Deuteronomy 21, Psalm 108, 109, Isaiah 48, Revelation 18

Deuteronomy 21,

1 If a man is found slain, lying in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
 
2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns.
 
3 Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke
 
4 and lead her down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer's neck.
 
5 The priests, the sons of Levi, shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.
 
6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,
 
7 and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.
 
8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man." And the bloodshed will be atoned for.
 
9 So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.
 
10 When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives,
 
11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife.
 
12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails
 
13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.
 
14 If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
 
15 If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,
 
16 when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.
 
17 He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father's strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.
 
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him,
 
19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town.
 
20 They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard."
 
21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
 
22 If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree,
 
23 you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Psalm 108, 109,

1 My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul.
 
2 Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.
 
3 I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.
 
4 For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
 
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth.
 
6 Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered.
 
7 God has spoken from his sanctuary: "In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth.
 
8 Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter.
 
9 Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph."
 
10 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
 
11 Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies?
 
12 Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.
 
13 With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.

1 O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent,
 
2 for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
 
3 With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.
 
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
 
5 They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.
 
6 Appoint an evil man to oppose him; let an accuser stand at his right hand.
 
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him.
 
8 May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.
 
9 May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
 
10 May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes.
 
11 May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
 
12 May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.
 
13 May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation.
 
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
 
15 May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
 
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
 
17 He loved to pronounce a curse-may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing-may it be far from him.
 
18 He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil.
 
19 May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.
 
20 May this be the LORD's payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.
 
21 But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
 
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
 
23 I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
 
24 My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt.
 
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
 
26 Help me, O LORD my God; save me in accordance with your love.
 
27 Let them know that it is your hand, that you, O LORD, have done it.
 
28 They may curse, but you will bless; when they attack they will be put to shame, but your servant will rejoice.
 
29 My accusers will be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.
 
30 With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng I will praise him.
 
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save his life from those who condemn him.

Isaiah 48,

1 "Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel-but not in truth or righteousness-
 
2 you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and rely on the God of Israel-the LORD Almighty is his name:
 
3 I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
 
4 For I knew how stubborn you were; the sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze.
 
5 Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, 'My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.'
 
6 You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? "From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.
 
7 They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot say, 'Yes, I knew of them.'
 
8 You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ear has not been open. Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth.
 
9 For my own name's sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off.
 
10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
 
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.
 
12 "Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last.
 
13 My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together.
 
14 "Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD's chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians.
 
15 I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission.
 
16 "Come near me and listen to this: "From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there." And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me, with his Spirit.
 
17 This is what the LORD says-your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
 
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
 
19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me."
 
20 Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob."
 
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out.
 
22 "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

Revelation 18

1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.
 
2 With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.
 
3 For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."
 
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
 
5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
 
6 Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup.
 
7 Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, 'I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.'
 
8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
 
9 "When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her.
 
10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: " 'Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!'
 
11 "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more-
 
12 cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble;
 
13 cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.
 
14 "They will say, 'The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.'
 
15 The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn
 
16 and cry out: " 'Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls!
 
17 In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!' "Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off.
 
18 When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, 'Was there ever a city like this great city?'
 
19 They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: " 'Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!
 
20 Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.' "
 
21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: "With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.
 
22 The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No workman of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again.
 
23 The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.
 
24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."