A Song of Trust in the LORD's Protection

261 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: we have a strong city; salvation will he appoint for walls and bulwarks. 2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth faith may enter in. 3 Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]; because he trusteth in thee. 4 Trust ye in Jehovah for ever; for in Jehovah, [even] Jehovah, is an everlasting rock.

5 For he hath brought down them that dwell on high, the lofty city: he layeth it low, he layeth it low even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust. 6 The foot shall tread it down; even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy. 7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou that art upright dost direct the path of the just. 8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Jehovah, have we waited for thee; to thy name, even to thy memorial [name], is the desire of our soul. 9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee earnestly: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. 10 Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of Jehovah. 11 Jehovah, thy hand is lifted up, yet they see not: but they shall see [thy] zeal for the people, and be put to shame; yea, fire shall devour thine adversaries.

12 Jehovah, thou wilt ordain peace for us; for thou hast also wrought all our works for us. 13 O Jehovah our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. 14 [They are] dead, they shall not live; [they are] deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all remembrance of them to perish. 15 Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land. 16 Jehovah, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer [when] thy chastening was upon them. 17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain and crieth out in her pangs; so we have been before thee, O Jehovah. 18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. 19 Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is [as] the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.

20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 21 For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

The Deliverance and Ingathering of Israel

271 In that day Jehovah with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will slay the monster that is in the sea. 2 In that day: A vineyard of wine, sing ye unto it. 3 I Jehovah am its keeper; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 4 Wrath is not in me: would that the briers and thorns were against me in battle! I would march upon them, I would burn them together. 5 Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; [yea], let him make peace with me. 6 In days to come shall Jacob take root; Israel shall blossom and bud; and they shall fill the face of the world with fruit.

7 Hath he smitten them as he smote those that smote them? or are they slain according to the slaughter of them that were slain by them? 8 In measure, when thou sendest them away, thou dost content with them; he hath removed [them] with his rough blast in the day of the east wind. 9 Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, [so that] the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more. 10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof. 11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off; the women shall come, and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have compassion upon them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. 12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will beat off [his fruit] from the flood of the River unto the brook of Egypt; and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. 13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great trumpet shall be blown; and they shall come that were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt; and they shall worship Jehovah in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Christ's Humiliation and Exaltation

21 If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, 2 make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; 3 [doing] nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself; 4 not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. 5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; 8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient [even] unto death, yea, the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; 10 that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven and [things] on earth and [things] under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Shining as Lights in the World

12 So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmurings and questionings: 15 that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, 16 holding forth the word of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain. 17 Yea, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all: 18 and in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.

Timothy and Epaphroditus

19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. 20 For I have no man likeminded, who will care truly for your state. 21 For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. 22 But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child [serveth] a father, [so] he served with me in furtherance of the gospel. 23 Him therefore I hope to send forthwith, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me: 24 but I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall come shortly. 25 But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need; 26 since he longed after you all, and was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he was sick: 27 for indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. 29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy; and hold such in honor: 30 because for the work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.