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Psalm 47

God’s Rule over the Nations

To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.
¹ Clap your hands, all you peoples;
   shout to God with loud songs of joy.
² For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome,
   a great king over all the earth.
³ He subdued peoples under us,
   and nations under our feet.
⁴ He chose our heritage for us,
   the pride of Jacob whom he loves.
          Selah

⁵ God has gone up with a shout,
   the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
⁶ Sing praises to God, sing praises;
   sing praises to our King, sing praises.
⁷ For God is the king of all the earth;
   sing praises with a psalm.^*

⁸ God is king over the nations;
   God sits on his holy throne.
⁹ The princes of the peoples gather
   as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
   he is highly exalted.

Psalm 48

The Glory and Strength of Zion

A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites.
¹ Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
   in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, ²beautiful in elevation,
   is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
   the city of the great King.
³ Within its citadels God
   has shown himself a sure defence.

⁴ Then the kings assembled,
   they came on together.
⁵ As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
   they were in panic, they took to flight;
⁶ trembling took hold of them there,
   pains as of a woman in labour,
⁷ as when an east wind shatters
   the ships of Tarshish.
⁸ As we have heard, so have we seen
   in the city of the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God,
   which God establishes for ever.
          Selah

⁹ We ponder your steadfast love, O God,
   in the midst of your temple.
¹⁰ Your name, O God, like your praise,
   reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with victory.
¹¹   Let Mount Zion be glad,
let the towns^* of Judah rejoice
   because of your judgements.

¹² Walk about Zion, go all around it,
   count its towers,
¹³ consider well its ramparts;
   go through its citadels,
that you may tell the next generation
¹⁴   that this is God,
our God for ever and ever.
   He will be our guide for ever.

Judith as a Guest of Holofernes

12Then he commanded them to bring her in where his silver dinnerware was kept, and ordered them to set a table for her with some of his own delicacies, and with some of his own wine to drink. ²But Judith said, ‘I cannot partake of them, or it will be an offence; but I will have enough with the things I brought with me.’ ³Holofernes said to her, ‘If your supply runs out, where can we get you more of the same? For none of your people are here with us.’ ⁴Judith replied, ‘As surely as you live, my lord, your servant will not use up the supplies I have with me before the Lord carries out by my hand what he has determined.’

5 Then the servants of Holofernes brought her into the tent, and she slept until midnight. Towards the morning watch she got up ⁶and sent this message to Holofernes: ‘Let my lord now give orders to allow your servant to go out and pray.’ ⁷So Holofernes commanded his guards not to hinder her. She remained in the camp for three days. She went out each night to the valley of Bethulia, and bathed at the spring in the camp.^{* 8}After bathing, she prayed the Lord God of Israel to direct her way for the triumph of his^* people. ⁹Then she returned purified and stayed in the tent until she ate her food towards evening.

Judith Attends Holofernes’ Banquet

10 On the fourth day Holofernes held a banquet for his personal attendants only, and did not invite any of his officers. ¹¹He said to Bagoas, the eunuch who had charge of his personal affairs, ‘Go and persuade the Hebrew woman who is in your care to join us and to eat and drink with us. ¹²For it would be a disgrace if we let such a woman go without having intercourse with her. If we do not seduce her, she will laugh at us.’

13 So Bagoas left the presence of Holofernes, and approached her and said, ‘Let this pretty girl not hesitate to come to my lord to be honoured in his presence, and to enjoy drinking wine with us, and to become today like one of the Assyrian women who serve in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.’ ¹⁴Judith replied, ‘Who am I to refuse my lord? Whatever pleases him I will do at once, and it will be a joy to me until the day of my death.’ ¹⁵So she proceeded to dress herself in all her woman’s finery. Her maid went ahead and spread for her on the ground before Holofernes the lambskins she had received from Bagoas for her daily use in reclining.

16 Then Judith came in and lay down. Holofernes’ heart was ravished with her and his passion was aroused, for he had been waiting for an opportunity to seduce her from the day he first saw her. ¹⁷So Holofernes said to her, ‘Have a drink and be merry with us!’ ¹⁸Judith said, ‘I will gladly drink, my lord, because today is the greatest day in my whole life.’ ¹⁹Then she took what her maid had prepared and ate and drank before him. ²⁰Holofernes was greatly pleased with her, and drank a great quantity of wine, much more than he had ever drunk in any one day since he was born.

Paul in Athens

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the market-place^* every day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ¹⁹So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.’ ²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. ²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, ²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. ²⁶From one ancestor^* he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, ²⁷so that they would search for God^* and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we too are his offspring.”
²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. ³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’

32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ ³³At that point Paul left them. ³⁴But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Psalm 49

The Folly of Trust in Riches

To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.
¹ Hear this, all you peoples;
   give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
² both low and high,
   rich and poor together.
³ My mouth shall speak wisdom;
   the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
⁴ I will incline my ear to a proverb;
   I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.

⁵ Why should I fear in times of trouble,
   when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me,
⁶ those who trust in their wealth
   and boast of the abundance of their riches?
⁷ Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life,^*
   there is no price one can give to God for it.
⁸ For the ransom of life is costly,
   and can never suffice,
⁹ that one should live on for ever
   and never see the grave.^*

¹⁰ When we look at the wise, they die;
   fool and dolt perish together
   and leave their wealth to others.
¹¹ Their graves^* are their homes for ever,
   their dwelling-places to all generations,
   though they named lands their own.
¹² Mortals cannot abide in their pomp;
   they are like the animals that perish.

¹³ Such is the fate of the foolhardy,
   the end of those^* who are pleased with their lot.
          Selah
¹⁴ Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
   Death shall be their shepherd;
straight to the grave they descend,^*
   and their form shall waste away;
   Sheol shall be their home.^*
15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
   for he will receive me.
          Selah

¹⁶ Do not be afraid when some become rich,
   when the wealth of their houses increases.
¹⁷ For when they die they will carry nothing away;
   their wealth will not go down after them.
¹⁸ Though in their lifetime they count themselves happy
   —for you are praised when you do well for yourself—
¹⁹ they^* will go to the company of their ancestors,
   who will never again see the light.
²⁰ Mortals cannot abide in their pomp;
   they are like the animals that perish.

Alliance with Egypt Is Futile

31Alas for those who go down to Egypt for help
   and who rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
   and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
   or consult the Lord!
² Yet he too is wise and brings disaster;
   he does not call back his words,
but will rise against the house of the evildoers,
   and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
³ The Egyptians are human, and not God;
   their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
   the helper will stumble, and the one helped will fall,
   and they will all perish together.

⁴ For thus the Lord said to me,
As a lion or a young lion growls over its prey,
   and—when a band of shepherds is called out against it—
is not terrified by their shouting
   or daunted at their noise,
so the Lord of hosts will come down
   to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.
⁵ Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of hosts
   will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it,
   he will spare and rescue it.

6 Turn back to him whom you^* have deeply betrayed, O people of Israel. ⁷For on that day all of you shall throw away your idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
⁸ ‘Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of mortals;
   and a sword, not of humans, shall devour him;
he shall flee from the sword,
   and his young men shall be put to forced labour.
⁹ His rock shall pass away in terror,
   and his officers desert the standard in panic,’
says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,
   and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

The Ancestors of Jesus

23 Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work. He was the son (as was thought) of Joseph son of Heli, ²⁴son of Matthat, son of Levi, son of Melchi, son of Jannai, son of Joseph, ²⁵son of Mattathias, son of Amos, son of Nahum, son of Esli, son of Naggai, ²⁶son of Maath, son of Mattathias, son of Semein, son of Josech, son of Joda, ²⁷son of Joanan, son of Rhesa, son of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel,^* son of Neri, ²⁸son of Melchi, son of Addi, son of Cosam, son of Elmadam, son of Er, ²⁹son of Joshua, son of Eliezer, son of Jorim, son of Matthat, son of Levi, ³⁰son of Simeon, son of Judah, son of Joseph, son of Jonam, son of Eliakim, ³¹son of Melea, son of Menna, son of Mattatha, son of Nathan, son of David, ³²son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz, son of Sala,^* son of Nahshon, ³³son of Amminadab, son of Admin, son of Arni,^* son of Hezron, son of Perez, son of Judah, ³⁴son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of Terah, son of Nahor, ³⁵son of Serug, son of Reu, son of Peleg, son of Eber, son of Shelah, ³⁶son of Cainan, son of Arphaxad, son of Shem, son of Noah, son of Lamech, ³⁷son of Methuselah, son of Enoch, son of Jared, son of Mahalaleel, son of Cainan, ³⁸son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.