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3 Advent
50 oThe Mighty One, God the Lord,
pfrom the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, qthe perfection of beauty,
rGod shines forth.
3 Our God comes; he sdoes not keep silence;1
before him is a devouring tfire,
4 uHe calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made va covenant with me by sacrifice!”
6 wThe heavens declare his righteousness,
for xGod himself is judge! Selah
7 y“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
zI am God, your God.
8 Not for your sacrifices ado I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
10 For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 bI know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
cfor the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
14 dOffer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,2
and eperform your vows to the Most High,
15 and fcall upon me in the day of trouble;
I will gdeliver you, and you shall hglorify me.”
16 But to the wicked God says:
“What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?
17 iFor you hate discipline,
jand you cast my words behind you.
18 If you see a thief, kyou are pleased with him,
land you keep company with adulterers.
19 “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
mand your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother's son.
21 These things you have done, and I nhave been silent;
you thought that I3 was one like yourself.
But now I orebuke you and play the charge before you.
22 “Mark this, then, you who qforget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be rnone to deliver!
23 The one who soffers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who torders his way rightly
I will show the usalvation of God!”
59 aDeliver me from my enemies, O my God;
bprotect me from those who crise up against me;
2 deliver me from dthose who work evil,
and save me from ebloodthirsty men.
3 For behold, they flie in wait for my life;
fierce men gstir up strife against me.
hFor no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord,
4 for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.
iAwake, come to meet me, and see!
5 You, jLord God of hosts, are God of Israel.
Rouse yourself to punish all the nations;
spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah
6 Each evening they kcome back,
7 There they are, lbellowing with their mouths
with mswords in their lips—
for n“Who,” they think,2 “will hear us?”
8 But you, O Lord, olaugh at them;
you hold all the nations in derision.
9 O my Strength, I will watch for you,
for you, O God, are pmy fortress.
10 qMy God in his steadfast love3 rwill meet me;
God will let me slook in triumph on my enemies.
11 Kill them not, lest my people forget;
make them totter4 by your power and tbring them down,
O Lord, our ushield!
12 For vthe sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
let them be trapped in their pride.
For the cursing and lies that they utter,
13 wconsume them in wrath;
consume them till they are no more,
that they may xknow that God rules over Jacob
to ythe ends of the earth. Selah
14 zEach evening they come back,
15 They awander about for food
and growl if they do not get their fill.
16 But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been to me ba fortress
and ca refuge in dthe day of my distress.
17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O God, bare my fortress,
ethe God who shows me steadfast love.
60 O God, jyou have rejected us, kbroken our defenses;
you have been angry; loh, restore us.
2 You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open;
mrepair its breaches, for it totters.
3 nYou have made your people see hard things;
oyou have given us pwine to drink that made us stagger.
4 You have set up qa banner for those who fear you,
that they may flee to it rfrom the bow.2 Selah
5 sThat your tbeloved ones may be delivered,
give salvation by your right hand and answer us!
6 God has spoken uin his holiness:3
“With exultation vI will divide up wShechem
and portion out the Vale of xSuccoth.
7 yGilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
Judah is my bscepter.
8 cMoab is my washbasin;
upon Edom I dcast my shoe;
over ePhilistia I shout in triumph.”4
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
fWho will lead me to Edom?
10 Have you not grejected us, O God?
You hdo not go forth, O God, with our armies.
11 Oh, grant us help against the foe,
for ivain is the salvation of man!
12 With God we shall jdo valiantly;
it is he who will ktread down our foes.
33 hShout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
iPraise befits the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the jlyre;
make melody to him with jthe harp of kten strings!
3 Sing to him la new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in mfaithfulness.
5 He nloves righteousness and justice;
othe earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
6 By pthe word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by qthe breath of his mouth all rtheir host.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea as sa heap;
he tputs the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9 For uhe spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The Lord vbrings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 wThe counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
12 xBlessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has ychosen as his heritage!
13 The Lord zlooks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
14 from awhere he sits enthroned he blooks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all
16 cThe king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 dThe war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
18 Behold, ethe eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
fon those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 that he may gdeliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in hfamine.
20 Our soul iwaits for the Lord;
he is our jhelp and kour shield.
21 For our heart is lglad in him,
because we mtrust in his holy name.
4 And fthe angel who talked with me came again gand woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, ha lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and iseven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 3 And there are jtwo olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4 And I said to fthe angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, k“Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to lZerubbabel: mNot by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. 7 Who are you, nO great mountain? Before lZerubbabel oyou shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward pthe top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 9 q“The hands of lZerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also rcomplete it. sThen you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. 10 tFor whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see uthe plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
v“These seven vare the eyes of the Lord, wwhich range through the whole earth.” 11 Then I said to him, “What are these jtwo olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” 12 And a second time I answered and said to him, “What are these jtwo branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil1 is poured out?” 13 He said to me, x“Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 14 Then he said, y“These are the two anointed ones2 who stand by zthe Lord of the whole earth.”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, bwho lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders cfall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast dtheir crowns before the throne, saying,
11 e“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for fyou created all things,
and gby your will they existed and were created.”
5 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne ha scroll written within and on the back, isealed with seven seals. 2 And jI saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, kthe Lion lof the tribe of Judah, mthe Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
25 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like dten virgins who took their lamps1 and went to meet ethe bridegroom.2 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wwise. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom fwas delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6 But gat midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and htrimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and ithose who were ready went in with him to jthe marriage feast, and kthe door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, l‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 lBut he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, mI do not know you.’ 13 nWatch therefore, for you oknow neither the day nor the hour.