Lamentations 2 - Legacy Standard Bible

Lamentations 2

The Anger of Yahweh

א Aleph

How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion

With a cloud in His anger!

He has cast from heaven to earth

The beauty of Israel,

And has not remembered the footstool of His feet

In the day of His anger.

ב Beth

The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared

All the habitations of Jacob.

In His wrath He has pulled down

The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

He has brought them down to the ground;

He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

ג Gimel

In hot anger He has cut in pieces

All the strength of Israel;

He has turned back His right hand

From before the enemy.

And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire

Devouring round about.

ד Daleth

He has bent His bow like an enemy;

He has set His right hand like an adversary

And killed all that were desirable to the eye;

In the tent of the daughter of Zion

He has poured out His wrath like fire.

ה He

The Lord has become like an enemy.

He has swallowed up Israel;

He has swallowed up all its palaces;

He has brought its strongholds to ruin

And multiplied in the daughter of Judah

Mourning and moaning.

ו Vav

And He has violently treated His tabernacle like a garden booth;

He has brought His appointed meeting place to ruin.

Yahweh has caused to be forgotten

The appointed time and sabbath in Zion,

And He has spurned king and priest

In the indignation of His anger.

ז Zayin

The Lord has rejected His altar;

He has abandoned His sanctuary;

He has delivered into the hand of the enemy

The walls of her palaces.

They have made a noise in the house of Yahweh

As in the day of an appointed time.

ח Heth

Yahweh determined to bring to ruin

The wall of the daughter of Zion.

He has stretched out a line;

He has not turned His hand back from swallowing up,

And He has caused rampart and wall to mourn;

They have languished together.

ט Teth

Her gates have sunk into the ground;

He has destroyed and broken her bars.

Her king and her princes are among the nations;

The law is no more.

Also, her prophets find

No vision from Yahweh.

י Yodh

The elders of the daughter of Zion

Sit on the ground; they are silent.

They have thrown dust up on their heads;

They have girded themselves with sackcloth.

The virgins of Jerusalem

Have bowed their heads down to the ground.

כ Kaph

My eyes fail because of tears;

My inmost being is greatly disturbed;

My heart is poured out on the earth

Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,

When infants and nursing babies faint

In the open squares of the city.

ל Lamedh

They say to their mothers,

“Where is grain and wine?”

As they faint like a wounded man

In the open squares of the city,

As their life is poured out

On their mothers’ bosom.

מ Mem

What shall I testify about you?

To what shall I equate you,

O daughter of Jerusalem?

To what shall I liken you as I comfort you,

O virgin daughter of Zion?

For your destruction is as vast as the sea;

Who can heal you?

נ Nun

Your prophets have beheld for you

Worthless and ineffective visions;

And they have not uncovered your iniquity

So as to return you from captivity,

But they have beheld for you worthless and misleading oracles.

ס Samekh

All who pass along the way

Clap their hands in derision at you;

They hiss and shake their heads

At the daughter of Jerusalem,

“Is this the city of which they said,

‘The perfection of beauty,

The joy of the whole earth’?”

פ Pe

All your enemies

Have opened their mouths wide against you;

They hiss and gnash their teeth.

They say, “We have swallowed her up!

Surely this is the day for which we have hoped;

We have found it, we have seen it.”

ע Ayin

Yahweh has done what He purposed;

He has completed His word

Which He commanded from days of old.

He has pulled down without sparing,

And He has caused the enemy to be glad over you;

He has exalted the might of your adversaries.

צ Tsadhe

Their heart cried out to the Lord,

“O wall of the daughter of Zion,

Let your tears run down like a river day and night;

Give yourself no relief;

Let your eyes not be still.

ק Qoph

Arise, cry aloud in the night

At the head of the night watches;

Pour out your heart like water

Before the presence of the Lord;

Lift up your hands to Him

For the life of your infants

Who are faint because of hunger

At the head of every street.”

ר Resh

See, O Yahweh, and look!

With whom have You dealt thus?

Should women eat their offspring,

The infants who were born healthy?

Should priest and prophet be killed

In the sanctuary of the Lord?

שׁ Shin

On the ground in the streets

Lie young and old;

My virgins and my young men

Have fallen by the sword.

You have killed them in the day of Your anger;

You have slaughtered, not sparing.

ת Tav

You called as in the day of an appointed time

My terrors on every side;

And there was no one who escaped or survived

In the day of Yahweh’s anger.

Those whom I gave birth to and reared,

My enemy consumed them.

2 Corinthians 11 - 12

Paul Defends His Apostleship

I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be corrupted from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 4 For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you bear this beautifully. 5 For I consider myself in no way inferior to the most-eminent apostles. 6 But even if I am unskilled in word, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things. 7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed the gospel of God to you without charge? 8 I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to minister to you. 9 And when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brothers came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept and will keep myself from being a burden to you. 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! 12 But what I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be found just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is not surprising if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. 16 Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little. 17 What I am saying, I am not saying according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. 18 Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also. 19 For you, being so wise, are bearing the foolish gladly. 20 For you bear it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face. 21 To my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison. But in whatever respect anyone else is daring—I speak in foolishness—I am just as daring myself. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s seed? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, in beatings without number, in frequent danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked—a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brothers. 27 I have been in labor and hardship, in many sleepless nights, in starvation and thirst, often hungry, in cold and without enough clothing. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is made to stumble without my burning concern? 30 If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, 33 and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands.

A Vision of Paradise

It is necessary to boast, though it is not profitable, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— 4 was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. 5 On behalf of such a man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in weaknesses. 6 For if I do wish to boast I will not be foolish, for I will be speaking the truth; but I refrain from this, so that no one will consider me beyond what he sees in me or hears from me.

A Thorn in the Flesh

7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions and hardships, for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Concern for the Corinthian Church

11 I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most-eminent apostles, even if I am nothing. 12 The signs of a true apostle were worked out among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles. 13 For in what respect were you treated as less than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong! 14 Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you. For children ought not to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 So I will most gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? 16 But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself. Nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit. 17 Have I taken advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent to you? 18 I encouraged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit—in the very same steps? 19 All this time you think we are defending ourselves to you. We speak in Christ in the sight of God. And all these things, beloved, are for your building up. 20 For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. 21 I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality which they have practiced.

Psalm 127 - 128

Unless Yahweh Builds the House

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

Unless Yahweh builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

Unless Yahweh watches the city,

The watchman keeps awake in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early,

That you sit out late,

O you who eat the bread of painful labors;

For in this manner, He gives sleep to His beloved.

Behold, children are an inheritance of Yahweh,

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one’s youth.

How blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them;

They will not be ashamed

When they speak with enemies in the gate.

Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears Yahweh

A Song of Ascents.

How blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh,

Who walks in His ways.

When you shall eat of the fruit of the labor of your hands,

How blessed will you be and how well will it be for you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine

In the innermost parts of your house,

Your children like olive plants

All around your table.

Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed

Who fears Yahweh.

May Yahweh bless you from Zion,

That you may see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.

Indeed, may you see your children’s children.

Peace be upon Israel!