One Year Bible.

The Evanescence of Wealth

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

Hear this, all you peoples;

listen, all inhabitants of the world,

²both low and high,

rich and poor alike.

³My mouth will impart wisdom,

and the meditation of my heart will bring understanding.

⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb;

I will express my riddle with the harp:

⁵Why should I fear in times of trouble,

when wicked usurpers surround me?

⁶They trust in their wealth

and boast in their great riches.

⁷No man can possibly redeem his brother

or pay his ransom to God.

⁸For the redemption of his soul is costly,

and never can payment suffice,

⁹that he should live on forever

and not see decay.

¹⁰For it is clear that wise men die,

and the foolish and the senseless both perish

and leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their graves are their eternal homes —

their dwellings for endless generations —

even though their lands were their namesakes.

¹²But a man, despite his wealth, cannot endure;

he is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This is the fate of the foolish

and their followers who endorse their sayings.

Selah

¹⁴Like sheep they are destined for Sheol.

Death will be their shepherd.

The upright will rule them in the morning,

and their form will decay in Sheol,

far from their lofty abode.

¹⁵But God will redeem my life from Sheol,

for He will surely take me to Himself.

Selah

¹⁶Do not be afraid when a man grows rich,

when the splendor of his house increases.

¹⁷For when he dies, he will carry nothing away;

his abundance will not follow him down.

¹⁸Though in his lifetime he blesses his soul —

and men praise you when you prosper —

¹⁹he will join the generation of his fathers,

who will never see the light of day.

²⁰A man who has riches without understanding

is like the beasts that perish.

The Collection for the Saints

¹Now about the collection for the saints, you are to do as I directed the churches of Galatia: ²On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a portion of his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will be needed. ³Then, on my arrival, I will send letters with those you recommend to carry your gift to Jerusalem. ⁴And if it is advisable for me to go also, they can travel with me.

Paul’s Travel Plans

⁵After I go through Macedonia, however, I will come to you; for I will be going through Macedonia. ⁶Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. ⁷For I do not want to see you now only in passing; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. ⁸But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, ⁹because a great door for effective work has opened to me, even though many oppose me.

Timothy and Apollos

¹⁰If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, just as I am. ¹¹No one, then, should treat him with contempt. Send him on his way in peace so that he can return to me, for I am expecting him along with the brothers.

¹²Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was not at all inclined to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity.

Concluding Exhortations

¹³Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage. Be strong. ¹⁴Do everything in love.

¹⁵You know that Stephanas and his household were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. Now I urge you, brothers, ¹⁶to submit to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.

¹⁷I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. ¹⁸For they refreshed my spirit and yours as well. Show your appreciation, therefore, to such men.

Signature and Final Greetings

¹⁹The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings.

Aquila and Prisca greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.

²⁰All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

²¹This greeting is in my own hand — Paul.

²²If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be under a curse. Come, O Lord!

²³The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

²⁴My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

The Exiles Who Returned with Ezra

¹These are the family heads and genealogical records of those who returned with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:

²from the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom;

from the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel;

from the descendants of David, Hattush ³of the descendants of Shecaniah;

from the descendants of Parosh, Zechariah, and with him were registered 150 men;

⁴from the descendants of Pahath-Moab, Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him 200 men;

⁵from the descendants of Zattu, Shecaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him 300 men;

⁶from the descendants of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him 50 men;

⁷from the descendants of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him 70 men;

⁸from the descendants of Shephatiah, Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him 80 men;

⁹from the descendants of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him 218 men;

¹⁰from the descendants of Bani, Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him 160 men;

¹¹from the descendants of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him 28 men;

¹²from the descendants of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him 110 men;

¹³from the later descendants of Adonikam, these were their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them 60 men;

¹⁴and from the descendants of Bigvai, both Uthai and Zaccur, and with them 70 men.

Ezra Sends for the Levites

¹⁵Now I assembled these exiles at the canal that flows to Ahava, and we camped there three days. And when I searched among the people and priests, I found no Levites there.

¹⁶Then I summoned the leaders: Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, as well as the teachers Joiarib and Elnathan. ¹⁷And I sent them to Iddo, the leader at Casiphia, with a message for him and his kinsmen, the temple servants at Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.

¹⁸And since the gracious hand of our God was upon us, they brought us Sherebiah— a man of insight from the descendants of Mahli son of Levi, the son of Israel— along with his sons and brothers, 18 men; ¹⁹also Hashabiah, together with Jeshaiah, from the descendants of Merari, and his brothers and their sons, 20 men. ²⁰They also brought 220 of the temple servants, all designated by name. David and the officials had appointed them to assist the Levites.

Fasting for Protection

²¹And there by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. ²²For I was ashamed to ask the king for an escort of soldiers and horsemen to protect us from our enemies on the road, since we had told him, “The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek Him, but His great anger is against all who forsake Him.”

²³So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and He granted our request.

Priests to Guard the Offerings

²⁴Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests, together with Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers, ²⁵and I weighed out to them the contribution of silver and gold and the articles that the king, his counselors, his leaders, and all the Israelites there had offered for the house of our God.

²⁶I weighed out into their hands 650 talents of silver, articles of silver weighing 100 talents, 100 talents of gold, ²⁷20 gold bowls valued at 1,000 darics, and two articles of fine polished bronze, as precious as gold.

²⁸Then I told them, “You are holy to the LORD, and these articles are holy. The silver and gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your fathers. ²⁹Guard them carefully until you weigh them out in the chambers of the house of the LORD in Jerusalem before the leading priests, Levites, and heads of the Israelite families.”

³⁰So the priests and Levites took charge of the silver and gold and sacred articles that had been weighed out to be taken to the house of our God in Jerusalem.

³¹On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God was upon us to protect us from the hands of the enemies and bandits along the way.

Arrival in Jerusalem

³²So we arrived at Jerusalem and rested there for three days.

³³On the fourth day, in the house of our God, we weighed out the silver and gold and sacred articles into the hand of Meremoth son of Uriah, the priest. Eleazar son of Phinehas was with him, along with the Levites Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui. ³⁴Everything was verified by number and weight, and the total weight was recorded at that time.

³⁵Then the exiles who had returned from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel: 12 bulls for all Israel, 96 rams, 77 lambs, and a sin offering of 12 male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the LORD.

³⁶They also delivered the king’s edicts to the royal satraps and governors of the region west of the Euphrates, who proceeded to assist the people and the house of God.

Intermarriage with Neighboring Peoples

¹After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. ²Indeed, the Israelites have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the people of the land. And the leaders and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!”

³When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down in horror.

⁴Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, while I sat there in horror until the evening offering.

Ezra’s Prayer of Confession

⁵At the evening offering, I got up from my humiliation with my tunic and cloak torn, and I fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the LORD my God, ⁶and said:

“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens. ⁷From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and subjected to the sword and to captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.

⁸But now, for a brief moment, grace has come from the LORD our God to preserve for us a remnant and to give us a stake in His holy place. Even in our bondage, our God has given us new life and light to our eyes. ⁹Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but He has extended to us grace in the sight of the kings of Persia, giving us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and giving us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁰And now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commandments ¹¹that You gave through Your servants the prophets, saying: ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the impurity of its peoples and the abominations with which they have filled it from end to end. ¹²Now, therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and may eat the good things of the land, leaving it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’

¹³After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this), ¹⁴shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

¹⁵O LORD, God of Israel, You are righteous! For we remain this day as a remnant. Here we are before You in our guilt, though because of it no one can stand before You.”