Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me
To the choirmaster: according to fThe Gittith.1 Of gAsaph.
1 hSing aloud to God our strength;
ishout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song; sound jthe tambourine,
kthe sweet lyre with kthe harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at lthe new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule2 of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it ma decree in nJoseph
when he owent out over3 the land of Egypt.
pI hear a language qI had not known:
6 “I rrelieved your4 shoulder of sthe burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you tcalled, and I delivered you;
I uanswered you in the secret place of thunder;
I vtested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 wHear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no xstrange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a yforeign god.
10 zI am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
aOpen your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel bwould not submit to me.
12 So I cgave them over to their dstubborn hearts,
to follow their own ecounsels.
13 fOh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would gwalk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
and hturn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would icringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
16 But he would feed you5 with jthe finest of the wheat,
and with khoney from the rock I would satisfy you.”
The Day of the Lord Will Come
1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them gI am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 hthat you should remember the predictions of ithe holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come jin the last days with scoffing, kfollowing their own sinful desires. 4 lThey will say, “Where is the promise of mhis coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth nwas formed out of water and through water oby the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed pwas deluged with water and qperished. 7 But by the same word rthe heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and sdestruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and ta thousand years as one day. 9 uThe Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise vas some count slowness, but wis patient toward you,1 xnot wishing that any should perish, but ythat all should reach repentance. 10 But zthe day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then athe heavens will pass away with a roar, and bthe heavenly bodies2 will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.3
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, cwhat sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 dwaiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and ethe heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for fnew heavens and a new earth gin which righteousness dwells.
Final Words
14 hTherefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him iwithout spot or jblemish, and kat peace. 15 And count lthe patience of our Lord as salvation, just as mour beloved brother Paul also wrote to you naccording to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. oThere are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, pas they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, qknowing this beforehand, rtake care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But sgrow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. tTo him be the glory both now and to the day of ueternity. Amen.
