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Psalm 48

1  Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, ♦︎
   in the city of our God.
2  His holy mountain is fair and lifted high, ♦︎
   the joy of all the earth.
3  On Mount Zion, the divine dwelling place, ♦︎
   stands the city of the great king.
4  In her palaces God has shown himself ♦︎
   to be a sure refuge.
5  For behold, the kings of the earth assembled ♦︎
   and swept forward together.
6  They saw, and were dumbfounded; ♦︎
   dismayed, they fled in terror.
7  Trembling seized them there;
      they writhed like a woman in labour, ♦︎
   as when the east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.
8  As we had heard, so have we seen
      in the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God: ♦︎
   God has established her for ever.
9  We have waited on your loving-kindness, O God, ♦︎
   in the midst of your temple.
10  As with your name, O God,
      so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; ♦︎
   your right hand is full of justice.
11  Let Mount Zion rejoice and the daughters of Judah be glad, ♦︎
   because of your judgements, O Lord.
12  Walk about Zion and go round about her;
      count all her towers; ♦︎
   consider well her bulwarks; pass through her citadels,
13  That you may tell those who come after
      that such is our God for ever and ever. ♦︎
   It is he that shall be our guide for evermore.

Balaam’s Third Oracle

24Now Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, so he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face towards the wilderness. ²Balaam looked up and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. Then the spirit of God came upon him, ³and he uttered his oracle, saying:
‘The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,
   the oracle of the man whose eye is clear,^*
4 the oracle of one who hears the words of God,
   who sees the vision of the Almighty,^*
   who falls down, but with eyes uncovered:
⁵ how fair are your tents, O Jacob,
   your encampments, O Israel!
⁶ Like palm groves that stretch far away,
   like gardens beside a river,
like aloes that the Lord has planted,
   like cedar trees beside the waters.
⁷ Water shall flow from his buckets,
   and his seed shall have abundant water,
his king shall be higher than Agag,
   and his kingdom shall be exalted.
⁸ God, who brings him out of Egypt,
   is like the horns of a wild ox for him;
he shall devour the nations that are his foes
   and break their bones.
   He shall strike with his arrows.^*
9 He crouched, he lay down like a lion,
   and like a lioness; who will rouse him up?
Blessed is everyone who blesses you,
   and cursed is everyone who curses you.’

10 Then Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. Balak said to Balaam, ‘I summoned you to curse my enemies, but instead you have blessed them these three times. ¹¹Now be off with you! Go home! I said, “I will reward you richly”, but the Lord has denied you any reward.’ ¹²And Balaam said to Balak, ‘Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, ¹³“If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will; what the Lord says, that is what I will say”? ¹⁴So now, I am going to my people; let me advise you what this people will do to your people in days to come.’

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’^{* 29}But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ ³⁴Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’^{* 35}The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born^* will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.’ ³⁸Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.