One Year Bible.

The Psalm of the Cross

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David.

My God, my God,

why have You forsaken me?

Why are You so far from saving me,

so far from my words of groaning?

²I cry out by day, O my God,

but You do not answer,

and by night,

but I have no rest.

³Yet You are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel.

⁴In You our fathers trusted;

they trusted and You delivered them.

⁵They cried out to You and were set free;

they trusted in You and were not disappointed.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by men and despised by the people.

⁷All who see me mock me;

they sneer and shake their heads:

⁸“He trusts in the LORD,

let the LORD deliver him;

let the LORD rescue him,

since He delights in him.”

⁹Yet You brought me forth from the womb;

You made me secure at my mother’s breast.

¹⁰From birth I was cast upon You;

from my mother’s womb You have been my God.

¹¹Be not far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

¹²Many bulls surround me;

strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

¹³They open their jaws against me

like lions that roar and maul.

¹⁴I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are disjointed.

My heart is like wax;

it melts away within me.

¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

You lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶For dogs surround me;

a band of evil men encircles me;

they have pierced my hands and feet.

¹⁷I can count all my bones;

they stare and gloat over me.

¹⁸They divide my garments among them

and cast lots for my clothing.

¹⁹But You, O LORD, be not far off;

O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

²⁰Deliver my soul from the sword,

my precious life from the power of wild dogs.

²¹Save me from the mouth of the lion;

at the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me!

²²I will proclaim Your name to my brothers;

I will praise You in the assembly.

²³You who fear the LORD, praise Him!

All descendants of Jacob, honor Him!

All offspring of Israel, revere Him!

²⁴For He has not despised or detested

the torment of the afflicted.

He has not hidden His face from him,

but has attended to his cry for help.

²⁵My praise for You resounds in the great assembly;

I will fulfill my vows before those who fear You.

²⁶The poor will eat and be satisfied;

those who seek the LORD will praise Him.

May your hearts live forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to the LORD.

All the families of the nations

will bow down before Him.

²⁸For dominion belongs to the LORD

and He rules over the nations.

²⁹All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;

all who go down to the dust will kneel before Him—

even those unable to preserve their lives.

³⁰Posterity will serve Him;

they will declare the Lord to a new generation.

³¹They will come and proclaim His righteousness

to a people yet unborn —

all that He has done.

Paul’s Testimony to Agrippa

¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”

Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense: ²“King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today to defend myself against all the accusations of the Jews, ³especially since you are acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. I beg you, therefore, to listen to me patiently.

⁴Surely all the Jews know how I have lived from my earliest childhood among my own people, and also in Jerusalem. ⁵They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I lived as a Pharisee, adhering to the strictest sect of our religion.

⁶And now I stand on trial because of my hope in the promise that God made to our fathers, ⁷the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. It is because of this hope, O king, that I am accused by the Jews. ⁸Why would any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

⁹So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With authority from the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were condemned to death, I cast my vote against them. ¹¹I frequently had them punished in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme. In my raging fury against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

¹²In this pursuit I was on my way to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. ¹³About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. ¹⁴We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew,‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵‘Who are You, Lord?’ I asked.

‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ¹⁶‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I will show you. ¹⁷I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them ¹⁸to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

¹⁹So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. ²⁰First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone in the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance. ²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me.

²²But I have had God’s help to this day, and I stand here to testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen: ²³that the Christ would suffer, and as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.”

Festus Interrupts Paul’s Defense

²⁴At this stage of Paul’s defense, Festus exclaimed in a loud voice, “You are insane, Paul! Your great learning is driving you to madness!”

²⁵But Paul answered, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus; I am speaking words of truth and sobriety. ²⁶For the king knows about these matters, and I can speak freely to him. I am confident that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. ²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”

²⁸Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Can you persuade me in such a short time to become a Christian?”

²⁹“Short time or long,” Paul replied, “I wish to God that not only you but all who hear me this day may become what I am, except for these chains.”

³⁰Then the king and the governor rose, along with Bernice and those seated with them. ³¹On their way out, they said to one another, “This man has done nothing worthy of death or imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

A Prophecy against Babylon

¹This is the word that the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans:

²“Announce and declare to the nations;

lift up a banner and proclaim it;

hold nothing back when you say,

‘Babylon is captured;

Bel is put to shame;

Marduk is shattered,

her images are disgraced,

her idols are broken in pieces.’

³For a nation from the north will come against her;

it will make her land a desolation.

No one will live in it;

both man and beast will flee.”

Hope for Israel and Judah

⁴“In those days and at that time,

declares the LORD,

the children of Israel and the children of Judah

will come together, weeping as they come,

and will seek the LORD their God.

⁵They will ask the way to Zion

and turn their faces toward it.

They will come and join themselves to the LORD

in an everlasting covenant

that will never be forgotten.

⁶My people are lost sheep;

their shepherds have led them astray,

causing them to roam the mountains.

They have wandered from mountain to hill;

they have forgotten their resting place.

⁷All who found them devoured them,

and their enemies said,

‘We are not guilty,

for they have sinned against the LORD, their true pasture,

the LORD, the hope of their fathers.’

⁸Flee from the midst of Babylon;

depart from the land of the Chaldeans;

be like the he-goats that lead the flock.

⁹For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon

an assembly of great nations from the land of the north.

They will line up against her;

from the north she will be captured.

Their arrows will be like skilled warriors

who do not return empty-handed.

¹⁰Chaldea will be plundered;

all who plunder her will have their fill,”

declares the LORD.

Babylon’s Fall Is Certain

¹¹“Because you rejoice,

because you sing in triumph—

you who plunder My inheritance—

because you frolic like a heifer treading grain

and neigh like stallions,

¹²your mother will be greatly ashamed;

she who bore you will be disgraced.

Behold, she will be the least of the nations,

a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

¹³Because of the wrath of the LORD,

she will not be inhabited;

she will become completely desolate.

All who pass through Babylon will be horrified

and will hiss at all her wounds.

¹⁴Line up in formation around Babylon,

all you who draw the bow!

Shoot at her! Spare no arrows!

For she has sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵Raise a war cry against her on every side!

She has thrown up her hands in surrender;

her towers have fallen;

her walls are torn down.

Since this is the vengeance of the LORD,

take out your vengeance upon her;

as she has done,

do the same to her.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon,

and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time.

In the face of the oppressor’s sword,

each will turn to his own people,

each will flee to his own land.

Redemption for God’s People

¹⁷Israel is a scattered flock,

chased away by lions.

The first to devour him

was the king of Assyria;

the last to crush his bones

was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

¹⁸Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:

“I will punish the king of Babylon and his land

as I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹I will return Israel to his pasture,

and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan;

his soul will be satisfied

on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.

²⁰In those days and at that time,

declares the LORD,

a search will be made for Israel’s guilt,

but there will be none,

and for Judah’s sins,

but they will not be found;

for I will forgive

the remnant I preserve.

The Destruction of Babylon

²¹Go up against the land of Merathaim,

and against the residents of Pekod.

Kill them and devote them to destruction.

Do all that I have commanded you,”

declares the LORD.

²²“The noise of battle is in the land —

the noise of great destruction.

²³How the hammer of the whole earth

lies broken and shattered!

What a horror Babylon has become

among the nations!

²⁴I laid a snare for you, O Babylon,

and you were caught before you knew it.

You were found and captured

because you challenged the LORD.

²⁵The LORD has opened His armory

and brought out His weapons of wrath,

for this is the work of the Lord GOD of Hosts

in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come against her

from the farthest border.

Break open her granaries;

pile her up like mounds of grain.

Devote her to destruction;

leave her no survivors.

²⁷Kill all her young bulls;

let them go down to the slaughter.

Woe to them, for their day has come —

the time of their punishment.

²⁸Listen to the fugitives and refugees

from the land of Babylon,

declaring in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God,

the vengeance for His temple.

²⁹Summon the archers against Babylon,

all who string the bow.

Encamp all around her;

let no one escape.

Repay her according to her deeds;

do to her as she has done.

For she has defied the LORD,

the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets,

and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,”

declares the LORD.

³¹“Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,”

declares the Lord GOD of Hosts,

“for your day has come,

the time when I will punish you.

³²The arrogant one will stumble and fall

with no one to pick him up.

And I will kindle a fire in his cities

to consume all those around him.”

³³This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“The sons of Israel are oppressed,

and the sons of Judah as well.

All their captors hold them fast,

refusing to release them.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong;

the LORD of Hosts is His name.

He will fervently plead their case

so that He may bring rest to the earth,

but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

³⁵A sword is against the Chaldeans,

declares the LORD,

against those who live in Babylon,

and against her officials and wise men.

³⁶A sword is against her false prophets,

and they will become fools.

A sword is against her warriors,

and they will be filled with terror.

³⁷A sword is against her horses and chariots

and against all the foreigners in her midst,

and they will become like women.

A sword is against her treasuries,

and they will be plundered.

³⁸A drought is upon her waters,

and they will be dried up.

For it is a land of graven images,

and the people go mad over idols.

³⁹So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there

and ostriches will dwell there.

It will never again be inhabited

or lived in from generation to generation.

⁴⁰As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah

along with their neighbors,”

declares the LORD,

“no one will dwell there;

no man will abide there.

⁴¹Behold, an army is coming from the north;

a great nation and many kings are stirred up

from the ends of the earth.

⁴²They grasp the bow and spear;

they are cruel and merciless.

Their voice roars like the sea,

and they ride upon horses,

lined up like men in formation

against you, O Daughter of Babylon.

⁴³The king of Babylon has heard the report,

and his hands hang limp.

Anguish has gripped him,

pain like that of a woman in labor.

⁴⁴Behold, one will come up like a lion

from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture.

For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land.

Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this?

For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me?

What shepherd can stand against Me?”

⁴⁵Therefore hear the plans

that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon

and the strategies He has devised

against the land of the Chaldeans:

Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away;

certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

⁴⁶At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will quake;

a cry will be heard among the nations.

Judgment on Babylon

¹This is what the LORD says:

“Behold, I will stir up against Babylon

and against the people of Leb-kamai

the spirit of a destroyer.

²I will send strangers to Babylon

to winnow her and empty her land;

for they will come against her from every side

in her day of disaster.

³Do not let the archer bend his bow

or put on his armor.

Do not spare her young men;

devote all her army to destruction!

⁴And they will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans,

and pierced through in her streets.

⁵For Israel and Judah have not been abandoned

by their God, the LORD of Hosts,

though their land is full of guilt

before the Holy One of Israel.”

⁶Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives!

Do not be destroyed in her punishment.

For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance;

He will pay her what she deserves.

⁷Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD,

making the whole earth drunk.

The nations drank her wine;

therefore the nations have gone mad.

⁸Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered.

Wail for her; get her balm for her pain;

perhaps she can be healed.

⁹“We tried to heal Babylon,

but she could not be healed.

Abandon her!

Let each of us go to his own land,

for her judgment extends to the sky

and reaches to the clouds.”

¹⁰“The LORD has brought forth our vindication;

come, let us tell in Zion

what the LORD our God has accomplished.”

¹¹Sharpen the arrows!

Fill the quivers!

The LORD has aroused the spirit

of the kings of the Medes,

because His plan is aimed at Babylon

to destroy her,

for it is the vengeance of the LORD —

vengeance for His temple.

¹²Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon;

post the guard;

station the watchmen;

prepare the ambush.

For the LORD has both devised and accomplished

what He spoke against the people of Babylon.

¹³You who dwell by many waters,

rich in treasures,

your end has come;

the thread of your life is cut.

¹⁴The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself:

“Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts,

and they will shout in triumph over you.”

Praise to the God of Jacob

¹⁵The LORD made the earth by His power;

He established the world by His wisdom

and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

¹⁶When He thunders,

the waters in the heavens roar;

He causes the clouds to rise

from the ends of the earth.

He generates the lightning with the rain

and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

¹⁷Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge;

every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols.

For his molten images are a fraud,

and there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are worthless, a work to be mocked.

In the time of their punishment they will perish.

¹⁹The Portion of Jacob is not like these,

for He is the Maker of all things,

and of the tribe of His inheritance —

the LORD of Hosts is His name.

Babylon’s Punishment

²⁰“You are My war club,

My weapon for battle.

With you I shatter nations;

with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.

²¹With you I shatter the horse and rider;

with you I shatter the chariot and driver.

²²With you I shatter man and woman;

with you I shatter the old man and the youth;

with you I shatter the young man and the maiden.

²³With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock;

with you I shatter the farmer and his oxen;

with you I shatter the governors and officials.

²⁴Before your very eyes I will repay

Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea

for all the evil they have done in Zion,”

declares the LORD.

²⁵“Behold, I am against you,

O destroying mountain,

you who devastate the whole earth,

declares the LORD.

I will stretch out My hand against you;

I will roll you over the cliffs

and turn you into a charred mountain.

²⁶No one shall retrieve from you a cornerstone

or a foundation stone,

because you will become desolate forever,”

declares the LORD.

²⁷“Raise a banner in the land!

Blow the ram’s horn among the nations!

Prepare the nations against her.

Summon the kingdoms against her —

Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

Appoint a captain against her;

bring up horses like swarming locusts.

²⁸Prepare the nations for battle against her —

the kings of the Medes,

their governors and all their officials,

and all the lands they rule.

²⁹The earth quakes and writhes

because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand:

to make the land of Babylon a desolation,

without inhabitant.

³⁰The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting;

they sit in their strongholds.

Their strength is exhausted;

they have become like women.

Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze,

the bars of her gates are broken.

³¹One courier races to meet another,

and messenger follows messenger,

to announce to the king of Babylon

that his city has been captured from end to end.

³²The fords have been seized,

the marshes set on fire,

and the soldiers are terrified.”

³³For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:

“The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor

at the time it is trampled.

In just a little while

her harvest time will come.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me;

he has crushed me.

He has set me aside like an empty vessel;

he has swallowed me like a monster;

he filled his belly with my delicacies

and vomited me out.

³⁵May the violence done to me

and to my flesh

be upon Babylon,”

says the dweller of Zion.

“May my blood be on the dwellers of Chaldea,”

says Jerusalem.

³⁶Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“Behold, I will plead your case

and take vengeance on your behalf;

I will dry up her sea

and make her springs run dry.

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble,

a haunt for jackals,

an object of horror and scorn,

without inhabitant.

³⁸They will roar together like young lions;

they will growl like lion cubs.

³⁹While they are flushed with heat,

I will serve them a feast,

and I will make them drunk

so that they may revel;

then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up,

declares the LORD.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

like rams with male goats.

⁴¹How Sheshach has been captured!

The praise of all the earth has been seized.

What a horror Babylon has become

among the nations!

⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon;

she is covered in turbulent waves.

⁴³Her cities have become a desolation,

a dry and arid land,

a land where no one lives,

where no son of man passes through.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon.

I will make him spew out what he swallowed.

The nations will no longer stream to him;

even the wall of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁵Come out of her, My people!

Save your lives, each of you,

from the fierce anger of the LORD.

⁴⁶Do not let your heart grow faint,

and do not be afraid

when the rumor is heard in the land;

for a rumor will come one year—

and then another the next year—

of violence in the land

and of ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷Therefore, behold, the days are coming

when I will punish the idols of Babylon.

Her entire land will suffer shame,

and all her slain will lie fallen within her.

⁴⁸Then heaven and earth and all that is in them

will shout for joy over Babylon

because the destroyers from the north

will come against her,”

declares the LORD.

⁴⁹“Babylon must fall

on account of the slain of Israel,

just as the slain of all the earth

have fallen because of Babylon.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword,

depart and do not linger!

Remember the LORD from far away,

and let Jerusalem come to mind.”

⁵¹“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach;

disgrace has covered our faces,

because foreigners have entered

the holy places of the LORD’s house.”

⁵²“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,”

declares the LORD,

“when I will punish her idols,

and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

⁵³Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens

and fortifies her lofty stronghold,

the destroyers I send will come against her,”

declares the LORD.

⁵⁴“The sound of a cry

comes from Babylon,

the sound of great destruction

from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵For the LORD will destroy Babylon;

He will silence her mighty voice.

The waves will roar like great waters;

the tumult of their voices will resound.

⁵⁶For a destroyer is coming against her —

against Babylon.

Her warriors will be captured,

and their bows will be broken,

for the LORD is a God of retribution;

He will repay in full.

⁵⁷I will make her princes and wise men drunk,

along with her governors, officials, and warriors.

Then they will fall asleep forever

and not wake up,”

declares the King,

whose name is the LORD of Hosts.

⁵⁸This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled,

and her high gates consumed by fire.

So the labor of the people will be for nothing;

the nations will exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.”

Jeremiah’s Message to Seraiah

⁵⁹This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the quartermaster Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ⁶⁰Jeremiah had written on a single scroll about all the disaster that would come upon Babylon — all these words that had been written concerning Babylon.

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud, ⁶²and say, ‘O LORD, You have promised to cut off this place so that no one will remain — neither man nor beast. Indeed, it will be desolate forever.’

⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴Then you are to say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will grow weary.’”

Here end the words of Jeremiah.