One Year Bible.

Clap Your Hands, All You Peoples

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Clap your hands, all you peoples;

shout unto God with a voice of triumph.

²How awesome is the LORD Most High,

the great King over all the earth!

³He subdues nations beneath us,

and peoples under our feet.

⁴He chooses our inheritance for us,

the pride of Jacob, whom He loves.

Selah

⁵God has ascended amid shouts of joy,

the LORD with the sound of the horn.

⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises;

sing praises to our King, sing praises!

⁷For God is King of all the earth;

sing to Him a psalm of praise.

⁸God reigns over the nations;

God is seated on His holy throne.

⁹The nobles of the nations have assembled

as the people of the God of Abraham;

for the shields of the earth belong to God;

He is highly exalted.

Warnings from Israel’s Past

¹I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did. ⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” ⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. ¹²So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall. ¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.

Flee from Idolatry

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵I speak to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar? ¹⁹Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too. ²²Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

All to God’s Glory

²³“Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying. ²⁴No one should seek his own good, but the good of others.

²⁵Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, ²⁶for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

²⁷If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions of conscience. ²⁸But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience — ²⁹the other one’s conscience, I mean, not your own. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience? ³⁰If I partake in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

³¹So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. ³²Do not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God— ³³as I also try to please everyone in all I do. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved.

Judah and Israel Will Be Restored

¹Ask the LORD for rain in springtime;

the LORD makes the storm clouds,

and He will give everyone showers of rain

and crops in the field.

²For idols speak deceit

and diviners see illusions;

they tell false dreams

and offer empty comfort.

Therefore the people wander like sheep,

oppressed for lack of a shepherd.

³“My anger burns against the shepherds,

and I will punish the leaders.

For the LORD of Hosts attends to His flock,

the house of Judah;

He will make them

like His royal steed in battle.

⁴The cornerstone will come from Judah,

the tent peg from him,

as well as the battle bow

and every ruler together.

⁵They will be like mighty men in battle,

trampling the enemy in the mire of the streets.

They will fight because the LORD is with them,

and they will put the horsemen to shame.

⁶I will strengthen the house of Judah

and save the house of Joseph.

I will restore them because I have compassion on them,

and they will be as though I had not rejected them.

For I am the LORD their God,

and I will answer them.

⁷Ephraim will be like a mighty man,

and their hearts will be glad as with wine.

Their children will see it and be joyful;

their hearts will rejoice in the LORD.

⁸I will whistle for them to gather,

for I have redeemed them;

and they will be as numerous

as they once were.

⁹Though I sow them among the nations,

they will remember Me in distant lands;

they and their children

will live and return.

¹⁰I will bring them back from Egypt

and gather them from Assyria.

I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon

until no more room is found for them.

¹¹They will pass through the sea of distress

and strike the waves of the sea;

all the depths of the Nile will dry up.

The pride of Assyria will be brought down,

and the scepter of Egypt will depart.

¹²I will strengthen them in the LORD,

and in His name they will walk,”

declares the LORD.

The Doomed Flock

¹Open your doors, O Lebanon,

that the fire may consume your cedars!

²Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen;

the majestic trees are ruined!

Wail, O oaks of Bashan,

for the dense forest has been cut down!

³Listen to the wailing of the shepherds,

for their glory is in ruins.

Listen to the roaring of the young lions,

for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.

⁴This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter, ⁵whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them.

⁶For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”

⁷So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock. ⁸And in one month I dismissed three shepherds.

My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me. ⁹Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish; and let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.”

Thirty Pieces of Silver

¹⁰Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. ¹¹It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

¹²Then I told them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”— this magnificent price at which they valued me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

¹⁴Then I cut in two my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And the LORD said to me: “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.

¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd,

who deserts the flock!

May a sword strike his arm

and his right eye!

May his arm be completely withered

and his right eye utterly blinded!”

The Coming Deliverance of Jerusalem

¹This is the burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel.

Thus declares the LORD, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, who forms the spirit of man within him:

²“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem.

³On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured.

⁴On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and every rider with madness. I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah, but I will strike with blindness all the horses of the nations.

⁵Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts: ‘The people of Jerusalem are my strength, for the LORD of Hosts is their God.’

⁶On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.

⁷The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah. ⁸On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them.

⁹So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Mourning the One They Pierced

¹⁰Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

¹¹On that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be as great as the wailing of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹²The land will mourn, each clan on its own: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, ¹³the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, ¹⁴and all the remaining clans and their wives.[’’]