Be silent for me, foreign shores;
peoples must renew their energy.
They must come up, then speak;
together let us draw near for making a ruling.
Who aroused someone from the east
whom faithfulness calls to its heel?
He gives up nations before him,
enables him to put down kings.
He makes them like earth with his sword,
like driven straw with his bow.
As he pursues them, he passes on with things being well
by a path on which he doesn’t come straight.
Who acted and did it,
calling the generations from the beginning?
I am Yahweh, the first,
and I myself am with the last.
Foreign shores have seen and become afraid,
earth’s ends tremble,
they’ve drawn near and come.
An individual helps his neighbour,
and says to his brother, ‘Be strong!’
Craftworker bids smith be strong,
one who flattens with a hammer [bids] one who strikes with a mallet.
One who says of the joint, ‘It’s good’,
strengthens it with fastenings so it doesn’t slip.

But you as Yisra’el are my servant,
as Ya’aqob you’re the one that I chose.
As the offspring of Abraham you’re my friend,
the one of whom I took strong hold from earth’s ends,
Called from its corners, and said to you,
‘You’re my servant, I chose you, and didn’t spurn you.’
Don’t be afraid, because I’m with you;
don’t be frightened, because I’m your God.
I’m making you firm, yes, helping you,
yes, supporting you with my faithful right hand.
There, they’ll be shamed and disgraced,
all who rage at you.
They’ll become absolutely nothing, they’ll perish,
the people who argue with you.
You will seek them and not find them,
the people who attack you.
They will become absolutely nothing, zero,
the people who do battle against you.
Because I am Yahweh your God,
who takes strong hold of your right hand,
Who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid,
I myself am helping you.’

Don’t be afraid, worm Ya’aqob,
relics Yisra’el.
I’m helping you (Yahweh’s declaration),
Yisra’el’s sacred one is your restorer.
There, I am making you into a harrow,
a new thresher fitted with points.
You’ll trample mountains and crush them,
and make hills like chaff.
You’ll winnow them and the wind will carry them,
the hurricane will scatter them.
And you yourselves will rejoice in Yahweh;
in Yisra’el’s sacred one you’ll exult.

When the humble and the needy are seeking water,
but there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst.
I Yahweh will answer them;
the God of Yisra’el will not abandon them.
I will open up rivers on the bare places,
springs in the middle of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness into a pool of water,
dry land into water courses.
In the wilderness I will put cedar,
acacia, myrtle and oil tree.
In the steppe I will set juniper, maple and cypress, together,
In order that people may see and acknowledge,
consider and discern together,
That Yahweh’s hand did this,
Yisra’el’s sacred one created it.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Who gauged the water in his palm,
surveyed the heavens with his span,
Measured the world’s earth by the gallon,
weighed the mountains with a balance,
the hills with scales?
Who directed Yahweh’s spirit,
or as the person to give him counsel made it known to him?
With whom did he take counsel,
so that he helped him understand,
taught him the way to exercise authority,
Taught him knowledge,
made known to him the way of understanding?
There, nations count like a drop from a pan,
like a cloud on scales; there,
foreign shores are like a fine cloud that rises.
Lebanon – there’s not enough to burn up,
its animals – there aren’t enough as a burnt offering.
All the nations are like nothing over against him;
they count as less than naught, emptiness, to him.

So to whom would you compare God,
or what comparison would you line up for him?
The image, which a craftworker casts? –
a smith beats it out with gold,
and a smith with silver chains.
Is it sissoo fit for tribute,
wood that doesn’t rot,
that someone chooses?
He seeks for himself a smart craftworker
to set up an image so it doesn’t slip.

You acknowledge, don’t you,
you listen, don’t you?
It’s been told you from the beginning, hasn’t it,
you’ve understood earth’s foundations, haven’t you?
There’s one who sits above earth’s horizon,
with its inhabitants like grasshoppers,
One who stretched out the heavens like net,
spread them like a tent for sitting in,
One who turns sovereigns into nothing,
makes earth’s authorities pure emptiness.
They’re really not planted, really not sown,
their stem is really not rooting in the earth,
Then he blows on them and they shrivel,
and a hurricane carries them off like straw.

So to whom would you compare me,
so I could be similar (says the Sacred One)?
Lift your eyes on high and see
– who created these?
The one who takes out their army by number
calls to all of them by name.
Because of the greatness of his power,
and as one firm in energy, not one lags behind.

Why do you say, Ya’aqob, and speak, Yisra’el,
‘My way was hidden from Yahweh,
a ruling for me passes away from my God’?
Haven’t you acknowledged,
or haven’t you listened?
Yahweh is God of the ages,
creator of earth’s ends.
He doesn’t get faint or weary;
there’s no searching out of his understanding.
He gives energy to the faint,
and to the one who has no resources he gives much strength.
Youths may get faint and weary,
young men may totally collapse.
But people who hope in Yahweh get new energy,
they grow pinions like eagles.
They run and don’t get weary,
they walk and don’t faint.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

Comfort, comfort my people’, says your God.

‘Speak to Yerushalaim’s heart, call to it
That its tour of duty is fulfilled,
that its waywardness is paid for,
That it has taken from Yahweh’s hand
double for all its wrongdoings.’

A voice is calling:
‘In the wilderness clear Yahweh’s way,
make straight in the steppe a causeway for our God.
Every ravine is to rise up,
every mountain and hill is to fall down.
The ridge is to become level,
the cliffs a valley.
Yahweh’s splendour will appear,
and all flesh will see it together,
because Yahweh’s mouth has spoken.’

A voice is saying, ‘Call’,
but someone says, ‘Call what?
All flesh is grass,
and all its commitment is like a wild flower’s.
Grass withers,
a flower fades,
when Yahweh’s wind blows on it.’
‘Yes, the people is grass;
grass withers, a flower fades – but our God’s word rises up permanently.’

Get yourself up on to a high mountain
as a bringer of news to Tsiyyon.
Raise your voice with energy
as a bringer of news to Yerushalaim.
Raise it, don’t be afraid,
say to Yehudah’s towns,
‘Here is your God,
here is the Lord Yahweh.’
He comes as the strong one,
his arm is going to rule for him.
Here, his reward is with him,
his earnings before him.
Like a shepherd who pastures his flock,
he collects lambs in his arms.
He carries them in his embrace,
guides the nursing ones.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

You will say on that day,
I will confess you Yahweh,
because whereas you were angry with me,
your anger turned back and you comforted me.
There is God, my deliverance,
I will be confident and not be fearful,
Because Yah, Yahweh, is my vigour and might,
and he has been my deliverance.

You all will draw water with joy from the deliverance fountains.
And you all will say on that day,
confess Yahweh, call out in his name.
Make his deeds known among the peoples,
make mention that his name is on high.
Make music for Yahweh,
because he has acted in majesty;
this is to be acknowledged in the entire earth.

Bellow and resound, (inhabitant of) Tsiyyon,
because great among you is Yisra’el’s sacred one.

Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

But a shoot will go out from Yishay’s [Jesse’s] stump,
a branch will fruit from his roots.
Yahweh’s breath will alight on him,
a breath with smartness and understanding,
A breath with counsel and strength,
a breath with acknowledgement and awe for Yahweh;
his scent (delight) will be awe for Yahweh.

He will not exercise authority by the seeing of his eyes,
he will not reprove by the hearing of his ears.
He will exercise authority with faithfulness for the poor,
and reprove with uprightness for the humble people in the country.
He will strike the country down with the club in his mouth,
with the breath from his lips he will put the faithless person to death. Faithfulness will be the belt round his hips,
truthfulness the belt round his thighs.

Wolf will reside with lamb,
leopard will lie down with goat,
Calf, lion and fatling together,
with a little boy driving them.
Cow and bear will pasture,
their young will lie down together.
Cougar, like cattle,
will eat straw.
A baby will play over the cobra’s burrow;
an infant will hold its hand over the viper’s hole.
People will not deal badly,
they will not devastate,
in all my sacred mountain.
Because the country will be full of the acknowledgement of Yahweh
like the water covering the sea.

On that day,
Yishay’s root which will be standing as a signal for peoples.
Nations will enquire of him,
and where he settles down will be [a place of] splendour.

On that day,
the Lord will again act, a second time,
with his hand to acquire the remainder of his people,
That remain from Ashshur,
from Misrayim,
from Patros,
from Kush [Sudan],
from Elam,
from Shin’ar,
from Hamat
and from the shores across the Sea.
He will lift up a signal to the nations,
and gather the men of Yisra’el who were driven out,
And the women of Yehudah who were scattered
he will collect from the four corners of the earth.
Ephrayim’s jealousy will go away,
and the people putting pressure on Yehudah will be cut off.
Ephrayim won’t be jealous of Yehudah,
and Yehudah won’t put pressure on Ephrayim.
They will fly against the back of the Pelishtites to the west;
together they will plunder the easterners,
The putting out of their hand: Edom and Mo’ab;
the people obeying them: the Ammonites.
Yahweh will dry up the tongue of the Misrayimite sea,
and wave his hand over the River with the heat of his breath.
He will strike it down into seven wadis,
and let people make their way in boots.
There will be a causeway for the remainder of his people
that remain from Ashshur,
As there was for Yisra’el
on the day it went up from the country of Misrayim.

Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.

Gertrude the Great

Therefore the Lord Yahweh of Armies has said this:
Don’t be afraid, my people,
who dwell on Tsiyyon,
of Ashshur,
Which strikes you down with a club
and raises its mace against you in the manner of the Misrayimites (Egyptians).
Because in a very little while more,
my condemnation will finish,
and my anger will be towards their destruction.
Yahweh of Armies is lifting up a whip
against it like the striking down of Midyan at the Oreb Crag,
Like his mace over the sea,
and he will raise it in the manner of Misrayim.
And on that day its burden will depart from your shoulder,
Its yoke from upon your neck;
the yoke will be destroyed in the face of your beefiness.

He has gone against Ayat,
he has passed by Migron,
at Mikmas he put his equipment in place.
They crossed at the pass;
‘Geba will be lodging for us.’
The Height trembles,
Gib’ah of Sha’ul [Saul] has fled.
Bellow loudly, Bat-gallim,
heed, Layshah, answer, Anatot!
Madmenah has run away,
the inhabitants of Gebim have taken refuge.
More, today at Nob,
standing, he will wave his hand
At the mount of Miss Tsiyyon,
the hill of Yerushalaim.

There is the Lord Yahweh of Armies,
lopping off boughs with a crash.
The loftiest in height are being felled,
the tall ones fall down.
The forest thickets will be cut down with iron,
the Lebanon will fall by the august one.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Ignatius

Hey, Ashshur, my angry club –
and the mace in their hand is my condemnation.
Against an impious nation I send it;
I order it against a people towards which I am wrathful,
To seize spoil and to take plunder,
and to make it into something trampled, like mud in the streets.
But it doesn’t picture it this way;
its mind doesn’t think this way.
Because in its mind is to annihilate,
to cut off nations not a few.
Because it says, ‘My officers are kings, altogether, aren’t they?
Kalno’s like Karkemish, isn’t it, or Hamat like Arpad,
or Shomron like Dammeseq.
As my hand found the non-entity kingdoms
(and their images were more than Shomron and Yerushalaim) –
As I did to Shomron and to its non-entities,
so I will do to Yerushalaim and to its idols, won’t I?’
But when the Lord finishes all his action
against Mount Tsiyyon and against Yerushalaim:
‘I will attend to the fruit of the king of Ashshur’s big-headedness
and to the lofty splendour of his eyes.
Because he said, “By the energy of my hand I’ve acted,
by my smartness, because I have understanding.
I’ve removed peoples’ borders, I’ve plundered their treasures,
as a champion I’ve subdued inhabitants.
My hand found, as in a nest, the resources of peoples.
Like one gathering abandoned eggs,
I myself gathered the entire earth.
There was not one flapping a wing,
or opening its mouth and chirping.”’

Does the axe glorify itself over the one who chops with it,
or the saw magnify itself over the one who wields it,
As if the club wields the one who lifts it up,
as if the mace lifted up the one who is not made of wood?
Therefore the Lord Yahweh of Armies
will send off a wasting disease against his beefy ones.
Beneath its splendour it will burn,
with a burning like the burning of fire.
Yisra’el’s light will become fire,
its sacred one a flame.
It will burn up and consume its thorn and its thistle,
in one day.
The splendour of its forest and its farmland
it will finish off, soul and body.
It will be like the fading away of a sick person;
the remainder of the trees in its forest will be so few,
a boy could write them down.

But on that day,
no more will the remainder of Yisra’el,
The escape group from Ya’aqob’s household,
lean on the one that struck them down.
They will lean on Yahweh,
Yisra’el’s sacred one, in truth.
The remainder will turn back, the remainder of Ya’aqob, to God,
the God who is a strong man.
Though your people, Yisra’el, were like the sand of the sea,
It will be a remainder of it that will turn back;
a finishing is determined, overwhelming faithfulness.
Because a finish, a thing determined –
the Lord Yahweh of Armies is going to do it,
within the entire country.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen

St Anselm

The Lord has sent out a word against Ya’aqob,
and it has fallen on Yisra’el.
But the people, all of it,
acknowledge it (Ephrayim and the inhabitants of Shomron)
with loftiness and big-headedness:
‘Bricks have fallen, but we’ll build with dressed stone;
sycamore-figs have been cut down, but we’ll substitute cedars.’
But Yahweh has lifted high the adversaries of Retsin over it,
and spurred on its enemies,
Aram from the east,
the Pelishtites from the west,
and they’ve devoured Yisra’el with their entire mouth.
For all this, his anger did not turn back;
his hand was still stretched out.

The people didn’t turn back to the one who hit it;
they haven’t enquired of Yahweh of Armies.
So Yahweh cut off from Yisra’el head and tail,
palm branch and reed, in one day.
The elder and the person held in high regard,
he is the head,
and the prophet who instructs in falsehood,
he is the tail.
The guides of this people became ones who make them wander;
the ones who were guided were people who were swallowed up.
Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over its young men,
and does not show compassion for its widows and orphans,
Because all of it is impious and deals badly,
and every mouth speaks villainy.
For all this, his anger did not turn back;
his hand was still stretched out.

Because faithlessness has burned up like fire,
which consumes briar and thorn.
It set light to the forest thickets,
and they swirled as a column of smoke.
By the fury of Yahweh of Armies the country was scorched.
The people became like a fire consuming;
one person would not spare his brother.
He carved to the right but was hungry,
and ate to the left but was not full;
An individual eats the flesh of his offspring,
Menashsheh, Ephrayim, Ephrayim Menashsheh,
all together they were against Yehudah.
For all this, his anger did not turn back;
his hand was still stretched out.

Hey, you who make decrees that bring trouble,
who write documents that bring oppression,
To subvert the case of poor people,
and steal the rights of the humble among my people,
So that widows become their spoil,
and orphans their plunder.
What will you do on the day
when attention is given,
when devastation comes from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you abandon your splendour?
Except bend beneath a prisoner,
fall beneath the slain?
For all this, his anger did not turn back;
his hand was still stretched out.

Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)

As the earlier time has slighted
the region of Zebulun
and the region of Naphtali,
The later one is bringing splendour to the Sea Way,
the other side of the Yarden [Jordan],
Galilee of the nations.

The people walking in darkness has seen big light.
Those living in deathly gloom
– light has shone on them.
You’ve made the nation many, you’ve given it great rejoicing.
They’ve rejoiced before you like the rejoicing at harvest,
like people who celebrate at the dividing of spoil.

Because the yoke that burdened it,
the rod on its shoulder,
The boss’s club over it,
you’ve shattered as on the day at Midyan.

Because every shoe of someone trampling, with shaking,
and the coat rolled in shed blood,
Have been for burning,
consumed by fire.

Because a child has been born to us,
a son has been given to us,
and government has come on to his shoulder.
People have called him
‘An Extraordinary Counsellor Is the Strong Man God,
the Everlasting Father Is an Official for Well-being’.
Of the growing of government and of well-being there will be no end,
on David’s throne and on his kingship,
To establish it and support it,
with authority and faithfulness,
From now and permanently;
the passion of Yahweh of Armies will do this.

Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

God is with us:
do what is bad, peoples,
and shatter.

Give ear,
all you distant parts of the earth;
belt yourselves and shatter,
Belt yourselves and shatter;
take counsel, but it will be contravened.
Speak a word, but it won’t arise,
because God is with us.

Because Yahweh said this to me as he took strong hold of my hand
so that he might discipline me out of walking in the way of this people:

You all shall not say ‘conspiracy’ about everything
that this people says ‘conspiracy’ about.
What they’re in awe of,
you shall not be in awe of, and not dread.
Yahweh of Armies – regard him as sacred;
he’s to be the object of your awe, he your dread.
He’s to be a sacred place,
but a stone to trip on,
a crag to collapse on,

For the two households of Yisra’el
– a trap and a snare for Yerushalaim’s inhabitants.
Many people will collapse on them,
they’ll fall and break, be snared and caught.

Bind up the testimony,
seal the instruction among my disciples.

I shall wait for Yahweh, who’s hiding his face from Ya’aqob’s household,
and I shall hope for him.
Here am I
and the children Yahweh has given me as signs and portents in Yisra’el
from Yahweh of Armies who dwells on Mount Tsiyyon.
So when they say to you all,
‘Enquire of the ghosts and the spirits who chirp and whisper.
(A people is to enquire of its gods, isn’t it),
of the dead on behalf of the living, for instruction and testimony’:
if they do not speak in accordance with this word, for which there will be no dawn . . .
It will pass through it wretched and hungry.
When it is hungry it will rage
and slight its king and its gods.
It will turn its face upwards and look to the earth,
but there, pressure and darkness,
oppressive gloom, driven murkiness,
because there will be no dawn for the one that experiences oppression.

Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

(unknown)