Bible Browser

73  Your hands have made me and fashioned me; ♦︎
   give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.
74  Those who fear you will be glad when they see me, ♦︎
   because I have hoped in your word.
75  I know, O Lord, that your judgements are right, ♦︎
   and that in very faithfulness you caused me to be troubled.
76  Let your faithful love be my comfort, ♦︎
   according to your promise to your servant.
77  Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live, ♦︎
   for your law is my delight.
78  Let the proud be put to shame, for they wrong me with lies; ♦︎
   but I will meditate on your commandments.
79  Let those who fear you turn to me, ♦︎
   even those who know your testimonies.
80  Let my heart be sound in your statutes, ♦︎
   that I may not be put to shame.

¹⁰ To whom shall I speak and give warning,
   that they may hear?
See, their ears are closed,^*
   they cannot listen.
The word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
   they take no pleasure in it.
¹¹ But I am full of the wrath of the Lord;
   I am weary of holding it in.

Pour it out on the children in the street,
   and on the gatherings of young men as well;
both husband and wife shall be taken,
   the old folk and the very aged.
¹² Their houses shall be turned over to others,
   their fields and wives together;
for I will stretch out my hand
   against the inhabitants of the land,

says the Lord.

¹³ For from the least to the greatest of them,
   everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
   everyone deals falsely.
¹⁴ They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
   saying, ‘Peace, peace’,
   when there is no peace.
¹⁵ They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;
   yet they were not ashamed,
   they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
   at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,

says the Lord.
¹⁶ Thus says the Lord:
Stand at the crossroads, and look,
   and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way lies; and walk in it,
   and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
¹⁷ Also I raised up sentinels for you:
   ‘Give heed to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not give heed.’
¹⁸ Therefore hear, O nations,
   and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
¹⁹ Hear, O earth; I am going to bring disaster on this people,
   the fruit of their schemes,
because they have not given heed to my words;
   and as for my teaching, they have rejected it.

The Riot in Ephesus

21 Now after these things had been accomplished, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go through Macedonia and Achaia, and then to go on to Jerusalem. He said, ‘After I have gone there, I must also see Rome.’ ²²So he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he himself stayed for some time longer in Asia.

23 About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way. ²⁴A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans. ²⁵These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, ‘Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business. ²⁶You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.’