Bible In A Year

¹> Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, Who teaches my hands to war, And my fingers to battle:

²My loving kindness, my fortress, My high tower, my deliverer, My shield, and he in whom I take refuge; Who subdues my people under me.

³Yahweh, what is man, that you care for him? Or the son of man, that you think of him?

⁴Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

⁵Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.

⁶Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.

⁷Stretch out your hand from above, Rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, Out of the hands of foreigners;

⁸Whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

⁹I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you.

¹⁰You are he who gives salvation to kings, Who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword.

¹¹Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, Whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

¹²Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, Our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.

¹³Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields.

¹⁴Our oxen will pull heavy loads. There is no breaking in, and no going away, And no outcry in our streets.

¹⁵Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.

¹Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. ²But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ³Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. ⁴The wife doesn't have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband doesn't have authority over his own body, but the wife. ⁵Don't deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn't tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment. ⁷Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind. ⁸But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am. ⁹But if they don't have self-control, let them marry. For it's better to marry than to burn. ¹⁰But to the married I command--not I, but the Lord--that the wife not leave her husband ¹¹(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife. ¹²But to the rest I--not the Lord--say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. ¹³The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now are they holy. ¹⁵Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace. ¹⁶For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? ¹⁷Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies. ¹⁸Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. ¹⁹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. ²⁰Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called. ²¹Were you called being a bondservant? Don't let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it. ²²For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord's free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ's bondservant. ²³You were bought with a price. Don't become bondservants of men. ²⁴Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God. ²⁵Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy. ²⁶I think that it is good therefore, because of the distress that is on us, that it is good for a man to be as he is. ²⁷Are you bound to a wife? Don't seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don't seek a wife. ²⁸But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you. ²⁹But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none; ³⁰and those who weep, as though they didn't weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn't rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn't possess; ³¹and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away. ³²But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; ³³but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. ³⁴There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world--how she may please her husband. ³⁵This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction. ³⁶But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn't sin. Let them marry. ³⁷But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own heart, to keep his own virgin, does well. ³⁸So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn't give her in marriage does better. ³⁹A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whoever she desires, only in the Lord. ⁴⁰But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God's Spirit.

¹Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know. ³But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him. ⁴Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one. ⁵For though there are things that are called "gods," whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many "gods" and many "lords;" ⁶yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him. ⁷However, that knowledge isn't in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ⁸But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don't eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better. ⁹But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol's temple, won't his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? ¹¹And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died. ¹²Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore, that I don't cause my brother to stumble.