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To you alone, O LORD, to you alone, and not to us, must glory be given because of your constant love and faithfulness.
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Why should the nations ask us, "Where is your God?"
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Our God is in heaven; he does whatever he wishes.
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Their gods are made of silver and gold, formed by human hands.
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They have mouths, but cannot speak, and eyes, but cannot see.
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They have ears, but cannot hear, and noses, but cannot smell.
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They have hands, but cannot feel, and feet, but cannot walk; they cannot make a sound.
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May all who made them and who trust in them become like the idols they have made.
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Trust in the LORD, you people of Israel. He helps you and protects you.
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Trust in the LORD, you priests of God. He helps you and protects you.
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Trust in the LORD, all you that worship him. He helps you and protects you.
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The LORD remembers us and will bless us; he will bless the people of Israel and all the priests of God.
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He will bless everyone who honors him, the great and the small alike.
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May the LORD give you children--- you and your descendants!
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May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth!
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Heaven belongs to the LORD alone, but he gave the earth to us humans.
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The LORD is not praised by the dead, by any who go down to the land of silence.
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But we, the living, will give thanks to him now and forever. Praise the LORD!
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I love the LORD, because he hears me; he listens to my prayers.
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He listens to me every time I call to him.
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The danger of death was all around me; the horrors of the grave closed in on me; I was filled with fear and anxiety.
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Then I called to the LORD, "I beg you, LORD, save me!"
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The LORD is merciful and good; our God is compassionate.
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The LORD protects the helpless; when I was in danger, he saved me.
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Be confident, my heart, because the LORD has been good to me.
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The LORD saved me from death; he stopped my tears and kept me from defeat.
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And so I walk in the presence of the LORD in the world of the living.
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I kept on believing, even when I said, "I am completely crushed,"
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even when I was afraid and said, "No one can be trusted."
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What can I offer the LORD for all his goodness to me?
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I will bring a wine offering to the LORD, to thank him for saving me.
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In the assembly of all his people I will give him what I have promised.
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How painful it is to the LORD when one of his people dies!
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I am your servant, LORD; I serve you just as my mother did. You have saved me from death.
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I will give you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and offer my prayer to you.
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In the assembly of all your people, in the sanctuary of your Temple in Jerusalem, I will give you what I have promised. Praise the LORD!
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When that time comes, seven women will grab hold of one man and say, "We can feed and clothe ourselves, but please let us say you are our husband, so that we won't have to endure the shame of being unmarried."
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The time is coming when the LORD will make every plant and tree in the land grow large and beautiful. All the people of Israel who survive will take delight and pride in the crops that the land produces.
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Everyone who is left in Jerusalem, whom God has chosen for survival, will be called holy.
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By his power the Lord will judge and purify the nation and wash away the guilt of Jerusalem and the blood that has been shed there.
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Then over Mount Zion and over all who are gathered there, the LORD will send a cloud in the daytime and smoke and a bright flame at night. God's glory will cover and protect the whole city.
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His glory will shade the city from the heat of the day and make it a place of safety, sheltered from the rain and storm.
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Listen while I sing you this song, a song of my friend and his vineyard: My friend had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
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He dug the soil and cleared it of stones; he planted the finest vines. He built a tower to guard them, dug a pit for treading the grapes. He waited for the grapes to ripen, but every grape was sour.
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So now my friend says, "You people who live in Jerusalem and Judah, judge between my vineyard and me.
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Is there anything I failed to do for it? Then why did it produce sour grapes and not the good grapes I expected?
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"Here is what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge around it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild animals eat it and trample it down.
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I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I will not trim the vines or hoe the ground; instead, I will let briers and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall on it."
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Israel is the vineyard of the LORD Almighty; the people of Judah are the vines he planted. He expected them to do what was good, but instead they committed murder. He expected them to do what was right, but their victims cried out for justice.
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You are doomed! You buy more houses and fields to add to those you already have. Soon there will be no place for anyone else to live, and you alone will live in the land.
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I have heard the LORD Almighty say, "All these big, fine houses will be empty ruins.
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The grapevines growing on five acres of land will yield only five gallons of wine. Ten bushels of seed will produce only one bushel of grain."
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You are doomed! You get up early in the morning to start drinking, and you spend long evenings getting drunk.
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At your feasts you have harps and tambourines and flutes---and wine. But you don't understand what the LORD is doing,
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and so you will be carried away as prisoners. Your leaders will starve to death, and the common people will die of thirst.
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The world of the dead is hungry for them, and it opens its mouth wide. It gulps down the nobles of Jerusalem along with the noisy crowd of common people.
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Everyone will be disgraced, and all who are proud will be humbled.
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But the LORD Almighty shows his greatness by doing what is right, and he reveals his holiness by judging his people.
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In the ruins of the cities lambs will eat grass and young goats will find pasture.
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You are doomed! You are unable to break free from your sins.
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You say, "Let the LORD hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind."
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You are doomed! You call evil good and call good evil. You turn darkness into light and light into darkness. You make what is bitter sweet, and what is sweet you make bitter.
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You are doomed! You think you are wise, so very clever.
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You are doomed! Heroes of the wine bottle! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing drinks!
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But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the innocent from getting justice.
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So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow away, because you have rejected what the LORD Almighty, Israel's holy God, has taught us.
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The LORD is angry with his people and has stretched out his hand to punish them. The mountains will shake, and the bodies of those who die will be left in the streets like rubbish. Yet even then the LORD's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
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The LORD gives a signal to call for a distant nation. He whistles for them to come from the ends of the earth. And here they come, swiftly, quickly!
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None of them grow tired; none of them stumble. They never doze or sleep. Not a belt is loose; not a sandal strap is broken.
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Their arrows are sharp, and their bows are ready to shoot. Their horses' hoofs are as hard as flint, and their chariot wheels turn like a whirlwind.
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The soldiers roar like lions that have killed an animal and are carrying it off where no one can take it away from them.
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When that day comes, they will roar over Israel as loudly as the sea. Look at this country! Darkness and distress! The light is swallowed by darkness.
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From Jude, servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James--- To those who have been called by God, who live in the love of God the Father and the protection of Jesus Christ:
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May mercy, peace, and love be yours in full measure.
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My dear friends, I was doing my best to write to you about the salvation we share in common, when I felt the need of writing at once to encourage you to fight on for the faith which once and for all God has given to his people.
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For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.
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For even though you know all this, I want to remind you of how the Lord once rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, but afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
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Remember the angels who did not stay within the limits of their proper authority, but abandoned their own dwelling place: they are bound with eternal chains in the darkness below, where God is keeping them for that great Day on which they will be condemned.
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Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, and the nearby towns, whose people acted as those angels did and indulged in sexual immorality and perversion: they suffer the punishment of eternal fire as a plain warning to all.
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In the same way also, these people have visions which make them sin against their own bodies; they despise God's authority and insult the glorious beings above.
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Not even the chief angel Michael did this. In his quarrel with the Devil, when they argued about who would have the body of Moses, Michael did not dare condemn the Devil with insulting words, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
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But these people attack with insults anything they do not understand; and those things that they know by instinct, like wild animals, are the very things that destroy them.
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How terrible for them! They have followed the way that Cain took. For the sake of money they have given themselves over to the error that Balaam committed. They have rebelled as Korah rebelled, and like him they are destroyed.
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With their shameless carousing they are like dirty spots in your fellowship meals. They take care only of themselves. They are like clouds carried along by the wind, but bringing no rain. They are like trees that bear no fruit, even in autumn, trees that have been pulled up by the roots and are completely dead.
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They are like wild waves of the sea, with their shameful deeds showing up like foam. They are like wandering stars, for whom God has reserved a place forever in the deepest darkness.
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It was Enoch, the seventh direct descendant from Adam, who long ago prophesied this about them: "The Lord will come with many thousands of his holy angels
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to bring judgment on all, to condemn them all for the godless deeds they have performed and for all the terrible words that godless sinners have spoken against him!"
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These people are always grumbling and blaming others; they follow their own evil desires; they brag about themselves and flatter others in order to get their own way.
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But remember, my friends, what you were told in the past by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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They said to you, "When the last days come, people will appear who will make fun of you, people who follow their own godless desires."
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These are the people who cause divisions, who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit.
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But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,
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and keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life.
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Show mercy toward those who have doubts;
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save others by snatching them out of the fire; and to others show mercy mixed with fear, but hate their very clothes, stained by their sinful lusts.
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To him who is able to keep you from falling and to bring you faultless and joyful before his glorious presence---
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to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from all ages past, and now, and forever and ever! Amen.
