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Isaiah 51-53 Yahweh Comforts Zion51 "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
who seek Yahweh.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the excavation of the pit from which you were quarried.
2 Look to Abraham your father,
and to Sarah; she brought you forth.
For I called him alone,
but I blessed him and made him numerous."
3 For Yahweh will comfort Zion;
he will comfort all its sites of ruins.
And he will make its wilderness like Eden,
and its desert like the garden of Yahweh.
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
thanksgiving and the sound of song.
4 "Listen attentively to me, my people,
and my nation, listen to me!
For a teaching will go out from me,
and I will cause my justice to rest for a light to the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples.
The coastlands wait for me,
and for my arm they wait.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens
and look to the earth beneath,
for the heavens will be torn to pieces like smoke,
and the earth will be worn out like a garment,
and those who inhabit her will die like gnats.
But my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will not be broken to pieces.
7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
people who have my teaching in their heart;
you must not fear the reproach of men,
or be terrified because of their abuse.
8 For a moth will eat them like garments;
a moth will devour them like wool,
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation for generation after generation."
9 Awake! Awake; put on strength, O arm of Yahweh!
Awake as in days of long ago,
the generations of a long time back!
Are you not the one who cut Rahab in pieces,
the one who pierced the sea-dragon?
10 Are you not the one who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
the one who made the depths of the sea a way
for those who are redeemed to cross over?
11 So the redeemed ones of Yahweh shall return,
and they shall come to Zion with singing,
and everlasting joy shall be on their heads.
Joy and gladness shall appear;
sorrow and sighing shall flee away!
12 "I, I am he who comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of man? He dies!
And of the son of humankind? He is sacrificed as grass!
13 And you have forgotten Yahweh, your maker,
who stretched out the heavens,
and founded the earth.
And you tremble continually, all day,
because of the wrath of the oppressor
when he takes aim to destroy.
But where is the wrath of the oppressor?
14 The fettered one shall make haste to be freed.
And he shall not die in the pit,
and he shall not lack his bread.
15 For I am Yahweh, your God,
who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar;
Yahweh of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth,
and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
to plant the heavens
and to found the earth,
saying to Zion, 'You are my people.'"
17 Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself!
Stand up, Jerusalem, who have drunk from the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath;
you have drunk the goblet, the cup of staggering;
you have drained it out.
18 There is no one who guides her among all the children she has borne,
and there is no one who grasps her by the hand among all the children she raised.
19 Two things here have happened to you—who will show sympathy for you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword—who will comfort you?
20 Your children have fainted;
they lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a snare,
those who are full of the wrath of Yahweh,
the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear now this afflicted one
and drunken one but not from wine.
22 Thus says your Lord, Yahweh,
and your God pleads the cause of his people:
"Look! I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering.
You shall not continue to drink the goblet, the cup of my wrath, any longer.
23 And I will put it in the hand of your tormenters,
who have said to you, 'Bow down that we may pass over you!'
And you have made your back like the ground,
and like the street for those who pass over you." Yahweh Redeems Zion52 Awake! Awake; put on your strength, Zion!
Put on the garments of your beauty, Jerusalem, holy city!
For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall not continue to enter you any longer.
2 Shake yourself free from the dust! Rise up; sit, Jerusalem!
Free yourselves from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion! 3 For thus says Yahweh: "You were sold for nothing,
and you shall be redeemed without money." 4 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "My people went down to Egypt in the beginning, to dwell as aliens there, and Assyria oppressed him without cause. 5 And now what do I have here?"declares Yahweh, "for my people is taken without cause. Its rulers howl," declares Yahweh—"and my name is reviled continually, all day. 6 Therefore my people shall know my name, therefore in that day, that I am the one who speaks. Here am I." 7 How delightful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, "Your God reigns as a king."
8 The voices of your watchmen! They lift up their voices;
together they sing for joy;
for they clearly see Yahweh's return to Zion.
9 Break forth,
sing for joy together, ruins of Jerusalem,
for Yahweh has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 Yahweh has bared his holy arm to the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart, depart, go out from there! You must not touch any unclean thing.
Go out from the midst of it, keep clean, you who carry the vessels of Yahweh.
12 For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for Yahweh is going before you,
and your rear guard is the God of Israel. The Servant's Suffering and Exaltation13 Look, my servant shall achieve success;
he shall be exalted,
and he shall be lifted up,
and he shall be very high.
14 Just as many were appalled at you—
such was his appearance beyond human disfigurement,
and his form beyond the sons of mankind—
15 so he shall sprinkle many nations;
because of him, kings shall shut their mouths.
For they shall see what has not been told them,
and they shall consider with full attention what they have not heard. 53 Who has believed our message,
and to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
2 For he went up like a shoot before him,
and like a root from dry ground.
He had no form and no majesty that we should see him,
and no appearance that we should take pleasure in him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering, and acquainted with sickness,
and like one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised,
and we did not hold him in high regard.
4 However, he was the one who lifted up our sicknesses,
and he carried our pain,
yet we ourselves assumed him stricken,
struck down by God and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced because of our transgressions,
crushed because of our iniquities;
the chastisement for our peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we were healed.
6 All of us have wandered about like sheep;
we each have turned to his own way;
and Yahweh let fall on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was brought like a lamb to the slaughter,
and like a sheep is dumb before its shearers,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 He was taken by restraint of justice,
and who concerned himself with his generation?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
he received a blow because of the transgression of my people.
9 He made his grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet Yahweh was pleased to crush him;
he made him sick.
If she places his life a guilt offering,
he will see offspring.
He will prolong days,
and the will of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.
11 From the trouble of his life he will see;
he will be satisfied.
In his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, shall declare many righteous,
and he is the one who will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will divide to him a portion among the many,
and with the strong ones he will divide bounty,
because he poured his life out to death
and was counted with the transgressors;
and he was the one who bore the sin of many
and will intercede for the transgressors. Ephesians 5 Imitators of God5 Therefore become imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, just as also Christ loved us, and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant smell. 3 But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or greediness, must not even be named among you (as is fitting for saints), 4 and obscenity, and foolish talk, or coarse jesting (which are not proper), but rather thanksgiving. 5 For this you know for certain, that every sexually immoral person, or unclean person, or greedy person (who is an idolater), does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. Walk Like Children of Light7 Therefore do not be sharers with them, 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live like children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is well-pleasing to the Lord. 11 And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak about the things being done by them in secret, 13 but all things exposed by the light are made visible, 14 for everything made visible is light. Therefore it says, Wake up, sleeper,
and rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you. 15 Therefore, consider carefully how you live, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of the time because the days are evil. Being Filled by the Spirit17 Because of this do not become foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine (in which is dissipation), but be filled by the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and singing praise in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to the God and Father, 21 being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ 22 —wives to their own husbands as to the Lord, 23 because the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church (he himself being the Savior of the body). 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, thus also wives should be subject to their husbands in everything. Husbands and Wives25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her; 26 in order that he might sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; 27 in order that he might present to himself the church glorious, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she may be holy and blameless. 28 Thus also husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. The one who loves his own wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as also Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 (This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.) 33 Only you also, each one of you, must thus love his own wife as himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Psalm 69:19-36 19 You know my reproach, my shame and my disgrace.
Fully known to you are all my adversaries.
20 Reproach has broken my heart and I am sick.
And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none,
and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me gall for food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table before them be a trap,
and their times of peace a snare.
23 Let their eyes be dark so they cannot see,
and make their loins continually tremble.
24 Pour out your indignation on them,
and let your burning anger overtake them.
25 Let their camp be desolate.
Let none dwell in their tents,
26 because they persecute those whom you, yourself, have struck,
and they tell of the pain of those you have wounded.
27 Add guilt on top of their guilt,
and do not let them be acquitted.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,
and let them not be recorded with the righteous.
29 But as for me, though I am afflicted and pained,
your salvation will protect me, O God.
30 I will praise the name of God in song,
and magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 For Yahweh it will be better than an ox or bull,
horned and hoofed.
32 The afflicted will see and rejoice.
O God seekers, let your heart revive,
33 because Yahweh hears the needy
and does not despise his own who are prisoners.
34 Let heavens and earth praise him,
the seas and all that moves in them,
35 because God will save Zion
and build the cities of Judah,
that they may dwell there and possess it.
36 And the offspring of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will abide in it. Proverbs 24:7 7 Wisdom is too high for fools;
at the gate he will not open his mouth. | |
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