transcendence

⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways, says the Lord. ⁹For just as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so also are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

²²He is the One who sits upon the globe of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts. He extends the heavens as if they were nothing, and he spreads them out like a tent, in which to dwell.

³³Oh, the depths of the richness of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable are his ways! ³⁴For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? ³⁵Or who first gave to him, so that repayment would be owed? ³⁶For from him, and through him, and in him are all things. To him is glory, for all eternity. Amen.

⁷He stretched out the North over emptiness, and he suspended the land over nothing.

⁶so that he might reveal to you the secrets of wisdom, and how intricate his law is, and that you would understand how much less he requires of you than your iniquity deserves. ⁷By chance, will you comprehend the footsteps of God and reach all the way to the perfection of the Almighty?

¹⁵For this is said by the Most High, the Sublime One, who dwells in eternity. And his name is Holy, for he dwells in the exalted and holy place, and he acts with a restrained and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.

¹Now Moses was pasturing the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, a priest of Midian. And when he had driven the flock into the interior of the desert, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb. ²And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. And he saw that the bush was burning and was not burnt. ³Therefore, Moses said, “I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” ⁴Then the Lord, discerning that he proceeded on to see it, called to him from the midst of the bush, and he said, “Moses, Moses.” And he responded, “Here I am.” ⁵And he said: “Lest you should approach here, remove the shoes from your feet. For the place on which you stand is holy ground.” ⁶And he said, “I am the God of your father: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, for he dared not look directly at God.

¹The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. ²The word of the Lord, which came to him in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, ³and which came to him in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, even until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, even until the transmigration of Jerusalem in the fifth month. ⁴And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁵“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you went forth from the womb, I sanctified you. And I made you a prophet to the nations.” ⁶And I said: “Alas, alas, alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am a boy.”

¹In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. ²But the earth was empty and unoccupied, and darknesses were over the face of the abyss; and so the Spirit of God was brought over the waters. ³And God said, “Let there be light.” And light became. ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good; and so he divided the light from the darknesses. ⁵And he called the light, ‘Day,’ and the darknesses, ‘Night.’ And it became evening and morning, one day. ⁶God also said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide waters from waters.”

²¹For prophecy was not conveyed by human will at any time. Instead, holy men were speaking about God while inspired by the Holy Spirit.

³For the Lord is a great God and a great King over all gods. ⁴For in his hand are all the limits of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are his. ⁵For the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

⁷By chance, will you comprehend the footsteps of God and reach all the way to the perfection of the Almighty?