12 “Listen to Me, Jacob, Israel whom I called;
I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.
13 Assuredly 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 against Babylon,
And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, yes 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 beginning 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 This is what the Lord says, He who is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to benefit,
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 eliminated or destroyed from My presence.”
20 Go out 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 out.
22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord.
1 Listen to Me, you 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 sharpened 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 labored in vain,
I have spent My strength for nothing and futility;
Nevertheless, the justice due to Me is with the Lord,
And My reward is 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 protected 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 This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,
Says 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 This is what the Lord says:
“At a favorable time I answered You,
And on a day of salvation I helped You;
And I will watch over You and make You a covenant of the people,
To restore the land, to give as inheritances the deserted hereditary lands;
9 Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go free,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
They will feed along the roads,
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 He 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 behold, these will come from the north and from the west,
And these from the land of Aswan.”
13 Shout for joy, you heavens! And rejoice, you earth!
Break forth into joyful shouting, mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people
And will have compassion on His afflicted.
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has abandoned 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 leave you.
18 Raise your eyes and look around;
All of them gather together, they come to you.
As I live,” declares the Lord,
“You will certainly put them all on as jewelry and bind them on as a bride.
19 For your ruins and deserted places and your destroyed land—
Now you will certainly be too cramped for the inhabitants,
And those who swallowed you will be far away.
20 The children you lost 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 fathered these for me,
Since I have been bereaved of my children
And cannot conceive, and I am an exile, and a wanderer?
And who has raised these?
Behold, I was left alone;
Where are these from?’”
22 This is what the Lord God says:
“Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations
And set up My flag to the peoples;
And they will bring your sons in their arms,
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 ground
And lick the dust from 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 a mighty man,
Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”
25 Indeed, this is what the Lord says:
“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,
And the prey of a 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 humanity will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
1 This is what the Lord says:
“Where is the certificate of divorce
By which I have sent your mother away?
Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you?
Behold, you were sold for your wrongdoings,
And for your wrongful acts your mother was sent away.
2 Why was there no one when I came?
When I called, why was there no one to answer?
Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem?
Or do I have no power to rescue?
Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke,
I turn rivers into a wilderness;
Their fish stink for lack of water,
And die of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness,
And make sackcloth their covering.”
4 The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples,
So that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
5 The Lord God has opened My ear,
And I was not disobedient,
Nor did I turn back.
6 I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pull out My beard;
I did not hide My face from insults and spitting.
7 For the Lord God helps Me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced;
Therefore, I have made My face like flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
8 He who vindicates Me is near;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand up to each other.
Who has a case against Me?
Let him approach Me.
9 Behold, the Lord God helps Me;
Who is he who condemns Me?
Behold, they will all wear out like a garment;
A moth will eat them.
10 Who is among you who fears the Lord,
Who obeys the voice of His servant,
Who walks in darkness and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.
11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with flaming arrows,
Walk in the light of your fire
And among the flaming arrows you have set ablaze.
This you will have from My hand:
You will lie down in torment.
17 So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
25 Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are parts of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 The one who steals must no longer steal; but rather he must labor, producing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. 29 Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
1 Save me, God,
For the waters have threatened my life.
2 I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me.
3 I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head;
Those who would destroy me are powerful, those who oppose me with lies;
What I did not steal, I then have to restore.
5 God, You know my foolishness,
And my guilt is not hidden from You.
6 May those who wait for You not be ashamed because of me, Lord God of armies;
May those who seek You not be dishonored because of me, God of Israel,
7 Because for Your sake I have endured disgrace;
Dishonor has covered my face.
8 I have become estranged from my brothers,
And a stranger to my mother’s sons.
9 For zeal for Your house has consumed me,
And the taunts of those who taunt You have fallen on me.
10 When I wept in my soul with fasting,
It became my disgrace.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a proverb to them.
12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me,
And songs of mockery by those habitually drunk are about me.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, Lord, at an acceptable time;
God, in the greatness of Your mercy,
Answer me with Your saving truth.
14 Rescue me from the mud and do not let me sink;
May I be rescued from those who hate me, and from the depths of water.
15 May the flood of water not overflow me
Nor the deep swallow me up,
Nor the pit close its mouth on me.
16 Answer me, Lord, for Your mercy is good;
According to the greatness of Your compassion, turn to me,
17 And do not hide Your face from Your servant,
For I am in distress; answer me quickly.
18 Come near to my soul and redeem it;
Ransom me because of my enemies!
5 A wise man is strong,
And a person of knowledge increases power.
6 For by wise guidance you will wage war,
And in an abundance of counselors there is victory.
