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Psalm 27

1  The Lord is my light and my salvation;
      whom then shall I fear? ♦︎
   The Lord is the strength of my life;
      of whom then shall I be afraid?
2  When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes,
      came upon me to eat up my flesh, ♦︎
   they stumbled and fell.
3  Though a host encamp against me,
      my heart shall not be afraid, ♦︎
   and though there rise up war against me,
      yet will I put my trust in him.
4  One thing have I asked of the Lord
      and that alone I seek: ♦︎
   that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
      all the days of my life,
5  To behold the fair beauty of the Lord ♦︎
   and to seek his will in his temple.
6  For in the day of trouble
      he shall hide me in his shelter; ♦︎
   in the secret place of his dwelling shall he hide me
      and set me high upon a rock.
7  And now shall he lift up my head ♦︎
   above my enemies round about me;
8  Therefore will I offer in his dwelling an oblation
      with great gladness; ♦︎
   I will sing and make music to the Lord.
9  Hear my voice, O Lord, when I call; ♦︎
   have mercy upon me and answer me.
10  My heart tells of your word, ‘Seek my face.’ ♦︎
   Your face, Lord, will I seek.
11  Hide not your face from me, ♦︎
   nor cast your servant away in displeasure.
12  You have been my helper; ♦︎
   leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
13  Though my father and my mother forsake me, ♦︎
   the Lord will take me up.
14  Teach me your way, O Lord; ♦︎
   lead me on a level path,
      because of those who lie in wait for me.
15  Deliver me not into the will of my adversaries, ♦︎
   for false witnesses have risen up against me,
      and those who breathe out violence.
16  I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord ♦︎
   in the land of the living.
17  Wait for the Lord;
      be strong and he shall comfort your heart; ♦︎
   wait patiently for the Lord.

Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons

49Then Jacob called his sons, and said: ‘Gather around, that I may tell you what will happen to you in days to come.
² Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob;
   listen to Israel your father.

³ ‘Reuben, you are my firstborn,
   my might and the first fruits of my vigour,
   excelling in rank and excelling in power.
⁴ Unstable as water, you shall no longer excel
   because you went up on to your father’s bed;
   then you defiled it—you^* went up on to my couch!

⁵ ‘Simeon and Levi are brothers;
   weapons of violence are their swords.
⁶ May I never come into their council;
   may I not be joined to their company—
for in their anger they killed men,
   and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
   and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob,
   and scatter them in Israel.

⁸ ‘Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
   your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
   your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
⁹ Judah is a lion’s whelp;
   from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
   like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?
¹⁰ The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
   nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;^*
   and the obedience of the peoples is his.
¹¹ Binding his foal to the vine
   and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he washes his garments in wine
   and his robe in the blood of grapes;
¹² his eyes are darker than wine,
   and his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³ ‘Zebulun shall settle at the shore of the sea;
   he shall be a haven for ships,
   and his border shall be at Sidon.

¹⁴ ‘Issachar is a strong donkey,
   lying down between the sheepfolds;
¹⁵ he saw that a resting-place was good,
   and that the land was pleasant;
so he bowed his shoulder to the burden,
   and became a slave at forced labour.

¹⁶ ‘Dan shall judge his people
   as one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷ Dan shall be a snake by the roadside,
   a viper along the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
   so that its rider falls backwards.

¹⁸ ‘I wait for your salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹ ‘Gad shall be raided by raiders,
   but he shall raid at their heels.

²⁰ ‘Asher’s^* food shall be rich,
   and he shall provide royal delicacies.

²¹ ‘Naphtali is a doe let loose
   that bears lovely fawns.^*

²² ‘Joseph is a fruitful bough,
   a fruitful bough by a spring;
   his branches run over the wall.^*
23 The archers fiercely attacked him;
   they shot at him and pressed him hard.
²⁴ Yet his bow remained taut,
   and his arms^* were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
   by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
²⁵ by the God of your father, who will help you,
   by the Almighty^* who will bless you
   with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
   blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
²⁶ The blessings of your father
   are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains,
   the bounties^* of the everlasting hills;
may they be on the head of Joseph,
   on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

²⁷ ‘Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
   in the morning devouring the prey,
   and at evening dividing the spoil.’

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, blessing each one of them with a suitable blessing.

14 Therefore, my dear friends,^* flee from the worship of idols. ¹⁵I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. ¹⁸Consider the people of Israel;^* are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? ¹⁹What do I imply then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²²Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

Do All to the Glory of God

23 ‘All things are lawful’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful’, but not all things build up. ²⁴Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others. ²⁵Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, ²⁶for ‘the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.’ ²⁷If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. ²⁸But if someone says to you, ‘This has been offered in sacrifice’, then do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— ²⁹I mean the other’s conscience, not your own. For why should my liberty be subject to the judgement of someone else’s conscience? ³⁰If I partake with thankfulness, why should I be denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. ³²Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, ³³just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved. 11¹Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.