ISAIAH 48

« Isaiah 47 | Isaiah 48 | Isaiah 49 »

Israel’s Obstinacy48:1 “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel

And who came forth from the loins of Judah,

Who swear by the name of the LORD

And invoke the God of Israel,

But not in truth nor in righteousness.

2 “For they call themselves after the holy city

And lean on the God of Israel;

The LORD of hosts is His name.

3 “I declared the former things long ago

And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.

Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

4 “Because I know that you are obstinate,

And your neck is an iron sinew

And your forehead bronze,

5 Therefore I declared them to you long ago,

Before they took place I proclaimed them to you,

So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them,

And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’

6 “You have heard; look at all this.

And you, will you not declare it?

I proclaim to you new things from this time,

Even hidden things which you have not known.

7 “They are created now and not long ago;

And before today you have not heard them,

So that you will not say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

8 “You have not heard, you have not known.

Even from long ago your ear has not been open,

Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously;

And you have been called a rebel from birth.

9 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath,

And for My praise I restrain it for you,

In order not to cut you off.

10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;

For how can My name be profaned?

And My glory I will not give to another.

Deliverance Promised12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called;

I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.

13 “Surely My hand founded the earth,

And My right hand spread out the heavens;

When I call to them, they stand together.

14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!

Who among them has declared these things?

The LORD loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon,

And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.

15 “I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him,

I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.

16 “Come near to Me, listen to this:

From the first I have not spoken in secret,

From the time it took place, I was there.

And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

    17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,

“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit,

Who leads you in the way you should go.

18 “If only you had paid attention to My commandments!

Then your well-being would have been like a river,

And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 “Your descendants would have been like the sand,

And your offspring like its grains;

Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”

20 Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!

Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this,

Send it out to the end of the earth;

Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.”

21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts.

He made the water flow out of the rock for them;

He split the rock and the water gushed forth.

22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.

ISAIAH 49

« Isaiah 48 | Isaiah 49 | Isaiah 50 »

Salvation Reaches to the End of the Earth49:1 Listen to Me, O islands,

And pay attention, you peoples from afar.

The LORD called Me from the womb;

From the body of My mother He named Me.

2 He has made My mouth like a sharp sword,

In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me;

And He has also made Me a select arrow,

He has hidden Me in His quiver.

3 He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel,

In Whom I will show My glory.”

4 But I said, “I have toiled in vain,

I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the LORD,

And My reward with My God.”

5 And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him

(For I am honored in the sight of the LORD,

And My God is My strength),

6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;

I will also make You a light of the nations

So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,

To the despised One,

To the One abhorred by the nation,

To the Servant of rulers,

“Kings will see and arise,

Princes will also bow down,

Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

8 Thus says the LORD,

“In a favorable time I have answered You,

And in a day of salvation I have helped You;

And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people,

To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;

9 Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go forth,’

To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’

Along the roads they will feed,

And their pasture will be on all bare heights.

10 “They will not hunger or thirst,

Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;

For He who has compassion on them will lead them

And will guide them to springs of water.

11 “I will make all My mountains a road,

And My highways will be raised up.

12 “Behold, these will come from afar;

And lo, these will come from the north and from the west,

And these from the land of Sinim.”

13 Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth!

Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!

For the LORD has comforted His people

And will have compassion on His afflicted.

Promise to Zion14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,

And the Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child

And have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

16 “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Your walls are continually before Me.

17 “Your builders hurry;

Your destroyers and devastators

Will depart from you.

18 “Lift up your eyes and look around;

All of them gather together, they come to you.

As I live,” declares the LORD,

“You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride.

19 “For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land--

Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants,

And those who swallowed you will be far away.

20 “The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears,

‘The place is too cramped for me;

Make room for me that I may live here.’

21 “Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who has begotten these for me,

Since I have been bereaved of my children

And am barren, an exile and a wanderer?

And who has reared these?

Behold, I was left alone;

From where did these come?’”

    22 Thus says the Lord GOD,

“Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations

And set up My standard to the peoples;

And they will bring your sons in their bosom,

And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

23 “Kings will be your guardians,

And their princesses your nurses.

They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth

And lick the dust of your feet;

And you will know that I am the LORD;

Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.

24 “Can the prey be taken from the mighty man,

Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

25 Surely, thus says the LORD,

“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,

And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued;

For I will contend with the one who contends with you,

And I will save your sons.

26 “I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh,

And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;

And all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior

And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

PROVERBS 27

« Proverbs 26 | Proverbs 27 | Proverbs 28 »

Warnings and Instructions27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow,

For you do not know what a day may bring forth.

2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;

A stranger, and not your own lips.

3 A stone is heavy and the sand weighty,

But the provocation of a fool is heavier than both of them.

4 Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood,

But who can stand before jealousy?

5 Better is open rebuke

Than love that is concealed.

6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend,

But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

7 A sated man loathes honey,

But to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet.

8 Like a bird that wanders from her nest,

So is a man who wanders from his home.

9 Oil and perfume make the heart glad,

So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.

10 Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend,

And do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity;

Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away.

11 Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad,

That I may reply to him who reproaches me.

12 A prudent man sees evil and hides himself,

The naive proceed and pay the penalty.

13 Take his garment when he becomes surety for a stranger;

And for an adulterous woman hold him in pledge.

14 He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning,

It will be reckoned a curse to him.

15 A constant dripping on a day of steady rain

And a contentious woman are alike;

16 He who would restrain her restrains the wind,

And grasps oil with his right hand.

17 Iron sharpens iron,

So one man sharpens another.

18 He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit,

And he who cares for his master will be honored.

19 As in water face reflects face,

So the heart of man reflects man.

20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied,

Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.

21 The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold,

And each is tested by the praise accorded him.

22 Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain,

Yet his foolishness will not depart from him.

23 Know well the condition of your flocks,

And pay attention to your herds;

24 For riches are not forever,

Nor does a crown endure to all generations.

25 When the grass disappears, the new growth is seen,

And the herbs of the mountains are gathered in,

26 The lambs will be for your clothing,

And the goats will bring the price of a field,

27 And there will be goats’ milk enough for your food,

For the food of your household,

And sustenance for your maidens.

HEBREWS 12

« Hebrews 11 | Hebrews 12 | Hebrews 13 »

Jesus, the Example  12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
    3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
A Father’s Discipline4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

“MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD,

NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;

6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,

AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”

7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
    12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
    14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; 16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.
Contrast of Sinai and Zion    18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear the command, “IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED.” 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
The Unshaken Kingdom    25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. 26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.” 27 This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.