Balaam's First Oracle

¹And Balaam said to Balak, i“Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” ²Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam joffered on each altar a bull and a ram. ³And Balaam said to Balak, k“Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come lto meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, ⁴mand God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” ⁵And the Lord nput a word in Balaam's mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” ⁶And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. ⁷And Balaam otook up his discourse and said,

“From pAram Balak has brought me,

the king of Moab qfrom the eastern mountains:

‘Come, rcurse Jacob for me,

and come, denounce Israel!’

⁸How can I curse whom God has not cursed?

How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?

⁹For from the top of the crags sI see him,

from the hills I behold him;

behold, ta people dwelling alone,

and unot counting itself among the nations!

¹⁰vWho can count the dust of Jacob

or number the fourth part1 of Israel?

Let me die wthe death of the upright,

and let my end be like his!”

¹¹And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? xI took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” ¹²And he answered and said, y“Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

Balaam's Second Oracle

¹³And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there.” ¹⁴And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, zand built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, a“Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord over there.” ¹⁶And the Lord met Balaam and bput a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” ¹⁷And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” ¹⁸And Balaam took up his discourse and said,

“Rise, Balak, and hear;

give ear to me, O son of Zippor:

¹⁹cGod is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

²⁰Behold, I received a command to bless:

dhe has blessed, and eI cannot revoke it.

²¹fHe has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,

nor has he seen trouble in Israel.

The Lord their God is with them,

and the shout of a king is among them.

²²gGod brings them out of Egypt

and is for them like hthe horns of the wild ox.

²³For there is no enchantment against Jacob,

no idivination against Israel;

now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,

j‘What has God wrought!’

²⁴Behold, a people! kAs a lioness it rises up

and as a lion it lifts itself;

lit does not lie down until it has devoured the prey

and drunk the blood of the slain.”

²⁵And Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” ²⁶But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, m‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?” ²⁷And Balak said to Balaam, n“Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” ²⁸So Balak took Balaam to the top of oPeor, which overlooks pthe desert.2 ²⁹And Balaam said to Balak, q“Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” ³⁰rAnd Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Psalm 64

Hide Me from the Wicked

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹Hear my voice, O God, in my mcomplaint;

preserve my life from dread of the enemy.

²Hide me from nthe secret plots of the wicked,

from the throng of evildoers,

³who owhet their tongues like swords,

who paim bitter words like arrows,

⁴shooting from qambush at the blameless,

shooting at him suddenly and rwithout fear.

⁵They shold fast to their evil purpose;

they talk of tlaying snares secretly,

thinking, u“Who can see them?”

⁶They search out injustice,

saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.”

For vthe inward mind and heart of a man are deep.

⁷wBut God shoots his arrow at them;

they are wounded suddenly.

⁸They are brought to ruin, with their own xtongues turned against them;

all who ysee them will zwag their heads.

⁹Then all mankind yfears;

they atell what God has brought about

and ponder what he has done.

¹⁰Let bthe righteous one rejoice in the Lord

and ctake refuge in him!

Let all dthe upright in heart exult!

Psalm 65

O God of Our Salvation

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.

¹Praise eis due to you,1 O God, in Zion,

and to you shall fvows be performed.

²O you who ghear prayer,

to you hshall all flesh come.

³When iiniquities prevail against me,

you jatone for our transgressions.

⁴kBlessed is the one you choose and bring near,

to ldwell in your courts!

We shall be msatisfied with the goodness of your house,

the holiness of your temple!

⁵By nawesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,

O God of our salvation,

the hope of all othe ends of the earth

and of the farthest seas;

⁶the one who by his strength established the mountains,

being pgirded with might;

⁷who qstills the roaring of the seas,

the roaring of their waves,

rthe tumult of the peoples,

⁸so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.

You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.

⁹You visit the earth and swater it;2

you greatly enrich it;

tthe river of God is full of water;

uyou provide their grain,

for so you have prepared it.

¹⁰You water its furrows abundantly,

settling its ridges,

softening it with vshowers,

and blessing its growth.

¹¹You crown the year with your bounty;

your wagon tracks woverflow with abundance.

¹²xThe pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills ygird themselves with joy,

¹³zthe meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they ashout and sing together for joy.

The Judgment of Babylon

¹The oracle concerning fBabylon which gIsaiah the son of Amoz saw.

²On a bare hill hraise a signal;

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for ithem to enter

the gates of the nobles.

³I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,

my proudly exulting ones.1

⁴The sound jof a tumult is on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

kThe Lord of hosts is mustering

a host for battle.

⁵lThey come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole land.2

⁶mWail, for nthe day of the Lord is near;

as destruction from the Almighty3 it will come!

⁷Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart owill melt.

⁸They will be dismayed:

ppangs and agony will seize them;

qthey will be in anguish like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.

⁹Behold, nthe day of the Lord comes,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the land a desolation

and rto destroy its sinners from it.

¹⁰sFor the stars of the heavens and their constellations

will not give their light;

tthe sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.

¹¹I will punish uthe world for its evil,

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will vput an end to the pomp of the arrogant,

wand lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

¹²I will make xpeople more rare than fine gold,

and mankind than the ygold of Ophir.

¹³Therefore zI will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place,

at the wrath of the Lord of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.

¹⁴And like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep with none to gather them,

aeach will turn to his own people,

and each will flee to his own land.

¹⁵Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

¹⁶bTheir infants will be dashed in pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives ravished.

¹⁷Behold, cI am stirring up the Medes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.

¹⁸dTheir bows will slaughter4 the young men;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

their eyes will not pity children.

¹⁹And Babylon, ethe glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,

will be flike Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them.

²⁰gIt will never be inhabited

or lived in for all generations;

no hArab will pitch his tent there;

no ishepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

²¹But jwild animals will lie down there,

and their houses will be full of howling creatures;

there kostriches5 will dwell,

and there wild goats will dance.

²²Hyenas6 will cry in its towers,

and ljackals in mthe pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand

and its days will not be prolonged.

Greeting

¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of athe Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ²according to bthe foreknowledge of God the Father, cin the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and dfor sprinkling with his blood:

May egrace and fpeace be multiplied to you.

Born Again to a Living Hope

³gBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! hAccording to his great mercy, ihe has caused us to be born again to a living hope jthrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to kan inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and lunfading, mkept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God's power are being guarded nthrough faith for a salvation oready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by pvarious trials, ⁷so that qthe tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes rthough it is tested by sfire—may be found to result in tpraise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸uThough you have not seen him, you love him. vThough you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹obtaining wthe outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰Concerning this salvation, xthe prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹inquiring ywhat person or time1 zthe Spirit of Christ in them was indicating awhen he predicted bthe sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹²cIt was revealed to them that dthey were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you eby the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, fthings into which angels long to look.

Called to Be Holy

¹³Therefore, gpreparing your minds for action,2 and hbeing sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴As obedient children, ido not be conformed to the passions jof your former ignorance, ¹⁵but kas he who called you is holy, you also be holy lin all your conduct, ¹⁶since it is written, m“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” ¹⁷And if you ncall on him as Father who ojudges pimpartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves qwith fear throughout the time of your exile, ¹⁸knowing that you rwere ransomed from sthe futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹but twith the precious blood of Christ, like that of ua lamb vwithout blemish or spot. ²⁰He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but wwas made manifest xin the last times for the sake of you ²¹ywho through him are believers in God, zwho raised him from the dead and agave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

²²Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for ba sincere brotherly love, clove one another earnestly from a pure heart, ²³dsince you have been born again, enot of perishable seed but of imperishable, through fthe living and abiding word of God; ²⁴for

g“All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

²⁵hbut the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word iis the good news that was preached to you.