Bible Browser

Psalm 102

1  O Lord, hear my prayer ♦︎
   and let my crying come before you.
2  Hide not your face from me ♦︎
   in the day of my distress.
3  Incline your ear to me; ♦︎
   when I call, make haste to answer me,
4  For my days are consumed in smoke ♦︎
   and my bones burn away as in a furnace.
5  My heart is smitten down and withered like grass, ♦︎
   so that I forget to eat my bread.
6  From the sound of my groaning ♦︎
   my bones cleave fast to my skin.
7  I am become like a vulture in the wilderness, ♦︎
   like an owl that haunts the ruins.
8  I keep watch and am become like a sparrow ♦︎
   solitary upon the housetop.
9  My enemies revile me all the day long, ♦︎
   and those who rage at me have sworn together against me.
10  I have eaten ashes for bread ♦︎
   and mingled my drink with weeping,
11  Because of your indignation and wrath, ♦︎
   for you have taken me up and cast me down.
12  My days fade away like a shadow, ♦︎
   and I am withered like grass.
13  But you, O Lord, shall endure for ever ♦︎
   and your name through all generations.
14  You will arise and have pity on Zion; ♦︎
   it is time to have mercy upon her;
      surely the time has come.
15  For your servants love her very stones ♦︎
   and feel compassion for her dust.
16  Then shall the nations fear your name, O Lord, ♦︎
   and all the kings of the earth your glory,
17  When the Lord has built up Zion ♦︎
   and shown himself in glory;
18  When he has turned to the prayer of the destitute ♦︎
   and has not despised their plea.
19  This shall be written for those that come after, ♦︎
   and a people yet unborn shall praise the Lord.
20  For he has looked down from his holy height; ♦︎
   from the heavens he beheld the earth,
21  That he might hear the sighings of the prisoner ♦︎
   and set free those condemned to die;
22  That the name of the Lord may be proclaimed in Zion ♦︎
   and his praises in Jerusalem,
23  When peoples are gathered together ♦︎
   and kingdoms also, to serve the Lord.
24  He has brought down my strength in my journey ♦︎
   and has shortened my days.
25  I pray, ‘O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days; ♦︎
   your years endure throughout all generations.
26  ‘In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, ♦︎
   and the heavens are the work of your hands;
27  ‘They shall perish, but you will endure; ♦︎
   they all shall wear out like a garment.
28  ‘You change them like clothing, and they shall be changed; ♦︎
   but you are the same, and your years will not fail.
29  ‘The children of your servants shall continue, ♦︎
   and their descendants shall be established in your sight.’

⁶Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. ⁷But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

The Israelites Are Oppressed

8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹He said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. ¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.’ ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labour. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. ¹³The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labour. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶‘When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.’ ¹⁷But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, ‘Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?’ ¹⁹The midwives said to Pharaoh, ‘Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.’ ²⁰So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. ²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every boy that is born to the Hebrews^* you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.’

One Body with Many Members

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many members, yet one body. ²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ ²²On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; ²⁴whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, ²⁵that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.