Peace in the Dark Places

³² By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord,
   and trouble came to Moses because of them;
³³ for they rebelled against the Spirit of God,
   and rash words came from Moses’ lips.
³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples
   as the Lord had commanded them,
³⁵ but they mingled with the nations
   and adopted their customs.
³⁶ They worshiped their idols,
   which became a snare to them.
³⁷ They sacrificed their sons
   and their daughters to false gods.
³⁸ They shed innocent blood,
   the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
   and the land was desecrated by their blood.
³⁹ They defiled themselves by what they did;
   by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

Paul Boasts About His Sufferings

¹⁶ I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. ¹⁷ In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. ¹⁸ Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. ¹⁹ You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! ²⁰ In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. ²¹ To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!

Whatever anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. ²³ Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, ²⁶ I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. ²⁷ I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. ²⁸ Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. ³² In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. ³³ But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.

The Lord’s Devastation of the Earth

24 See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth
   and devastate it;
he will ruin its face
   and scatter its inhabitants—
² it will be the same
   for priest as for people,
   for the master as for his servant,
   for the mistress as for her servant,
   for seller as for buyer,
   for borrower as for lender,
   for debtor as for creditor.
³ The earth will be completely laid waste
   and totally plundered.
   The Lord has spoken this word.

⁴ The earth dries up and withers,
   the world languishes and withers,
   the heavens languish with the earth.
⁵ The earth is defiled by its people;
   they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
  and broken the everlasting covenant.
⁶ Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
   its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,
   and very few are left.
⁷ The new wine dries up and the vine withers;
   all the merrymakers groan.
⁸ The joyful timbrels are stilled,
   the noise of the revelers has stopped,
   the joyful harp is silent.
⁹ No longer do they drink wine with a song;
   the beer is bitter to its drinkers.
¹⁰ The ruined city lies desolate;
   the entrance to every house is barred.
¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine;
   all joy turns to gloom,
   all joyful sounds are banished from the earth.
¹² The city is left in ruins,
   its gate is battered to pieces.
¹³ So will it be on the earth
   and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
   or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.

¹⁴ They raise their voices, they shout for joy;
   from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty.
¹⁵ Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
   exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel,
   in the islands of the sea.
¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear singing:
   “Glory to the Righteous One.”

But I said, “I waste away, I waste away!
   Woe to me!
The treacherous betray!
   With treachery the treacherous betray! ”
¹⁷ Terror and pit and snare await you,
   people of the earth.
¹⁸ Whoever flees at the sound of terror
   will fall into a pit;
whoever climbs out of the pit
   will be caught in a snare.

The floodgates of the heavens are opened,
   the foundations of the earth shake.
¹⁹ The earth is broken up,
   the earth is split asunder,
   the earth is violently shaken.
²⁰ The earth reels like a drunkard,
   it sways like a hut in the wind;
so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion
   that it falls —never to rise again.

²¹ In that day the Lord will punish
   the powers in the heavens above
   and the kings on the earth below.
²² They will be herded together
   like prisoners bound in a dungeon;
they will be shut up in prison
   and be punished after many days.
²³ The moon will be dismayed,
   the sun ashamed;
for the Lord Almighty will reign
   on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
   and before its elders—with great glory.

Praise to the Lord

25 Lord, you are my God;
   I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
   you have done wonderful things,
   things planned long ago.
² You have made the city a heap of rubble,
   the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;
   it will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
   cities of ruthless nations will revere you.
⁴ You have been a refuge for the poor,
   a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
   and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
   is like a storm driving against a wall
⁵ and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
   as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
   so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

⁶ On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
   a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
   the best of meats and the finest of wines.
⁷ On this mountain he will destroy
   the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
   ⁸ he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
   from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
   from all the earth.
   The Lord has spoken.

⁹ In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;
   we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
   let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

¹⁰ The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;
   but Moab will be trampled in their land
   as straw is trampled down in the manure.
¹¹ They will stretch out their hands in it,
   as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.
God will bring down their pride
   despite the cleverness of their hands.
¹² He will bring down your high fortified walls
   and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
   to the very dust.

A Song of Praise

26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;
   God makes salvation
   its walls and ramparts.
² Open the gates
  that the righteous nation may enter,
   the nation that keeps faith.
³ You will keep in perfect peace
   those whose minds are steadfast,
   because they trust in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
   for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.
⁵ He humbles those who dwell on high,
   he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
   and casts it down to the dust.
⁶ Feet trample it down—
   the feet of the oppressed,
   the footsteps of the poor.

⁷ The path of the righteous is level;
   you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
⁸ Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,
   we wait for you;
your name and renown
   are the desire of our hearts.
⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
   in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
   the people of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰ But when grace is shown to the wicked,
   they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
   and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹ Lord, your hand is lifted high,
   but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
   let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

¹² Lord, you establish peace for us;
   all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
¹³ Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
   but your name alone do we honour.
¹⁴ They are now dead, they live no more;
   their spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
   you wiped out all memory of them.
¹⁵ You have enlarged the nation, Lord;
   you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
   you have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ Lord, they came to you in their distress;
   when you disciplined them,
   they could barely whisper a prayer.
¹⁷ As a pregnant woman about to give birth
   writhes and cries out in her pain,
   so were we in your presence, Lord.
¹⁸ We were with child, we writhed in labour,
   but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth,
   and the people of the world have not come to life.

¹⁹ But your dead will live, Lord;
   their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
   wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
   the earth will give birth to her dead.

²⁰ Go, my people, enter your rooms
   and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
   until his wrath has passed by.
²¹ See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling
   to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed on it;
   the earth will conceal its slain no longer.