The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay. A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called “The Holy Way”. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools shall not go there. No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there. Then the LORD’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. For we all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also. Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body. Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.

A Song of Ascents. By David.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let’s go to the LORD’s house!” Our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem! Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, even the LORD’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to the LORD’s name.

The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.” Therefore the LORD says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’ “Proclaim further, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’”

Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood. As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man, so the company of priests murder on the path toward Shechem, committing shameful crimes. In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing. There is prostitution in Ephraim. Israel is defiled.

The LORD gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it. Then you showed me their doings. But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised plans against me, saying, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, and let’s cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.” But, LORD of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause. “Therefore the LORD says concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy in the LORD’s name, that you not die by our hand’— therefore the LORD of Armies says, ‘Behold, I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by famine. There will be no remnant to them, for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.’”

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins. Let the creditor seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder the fruit of his labor. Let there be no one to extend kindness to him, neither let there be anyone to have pity on his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by the LORD. Don’t let the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off their memory from the earth; because he didn’t remember to show kindness, but persecuted the poor and needy man, the broken in heart, to kill them.

“‘“But the children rebelled against me. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and didn’t keep my ordinances to do them, which if a man does, he shall live in them. They profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless I withdrew my hand and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out. Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they couldn’t live. I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused all that opens the womb to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.”’

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm by Asaph. A song.

We give thanks to you, God. We give thanks, for your Name is near. Men tell about your wondrous works. When I choose the appointed time, I will judge blamelessly. The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars. Selah. I said to the arrogant, “Don’t boast!” I said to the wicked, “Don’t lift up the horn. Don’t lift up your horn on high. Don’t speak with a stiff neck.”

He is in the way of life who heeds correction, but he who forsakes reproof leads others astray. He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool. In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely. The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for lack of understanding.