1 “When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, 2 you shall set aside for yourself three cities in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as an inheritance, so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.
4 “Now this is the case of the one who commits manslaughter, who may flee there and live: when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously— 5 as when a person goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live. 6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in the heat of his anger, and overtake him because the way is long, and take his life, though he was not sentenced to death since he had not hated him previously. 7 Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside for yourself three cities.’
8 “And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that He promised to give your fathers— 9 if you carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always—then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. 10 So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and guilt for bloodshed will not be on you.
11 “But if there is a person who hates his neighbor, and waits in ambush for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. 13 You shall not pity him, but you shall eliminate the guilt for the bloodshed of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well for you.
14 “You shall not displace your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
15 “A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin that he commits; on the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. 16 If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17 then both people who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 And the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you. 20 And the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. 21 So you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.
1 Praise the Lord!
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
For His mercy is everlasting.
2 Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord,
Or can proclaim all His praise?
3 How blessed are those who maintain justice,
Who practice righteousness at all times!
4 Remember me, Lord, in Your favor toward Your people.
Visit me with Your salvation,
5 So that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
That I may rejoice in the joy of Your nation,
That I may boast with Your inheritance.
6 We have sinned like our fathers,
We have gone astray, we have behaved wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders;
They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses,
But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
8 Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name,
So that He might make His power known.
9 So He rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up,
And He led them through the mighty waters, as through the wilderness.
10 So He saved them from the hand of one who hated them,
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 The waters covered their adversaries;
Not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed His words;
They sang His praise.
13 They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His plan,
14 But became lustfully greedy in the wilderness,
And put God to the test in the desert.
15 So He gave them their request,
But sent a wasting disease among them.
16 When they became envious of Moses in the camp,
And of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord,
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
And engulfed the company of Abiram.
18 And a fire blazed up in their company;
The flame consumed the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb,
And worshiped a cast metal image.
20 So they exchanged their glory
For the image of an ox that eats grass.
21 They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wonders in the land of Ham,
And awesome things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
If Moses, His chosen one, had not stood in the gap before Him,
To turn away His wrath from destroying them.
24 Then they rejected the pleasant land;
They did not believe His word,
25 But grumbled in their tents;
They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.
26 Therefore He swore to them
That He would have them fall in the wilderness,
27 And that He would bring down their descendants among the nations,
And scatter them in the lands.
28 They also followed Baal-peor,
And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
29 So they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,
And a plague broke out among them.
30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,
And so the plague was brought to a halt.
31 And it was credited to him as righteousness,
To all generations forever.
32 They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah,
So that it went badly for Moses on their account.
33 Because they were rebellious against His Spirit,
He spoke rashly with his lips.
34 They did not destroy the peoples,
As the Lord had commanded them,
35 But they got involved with the nations
And learned their practices,
36 And served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
37 They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
38 And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and their daughters
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was defiled with the blood.
39 So they became unclean in their practices,
And were unfaithful in their deeds.
40 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people,
And He loathed His inheritance.
41 So He handed them over to the nations,
And those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were subdued under their power.
43 Many times He would rescue them;
They, however, were rebellious in their plan,
And they sank down into their guilt.
44 Nevertheless He looked at their distress
When He heard their cry;
45 And He remembered His covenant for their sake,
And relented according to the greatness of His mercy.
46 He also made them objects of compassion
In the presence of all their captors.
47 Save us, Lord our God,
And gather us from the nations,
To give thanks to Your holy name
And glory in Your praise.
48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
From everlasting to everlasting.
And all the people shall say, “Amen.”
Praise the Lord!
1 Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over;
Their idols have become loads for the animals and the cattle.
The things that you carry are burdensome,
A load for the weary animal.
2 They stooped over, they have bowed down together;
They could not rescue the burden,
But have themselves gone into captivity.
3 “Listen to Me, house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
You who have been carried by Me from birth
And have been carried from the womb;
4 Even to your old age I will be the same,
And even to your graying years I will carry you!
I have done it, and I will bear you;
And I will carry you and I will save you.
5 “To whom would you liken Me
And make Me equal, and compare Me,
That we would be alike?
6 Those who lavish gold from the bag
And weigh silver on the scale,
Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
They bow down, indeed they worship it.
7 They lift it on the shoulder, carry it,
And set it in its place, and it stands there.
It does not move from its place.
Though one may shout to it, it cannot answer;
It cannot save him from his distress.
8 “Remember this, and be assured;
Recall it to mind, you wrongdoers.
9 Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My plan will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man of My purpose from a distant country.
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, I will certainly do it.
12 “Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded,
Who are far from righteousness.
13 I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;
And My salvation will not delay.
And I will grant salvation in Zion,
And My glory for Israel.
1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
2 So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and a harmful and painful sore afflicted the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.
4 Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, the One who is and who was, O Holy One, because You judged these things; 6 for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” 7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
8 And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given power to scorch people with fire. 9 And the people were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.
10 And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, 11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.
13 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; 14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the entire world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and people will not see his shame.”) 16 And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.
17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.” 18 And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since mankind came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. 20 And every island fled, and no mountains were found. 21 And huge hailstones, weighing about a talent each, *came down from heaven upon people; and people blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because the hailstone plague *was extremely severe.