God's Faithfulness and the Final Scroll

1. David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul, 2. and he said: “Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine; 3. God is my rock in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from violence. 4. I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies. 5. For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 6. The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me. 7. In my distress, I called on Yahweh. Yes, I called to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry came into his ears. 8. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry. 9. Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it. 10. He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. 11. He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind. 12. He made darkness a shelter around himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies. 13. At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled. 14. Yahweh thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice. 15. He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused them. 16. Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by Yahweh’s rebuke, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. 17. He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters. 18. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 19. They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support. 20. He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 21. Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands. 22. For I have kept Yahweh’s ways, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 23. For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I did not depart from them. 24. I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity. 25. Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight. 26. With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect. 27. With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. 28. You will save the afflicted people, But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down. 29. For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness. 30. For by you, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall. 31. As for God, his way is perfect. Yahweh’s word is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him. 32. For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God? 33. God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect. 34. He makes his feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me on my high places. 35. He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of brass. 36. You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great. 37. You have enlarged my steps under me. My feet have not slipped. 38. I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I didn’t turn again until they were consumed. 39. I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can’t arise. Yes, they have fallen under my feet. 40. For you have armed me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 41. You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me. 42. They looked, but there was no one to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn’t answer them. 43. Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I crushed them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad. 44. You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me. 45. The foreigners will submit themselves to me. As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me. 46. The foreigners will fade away, and will come trembling out of their close places. 47. Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation, 48. even the God who executes vengeance for me, who brings down peoples under me, 49. who brings me away from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man. 50. Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations, and will sing praises to your name. 51. He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his offspring, forever more.” 1. Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse says, the man who was raised on high says, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: 2. “Yahweh’s Spirit spoke by me. His word was on my tongue. 3. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, ‘One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, 4. shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through clear shining after rain.’ 5. Isn’t my house so with God? Yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he doesn’t make it grow. 6. But all the ungodly will be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can’t be taken with the hand, 7. But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They will be utterly burned with fire in their place.” 8. These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb Basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite, against eight hundred slain at one time. 9. After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away. 10. He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and Yahweh worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take plunder. 11. After him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. 12. But he stood in the middle of the plot and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh worked a great victory. 13. Three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. 14. David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15. David longed, and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!” 16. The three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David; but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh. 17. He said, “Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this! Isn’t this the blood of the men who risked their lives to go?” Therefore he would not drink it. The three mighty men did these things. 18. Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three. 19. Wasn’t he most honorable of the three? therefore he was made their captain. However he wasn’t included as one of the three. 20. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit in a time of snow. 21. He killed a huge Egyptian, and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear. 22. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did these things, and had a name among the three mighty men. 23. He was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn’t attain to the three. David set him over his guard. 24. Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty: Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 25. Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, 26. Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, 27. Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, 28. Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, 29. Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin, 30. Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash. 31. Abialbon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite, 32. Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33. Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, 34. Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, 35. Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, 36. Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37. Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor bearers to Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38. Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39. and Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all. 1. Again Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.” 2. The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people.” 3. Joab said to the king, “Now may Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” 4. Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel. 5. They passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer; 6. then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan, and around to Sidon, 7. and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba. 8. So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9. Joab gave up the sum of the counting of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. 10. David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.” 11. When David rose up in the morning, Yahweh’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12. “Go and speak to David, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’” 13. So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” 14. David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into Yahweh’s hand; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man’s hand.” 15. So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba. 16. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17. David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.” 18. Gad came that day to David, and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19. David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded. 20. Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21. Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.” 22. Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23. All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May Yahweh your God accept you.” 24. The king said to Araunah, “No; but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25. David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.

1. I saw a mighty angel coming down out of the sky, clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2. He had in his hand a little open book. He set his right foot on the sea, and his left on the land. 3. He cried with a loud voice, as a lion roars. When he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. 4. When the seven thunders sounded, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from the sky saying, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders said, and don’t write them.” 5. The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to the sky, 6. and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there will no longer be delay, 7. but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he declared to his servants, the prophets. 8. The voice which I heard from heaven, again speaking with me, said, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” 9. I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. He said to me, “Take it, and eat it up. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.” 10. I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth. When I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11. They told me, “You must prophesy again over many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.” 1. A reed like a rod was given to me. Someone said, “Rise, and measure God’s temple, and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2. Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months. 3. I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4. These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands, standing before the Lord of the earth. 5. If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in this way. 6. These have the power to shut up the sky, that it may not rain during the days of their prophecy. They have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. 7. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. 8. Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9. From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 10. Those who dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and they will be glad. They will give gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. 11. After the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them. 12. I heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” They went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies saw them. 13. In that day there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified, and gave glory to the God of heaven. 14. The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe comes quickly. 15. The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. He will reign forever and ever!” 16. The twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God’s throne, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17. saying: “We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was; because you have taken your great power, and reigned. 18. The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” 19. God’s temple that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant was seen in his temple. Lightnings, sounds, thunders, an earthquake, and great hail followed. 1. A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2. She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth. 3. Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. 4. His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. 5. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne. 6. The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days. 7. There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. 8. They didn’t prevail, neither was a place found for them any more in heaven. 9. The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10. I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. 11. They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death. 12. Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time.” 13. When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. 14. Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, so that she might be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15. The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. 16. The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. 17. The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep God’s commandments and hold Jesus’ testimony.

1. Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations. 2. Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. 3. You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.” 4. For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night. 5. You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass. 6. In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry. 7. For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath. 8. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9. For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh. 10. The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away. 11. Who knows the power of your anger, your wrath according to the fear that is due to you? 12. So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 13. Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants! 14. Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil. 16. Let your work appear to your servants; your glory to their children. 17. Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.