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Psalms 57
My Soul Takes Refuge in You
1Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by. 2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me. 3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
4 My soul is in the midst of lions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts—
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah 7 My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody! 8 Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn! 9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations. 10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
Jeremiah 13
The Linen Loincloth
1 Thus says the LORD to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water.” 2 So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist. 3 And the word of the LORD came to me a second time, 4 “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. 6 And after many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 “Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. 11 For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.The Wineskins
12 “You shall speak to them this word: ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Every jar shall be filled with wine.”’ And they will say to you, ‘Do we not indeed know that every jar will be filled with wine?’ 13 Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land: the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 14 And I will dash them one against another, fathers and sons together, declares the LORD. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.’”Captivity Threatened
15 Hear and give ear; be not proud,
for the LORD has spoken. 16 Give glory to the LORD your God
before he brings darkness,
before your feet stumble
on the twilight mountains,
and while you look for light
he turns it into gloom
and makes it deep darkness. 17 But if you will not listen,
my soul will weep in secret for your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears,
because the LORD's flock has been taken captive.
18 Say to the king and the queen mother:
“Take a lowly seat,
for your beautiful crown
has come down from your head.”
19 The cities of the Negeb are shut up,
with none to open them;
all Judah is taken into exile,
wholly taken into exile.
20 “Lift up your eyes and see
those who come from the north.
Where is the flock that was given you,
your beautiful flock? 21 What will you say when they set as head over you
those whom you yourself have taught to be friends to you?
Will not pangs take hold of you
like those of a woman in labor? 22 And if you say in your heart,
‘Why have these things come upon me?’
it is for the greatness of your iniquity
that your skirts are lifted up
and you suffer violence. 23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good
who are accustomed to do evil. 24 I will scatter you like chaff
driven by the wind from the desert. 25 This is your lot,
the portion I have measured out to you, declares the LORD,
because you have forgotten me
and trusted in lies. 26 I myself will lift up your skirts over your face,
and your shame will be seen. 27 I have seen your abominations,
your adulteries and neighings, your lewd whorings,
on the hills in the field.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
How long will it be before you are made clean”?
Job 15
Eliphaz: Job Does Not Fear God
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:2 “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,
and fill his belly with the east wind? 3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
or in words with which he can do no good? 4 But you are doing away with the fear of God
and hindering meditation before God. 5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty. 6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
your own lips testify against you.
7 “Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you brought forth before the hills? 8 Have you listened in the council of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself? 9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us? 10 Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
older than your father. 11 Are the comforts of God too small for you,
or the word that deals gently with you? 12 Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash, 13 that you turn your spirit against God
and bring such words out of your mouth? 14 What is man, that he can be pure?
Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? 15 Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight; 16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks injustice like water!
17 “I will show you; hear me,
and what I have seen I will declare 18 (what wise men have told,
without hiding it from their fathers, 19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them). 20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. 21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. 22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
and he is marked for the sword. 23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand; 24 distress and anguish terrify him;
they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle. 25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty, 26 running stubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield; 27 because he has covered his face with his fat
and gathered fat upon his waist 28 and has lived in desolate cities,
in houses that none should inhabit,
which were ready to become heaps of ruins; 29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the earth; 30 he will not depart from darkness;
the flame will dry up his shoots,
and by the breath of his mouth he will depart. 31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness will be his payment. 32 It will be paid in full before his time,
and his branch will not be green. 33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. 34 For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery. 35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
and their womb prepares deceit.”
Acts 7
The Call of Moses
30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.The Rebellion of Israel
39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:“‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
The Tabernacle of the Testimony
44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?’ 51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
The Stoning of Stephen
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
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