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Psalm 38

1  Rebuke me not, O Lord, in your anger, ♦︎
   neither chasten me in your heavy displeasure.
2  For your arrows have stuck fast in me ♦︎
   and your hand presses hard upon me.
3  There is no health in my flesh
      because of your indignation; ♦︎
   there is no peace in my bones because of my sin.
4  For my iniquities have gone over my head; ♦︎
   their weight is a burden too heavy to bear.
5  My wounds stink and fester ♦︎
   because of my foolishness.
6  I am utterly bowed down and brought very low; ♦︎
   I go about mourning all the day long.
7  My loins are filled with searing pain; ♦︎
   there is no health in my flesh.
8  I am feeble and utterly crushed; ♦︎
   I roar aloud because of the disquiet of my heart.
9  O Lord, you know all my desires ♦︎
   and my sighing is not hidden from you.
10  My heart is pounding, my strength has failed me; ♦︎
   the light of my eyes is gone from me.
11  My friends and companions stand apart from my affliction; ♦︎
   my neighbours stand afar off.
12  Those who seek after my life lay snares for me; ♦︎
   and those who would harm me whisper evil
      and mutter slander all the day long.
13  But I am like one who is deaf and hears not, ♦︎
   like one that is dumb, who does not open his mouth.
14  I have become like one who does not hear ♦︎
   and from whose mouth comes no retort.
15  For in you, Lord, have I put my trust; ♦︎
   you will answer me, O Lord my God.
16  For I said, ‘Let them not triumph over me, ♦︎
   those who exult over me when my foot slips.’
17  Truly, I am on the verge of falling ♦︎
   and my pain is ever with me.
18  I will confess my iniquity ♦︎
   and be sorry for my sin.
19  Those that are my enemies without any cause are mighty, ♦︎
   and those who hate me wrongfully are many in number.
20  Those who repay evil for good are against me, ♦︎
   because the good is what I seek.
21  Forsake me not, O Lord; ♦︎
   be not far from me, O my God.
22  Make haste to help me, ♦︎
   O Lord of my salvation.

Restoration of the Temple Resumed

5Now the prophets, Haggai^* and Zechariah son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. ²Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set out to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God, helping them.

3 At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus, ‘Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?’ ⁴They^* also asked them this: ‘What are the names of the men who are building this building?’ ⁵But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report reached Darius and then answer was returned by letter in reply to it.

6 The copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and his associates the envoys who were in the province Beyond the River sent to King Darius; ⁷they sent him a report, in which was written as follows: ‘To Darius the king, all peace! ⁸May it be known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built of hewn stone, and timber is laid in the walls; this work is being done diligently and prospers in their hands. ⁹Then we spoke to those elders and asked them, “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?” ¹⁰We also asked them their names, for your information, so that we might write down the names of the men at their head. ¹¹This was their reply to us: “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished. ¹²But because our ancestors had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia. ¹³However, King Cyrus of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt. ¹⁴Moreover, the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem and had brought into the temple of Babylon, these King Cyrus took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor. ¹⁵He said to him, ‘Take these vessels; go and put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.’ ¹⁶Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem; and from that time until now it has been under construction, and it is not yet finished.” ¹⁷And now, if it seems good to the king, have a search made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by King Cyrus for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem. Let the king send us his pleasure in this matter.’

Israel’s Rejection Is Not Final

11I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? ³‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’ ⁴But what is the divine reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ ⁵So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. ⁶But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.^*

7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, ⁸as it is written,
‘God gave them a sluggish spirit,
   eyes that would not see
   and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.’
⁹And David says,
‘Let their table become a snare and a trap,
   a stumbling-block and a retribution for them;
¹⁰ let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
   and keep their backs for ever bent.’

The Salvation of the Gentiles

11 So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling^* salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel^* jealous. ¹²Now if their stumbling^* means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!