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11  Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; ♦︎
   knit my heart to you, that I may fear your name.
12  I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, ♦︎
   and glorify your name for evermore;
13  For great is your steadfast love towards me, ♦︎
   for you have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave.
14  O God, the proud rise up against me
      and a ruthless horde seek after my life; ♦︎
   they have not set you before their eyes.
15  But you, Lord, are gracious and full of compassion, ♦︎
   slow to anger and full of kindness and truth.
16  Turn to me and have mercy upon me; ♦︎
   give your strength to your servant
      and save the child of your handmaid.
17  Show me a token of your favour,
      that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed; ♦︎
   because you, O Lord, have helped and comforted me.

The Futility of Idols

²¹ Set forth your case, says the Lord;
   bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
²² Let them bring them, and tell us
   what is to happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are,
   so that we may consider them,
and that we may know their outcome;
   or declare to us the things to come.
²³ Tell us what is to come hereafter,
   that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do harm,
   that we may be afraid and terrified.
²⁴ You, indeed, are nothing
   and your work is nothing at all;
   whoever chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵ I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,
   from the rising of the sun he was summoned by name.^*
He shall trample^* on rulers as on mortar,
   as the potter treads clay.
²⁶ Who declared it from the beginning, so that we might know,
   and beforehand, so that we might say, ‘He is right’?
There was no one who declared it, none who proclaimed,
   none who heard your words.
²⁷ I first have declared it to Zion,^*
   and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good tidings.
²⁸ But when I look there is no one;
   among these there is no counsellor
   who, when I ask, gives an answer.
²⁹ No, they are all a delusion;
   their works are nothing;
   their images are empty wind.

Warning to Pay Attention

2Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. ²For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, ³how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, ⁴while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.

Exaltation through Abasement

5 Now God^* did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. ⁶But someone has testified somewhere,
‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them,^*
   or mortals, that you care for them?^*
7 You have made them for a little while lower^* than the angels;
   you have crowned them with glory and honour,^*
8   subjecting all things under their feet.’
Now in subjecting all things to them, God^* left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, ⁹but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower^* than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God^* he might taste death for everyone.