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Psalm 126

1  When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, ♦︎
   then were we like those who dream.
2  Then was our mouth filled with laughter ♦︎
   and our tongue with songs of joy.
3  Then said they among the nations, ♦︎
   ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
4  The Lord has indeed done great things for us, ♦︎
   and therefore we rejoiced.
5  Restore again our fortunes, O Lord, ♦︎
   as the river beds of the desert.
6  Those who sow in tears ♦︎
   shall reap with songs of joy.
7  Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed, ♦︎
   will come back with shouts of joy,
      bearing their sheaves with them.

False Prophets of Hope Denounced

9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is crushed within me,
   all my bones shake;
I have become like a drunkard,
   like one overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
   and because of his holy words.
¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers;
   because of the curse the land mourns,
   and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course has been evil,
   and their might is not right.
¹¹ Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
   even in my house I have found their wickedness,

says the Lord.
¹² Therefore their way shall be to them
   like slippery paths in the darkness,
   into which they shall be driven and fall;
for I will bring disaster upon them
   in the year of their punishment,

says the Lord.
¹³ In the prophets of Samaria
   I saw a disgusting thing:
they prophesied by Baal
   and led my people Israel astray.
¹⁴ But in the prophets of Jerusalem
   I have seen a more shocking thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies;
   they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
   so that no one turns from wickedness;
all of them have become like Sodom to me,
   and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
¹⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
‘I am going to make them eat wormwood,
   and give them poisoned water to drink;
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
   ungodliness has spread throughout the land.’

The Priestly Order of Melchizedek

7This ‘King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him’; ²and to him Abraham apportioned ‘one-tenth of everything’. His name, in the first place, means ‘king of righteousness’; next he is also king of Salem, that is, ‘king of peace’. ³Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest for ever.

4 See how great he is! Even^* Abraham the patriarch gave him a tenth of the spoils. ⁵And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to collect tithes^* from the people, that is, from their kindred,^* though these also are descended from Abraham. ⁶But this man, who does not belong to their ancestry, collected tithes^* from Abraham and blessed him who had received the promises. ⁷It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. ⁸In the one case, tithes are received by those who are mortal; in the other, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. ⁹One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, ¹⁰for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.