will focus my attention on[b] a proverb;
I will use the harp to expound my riddle.
5 Why should I be afraid when evil days come my way,
when the wickedness of those who deceive me surrounds me—
6 those who put confidence in their wealth
and boast about their great riches?
7 No man can redeem the life of another,[c]
nor can he give to God a sufficient payment for him—
8 for it would cost too much to redeem his life,
and the payments would go on forever—
9 that he should go on living
and not see corruption.
10 Indeed, he will see wise people die;
the stupid and the senseless will meet their doom
and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inner thoughts are on[d] their homes forever;
their dwellings from generation to generation.
They even name their lands after themselves.
12 But humanity cannot last, despite its conceit;[e]
it will pass away just like the animals.[f]
13 This is the fate of those who are foolish
and of those who correct their words after they speak.
14 Like sheep, they are destined for the realm of the dead,[g]
with death as their shepherd.
The upright will have dominion over them in the morning;
their strength will be consumed in the afterlife,[h]
so that they have no home.
15 God will truly redeem me from the power[i] of Sheol.[j]
He will surely receive me!
16 Don’t be afraid when someone gets rich,
when the glory of his household increases.
17 When he dies, he will not be able to take it all with him[k]—
his possessions[l] will not follow him to the grave,[m]
18 although he considers himself blessed while he’s alive.
Though people praise you for doing well,
19 you will end up like your[n] ancestors’ generation,
never again to see the light of day!
20 Humanity, despite its conceit, does not understand
that it will perish, just like the animals.
A song of Asaph.
The Acceptable Sacrifice
50 God, the Lord,[o] has spoken.
He has summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting place.
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God has shined forth.
3 Our God has appeared and he has not been silent;
a devouring fire blazed before him,
and a mighty storm swirled around him.
4 He summoned the heavens above
and the earth below,[p]
to sit in judgment on his people.
5 “Assemble before me, my saints,
who have entered into my covenant by sacrifice.”
6 The heavens revealed his justice,
for God is himself the judge.
7 “Listen, my people,
for I am making a pronouncement:
Israel, I, God, your God, am testifying against you.
8 I do not rebuke you because of your sacrifices;
indeed, your burnt offerings are continuously before me.
9 I will no longer accept a sacrificial[q] bull from your household;
nor goats from your pens.
10 Indeed, every animal of the forest is mine,
even the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds in the mountains;
indeed, everything that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you;
for the world is mine along with everything in it.
13 Why should I eat the flesh of oxen
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a thanksgiving praise;
pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in the day of distress;
I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.”
16 As for the wicked, God says,
“How dare you recite my statutes
or speak about my covenant with your lips!
17 You hate instruction
and toss my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you befriend him,
and you keep company with adulterers.
19 You give your mouth free reign for evil,
and your tongue devises deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother’s son.
21 These things you did, and I kept silent,
because you assumed that I was like you.
But now I am going to rebuke you,
and I will set forth my case before your very own eyes.”
22 Consider this, you who have forgotten God—
Otherwise, I will tear you in pieces
and there will be no deliverer:
23 Whoever offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me,
and I will reveal the salvation of God
to whomever continues in my way.”[r]
Greetings from Paul
1 From:[a] Paul, a servant of Jesus the Messiah,[b] called to be an apostle and set apart for God’s gospel, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding[c] his Son. He was a descendant of David with respect to his humanity 4 and was declared by the resurrection from the dead to be the powerful Son of God according to the spirit[d] of holiness—Jesus the Messiah,[e] our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and a commission as an apostle to bring about faithful obedience among all the gentiles for the sake of his name. 6 You, too, are among those who have been called to belong to Jesus the Messiah.[f]
7 To: Everyone in Rome,[g] loved by God and called to be holy.[h]
May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah,[i] be yours!
Paul’s Prayer and Desire to Visit Rome
8 First of all, I thank my God through Jesus the Messiah[j] for all of you, because the news about your faith is being reported throughout the world. 9 For God, whom I serve with my spirit by preaching the gospel about his Son, is my witness how constantly I mention you 10 in my prayers at all times, asking that somehow by God’s will I may at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I am longing to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong, 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now), so that I might reap a harvest among you, just as I have among the rest of the gentiles. 14 Both to Greeks and to barbarians,[k] both to wise and to foolish people, I am a debtor. 15 That is why I am so eager to proclaim the gospel to you who live in Rome,[l] too.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel,[m] because it is God’s power for the salvation of everyone who believes, of the Jew first and of the Greek as well. 17 For in the gospel[n] God’s righteousness is being revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith.”[o]
God’s Wrath against Sinful Humanity
18 For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s[p] invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people[q] are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things,[r] and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Though claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
24 For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lusts[s] of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged God’s truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason, God delivered them to degrading passions as their females exchanged their natural sexual function for one that is unnatural. 27 In the same way, their males also abandoned their natural sexual function toward females and burned with lust toward one another. Males committed indecent acts with males, and received within themselves the appropriate penalty for their perversion.[t]
28 Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, haughty, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s just requirement—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do these things but even applaud others who practice them.
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