Jeremiah 50, 2 Corinthians 3 - 4, Psalm 123

Word Against Babylon

50The word which Yahweh spoke concerning ^aBabylon, the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet:

²“^aDeclare and make it heard among the nations.Make it heard and ^blift up a standard.Do not conceal it but say,‘^cBabylon has been captured;^dBel has been put to shame; ¹Marduk has been ²shattered;Her ^eimages have been put to shame; her idols have been shattered.’

³“For a nation has come up against her out of the ^anorth; it will make her land ^ban object of horror, and there will be ^cno inhabitant in it. Both man and beast have wandered off; they have gone away!

⁴“In those days and at that time,” declares Yahweh, “the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah ^aas well; they will go along ^bweeping as they go, and it will be ^cYahweh their God they will seek. ⁵“They will ^aask for the way to Zion—turning their faces ¹in its direction and saying, ‘²Come!’—in order that they may join themselves to Yahweh in an ^beverlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

⁶“My people have become ^alost sheep;^bTheir shepherds have led them astray.They have made them turn away on the ^cmountains;They have gone along from mountain to hillAnd have forgotten their ^dresting place.⁷“All who came out against them have devoured them;And their adversaries have said, ‘^aWe are not guilty,Inasmuch as they have sinned against Yahweh, who is the ^babode of righteousness,Even Yahweh, the ^chope of their fathers.’⁸“Wander away from the ^amidst of BabylonAnd ¹go forth from the land of the Chaldeans;Be also like male goats ²at the head of the flock.⁹“For behold, I am going to ^aarouse and bring up against BabylonAn assembly of great nations from the land of the north,And they will arrange their battle lines against her;From there she will be taken captive.Their arrows will be like ¹a warrior who makes one childlessWho does not return empty-handed.¹⁰“¹^,^aChaldea will become spoil;All who take her spoil will have enough,” declares Yahweh.¹¹“Because you are glad, because you exult,O you who ^aplunder My inheritance,Because you skip about ¹like a threshing ^bheiferAnd neigh like ²valiant steeds,¹²Your ^amother ¹will be greatly ashamed;She who gave you birth ²will be humiliated.Behold, she will be the least of the nations,A ^bwilderness, a parched land, and a desert.¹³“Because of the wrath of Yahweh she will ^anot be inhabited,But she will be ^bcompletely desolate;Everyone who passes by Babylon ^cwill be in desolationAnd will hiss because of all her wounds.¹⁴“Arrange your battle lines against Babylon on every side,All you who ¹bend the bow;Shoot at her, do not be sparing with your arrows,For she has ^asinned against Yahweh.¹⁵“Raise a loud shout against her on every side!She has ^agiven ¹herself up, her pillars have fallen,Her ^bwalls have been pulled down.For this is the ^cvengeance of Yahweh:Take vengeance on her;^dAs she has done to others, so do to her.¹⁶“Cut off the ^asower from BabylonAnd the one who seizes the sickle at the time of harvest;From before ¹the ^bsword of the oppressor^cThey will each turn back to his own people,And they will each flee to his own land.

¹⁷“Israel is a ^ascattered ¹flock; the ^blions have banished them away. The first one who devoured him was the ^cking of Assyria, and this last one who has broken his bones is ^dNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. ¹⁸“Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I ^apunished the king of Assyria. ¹⁹‘And I will ¹^,^areturn Israel back to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his ²desire will be satisfied in the ^bhill country of Ephraim and Gilead. ²⁰‘In those days and at that time,’ declares Yahweh, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but ^athere will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those ^bwhom I leave as a remnant.’

²¹“Against the land of ¹Merathaim, go up against it,And against the inhabitants of ²^,^aPekod.Put them to the sword and ³devote them to destruction,” declares Yahweh,“And do according to all that I have commanded you.²²“The ^anoise of battle is in the land,And great destruction.²³“How the ^ahammer of the whole earthHas been cut in pieces and broken!How Babylon has becomeAn object of horror among the nations!²⁴“I ^aset a snare for you, and you were also ^bcaught, O Babylon,But you yourself did not know;You have been found and also seizedBecause you have engaged in ^cconflict with Yahweh.”²⁵Yahweh has opened His armoryAnd has brought forth the ^aweapons of His indignation,For it is a ^bwork of Lord Yahweh of hostsIn the land of the Chaldeans.²⁶Come to her from the ¹farthest border;^aOpen up her barns;Pile her up like heaps,And ²^,^bdevote her to destruction;Let nothing of her remain.²⁷^aPut all her young bulls to the sword;Let them ^bgo down to the slaughter!Woe be upon them, for their ^cday has come,The time of their punishment.²⁸There is a ^asound of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon,To declare in Zion the ^bvengeance of Yahweh our God,Vengeance for His ^ctemple.²⁹“Summon ¹many against Babylon,All those who ²bend the bow:Encamp against her on every side,Let there be no escape³.Repay her according to her work;^aAccording to all that she has done, so do to her;For she has become ^barrogant against Yahweh,Against the Holy One of Israel.³⁰“Therefore her ^ayoung men will fall in her open squares,And all her men of war will be ¹^,^bsilenced in that day,” declares Yahweh.³¹“Behold, ^aI am against you, O ¹arrogant one,”Declares Lord Yahweh of hosts,“For your day has come,The time ²when I will punish you.³²“The ¹^,^aarrogant one will stumble and fallWith no one to raise him up;And I will ^bset fire to his cities,And it will devour him on every side.”

³³Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “The sons of Israel are oppressed,And the sons of Judah as well;And ^aall who took them captive have held them fast;They have refused to let them go.

³⁴“Their ^aRedeemer is strong, ^bYahweh of hosts is His name;He will vigorously ^cplead their caseSo that He may ^dbring relief to ¹the earth,But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.³⁵“A ^asword against the Chaldeans,” declares Yahweh,“And against the inhabitants of BabylonAnd against her ^bofficials and her ^cwise men!³⁶“A sword against the ^aoracle priests, and they will become fools!A sword against her ^bmighty men, and they will be ¹^,^cshattered!³⁷“A sword against ¹their ^ahorses and against ²their chariotsAnd against all the ³^,^bforeigners who are in the midst of her,And they will become ^cwomen!A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!³⁸“A ¹^,^adrought on her waters, and they will be dried up!For it is a land of ^bgraven images,And they are mad over terrifying idols.³⁹“Therefore the ^adesert creatures will live there along with the jackals;The ostriches also will live in it,And it will ^bnever again be lived inOr dwelt in from generation to generation.⁴⁰“As when God overthrew ^aSodomAnd Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares Yahweh,“No man will live there,Nor will any son of man sojourn in it.⁴¹“Behold, a people is coming ^afrom the north,And a great nation and many kingsWill be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.⁴²“They ^aseize their bow and ¹javelin;They are ^bcruel and have no compassion.Their ^cvoice roars like the sea;And they ride on ^dhorses,^eArranged like a man for the battleAgainst you, O daughter of Babylon.⁴³“The ^aking of Babylon has heard the report about them,And his hands hang limp;^bDistress has taken hold of him,Agony like a woman in childbirth.

⁴⁴“^aBehold, one will come up like a lion from the ¹thicket of the Jordan to an enduring pasture; for in an instant I will make them run away from it, and whoever is ^bchosen I will appoint over it. For who is ^clike Me, and who will ²summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can ^dstand before Me?” ⁴⁵Therefore hear the ^acounsel of Yahweh which He has counseled against Babylon, and His purposes which He has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: ^bsurely they will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their ¹pasture desolate because of them. ⁴⁶At the sound, “Babylon has been seized!” the ^aearth is shaken, and an ^boutcry is heard among the nations.

Ministers of a New Covenant

3Are we beginning to ^acommend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, ^bletters of commendation to you or from you? ²^aYou are our letter, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men, ³being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, ^aministered to by us, having been written not with ink but with the Spirit of ^bthe living God, not on ^ctablets of stone but on ^dtablets of hearts of ^eflesh.

⁴And such ^aconfidence we have through Christ toward God. ⁵Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but ^aour sufficiency is from God, ⁶who also made us sufficient as ^aministers of a ^bnew covenant, not of ^cthe letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but ^dthe Spirit gives life.

⁷But if the ^aministry of death, ^bin letters having been engraved on stones, came ¹with glory, ^cso that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end, ⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit not be even more in glory? ⁹For if ^athe ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ^bministry of righteousness abound in glory. ¹⁰For indeed what had been glorious, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹For if that which was being brought to an end was ¹with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

¹²^aTherefore having such a hope, ^bwe use great boldness, ¹³and are not like Moses, ^awho used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the consequence of what was being brought to an end. ¹⁴But their minds were ^ahardened; for until this very day at the ^breading of ^cthe old covenant the same veil ¹remains unlifted, because it is brought to an end in Christ. ¹⁵But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, ¹⁶but ^awhenever a person turns to the ¹Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where ^athe Spirit of the Lord is, ^bthere is freedom. ¹⁸But we all, with unveiled face, ^abeholding as in a mirror the ^bglory of the Lord, are being ^ctransformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from ^dthe Lord, the Spirit.

The Gospel of the Glory of Christ

4Therefore, since we have this ^aministry, as we ^breceived mercy, we ^cdo not lose heart, ²but we have renounced the ^ahidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or ^badulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth ^ccommending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. ³And even if our ^agospel is ^bveiled, it is veiled ¹to ^cthose who are perishing, ⁴in whose case ^athe god of ^bthis age has ^cblinded the minds of the unbelieving ¹so that they might not see the ^dlight of the gospel of the ^eglory of Christ, who is the ^fimage of God. ⁵For we ^ado not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves ¹for the sake of Jesus. ⁶For God, who said, “^aLight shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has ^bshone in our hearts to give the ^cLight of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

⁷But we have this treasure in ^aearthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of ^bthe power will be of God and not from ourselves; ⁸^ain every way afflicted, but not ^bcrushed; ^cperplexed, but not despairing; ⁹^apersecuted, but not ^bforsaken; ^cstruck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰^aalways carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that ^bthe life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. ¹¹For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹²So death works in us, but life in you.

¹³But having the same ^aspirit of faith, according to what is written, “^bI believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak, ¹⁴knowing that He who ^araised the Lord Jesus ^bwill raise us also with Jesus and will ^cpresent us with you. ¹⁵For all things are ^afor your sakes, so that the grace which is ¹^,^bspreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

¹⁶Therefore we ^ado not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our ^binner man is ^cbeing renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our momentary, ^alight affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, ¹⁸while we ^alook not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

To You I Lift Up My Eyes

123

A Song of Ascents.

To You I ^alift up my eyes,The One ^benthroned in the heavens!²Behold, as the eyes of ^aslaves look to the hand of their master,As the eyes of a servant-girl to the hand of her mistress,So our ^beyes look to Yahweh our God,Until He is gracious to us.³^aBe gracious to us, O Yahweh, be gracious to us,For we are greatly saturated ^bwith contempt.⁴Our soul is greatly saturatedWith the ^amockery of ^bthose who are at ease,And with the ^ccontempt of the proud.