Psalms 68:26–27

¹HEAR ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.

²⁸Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.

¹⁶Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

¹PRAISE ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.

¹²My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord.

⁷¶ Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.

⁸Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.

⁹Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.

¹⁰Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.

¹¹Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.

¹²Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;

¹³O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

¹⁴He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.

¹⁵Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations;

¹⁶Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac;

¹⁷And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,

¹⁸Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;

¹⁹When ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it.

²⁰And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people;

²¹He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes,

²²Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

²³Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation.

²⁴Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations.

²⁵For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods.

²⁶For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens.

²⁷Glory and honour are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his place.

²⁸Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength.

²⁹Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

³⁰Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.

³¹Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth.

³²Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein.

³³Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth.

³⁴O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

³⁵And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.

³⁶Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord.

¹⁹Bless the Lord, O house of Israel: bless the Lord, O house of Aaron:

²⁰Bless the Lord, O house of Levi: ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord.

²¹Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.

³²Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

²¹And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? wherefore then speakest thou so to me?

¹⁶And there came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the hold unto David.

¹³The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

⁷Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;

²⁹And of the children of Benjamin, the kindred of Saul, three thousand: for hitherto the greatest part of them had kept the ward of the house of Saul.

³And David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord unto his place, which he had prepared for it.

¹²The ninth captain for the ninth month was Abiezer the Anetothite, of the Benjamites: and in his course were twenty and four thousand.

¹⁹Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

²⁰¶ And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.

²¹And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

²²And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

²³Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

²⁵And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

²⁶Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

²⁷My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

³²We be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.

³⁵And the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.

⁶And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

⁷How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

⁸¶ And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the Lord? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.

⁹For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.

¹⁰And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.

¹¹And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.

¹²And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

¹³And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.

¹⁴And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.

¹⁵And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

¹⁶¶ Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?

¹⁷And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.

¹⁸Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.

¹⁹Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.

²⁰Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;

²¹And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

²²And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.

²³And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.

²⁴And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.

²⁵In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

¹⁸Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.

⁹The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.