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Psalm 129

1  ‘Many a time have they fought against me from my youth,’ ♦︎
   may Israel now say;
2  ‘Many a time have they fought against me from my youth, ♦︎
   but they have not prevailed against me.’
3  The ploughers ploughed upon my back ♦︎
   and made their furrows long.
4  But the righteous Lord ♦︎
   has cut the cords of the wicked in pieces.
5  Let them be put to shame and turned backwards, ♦︎
   as many as are enemies of Zion.
6  Let them be like grass upon the housetops, ♦︎
   which withers before it can grow,
7  So that no reaper can fill his hand, ♦︎
   nor a binder of sheaves his bosom;
8  And none who go by may say,
      ‘The blessing of the Lord be upon you. ♦︎
   We bless you in the name of the Lord.’

Zedekiah Consults Jeremiah Again

14 King Zedekiah sent for the prophet Jeremiah and received him at the third entrance of the temple of the Lord. The king said to Jeremiah, ‘I have something to ask you; do not hide anything from me.’ ¹⁵Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, ‘If I tell you, you will put me to death, will you not? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.’ ¹⁶So King Zedekiah swore an oath in secret to Jeremiah, ‘As the Lord lives, who gave us our lives, I will not put you to death or hand you over to these men who seek your life.’

17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you will only surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. ¹⁸But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city shall be handed over to the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you yourself shall not escape from their hand.’ ¹⁹King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, ‘I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, for I might be handed over to them and they would abuse me.’ ²⁰Jeremiah said, ‘That will not happen. Just obey the voice of the Lord in what I say to you, and it shall go well with you, and your life shall be spared. ²¹But if you are determined not to surrender, this is what the Lord has shown me— ²²a vision of all the women remaining in the house of the king of Judah being led out to the officials of the king of Babylon and saying,
“Your trusted friends have seduced you
   and have overcome you;
Now that your feet are stuck in the mud,
   they desert you.”
²³All your wives and your children shall be led out to the Chaldeans, and you yourself shall not escape from their hand, but shall be seized by the king of Babylon; and this city shall be burned with fire.’

24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, ‘Do not let anyone else know of this conversation, or you will die. ²⁵If the officials should hear that I have spoken with you, and they should come and say to you, “Just tell us what you said to the king; do not conceal it from us, or we will put you to death. What did the king say to you?” ²⁶then you shall say to them, “I was presenting my plea to the king not to send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.” ’ ²⁷All the officials did come to Jeremiah and questioned him; and he answered them in the very words the king had commanded. So they stopped questioning him, for the conversation had not been overheard. ²⁸And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

Lawsuits among Believers

6When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? ²Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? ³Do you not know that we are to judge angels—to say nothing of ordinary matters? ⁴If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? ⁵I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer^* and another, ⁶but a believer^* goes to court against a believer^*—and before unbelievers at that?

7 In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and believers^* at that.

9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, ¹⁰thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.