1 “The Levitical priests, the entire tribe of Levi, shall own [privately] no portion [of land] or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord’s offerings by fire and His portion. 2 They shall have no inheritance [of land] among their countrymen (brothers, brethren); the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.
3 “Now this shall be the priests’ portion from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4 You shall also give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine [the first of the season], and your [olive] oil, and the first sheared fleece of your sheep. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him, him and his sons from all your tribes, to stand and serve in the name of the Lord forever.
6 “Now if a Levite comes from any of your cities throughout Israel where he resides, and comes whenever he wishes to [the sanctuary] the place which the Lord chooses; 7 then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord. 8 They shall have equal portions to eat, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.
9 “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable (repulsive) practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire [as a sacrifice], one who uses divination and fortune-telling, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a charm or spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or a necromancer [who seeks the dead]. 12 For everyone who does these things is utterly repulsive to the Lord; and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless (complete, perfect) before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you shall dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners and fortune-tellers, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me [Moses] from among you, from your countrymen (brothers, brethren). You shall listen to him. 16 This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb (Mount Sinai) on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my God again, nor see this great fire anymore, so that I will not die.’ 17 The Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. 18 I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him [and there will be consequences]. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet shall die.’ 21 If you say in your heart, ‘How will we know and recognize the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
1 O give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the people.
2
Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;
Speak of all His wonderful acts and devoutly praise them.
3
Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those who seek and require the Lord [as their most essential need] rejoice.
4
Seek and deeply long for the Lord and His strength [His power, His might];
Seek and deeply long for His face and His presence continually.
5
Remember [with awe and gratitude] the wonderful things which He has done,
His amazing deeds and the judgments uttered by His mouth [on His enemies, as in Egypt],
6
O you offspring of Abraham, His servant,
O you sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!
7
He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
8
He has remembered His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded and established to a thousand generations,
9
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His sworn oath to Isaac,
10
Which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the measured portion of your inheritance.”
12
When there were only a few men in number,
Very few [in fact], and strangers in it;
13
And they wandered from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,
14
He allowed no man to oppress them;
He rebuked kings for their sakes, saying,
15
“Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”
16
And He called for a famine upon the land [of Egypt];
He cut off every source of bread.
17
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18
His feet they hurt with shackles;
He was put in chains of iron,
19
Until the time that his word [of prophecy regarding his brothers] came true,
The word of the Lord tested and refined him.
20
The king sent and released him,
The ruler of the peoples [of Egypt], and set him free.
21
He made Joseph lord of his house
And ruler of all his possessions,
22
To imprison his princes at his will,
That he might teach his elders wisdom.
23
Israel also came into Egypt;
Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24
There the Lord greatly increased [the number of] His people,
And made them more powerful than their enemies.
25
He turned the heart [of the Egyptians] to hate His people,
To deal craftily with His servants.
26
He sent Moses His servant,
And Aaron, whom He had chosen.
27
They exhibited His wondrous signs among them,
Great miracles in the land of Ham (Egypt).
28
He sent [thick, oppressive] darkness and made the land dark;
And Moses and Aaron did not rebel against His words.
29
He turned Egypt’s waters into blood
And caused their fish to die.
30
Their land swarmed with frogs,
Even in the chambers of their kings.
31
He spoke, and there came swarms of flies
And gnats in all their territory.
32
He gave them hail for rain,
With flaming fire in their land.
33
He struck their vines also and their fig trees,
And shattered the [ice-laden] trees of their territory.
34
He spoke, and the [migratory] locusts came,
And the young locusts, even without number,
35
And ate up all the vegetation in their land,
And devoured the fruit of their ground.
36
He also struck down all the firstborn in their land,
The first fruits and chief substance of all their strength.
37
He brought the sons of Israel out [of Egypt] with silver and gold,
And among their tribes there was not one who stumbled.
38
Egypt was glad when they departed,
For the dread and fear of them had fallen on the Egyptians.
39
The Lord spread a cloud as a covering [by day],
And a fire to illumine the night.
40
The Israelites asked, and He brought quail,
And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41
He opened the rock and water flowed out;
It ran in the dry places like a river.
42
For He remembered His holy word
To Abraham His servant;
43
He brought out His people with joy,
And His chosen ones with a joyful shout,
44
He gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan],
So that they would possess the fruits of those peoples’ labor,
45
So that they might observe His precepts
And keep His laws [obediently accepting and honoring and valuing them].
Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
1 This is what the Lord says to His anointed, to Cyrus [king of Persia],
Whose right hand I have held
To subdue nations before him,
And I will ungird the loins of kings [disarming them];
To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:
2
“I will go before you and level the mountains;
I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
3
“I will give you the treasures of darkness [the hoarded treasures]
And the hidden riches of secret places,
So that you may know that it is I,
The Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you (Cyrus the Great) by your name.
4
“For the sake of Jacob My servant,
And of Israel My chosen,
I have also called you by your name;
I have given you an honorable name
Though you have not known Me.
5
“I am the Lord, and there is no one else;
There is no God except Me.
I will embrace and arm you, though you have not known Me,
6
That people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun [the world over]
That there is no one except Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
7
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing peace and creating disaster;
I am the Lord who does all these things.
8
“Rain down, O heavens, from above,
Let the clouds pour down righteousness [all the blessings of God];
Let the earth open up, let salvation bear fruit,
And righteousness spring up with it;
I, the Lord, have created it.
9
“Woe (judgment is coming) to him who quarrels with his Maker—
A [worthless] piece of broken pottery among other broken pieces [equally worthless]!
Shall the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’
Or does the thing say, ‘He has no hands’?
10
“Woe (judgment is coming) to him who says to a father, ‘What are you fathering?’
Or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”
11 For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker says this,
“Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons,
And give Me orders concerning the work of My hands.
12
“I made the earth and created man upon it.
My hands, stretched out the heavens,
And I commanded all their host.
13
“I have stirred up Cyrus and put him into action in righteousness [to accomplish My purpose]
And I will make all his ways smooth;
He will build My city and let My exiles go,
Without any payment or reward,” says the Lord of hosts.
14 For this is what the Lord says,
“The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush (ancient Ethiopia)
And the Sabeans, men of stature,
Will come over to you and they will be yours;
They will walk behind you, in chains [of subjection to you] they will come over,
And they will bow down before you;
They will make supplication to you, [humbly and earnestly] saying,
‘Most certainly God is with you, and there is no other,
No other God [besides Him].’”
15
Truly, You are a God who hides Himself,
O God of Israel, Savior!
16
They will be put to shame and also humiliated, all of them;
They who make idols will go away together in humiliation.
17
Israel has been saved by the Lord
With an everlasting salvation;
You will not be put to shame or humiliated
for all eternity.
18 For the Lord, who created the heavens (He is God, who formed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it to be a wasteland, but formed it to be inhabited) says this,
“I am the Lord, and there is no one else.
19
“I have not spoken in secret,
In a corner of a land of darkness;
I did not say to the descendants of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in vain [with no benefit for yourselves].’
I, the Lord, speak righteousness [the truth—trustworthy, a straightforward correlation between deeds and words],
Declaring things that are upright.
20
“Assemble yourselves and come;
Come together, you survivors of the nations!
They are ignorant,
Who carry around their wooden idols [in religious processions or into battle]
And keep on praying to a god that cannot save them.
21
“Declare and present your defense of idols;
Indeed, let them consult together.
Who announced this [rise of Cyrus and his conquests] long before it happened?
Who declared it long ago?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other God besides Me,
A [consistently and uncompromisingly] just and righteous God and a Savior;
There is none except Me.
22
“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
For I am God, and there is no other.
23
“I have sworn [an oath] by Myself,
The word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness
And shall not return,
That to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear [allegiance].
24
“It shall be said of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’
To Him people will come,
And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.
25
“In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
Will be justified (declared free of guilt) and will glory [in God].”
1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and wonderful [a warning of terrifying and horrible events]: seven angels who had seven plagues (afflictions, calamities), which are the last, because with them the wrath of God is finished [that is, it is completely expressed and reaches its zenith].
2 Then I saw something like a sea or large expanse of glass mixed with fire, and those who were victorious over the beast and over his image and over the number corresponding to his name were standing on the sea or large expanse of glass, holding harps of God [worshiping Him]. 3 And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and wonderful and awe-inspiring are Your works [in judgment],
O Lord God, the Almighty [the Omnipotent, the Ruler of all];
Righteous and true are Your ways,
O King of the nations!
4
“Who will not fear [reverently] and glorify Your name, O Lord [giving You honor and praise in worship]?
For You alone are holy;
For all the nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your righteous acts [Your just decrees and judgments] have been revealed and displayed.”
5 After these things I looked, and the temple (sanctuary) of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened, 6 and the seven angels who had the seven plagues (afflictions, calamities) came out of the temple, arrayed in linen, pure and gleaming, and wrapped around their chests were golden sashes. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath and indignation of God, who lives forever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory and radiance and splendor of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.