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Psalm 28

1  To you I call, O Lord my rock;
      be not deaf to my cry, ♦︎
   lest, if you do not hear me,
      I become like those who go down to the Pit.
2  Hear the voice of my prayer when I cry out to you, ♦︎
   when I lift up my hands to your holy of holies.
3  Do not snatch me away with the wicked,
      with the evildoers, ♦︎
   who speak peaceably with their neighbours,
      while malice is in their hearts.
4  Repay them according to their deeds ♦︎
   and according to the wickedness of their devices.
5  Reward them according to the work of their hands ♦︎
   and pay them their just deserts.
6  They take no heed of the Lord’s doings,
      nor of the works of his hands; ♦︎
   therefore shall he break them down
      and not build them up.
7  Blessed be the Lord, ♦︎
   for he has heard the voice of my prayer.
8  The Lord is my strength and my shield; ♦︎
   my heart has trusted in him and I am helped;
9  Therefore my heart dances for joy ♦︎
   and in my song will I praise him.
10  The Lord is the strength of his people, ♦︎
   a safe refuge for his anointed.
11  Save your people and bless your inheritance; ♦︎
   shepherd them and carry them for ever.

Two Kinds of Shepherds

4 Thus said the Lord my God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. ⁵Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich’; and their own shepherds have no pity on them. ⁶For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. I will cause them, every one, to fall each into the hand of a neighbour, and each into the hand of the king; and they shall devastate the earth, and I will deliver no one from their hand.

7 So, on behalf of the sheep dealers, I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two staffs; one I named Favour, the other I named Unity, and I tended the sheep. ⁸In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me. ⁹So I said, ‘I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!’ ¹⁰I took my staff Favour and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep dealers, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²I then said to them, ‘If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. ¹³Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it into the treasury’^*—this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury^* in the house of the Lord. ¹⁴Then I broke my second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.

15 Then the Lord said to me: Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd. ¹⁶For I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering,^* or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy,^* but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
¹⁷ Oh, my worthless shepherd,
   who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
   and his right eye!
Let his arm be completely withered,
   his right eye utterly blinded!

The Rejoicing in Heaven

19After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
‘Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power to our God,
²   for his judgements are true and just;
he has judged the great whore
   who corrupted the earth with her fornication,
and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’^*
3Once more they said,
‘Hallelujah!
The smoke goes up from her for ever and ever.’
⁴And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who is seated on the throne, saying,
‘Amen. Hallelujah!’

5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
‘Praise our God,
   all you his servants,^*
and all who fear him,
   small and great.’
⁶Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunder-peals, crying out,
‘Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
   the Almighty reigns.
⁷ Let us rejoice and exult
   and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
   and his bride has made herself ready;
⁸ to her it has been granted to be clothed
   with fine linen, bright and pure’—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

9 And the angel said^* to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’