The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

For the LORD says: “Behold, they to whom it didn’t pertain to drink of the cup will certainly drink; and are you he who will altogether go unpunished? You won’t go unpunished, but you will surely drink. For I have sworn by myself,” says the LORD, “that Bozrah will become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. All its cities will be perpetual wastes.” I have heard news from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, “Gather yourselves together! Come against her! Rise up to the battle!”

The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out in song. Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.” Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?” Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.

Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor. The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her. They won’t dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria. They won’t pour out wine offerings to the LORD, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into the LORD’s house. What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns. I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” He answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” The LORD showed me four craftsmen. Then I asked, “What are these coming to do?” He said, “These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice? You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron. Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”

A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King. God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge. For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together. They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away. Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail. With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm by Asaph.

Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit above the cherubim, shine out. Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up your might! Come to save us! Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved. LORD God of Armies, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure. You make us a source of contention to our neighbors. Our enemies laugh among themselves.

Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and personally drag you before the courts? Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?

It is he who builds his rooms in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth—the LORD is his name. Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says the LORD. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says the LORD. “For behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth. All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil won’t overtake nor meet us.’

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.