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Psalm 22

1  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, ♦︎
   and are so far from my salvation,
      from the words of my distress?
2  O my God, I cry in the daytime,
      but you do not answer; ♦︎
   and by night also, but I find no rest.
3  Yet you are the Holy One, ♦︎
   enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
4  Our forebears trusted in you; ♦︎
   they trusted, and you delivered them.
5  They cried out to you and were delivered; ♦︎
   they put their trust in you and were not confounded.
6  But as for me, I am a worm and no man, ♦︎
   scorned by all and despised by the people.
7  All who see me laugh me to scorn; ♦︎
   they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,
8  ‘He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; ♦︎
   let him deliver him, if he delights in him.’
9  But it is you that took me out of the womb ♦︎
   and laid me safe upon my mother’s breast.
10  On you was I cast ever since I was born; ♦︎
   you are my God even from my mother’s womb.
11  Be not far from me, for trouble is near at hand ♦︎
   and there is none to help.
12  Mighty oxen come around me; ♦︎
   fat bulls of Bashan close me in on every side.
13  They gape upon me with their mouths, ♦︎
   as it were a ramping and a roaring lion.
14  I am poured out like water;
      all my bones are out of joint; ♦︎
   my heart has become like wax
      melting in the depths of my body.
15  My mouth is dried up like a potsherd;
      my tongue cleaves to my gums; ♦︎
   you have laid me in the dust of death.

Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

18Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
² ‘How long will you hunt for words?
   Consider, and then we shall speak.
³ Why are we counted as cattle?
   Why are we stupid in your sight?
⁴ You who tear yourself in your anger—
   shall the earth be forsaken because of you,
   or the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ ‘Surely the light of the wicked is put out,
   and the flame of their fire does not shine.
⁶ The light is dark in their tent,
   and the lamp above them is put out.
⁷ Their strong steps are shortened,
   and their own schemes throw them down.
⁸ For they are thrust into a net by their own feet,
   and they walk into a pitfall.
⁹ A trap seizes them by the heel;
   a snare lays hold of them.
¹⁰ A rope is hid for them in the ground,
   a trap for them in the path.
¹¹ Terrors frighten them on every side,
   and chase them at their heels.
¹² Their strength is consumed by hunger,^*
   and calamity is ready for their stumbling.
¹³ By disease their skin is consumed,^*
   the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.
¹⁴ They are torn from the tent in which they trusted,
   and are brought to the king of terrors.
¹⁵ In their tents nothing remains;
   sulphur is scattered upon their habitations.
¹⁶ Their roots dry up beneath,
   and their branches wither above.
¹⁷ Their memory perishes from the earth,
   and they have no name in the street.
¹⁸ They are thrust from light into darkness,
   and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ They have no offspring or descendant among their people,
   and no survivor where they used to live.
²⁰ They of the west are appalled at their fate,
   and horror seizes those of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly,
   such is the place of those who do not know God.’

The Rest That God Promised

4Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ²For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.^{* 3}For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God^* has said,
‘As in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest” ’,
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. ⁴For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ ⁵And again in this place it says, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ⁶Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷again he sets a certain day—‘today’—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.’
⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God^* would not speak later about another day. ⁹So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; ¹⁰for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his. ¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.