Psalm 146

Praise the LORD, my soul.

² I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³ Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
⁵ Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God.

⁶ He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them−
he remains faithful forever.
⁷ He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
⁸ the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
⁹ The LORD watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

¹⁰ The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the LORD.

Psalm 147

How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

² The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
⁵ Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
⁶ The LORD sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the LORD with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.

⁸ He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.

¹⁰ His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
¹¹ the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

¹² Extol the LORD, Jerusalem;
praise your God, Zion.

¹³ He strengthens the bars of your gates
and blesses your people within you.
¹⁴ He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

¹⁵ He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
¹⁶ He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.
¹⁷ He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?
¹⁸ He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

¹⁹ He has revealed his word to Jacob,
his laws and decrees to Israel.
²⁰ He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.^[b]

Praise the LORD.

Obadiah 1

Obadiah’s Vision

This is what the Sovereign LORD says about Edom−

We have heard a message from the LORD:
An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
"Rise, let us go against her for battle"−

² "See, I will make you small among the nations;
you will be utterly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks^[a]
and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
’Who can bring me down to the ground?’
⁴ Though you soar like the eagle
and make your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,"
declares the LORD.
⁵ "If thieves came to you,
if robbers in the night−
oh, what a disaster awaits you!−
would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
would they not leave a few grapes?
⁶ But how Esau will be ransacked,
his hidden treasures pillaged!
⁷ All your allies will force you to the border;
your friends will deceive and overpower you;
those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,^[b]
but you will not detect it.

⁸ "In that day," declares the LORD,
"will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,
those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
⁹ Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,
and everyone in Esau’s mountains
will be cut down in the slaughter.
¹⁰ Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
you will be covered with shame;
you will be destroyed forever.
¹¹ On the day you stood aloof
while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were like one of them.
¹² You should not gloat over your brother
in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
in the day of their trouble.
¹³ You should not march through the gates of my people
in the day of their disaster,
nor gloat over them in their calamity
in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
in the day of their disaster.
¹⁴ You should not wait at the crossroads
to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
in the day of their trouble.

¹⁵ "The day of the LORD is near
for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.
¹⁶ Just as you drank on my holy hill,
so all the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink
and be as if they had never been.
¹⁷ But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;
it will be holy,
and Jacob will possess his inheritance.
¹⁸ Jacob will be a fire
and Joseph a flame;
Esau will be stubble,
and they will set him on fire and destroy him.
There will be no survivors
from Esau."
The LORD has spoken.

¹⁹ People from the Negev will occupy
the mountains of Esau,
and people from the foothills will possess
the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
²⁰ This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
will possess the land as far as Zarephath;
the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
will possess the towns of the Negev.
²¹ Deliverers will go up on^[c] Mount Zion
to govern the mountains of Esau.
And the kingdom will be the LORD’s.