Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 13
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 How long, O Eternal One? How long will You forget me? Forever?
How long will You look the other way?
2 How long must I agonize,
grieving Your absence in my heart every day?
How long will You let my enemies win?
3 Turn back; respond to me, O Eternal, my True God!
Put the spark of life in my eyes, or I’m dead.
4 My enemies will boast they have beaten me;
my foes will celebrate that I have stumbled.
5 But I trust in Your faithful love;
my heart leaps at the thought of imminent deliverance by You.
6 I will sing to the Eternal,
for He is always generous with me.
Daniel awakens from these night visions shaking and pale, but he is never able to shake these thoughts. They are always on his mind.
8 Daniel: In the third year of Belshazzar’s reign over Babylon, I, Daniel, saw another vision.
These events most likely happen around 552 or 551 b.c.
This vision followed the first I had just a couple of years earlier. 2 In my vision, I looked and suddenly found myself in the fortress-city of Susa in the province of Elam. I was standing next to the Ulai Canal. 3 When I looked up, I saw a ram near me standing on the bank of the canal. The ram had two horns, both of which were long, but one was even longer than the other. I watched as the horns grew, and the longer came up after the other, the shorter horn. 4 As I looked, the ram charged to the west, the north, and the south. It defeated all the other beasts in its path, and there was no one great enough to rescue its victims from the ram’s power. It did whatever it liked, and with each conquest, it grew stronger.
5 As I was trying to figure out what I was seeing, suddenly a male goat came from the west to challenge the ram. It moved so quickly across the face of the entire earth that it seemed his feet never touched the ground. On its head the goat had a prominent horn sticking out between its eyes. 6 He approached the ram with the two horns—the same one I had seen standing by the Ulai Canal—and charged at it with a violent rage. 7 I saw the goat in reckless fury butt the ram and shatter his two horns. The ram had no power to stand against its foe, so it was thrown to the ground and trampled to death; there was no one great enough to rescue the ram from the goat’s power. 8 With this conquest, the male goat with the prominent horn took the place of his rival and grew more powerful. But at the height of his power, the great horn was broken off, and four prominent horns grew in its place, each one pointing toward one of the four winds of heaven.
9 A fifth, smaller horn grew out of one of these new horns. Its power grew, and its influence reached toward the south and toward the east and toward the beautiful lands of promise. 10 Then it grew straight up to challenge the army of heaven; it knocked some of the heavenly beings and stars to the ground and trampled them beneath it. 11 The horn grew even greater, and in its arrogance came up against the Prince of the heavenly army. It halted the daily sacrifices to Him and took control of His established sanctuary. 12 As a result of this great rebellion, the heavenly army and the daily sacrifices were handed over to the horn. For a time it cast truth to the ground and succeeded in everything it tried.
13 Then I heard two heavenly beings in conversation with each other.
Heavenly Being (to its companion): When will it all end? How long will these events—the desecrating rebellion, the perverted daily sacrifices, and the trampling of the sanctuary and heavenly army—how long will they continue?
Second Heavenly Being (to me): 14 The world will see 2,300 mornings and evenings before all this will pass. After this the trampling will cease, and the holy sanctuary will be set right.
The word translated “church” in English Bibles means literally “assembly of the called”; it implies that members have said “yes” to God’s call in their lives. We assemble because we are called into being by God Himself. Some people, for reasons only they know, choose to live their Christian faiths in isolation. When they do, they cut themselves off from the gifts, encouragement, and vitality of others. And perhaps, just as tragically, they deprive the church of the grace and life God has invested in them.
26 Now if we willfully persist in sin after receiving such knowledge of the truth, then there is no sacrifice left for those sins— 27 only the fearful prospect of judgment and a fierce fire that will consume God’s adversaries. 28 Remember that those who depart from the law of Moses are put to death without mercy based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.[a] 29 Just think how much more severe the punishment will be for those who have turned their backs on the Son of God, trampled on the blood of the covenant by which He made them holy, and outraged the Spirit of grace with their contempt. 30 For we know the God who said, “Vengeance belongs to Me—I will repay,”[b] also said, “The Eternal One will judge His people.”[c] 31 It is truly a frightening thing to be on the wrong side of the living God.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.