Then the LORD said, "I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers. I know all about their sufferings,

and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a spacious land, one which is rich and fertile and in which the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites now live.

"But now I will come," says the LORD, "because the needy are oppressed and the persecuted groan in pain. I will give them the security they long for."

He rescues the poor who call to him, and those who are needy and neglected.

He has pity on the weak and poor; he saves the lives of those in need.

LORD, I know that you defend the cause of the poor and the rights of the needy.

The Sovereign LORD has filled me with his Spirit. He has chosen me and sent me To bring good news to the poor, To heal the broken-hearted, To announce release to captives And freedom to those in prison.

To give to those who mourn in Zion Joy and gladness instead of grief, A song of praise instead of sorrow. They will be like trees That the LORD himself has planted. They will all do what is right, And God will be praised for what he has done.

from all their suffering. It was not an angel, but the LORD himself who saved them. In his love and compassion he rescued them. He had always taken care of them in the past,

"Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!

This time I will punish not only your officials and your people, but I will punish you as well, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the world.

But to show you my power I have let you live so that my fame might spread over the whole world.

So Moses and Aaron went to the king and said to him, "The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says, 'How much longer will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me.

Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods, because he did this when the Egyptians treated the Israelites with such contempt."

Look at those who are proud; pour out your anger and humble them.

Yes, look at them and bring them down; crush the wicked where they stand.

Even though you are so high above, you care for the lowly, and the proud cannot hide from you.

Wicked people are controlled by their conceit and arrogance, and this is sinful.

A day is coming when human pride will be ended and human arrogance destroyed. Then the LORD alone will be exalted.

Everyone will be disgraced, and all who are proud will be humbled.

Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.

"But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.

I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the same road you came."

"And now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, honor, and glorify the King of Heaven. Everything he does is right and just, and he can humble anyone who acts proudly."

But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you.

In the same way you younger people must submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you must put on the apron of humility, to serve one another; for the scripture says, "God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble."

Humble yourselves, then, under God's mighty hand, so that he will lift you up in his own good time.