Psalms 119:153

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.

Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don’t forget, and don’t deviate from the words of my mouth.

You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.

My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching:

Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.

For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons or take bribes.

Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

You shall say before Yahweh your God, “I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.

Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

Now for a little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and revived us a little in our bondage.

Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who delights greatly in his commandments.

You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’ so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the results.

I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. They will each eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, will distress them.” ’

When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says Yahweh.

The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made confession, and said, “Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,

“Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?

Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, “Because Yahweh has looked at my affliction; for now my husband will love me.”

Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;

When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”

and he said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keeps covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart;

Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute.

and said, “I beg you, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments:

Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”

Valiant men lie plundered, they have slept their last sleep. None of the men of war can lift their hands.

Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.

Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death.

My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!

The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget your law.

My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,

The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: Yahweh gives sight to the eyes of both.

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! They are right to love you.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

Zion spreads out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

“I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.

You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me,

Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us. Look, and see our reproach.

My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill. Yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth. There was no one who searched or sought.”

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.

But he answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

For you were going astray like sheep; but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,

You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and awesome God.

When I saw that you didn’t save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me today, to fight against me?”

for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and Yahweh worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?”

Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul one thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.

Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?

Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;

Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me.

I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.

With my whole heart, I have sought you. Don’t let me wander from your commandments.

I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.

Indeed your statutes are my delight, and my counselors.

Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.

I will delight myself in your commandments, because I love them.

Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law.

Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.

I will never forget your precepts, for with them, you have revived me.

I have longed for your salvation, Yahweh. Your law is my delight.

Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains, for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.

“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.

My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place.

Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”

“I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them in justice.” ’

Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”

You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.

Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness, don’t let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.

If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death,

Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.

Consider my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with cruel hatred.

Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me.

My soul is continually in my hand, yet I won’t forget your law.

I am small and despised. I don’t forget your precepts.

Consider how I love your precepts. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your loving kindness.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don’t forget your commandments.

My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:

“Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?