Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Tsadhe
137 You are good and just, O Eternal One,
and Your rulings are right.
138 You have set out Your decrees in justice,
and they can be trusted.
139 I am overwhelmed by my passion
because my enemies have forgotten Your words.
140 Your promise is tested and true;
that’s why Your servant loves it.
141 I may be insignificant to some and hated by others,
but at least I do not forget Your precepts.
142 Your righteousness will last forever,
and Your law is truth.
143 Trouble and distress have overtaken me,
but Your commandments bring me great joy.
144 Your decrees are right and true forever;
grant me understanding so that I may live.
5 Eternal One: Take a look at the nations and watch what happens!
You will be shocked and amazed.
For in your days, I am doing a work,
a work you will never believe even if someone tells you plainly![a]
6 Look! I am provoking and raising up the bitter and thieving Babylonian warriors from Chaldea;
they are moving out across the earth
And seizing others’ homes and property in their path.
Chaldea is an area along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southernmost Babylon.
7 That nation is terrifying people, is feared by everyone.
It makes the rules and serves only its own interests.
8 Babylonia’s horses run faster than leopards,
are fiercer than wolves when the sun goes down.
Its horsemen rush ahead with deadly force, galloping great distances;
the troops swoop down like eagles ready to devour,
9 And Babylonia keeps on coming, hungry for violence.
Hordes of determined faces are on the move like a hot east wind,
Scooping up captives like sand.
10 Their leader mocks kings and ridicules those in authority.
He laughs at every fortress
And builds ramps of dirt against their walls to capture it.
11 He blows through like the wind and then presses on to the next attack.
For their king, his god is his strength, but he will be held responsible.
12 Have You not existed from ancient times, O Eternal One, my holy God?
Surely You do not plan for us to die.
You, O Eternal One, have made Babylonia Your tool for judgment.
You, O Rock, have established that king as Your instrument of correction.
13 Your eyes are too pure to even look at evil.
You cannot turn Your face toward injustice.
So why do You stand by and watch those who act treacherously?
Why do You say and do nothing
When the wicked swallows up one who is more in the right than he is?
14 You made humans like fish in the sea,
like creatures under no rule or authority.
The Chaldeans were known for their fishing, in addition to their brutality.
15 But the Babylonian yanks up his enemies with a hook,
dragging them away with his net.
Gathering them up like fish in a net,
the king shrieks and shouts for joy at his catch.
16 So he offers a sacrifice to his net that has made him rich;
the smoke of his sacrifices rises for his fishing net that has brought him success;
Because of it, his table is full and his belly is fat.
17 Will he empty and fill his net without end?
Will he continue to murder the people of the world without pity?
1 Simon Peter, a servant and emissary[a] of Jesus the Anointed One, to those who have received the same precious faith we share through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus the Anointed. 2 I wish you a full measure of grace and peace as you grow in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need to experience life and to reflect God’s true nature through the knowledge of the One who called us by His glory and virtue. 4 Through these things, we have received God’s great and valuable promises, so we might escape the corruption of worldly desires and share in the divine nature.
God took the first step to rescue us from this corrupt world. He has granted us His power, revealed to us true knowledge, and spoken to us great promises. He has done all this for a reason: that we might participate in His own nature and reflect His own life. But we are not passive observers of God’s saving actions. We must receive His grace, grow in knowledge, and join Him in this work of redemption.
5 To achieve this, you will need to add virtue to your faith, and then knowledge to your virtue; 6 to knowledge, add discipline; to discipline, add endurance; to endurance, add godliness; 7 to godliness, add affection for others as sisters and brothers; and to affection, at last, add love. 8 For if you possess these traits and multiply them, then you will never be ineffective or unproductive in your relationship with our Lord Jesus the Anointed; 9 but if you don’t have these qualities, then you will be nearsighted and blind, forgetting that your past sins have been washed away. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, work that much harder to confirm that God has called you and claimed you. If you do this, then you will never fall along the way; 11 and you can be sure that you will be richly welcomed into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.