Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 25

2025/01/25/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 25

Isaiah 61 – 63:6 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 25

Isaiah 61 – 63:6 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Fifth Servant Song

The Spirit Anoints Him ^[1]

Isaiah 61

¹The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the afflicted.
He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release for those who are bound,
²    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance for our God,
    to comfort all who mourn,
³    to provide for those who mourn in Zion,
    to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
    the oil of joy instead of mourning,
    a cloak of praise instead of a faint spirit,
    so that they will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord to display his beauty.

The Result of the Servant’s Work

⁴Then they will rebuild ancient ruins.
They will raise up what was formerly devastated,
and they will renew ruined cities,
which have been devastated for generations.
⁵Strangers will stand and shepherd your flock,
and foreigners will be your farmers and vinedressers.
⁶You will be called the Lord’s priests.
You will be named ministers of our God.
You will eat the wealth of nations,
and you will boast about their riches.
⁷In place of your shame, you will receive a double portion.
Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their share of the land.
In fact, in their land they will inherit a double portion.
Everlasting joy will be theirs.
⁸Yes, I am the Lord. I love justice.
I hate robbery in a burnt offering. ^[2]
I will repay them in faithfulness,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
⁹Their offspring will be known among the nations,
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples.
All who see them will recognize
that they are offspring whom the Lord has blessed.
¹⁰I will rejoice greatly in the Lord.
My soul will celebrate because of my God,
for he has clothed me in garments of salvation.
With a robe of righteousness he covered me,
like a bridegroom who wears a beautiful headdress like a priest,
and like a bride who adorns herself with her jewelry.

¹¹For as the earth produces its growth,
and as a garden causes what has been sown to sprout up,
so God the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up
in the presence of all the nations.

For Zion’s Sake, Cry Out

Isaiah 62

¹For the sake of Zion I will not be silent.
For the sake of Jerusalem I will not be quiet,
until her righteousness goes forth shining brightly,
and her salvation burns like a torch.

²Nations will see your righteousness,
and all kings will see your glory.
You will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will assign to you.
³Then you will be a beautiful crown in the Lord’s hand,
and a royal diadem in the palm of your God.
⁴You will never again be called Abandoned, ^[3]
and your land will never again be called Desolation, ^[4]
for you will be called My Delight Is in Her, ^[5]
and your land will be called Married, ^[6]
because the Lord delights in you,
and your land will be married.
⁵For just as a young man marries a virgin,
your sons will marry ^[7] you,
and just as a bridegroom rejoices over a bride,
your God will rejoice over you.
⁶Upon your walls, Jerusalem, I appointed watchmen.
All day and all night they will never be silent.
You who keep reminding the Lord, do not rest!
⁷Do not give him rest
until he establishes Jerusalem,
and he causes her to be praised on the earth.

⁸The Lord swore by his right hand
and by his strong arm:
    I will certainly never again give up your grain as food
        for your enemies,
    and foreigners will not drink the sweet new wine you worked for.
⁹    For those who pick fruit will eat it, and they will praise the Lord,
    and those who harvest grapes will drink in my holy courtyards.

¹⁰Go through, go through the gates.
Prepare a way for the people.
Build up, build up the highway.
Clear it of stones.
Raise a banner for the peoples.

¹¹Listen, the Lord is making a proclamation to the end of the earth.
Tell the daughter of Zion:
“Look, your salvation is coming.
Look, his reward is with him,
and his compensation is out in front of him.” ^[8]

¹²Then they will be called holy people,
the redeemed of the Lord.
Then you will be called Sought After,
A City Not Abandoned.

The Day of Vengeance

The Prophet’s Question

Isaiah 63

¹Who is this coming from Edom, with bright red garments?

Who is this coming from Bozrah, clothed majestically,

marching out ^[9] with great strength?

The Servant’s Response

It is I, the one who speaks in righteousness.
It is I, the one who is mighty to save.

The Prophet’s Question

²Why is your clothing so red?
Why are your garments like those of someone
who has been trampling grapes in a winepress?

The Servant’s Response

³I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples there was no one with me.
So I stomped on them in my anger,
and I trampled them in my wrath,
and their juice splattered on my garments.
I stained all my clothing.
⁴For the day for vengeance was in my heart,
and the year for my redemption has come.
⁵I looked intently but there was no helper.
I was shocked that no one supported me.
My arm delivered me,
and my wrath supported me.
⁶I trampled the peoples in my anger.
I made them drunk in my wrath,
and I will pour out their juice ^[10] onto the ground.

Footnotes

Isaiah 61:1 This song does not contain the title servant, but it is part of the same set of descriptions of the Messiah as the earlier Servant Songs.
Isaiah 61:8 The translation follows the reading of most Hebrew manuscripts. A variant found in some Hebrew manuscripts and supported by the ancient versions reads with wrongdoing.
Isaiah 62:4 Hebrew Azubah
Isaiah 62:4 Hebrew Shemamah
Isaiah 62:4 Hebrew Hephzibah
Isaiah 62:4 Hebrew Beulah
Isaiah 62:5 Or your Builder will marry you. In Hebrew the words your builder and your sons look alike.
Isaiah 62:11 This may refer to the people whom the Messiah has won by his labor, or it may refer to the gifts he brings for his people.
Isaiah 63:1 The translation follows the Syriac and Latin. The Hebrew reads bending over.
Isaiah 63:6 That is, their lifeblood

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 24

2025/01/24/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 24

Isaiah 60 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 24

Isaiah 60 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

A New Day Dawns for Zion

Isaiah 60

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord is dawning upon you.
²Look, darkness covers the earth,
and deep darkness covers the peoples,
but the Lord will dawn upon you,
and his glory will be seen over you.
³Nations will walk to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

⁴Look up. Look all around and see!
All of them have been gathered. They are coming to you.
Your sons will come from far away,
and people will carry your daughters on their side.
⁵Then you will look and be radiant.
Your heart will race with excitement and burst with joy.
For great riches from the sea will be delivered to you.
The wealth of the nations will come to you.
⁶Caravans of camels will cover your land,
young camels from Midian and Ephah.
All those from Sheba will come.
They will carry gold and incense,
and they will announce the good news of the praise of the Lord.
⁷All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you.
Rams from Nebaioth will serve as sacrifices for you.
They will be accepted as burnt offerings on my altar,
and I will beautify my splendid house.

⁸Who are these who fly along like a cloud,
who fly like doves to their coops?

⁹Yes, the coastlands will wait for me with hope,
and the ships of Tarshish will be the first
to bring your children from far away.
They will have their silver and gold with them,
for the name of the Lord your God
and for the Holy One of Israel,
because he makes you beautiful.

¹⁰Then foreigners will rebuild your walls,
and their kings will serve you,
because in my wrath I struck you,
but in my favor I had mercy on you.

¹¹Then your gates will always remain open.
Day and night they will not be shut,
in order to bring you the wealth of the nations,
and their kings will be led in procession.
¹²For the nation and the kingdom that do not serve you will perish.
Such nations will be completely devastated.
¹³The glory of Lebanon will come to you:
the fir, the maple, and the pine tree together.
They will beautify my holy place,
and I will glorify my footstool.
¹⁴Then the children of your oppressors will walk up to you and bow down.
All who despise you will fall down under the soles of your feet,
and they will call you the city of the Lord,
Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵You were abandoned and hated, with no one walking through you,
but now I will make you a source of everlasting pride,
a joy from generation to generation.

¹⁶You will nurse on the milk of the nations,
and you will nurse at the breast of kings.
You will know that I am the Lord, your Savior,
and that your Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.
¹⁷Instead of bronze I will bring gold.
Instead of iron I will bring silver,
instead of wood, copper,
and instead of stones, iron.
And I will make peace your overseer,
and righteousness your strong ruler.
¹⁸Violence will never again be heard in your land,
nor destruction and ruin in your boundaries.
Instead, you will call your walls Salvation
and your gates Praise.
¹⁹The sun will never again be your light by day,
and the moon will not shine to provide brightness for you,
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your splendor.
²⁰Your sun will never again set,
and your moon will not wane,
because the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and the days of your mourning will be over.

²¹As for your people, all of them will be righteous.
They will inherit the earth forever.
They are shoots I have planted,
the work of my hands, to display my beauty.
²²The smallest will become an army of a thousand,
and the least will become a powerful nation.
I am the Lord.
When the time is right, I will do it quickly.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 23

2025/01/23/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 23

Isaiah 59 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 23

Isaiah 59 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Guilt Separates People From God

Isaiah 59

Listen to me! The Lord’s arm is not too short to save,
and his ear is not too deaf to hear.
²No, it is your guilt that has separated you from your God,
and your sins have hidden God’s face from you,
so that he does not hear.
³Look, your hands are polluted with blood,
and your fingers drip guilt.
Your lips speak lies.
Your tongue mutters dishonesty.
⁴No one calls for justice,
and no one argues his cases honestly.
They rely on empty arguments and commit perjury!
They conceive trouble and give birth to wickedness!
⁵They hatch viper eggs,
and they weave spider webs.
Anyone who eats their eggs will die,
and a cracked egg hatches into a venomous snake.
⁶They cannot make a garment from their webs,
and they will not be able to cover themselves with their deeds.
Their deeds are evil deeds,
and violent actions fill their hands.
⁷Their feet run to do evil,
and they hurry to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are futile ^[1] thoughts.
Destruction and ruin are the destination of their highways.
⁸They do not know the road to peace,
and there is no justice on the route they follow.
They made crooked paths for themselves.
No one who walks on them will experience peace.
⁹Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us.
We hope for light, but look, there is only darkness.
We hope for bright light, but we walk around in the darkest gloom.

¹⁰We grope along a wall like blind men.
We grope like people with no eyes.
We stumble at noon as if it were twilight.
Among the healthy, we are like dead men.
¹¹We growl like bears—all of us—
and like doves we always mourn.
We hope for justice, but there is none.
We hope for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹²Yes, our rebellious deeds are many before you,
and our sins testify against us.
Our rebellious deeds are with us,
and as for our guilty deeds, we are aware of them.
¹³Those deeds are rebellion and treachery against the Lord.
We turn back from following our God.
We incite oppression and apostasy.
We conceive and mutter deceitful words from our hearts.
¹⁴Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away,
for truth stumbles in the city square,
and honesty cannot enter it.
¹⁵The truth is missing,
and anyone who turns from evil makes himself prey. ^[2]
The Lord looked and saw something evil—
there was no justice.
¹⁶He saw that there was no one.
He was appalled that there was no one who could intervene.
So his own arm worked salvation for him,
and his own righteousness supported him.
¹⁷He clothed himself with righteousness like armor
and wore a helmet of salvation on his head.
He dressed in garments for vengeance,
and he wrapped himself with zeal like a cloak.
¹⁸He will repay in full what they have earned,
namely, wrath to his foes and full payment to his enemies.
He will repay even the distant coastlands.
¹⁹From the west they will fear the Lord’s name,
and from the rising of the sun they will fear his glory,
for he will come like a raging river,
driven by the Spirit ^[3] of the Lord.
²⁰Then a redeemer will come for Zion
and for those in Jacob who turn from rebellion.
This is the declaration of the Lord.

²¹As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord. My Spirit, who is upon you, and my words, which I placed in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth or from the mouth of your offspring or from the mouth of their offspring, from this time forward and forever, says the Lord.

Yes, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Footnotes

Isaiah 59:7 Or sinful
Isaiah 59:15 Or pays the price
Isaiah 59:19 Or wind or breath

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 22

2025/01/22/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 22

Isaiah 58 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 22

Isaiah 58 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Fast for the Right Reasons

Isaiah 58

Cry out with a full-throated shout.
Do not hold back.
Shout like the blast of a ram’s horn.
Declare to my people their rebellious deeds.
Declare to the house of Jacob their sins.
²They seek me day by day,
and they are delighted to know my ways,
    as if they were a nation that does what is right,
    as if they had not forsaken the just ways of their God.
They ask me for just verdicts.
They are delighted to approach God:
³“Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why do we afflict ourselves, but you are not aware?”
    This is what you do!
    On the same day when you fast, you do whatever you please,
and you oppress all your workers.
⁴You fast so you can fight and quarrel,
so you can strike with a wicked fist.
You should not fast the way you are doing it today
if you expect God on high to hear your voice.
⁵Is this the kind of fast that I would choose:
    a day when a person afflicts himself
    and bows his head like a reed
    and makes his bed on sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast, a day to gain the Lord’s favor?

⁶On the contrary, isn’t this the kind of fast that I would choose:
    to loosen the chains of wickedness,
    to tear apart the ropes of a yoke,
    to release the oppressed so they go free,
    and to tear every yoke to pieces?
⁷Isn’t a true fast that you share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless and afflicted into a house?
Yes, when you see a naked person, you are to cover him,
and do not hide yourself from your own flesh and blood.

⁸Then your light will break forth like dawn,
and your healing will spring up quickly.
Your righteousness will go out ahead of you,
and the Glory of the Lord will follow you.
⁹Then you will call, and the Lord will answer.
You will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am!”
If you remove the bar of the yoke from among you,
and if you stop finger-pointing and speaking wickedly,
¹⁰if you offer your life for the hungry,
and if you satisfy the desires of the afflicted,
then your light will shine in the darkness,
and your darkest gloom will shine like the noonday sun.
¹¹Then the Lord will lead you continually.
He will satisfy your desire in arid places,
and he will strengthen your bones.
Then you will be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water, whose waters will not fail.
¹²Then your ancient ruins will be rebuilt,
and you will restore the foundations from past generations.
Then you will be called the repairer of broken walls,
the restorer of streets to live on.

¹³If you do not trample the Sabbath
by doing whatever you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight,
if you treat the holy day of the Lord as something to be honored,
if you honor it by not going your own way, ^[1]
by not pursuing pleasure or negotiating a deal,
¹⁴then you will delight in the Lord.
I will cause you to ride over the heights of the land.
I will provide food for you from the land inherited from
your father Jacob.
Yes, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Footnotes

Isaiah 58:13 Or doing your own thing

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 21

2025/01/21/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 21

Isaiah 56 & 57 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 21

Isaiah 56 & 57 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Isaiah 56

This is what the Lord says.
Protect justice, and carry out righteousness,
because my salvation is coming very soon.
My righteousness is ready to be revealed.
²How blessed is everyone who does this,
who grabs hold of it,
who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
who holds back his hand from doing any evil.

The Lord Welcomes All People

³Therefore, the foreigner who joins himself to the Lord should not say,
“The Lord will certainly exclude me from his people.”
The eunuch should not say,
“I am just a dried-up tree.”
⁴Because this is what the Lord says:
“If the eunuchs keep my Sabbaths,
choose things that delight me,
and take hold of my covenant,
⁵then I will set up in my house and on my walls
a monument and a name for them
that is better than that of sons and daughters.
I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.”

⁶Then the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him and to love the name of the Lord
    and to become his servants,
    every one of them who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
    those who take hold of my covenant—
⁷I will bring them to my holy mountain,
and I will make them glad in my house of prayer.
Their whole burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be
    acceptable on my altar.
For my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples
    of the world.
⁸This is the declaration of God the Lord,
who gathers Israel’s dispersed people:
“I will gather still more people to my house besides
    the ones already gathered.”

The Coming Judgment Against Israel’s Leaders

⁹All you wild animals, come to eat—
all you animals in the forest.

¹⁰His watchmen are blind, all of them.
They know nothing.
All of them are silent dogs.
They are not able to bark.
They are seers who lie down,
who love to sleep.
¹¹These dogs have a big appetite.
They are never satisfied.
These shepherds have no understanding.
All of them turn to their own ways.
Each one, without exception, turns to his own gain.
¹²“Come on, I want to drink wine.
Let’s get drunk on beer.
Tomorrow will be another day, just like today,
another great day, better than ever.”

There Will Be Peace for the Righteous Even in Death

Isaiah 57

¹The righteous one perishes,
but no one takes it to heart.
Men of mercy ^[1] are being taken away,
but no one understands
that the righteous one is being spared from evil.
²He will enter into peace.
They will rest on their beds.
He is walking in his uprightness. ^[2]

The Coming Judgment Against Israel’s Leaders

³But you there, come closer,
you children of a witch,
you offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.
⁴Who are you mocking? ^[3]
Who are you making faces at and sticking out your tongue at?
Aren’t you all children born in rebellion,
the offspring of deceit,
⁵you who are in heat among the oaks and under every green tree,
you who slaughter children in the ravines under the rugged cliffs?
⁶Your chosen territory is among the smooth stones of the ravines.
They, yes, they, are your lot.
You even poured out a drink offering to them,
and you offered up a grain offering.
Since you have done these things, should I spare you?
⁷Upon a mountain, high and lofty, you spread out your bed.
Yes, you went up there to offer a sacrifice.
⁸Behind the door and doorpost you placed your memorial.
Yes, you deserted me and uncovered yourself. ^[4] You climbed right into bed.
You made room for them in your bed.
You committed yourself to them.
You loved their bed.
You stared at their bodies. ^[5]
⁹You traveled to deliver offerings of fragrant oil to the king, ^[6]
and you made many offerings of incense.
You sent your messengers to a distant land.
You sent them as far as hell. ^[7]
¹⁰Because of the length of your journey, you became weary,
but you did not say, “It is hopeless!”
So you found new strength, and you did not faint.
¹¹But who is making you so anxious and so afraid that you
practice deception?
You did not remember me
and did not keep me in your heart.
Is it because I have been silent for a long time
that you do not fear me?
¹²I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,
but they will not benefit you.
¹³When you cry out for help,
let your collections of idols deliver you.
But the wind will blow them all away.
A breeze will take them away.
But the one who takes refuge in me will inherit the land.
He will possess my holy mountain.

¹⁴I will say, ^[8]
“Build up, build up the highway.
Prepare the way.
Remove the stumbling block from the way of my people.”
¹⁵Certainly this is what the High and Lofty One says,
the one who dwells with his people forever,
and whose name is holy:
    I dwell in a high and holy place,
    yet also with the one who is crushed and lowly in spirit,
    in order to revive the spirit of those who have been pushed down,
    and to revive the hearts of those who have been crushed.
¹⁶    Surely I will not accuse forever,
    and I will not always be angry,
    because every spirit would grow weak in my presence,
    and every breath of life, which I made, would fail.
¹⁷    Because of the guilt from their selfish gain, I was angry,
    and I struck them and hid my face.
    I was angry,
    but the deserter ^[9] kept walking in the way his heart desired.
¹⁸    I saw his ways,
    but I will heal him, and I will lead him,
    and I will restore comfort to him
    and to all who mourn with him.
¹⁹    I am the one who creates praise as the fruit of their lips. ^[10]

Peace, peace to the one far off and to the one nearby,
says the Lord,
and I will heal him.
²⁰But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
which is not able to rest.
Its waters toss up dirt and mud.
²¹There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

Footnotes

Isaiah 57:1 Men of mercy are the recipients and dispensers of mercy.
Isaiah 57:2 The alternation of singular and plural forms (he and they) in verses 1 and 2 is not unusual in Hebrew poetry. It does not necessarily refer to two different groups.
Isaiah 57:4 EHV generally preserves the distinction between who and whom but recognizes that it is rapidly disappearing in speech.
Isaiah 57:8 Or your bed
Isaiah 57:8 The base meaning of the Hebrew word yad is hand, but here it seems to be a euphemism for genitals.
Isaiah 57:9 Or Molek
Isaiah 57:9 Hebrew sheol
Isaiah 57:14 The translation follows the Latin. The Hebrew reads he will say. The two verb forms look alike in Hebrew script.
Isaiah 57:17 Or apostate
Isaiah 57:19 The line is difficult.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 20

2025/01/20/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 20

Isaiah 55 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 20

Isaiah 55 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Come to the Water

Isaiah 55

Hey, ^[1] all of you who are thirsty, come to the water,
even if you have no money!
Come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
²Why do you spend money on something that is not bread?
Why do you waste your labor on something that does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good.
Satisfy your appetite with rich food.
³Turn your ear toward me, and come to me.
Listen, so that you may continue to live.

The Creator’s Everlasting Covenant

Yes, I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
the faithful mercies promised to David.
⁴Look, I appointed him as a witness for peoples,
a leader and commander of peoples.
⁵Look, you will call out to a nation you do not know,
and a nation that does not know you will run to you,
on account of the Lord your God,
because of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.

⁶Seek the Lord while he may be found!
Call on him while he is near!
⁷Let the wicked man abandon his way.
Let an evil man abandon his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord,
and he will show him mercy.
Let him turn to our God,
because he will abundantly pardon.

⁸Certainly my plans are not your plans,
and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my plans are higher than your plans.

¹⁰Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky
and do not return there
unless they first water the earth, make it give birth, and cause it to sprout,
so that it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹in the same way my word that goes out from my mouth
will not return to me empty.
Rather, it will accomplish whatever I please,
and it will succeed in the purpose for which I sent it.

¹²Yes, you will go out with joy,
and in peace you will be carried along.
The mountains and the hills will break out in shouts of joy before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
¹³Instead of thorns, a fir tree will grow up.
Instead of briers, a myrtle tree will grow up.
This will make a name for the Lord.
It will serve as an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.

Footnotes

Isaiah 55:1 English hey expresses the same urgency as the Hebrew hoi. It is the cry of the street vendor who is eager to sell.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 19

2025/01/19/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 19

Isaiah 54 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 19

Isaiah 54 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jerusalem Will Have Many Children

Isaiah 54

You barren woman who never gave birth, shout for joy.
Burst forth with shouts of joy!
Cry aloud, you who have never been in labor,
because the deserted woman has more children
than the woman who is married, says the Lord.
²Make more room for your tent.
Tell them to stretch out the curtains of your dwelling.
Do not hold back!
Make your tent ropes longer.
Make your tent stakes stronger,
³because you will spread out to the right and to the left.
Your offspring will take possession of nations,
and they will repopulate devastated cities.
⁴Do not be afraid,
because you will not be put to shame.
Do not be worried,
because you will not be embarrassed.
You will forget the shame of your youth,
and you will never remember the disgrace of your widowhood,
⁵because your Maker is your husband.
The Lord of Armies is his name.
Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
He is called the God of all the earth.
⁶Though you are like an abandoned wife with a wounded spirit,
though you are like the wife from a man’s youth who has been rejected,
the Lord is calling you back, says your God.
⁷For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with great compassion I am gathering you.
⁸In a flood of anger I hid my face from you for a moment,
but in everlasting mercy I will have compassion on you,
says your Redeemer, the Lord.
⁹To me this is like the time of the waters of Noah.
As I swore that the waters of Noah will never again cover the earth,
so I am swearing that I will not be angry at you,
and I will not rebuke you.
¹⁰For even if the mountains are removed,
and the hills are overthrown,
my mercy will not be removed from you,
and my covenant of peace will not be overthrown,
says the Lord, who is showing you mercy.
¹¹Watch me, you afflicted woman, storm-tossed and not comforted,
I will set your precious stones in black mortar ^[1]
and lay down sapphires as your foundation.
¹²I will decorate your parapets with rubies,
your gates with sparkling stones,
and your city boundaries with precious gems. ^[2]
¹³All your children will be taught by the Lord,
and the peace and prosperity of your children will be great.
¹⁴In righteousness you will be established.
Oppression will be far from you, so you will not be afraid.
Terror will be far from you. It will never come near you.
¹⁵If anyone attacks you, because of me he will accomplish nothing. ^[3]
Whoever launches an attack against you will fall before you.

¹⁶See, I myself created the craftsman
who blows on the charcoal in the fire
to produce weapons for their task.
I myself have created a destroyer to cause devastation.
¹⁷Every weapon formed against you will fail,
and you will condemn every tongue that rises up to judge you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.
Their righteousness is from me, declares the Lord.

Footnotes

Isaiah 54:11 Literally antimony
Isaiah 54:12 The identification of the gems in verses 11 and 12 is uncertain.
Isaiah 54:15 Or it will not be because of me

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 18

2025/01/18/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 18

Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 18

Bible reading based on Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Fourth Servant Song
The Lord’s

Servant Suffers for Straying Sheep

Isaiah 52

¹³Look, my servant will succeed. ^[1]
He will rise. He will be lifted up. He will be highly exalted.
¹⁴Just as many were appalled at him ^[2] —
his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man,
and his form was disfigured more than any other person—
¹⁵so he will sprinkle ^[3] many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him,
because they will see something they had never been told before,
and they will understand something they had never heard before.

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our report,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

²He grew up before him like a tender shoot ^[4]
and like a root from dry ground.
He had no attractiveness and no majesty.
When we saw him, nothing about his appearance made us desire him.
³He was despised and rejected by men,
a man who knew grief,
who was well acquainted with suffering.
Like someone whom people cannot bear to look at,
he was despised,
and we thought nothing of him.

⁴Surely he was taking up our weaknesses, ^[5]
and he was carrying our sufferings.
We thought it was because of God
that he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
⁵but it was because of our rebellion that he was pierced.
He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved.
The punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶We all have gone astray like sheep.
Each of us has turned to his own way,
but the Lord has charged all our guilt to him.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep ^[6] that is silent in front of its shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
⁸He was taken away without a fair trial ^[7] and without justice,
and of his generation, who even cared? ^[8]
So, he was cut off from the land of the living.
He was struck because of the rebellion of my people.
⁹They would have assigned him a grave with the wicked,
but he was given a grave with the rich in his death,
because he had done no violence,
and no deceit was in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him
and to allow him to suffer.
Because you ^[9] made his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring.

He will prolong his days,
and the Lord’s gracious plan will succeed in his hand.
¹¹After his soul experiences anguish, he will see the light of life. ^[10]
He will provide satisfaction. ^[11]
Through their knowledge of him, my just servant will justify the many,
for he himself carried their guilt. ^[12]
¹²Therefore I will give him an allotment among the great, ^[13]
and with the strong he will share plunder,
because he poured out his life to death,
and he let himself be counted with rebellious sinners.
He himself carried the sin of many,
and he intercedes for the rebels.

Footnotes

Isaiah 52:13 Or act wisely
Isaiah 52:14 The translation follows some Hebrew manuscripts and ancient versions. The main Hebrew reading is at you. Sudden shifts in person are not unusual in Hebrew poetry.
Isaiah 52:15 Or startle
Isaiah 53:2 A shoot or sucker is a plant that grows up from the stump where a tree has been cut down.
Isaiah 53:4 Or sicknesses
Isaiah 53:7 Or ewe
Isaiah 53:8 Or protection
Isaiah 53:8 Verse 8 is difficult, and translations and arrangements of the verse vary widely.
Isaiah 53:10 The shift to the second person pronoun you must refer to God, who gives his Son as a sin offering.
Isaiah 53:11 The words the light of life are not included in the standard Hebrew text but are in the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah.
Isaiah 53:11 Or be satisfied. The understanding of this line depends on whether the subject is the Messiah, as is the case in all the other lines of this verse, or it is God the Father, who is satisfied by the Messiah’s suffering. The understanding of the verse also depends on whether the variant the light of life is included in the preceding line. Another factor is whether this line goes with what precedes or with what follows. What is clear is that the Messiah provides a full payment for sin (satisfaction), and the Lord is satisfied with that payment. What is uncertain is which of these two points is stressed by this verb.
Isaiah 53:11 As in verse 5, the Hebrew term is plural and refers to the guilt deserved for sins.
Isaiah 53:12 Or give him the many as his portion

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 17

2025/01/17/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 17

Isaiah 51:17 – 52:12 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 17

Bible reading based on Isaiah 51:17 – 52:12 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Cup of the Lord’s Wrath

Isaiah 51

¹⁷Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Get up, Jerusalem!
You have drunk the cup filled with the Lord’s wrath from his hand.
You drank it. You drained the chalice, the cup that makes you stagger.
¹⁸There is no one to guide her from among all the sons she bore.
There is no one to take her hand from among all the sons she raised.
¹⁹Those two things are happening to you.^[1]

Who will grieve for you?
Devastation and destruction and famine and sword!
Who will comfort you? ^[2]
²⁰Your children faint and collapse at the corner of every street,
    like an antelope in a net.
They are full of the wrath of the Lord,
full of the rebuke of your God.
²¹Therefore hear this, you afflicted woman,
a woman drunk, but not from wine.
²²This is what the Lord God says,
your God, who will contend for his people.
    Look, I am taking the cup that makes you stagger out of your hand,
    the chalice, the cup filled with my wrath.
    Never again will you drink from it,
²³ because I will place it into the hand of your tormentors,
    who have said to you,
    “Lie down so that we can walk over you.”
    You made your back like the ground
    and like the street for those who walked over you.

Freedom for Zion

Isaiah 52

Wake, awake!
Clothe yourself with strength, O Zion.
Put on your beautiful garments,
Jerusalem, you holy city,
for never again will the uncircumcised
and the unclean enter you.
²Shake off the dust.
Get up and take your seat, Jerusalem.
Loosen the chains from your neck,
you captive daughter of Zion.

³Yes, this is what the Lord says.
You were sold for nothing,
and you will be redeemed without money.

⁴Yes, this is what the Lord God says.
In the beginning, my people went down to Egypt to stay there
for a while.
Later Assyria oppressed them without cause.

⁵Now what do I have here? declares the Lord.
Indeed, my people have been taken away for nothing.
Their rulers howl with mockery, declares the Lord.
My name is continually despised all day.
⁶Therefore my people will know my name.
So on that day they will know that I am the one—
the one who is saying, “Here I am!”

The Herald of the Gospel

⁷How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of a herald,
    who proclaims peace and preaches good news,
    who proclaims salvation,
    who says to Zion, “Your God is king!”
⁸The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voices.
Together they shout for joy,
because with both eyes they will see it
when the Lord returns to Zion.
⁹Break out, shout for joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem,
because the Lord is comforting his people.
    He is redeeming Jerusalem.
¹⁰The Lord lays bare ³ his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation from our God.

Get Away From Babylon

¹¹Get away! Get away! Get out of there!
Do not touch any unclean thing!
Go out from her midst.
Purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord!
¹²You will not be in a hurry when you go out.
You will not be fleeing when you walk out,
because the one who walks in front of you is the Lord,
and your rearguard is the God of Israel.

Footnotes

Isaiah 51:19 It is uncertain whether this line goes with what precedes it or with what follows, but it seems to be preceded by two disasters and followed by four disasters.
Isaiah 51:19 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and the ancient versions. The Hebrew reads how can I comfort you?
Isaiah 52:10 Or flexes

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 16

2025/01/16/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 16

Isaiah 50:4 – 51:16 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 16

Bible reading based on Isaiah 50:4 – 51:16 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Third Servant Song
The Lord’s Servant Is Vindicated

Isaiah 50

⁴The Lord God gave me a tongue like the learned, an instructed tongue,
so I know how to sustain the weary with a word.
He wakes me up morning by morning.
He wakes up my ears so that I listen like the learned.
⁵The Lord God opened my ear,
and I myself was not rebellious.
I did not turn back.
⁶I submitted my back to those who beat me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard.
I did not hide my face from disgrace and from spit.
⁷The Lord God will help me,
so I will not be disgraced.
Therefore I have made my face hard like flint.
I know that I will not be put to shame.
⁸The one who will acquit me is near!
Who can accuse me?
Let us take our stand.
Who can pass judgment on me?
Let him approach me.
⁹Look, the Lord God will help me.
Who then can declare me guilty?
Look, all of them will wear out like a garment.
A moth will consume them.

¹⁰Who among you worships the Lord
and listens to the voice of his servant?
Anyone who walks in darkness
and who has no bright light—
let him trust in the name of the Lord,
and let him lean on his God.
¹¹Watch out, all of you who are lighting fires
to arm yourselves with flaming arrows. ^{^[1]}
Go ahead, walk by the light of your fires
and by the flaming arrows you lit!
But from my hand you will receive this:
You will lie down in a place of torment.

The Creator Comforts His People

Isaiah 51

Listen to me, you people who pursue righteousness,
you people who seek the Lord!
Look confidently to the rock from which you were hewn
and to the quarry from which you were cut.
²Look confidently to Abraham your father,
and to Sarah, who gave birth to you.
Yes, when I called him, Abraham was only one person,
but I blessed him and multiplied him.
³The Lord is certain to comfort Zion.
He will comfort all her ruins.
Certainly he will make her wilderness like Eden
and her wasteland like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the sound of music.

⁴Pay attention to me, O my people.
My nation, listen to me!
For the law ^{^[2]} will go out from me,
and I will establish my justice^{^[3]} as a light to the peoples.
⁵My righteousness is near.
My salvation goes forth,
and my arms will bring justice to the peoples.
The seacoasts will wait for me.
They will have confidence in my arm.
⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens.
Look closely at the earth beneath,
because the heavens will vanish like smoke,
and the earth will wear out like a garment,
and its inhabitants will die like gnats. ^{^[4]}
But my salvation will remain forever,
and my righteousness will never be abolished.
⁷Listen to me, you people who know righteousness,
you people who have my law in your hearts.
Do not fear the insults of men,
and do not be discouraged by their abuse.
⁸Because a moth will consume them like a garment,
and its worm will consume them like wool.
But my righteousness will remain forever,
and my salvation will last for all generations.

⁹Wake up! Wake up!
Clothe yourself with strength, you arm of the Lord!
Awake as in days of old,
as in generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab ^{^[5]} to pieces,
and who pierced the sea monster? ^{^[6]}
¹⁰Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
and who made a road through the depths of the sea
for the redeemed to cross over?
¹¹Then those ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with a joyful shout,
and everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Happiness and joy will overtake them.
Sorrow and sighing will flee away.

¹²I, even I, am the one who comforts you.
Who are you, Zion, ^{^[7]} that you fear humans, who die,
or a child of Adam, who passes away like grass?
¹³You have forgotten the Lord, your Creator,
who stretches out the heavens,
who makes the earth stand firm.
You tremble continually all day,
because of the rage of the oppressor,
who is preparing to destroy.
But where is the rage of the oppressor now?
¹⁴The prisoner ^{^[8]} will soon be released.
He will not die and go to the pit,
and he will not lack bread.

¹⁵I am the Lord your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.
The Lord of Armies is his name!
¹⁶I have placed my words in your mouth,
and with the shadow of my hand I have covered you—
I, who planted the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth,
I, who say to Zion, “You are my people.”

Footnotes

Isaiah 50:11 Or torches
Isaiah 51:4 Or teaching. The word torah here refers to the whole word of God, including the gospel.
Isaiah 51:4 Or just verdict
Isaiah 51:6 Or in the same way
Isaiah 51:9 Rahab is the name of a monster that sometimes represents the wild sea and sometimes hostile nations.
Isaiah 51:9 Or dragon
Isaiah 51:12 The pronouns are feminine, addressing Zion as a woman.
Isaiah 51:14 The meaning of this term is uncertain.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 15

2025/01/15/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 15

Isaiah 49:1 – 50:3 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 15

Bible reading based on Isaiah 49:1 – 50:3 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Second Servant Song
The Lord’s Servant Saves the Nations

Isaiah 49

Listen to me, you coastlands.
Pay attention, you faraway peoples!
The Lord called me from the womb.
When I was inside my mother, he mentioned my name.
²He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.
He hid me in the shadow of his hand.
He made me a polished arrow.
He concealed me in his quiver.
³He said to me, “You are my servant Israel,
in whom I will display my glory.”

⁴But I said to myself, “I have labored in vain.
I spent my strength and came up empty, with nothing.
Yet a just verdict for me rests with the Lord,
and my reward is with my God.”

⁵But now the Lord,
who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to turn Jacob back to him,
so that Israel might be gathered to him,
so that I will be honored in the eyes of the Lord,
because my God has been my strength—
⁶the Lord said:
It is too small a thing that you should just be my servant
to raise up only the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the ones I have preserved in Israel,
so I will appoint you to be a light for the nations,
so that my salvation will be known to the end of the earth.

⁷This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, its Holy One,
says to the one deeply despised,
to the one who is detested by the nation,
to the servant of rulers.
    Kings will see and stand up.
    Officials will see and bow down,
    because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    because of the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.

⁸This is what the Lord says.
In the time of favor, I will answer you.
In the day of salvation, I will help you.
I will guard you,
and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people,
to re-establish the land,
to redistribute inheritances that are now deserted,
⁹to say to the prisoners, “Go forth!”
to those who are in the darkness, “Show yourselves!”
They will graze beside roads,
and they will find pasture on all the barren heights.
¹⁰They will not hunger, and they will not thirst,
and neither scorching wind nor sun will strike them,
because the one who shows them mercy will lead them.
He will guide them beside springs of water.
¹¹I will make all my mountains into a smooth road,
and my highways will be raised up.
¹²Look, people will come from far away.
Look, some will come from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Sinim.^[1]
¹³Shout for joy, O heavens,
and rejoice, O earth.
Let mountains burst forth with shouts of joy,
because the Lord is comforting his people,
and he is showing mercy to his afflicted ones.

The Faithful Few Are Not Forgotten

¹⁴But Zion said, “The Lord has abandoned me.
The Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵Can a woman forget her nursing child
and not show mercy to the son from her womb?
Even if these women could forget,
I will never forget you.
¹⁶Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
Your walls are never out of my sight.
¹⁷Your children^[2] are hurrying back.
Those who destroyed and devastated you will depart from you.
¹⁸Lift up your eyes all around and see!
All of them are gathered. They are coming to you.
As surely as I live, declares the Lord,
all of them are like jewelry that you will put on.
You will wear them like a bride.

¹⁹Though your land was wasted and desolate and devastated,
now it will be too small for its inhabitants.
Then those who are swallowing you will be far from you.
²⁰The children you lost will say this into your ears once again,
“The place is too small for me.
Make room for me so that I can settle there.”
²¹Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has given birth to these for me?
I had lost my children and could have no more.
I was exiled and divorced.
So who raised these?
I was left all by myself.
Where did these come from?”

²²This is what God the Lord says.
Look, I will lift up my hand to nations,
and I will raise my signal flag for peoples.
Then they will bring your sons in their embrace,
and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
²³Then kings will be your foster fathers,
and their queens will be your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground, they will bow down to you.
They will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Those who wait hopefully for me will not be ashamed.

²⁴Can plunder be taken from a mighty man?
Can captives be rescued from a tyrant?^[3]
²⁵This is what the Lord says.
Even from a mighty man captives can be taken,
and the victims of a tyrant can be rescued.
So I myself will contend with the one who contends with you,
and I myself will save your children.
²⁶I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh.
They will get drunk on the new wine of their own blood.
So all flesh will know that I am the Lord, your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Isaiah 50

¹This is what the Lord says.
So where are the divorce papers of your mother,
whom I sent away?
To which of my creditors did I sell you?
It was because of your guilt that you were sold.
Because of your rebellions, your mother was sent away.
²When I came, why was no one there?
Why, when I called, was there no one who answered?
Is my arm really too short to redeem?
Do I not have enough power to rescue?
Yes! By my rebuke I can dry up the sea.
I can turn rivers into a wilderness,
so that their fish will stink from having no water,
and they will die of thirst.
³I can clothe the heavens with blackness,
and I can cover them with sackcloth.

Footnotes

Isaiah 49:12 Sinim, the reading of the Hebrew, may be a name for China. The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah reads Syene, a place in the southern part of Egypt.
Isaiah 49:17 Hebrew variant your builders
Isaiah 49:24 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and ancient versions. The Hebrew reads the righteous.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 14

2025/01/14/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 14

Isaiah 48 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 14

Bible reading based on Isaiah 48 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Judgment Is Coming on Stubborn Israel

Isaiah 48

¹Hear this, you house of Jacob,
you who call yourselves by the name of Israel,
who came forth from the waters of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in true righteousness.
²Yes, they name themselves after the Holy City,
and they lean on the God of Israel—
the Lord of Armies is his name.
³Things that took place long ago,
I announced before they happened.
From my mouth the announcement went out.
I made these things known.
Then suddenly I acted, and they came about.
⁴I did this because I know that you are stubborn.
Your neck is as stiff as iron,
and your forehead is as hard as bronze.
⁵I declared this to you long ago.
Before it came about, I announced it to you,
to prevent you from saying, “My false god did it.
My wooden idol and my metal image commanded it.”
⁶You heard all this.
Now look at the facts.
Won’t you admit that I am right?

From now on I will also announce new things to you,
hidden things that you never knew.
⁷These things are being created right now, not long ago.
You have not heard of them before today,
so you cannot say, “Oh, I already knew that!”
⁸No, you have never heard them.
You certainly never knew them.
Your ear was not open, even back then.
Yes, I knew that you would be extremely unfaithful.
You were called a rebel before you were born.

⁹For my name’s sake, I am slow to express my anger.
So that I will be praised, I will hold it back from you.
As a result, you are not cut off.

¹⁰You see, I refined you, but not in the same way silver is refined.
I tested you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake, I will act.
Why should my name be defiled?
My glory I will not give to another.

¹²Listen to me, Jacob.
Listen to me, Israel, whom I called.
I am he. I am the first.
I am also the last.
¹³It was my hand that laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens.
I summon them and they stand together.
¹⁴Gather together, all of you, and listen.
Who among them announced these things?

The Lord’s Servant Cyrus

The Lord loves him.
He will carry out his desire against Babylon,
and his arm is against Chaldea.
¹⁵I, yes I, have spoken. I am the one who called him.
I have brought him, and his mission will succeed.
¹⁶Come close to me and hear this.
From the beginning, I have not spoken in secret.
From the time it first existed, I was there.
And now God the Lord has sent me with his Spirit.

¹⁷This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should walk.
¹⁸If only you would have listened carefully to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹Your descendants ^[1] would have been like sand,
and the children from your body like grains of sand.
Their name would never have been cut off or destroyed
from my presence.

²⁰Get out of Babylon. Flee from Chaldea.
With a joyful voice declare and announce this.
Send it out to the end of the earth.
Say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
²¹They did not suffer thirst in the desolate places
through which he led them.
He made water flow for them from a rock.
He split open a rock, and water gushed out.

²²There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.

Footnotes

Isaiah 48:19 Or your seed

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 13

2025/01/13/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 13

Isaiah 46 & 47 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 13

Bible reading based on Isaiah 46 & 47 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Isaiah 46

Judgment Against the Idols of Babylon

¹Bel bows down. Nebo stoops.
Babylon’s idols are a heavy load, carried by animals and cattle.
They are dead weight for the tired animals that carry them.
²The animals stoop. They bow down together.
They are not able to save their burdensome load.
They go into captivity.

³Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all of you who are left from the house of Israel,
you who have been carried from birth,
you who have been lifted up from before you were born.
⁴    Until your old age, I am he,
    and until you have gray hair, I myself will hold you up.
    I myself made you, and I myself will lift you up.
    I myself will hold you up, and I will rescue you.

⁵Whom can you set beside me as if we were equal?
Whom can you compare to me as if we were alike?
⁶People pour out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on a scale.
They hire a smith,
and he makes the metal into a god.
They bow down to it. They even worship it.
⁷They lift it up. They carry it on their shoulders.
They set it up in its place, but it just stands there.
It cannot move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not answer.
It cannot save him from his distress.
⁸Remember this, and stand firm.
You rebels, take this to heart!

⁹Remember the former ^[1] things that took place long ago,
for I am God, and there is no other.
I am God, and there is no one like me.
¹⁰I am the one who announces the final outcome already in the beginning.
I announce ahead of time things that have not yet been done.
I am the one who says, “My plan will stand,
and I will do everything I want to do.”
¹¹I am the one who calls a bird of prey from the east.
I call the man who fulfills my plan from a faraway land.
Yes, I have spoken. I will certainly bring it to pass.
I have formed a plan, and I will certainly carry it out.
¹²Listen to me, you who have stubborn hearts,
you who are far from righteousness.
¹³I will bring my righteousness near. It will not be far away.
I will bring my salvation near. It will not be delayed.
I will set up salvation in Zion,
and I will show my splendor to Israel.

Babylon’s Fall

Isaiah 47

Go down and sit in the dust, you virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans,
for you will never again be called delicate and pampered.
²Take millstones and grind meal.
Remove your veil. Strip off your skirt.
Expose your thighs. Wade through rivers.
³Let your nakedness be exposed.
Let your shame be seen!
I will take vengeance.
I will not spare anyone.

⁴Our Redeemer—the Lord of Armies is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.

⁵Daughter of the Chaldeans, sit silently, and enter into the darkness,
for you will never again be called queen of the kingdoms.
⁶I was angry with my people.
I defiled my heritage.
I gave them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy.
Even on the aged you made your yoke very heavy.
⁷You said, “I will be a lady forever.”
You did not take these things to heart.
You did not remember how this will turn out.
⁸But now hear this, you wanton lover of pleasure,
who sits securely,
who says in her heart,
“I am the one, and there is no one except me.
I will not live as a widow.
I will not experience the loss of children.”
⁹But these two things will come upon you in an instant, in one day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will come to you in full measure
in spite of your many magic spells,
in spite of the great power of your magic charms.

¹⁰You felt secure in your wickedness.
You said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray.
So you said in your heart, “I am the one,
and there is not another one beside me.”
¹¹But disaster will come upon you.
You do not know when it will come.
Calamity will fall upon you.
You will not be able to atone for it.
A devastating blow that you did not expect will come
    upon you suddenly.
¹²Go ahead, stand secure in your magic charms
    and in your many magic spells,
    with which you have been laboring since your youth.
Perhaps you will be able to profit.
Perhaps you will be able to inspire terror.
¹³You are worn out by all the advice you receive.
Let them stand up and save you—
those who make charts of the skies to practice astrology,
those who gaze at the stars to obtain omens,
those who predict what will happen to you on each new moon.
¹⁴Look, they are nothing but stubble.
Fire consumes them.
They are not able to save themselves from the power of the flame.
There are no burning coals to warm their food. ^[2]
There is no firelight to sit in front of.
¹⁵They can do nothing more for you—
those who have worn you out with all their dealings with you
    from your youth.
Each one wanders in his own direction.
There is no one left to save you.

Footnotes

Isaiah 46:9 Or first
Isaiah 47:14 The translation follows the standard Hebrew reading. The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and some ancient versions read to warm them up.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 12

2025/01/12/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 12

Isaiah 44:24 – 45:25 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 12

Bible reading based on Isaiah 44:24 – 45:25 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Isaiah 44

²⁴This is what the Lord, your Redeemer,
the Lord who formed you from the womb, says.
    I am the Lord, the one who does all things,
    who stretched out the heavens by myself,
    who hammered out the earth.
    (Who was with me then?)
²⁵    I frustrate the signs of the deceivers
    and make fools of the fortune tellers. ^[1]
    I overturn the wisdom of the wise
    and turn their knowledge into foolishness.

²⁶He is the one who fulfills the word of his servants,
who completes the plan announced by his messengers,
who says about Jerusalem, “It will be inhabited,”
and about the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,
and I will raise up their ruins.”
²⁷He is the one who says to the deep ocean, “Dry up,”
the one who says, “I will dry up your rivers.”
²⁸He is the one who says about Cyrus, “He is my shepherd,
and he will complete everything I desire.”
He is the one who says about Jerusalem, “It will be rebuilt,”
and who says to the temple, “Your foundations will be laid.”

Cyrus the Lord’s Anointed Shepherd

Isaiah 45

¹This is what the Lord says to his anointed one,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped,
    to subdue nations before him
    by stripping kings of their weapons,
    to open doors before him
    so that the gates cannot be shut.

²    I myself will go before you,
    and I will level high mountains. ^[2]
    I will break bronze doors into pieces,
    and I will cut through iron bars.
³    I will give you treasures hidden in darkness
    and riches concealed in secret places,
    so that you will acknowledge that I am the Lord,
    the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.
⁴    For the sake of my servant Jacob,
    for the sake of Israel my chosen one,
    I will call you by your name.
    I will give you an honored name, though you do not know me.
⁵    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
    Except for me, there is no god.
    I will equip you even though you do not know me,
⁶    so that people will know from the rising of the sun
            to the place where it sets
        that there is no one except me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷    I am the one who forms light and creates darkness,
    the one who makes peace and creates disaster.
    I am the Lord, the one who does all these things.

Coming Blessings

⁸Shower down, you heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness.
Let the earth open up,
so that salvation will produce fruit.
Let righteousness sprout up along with it.
I, the Lord, am creating this.

Arguing With the Lord

⁹Woe to anyone who argues against the potter who formed him.
He is just a potsherd among the broken pieces of pottery on the ground.
Does clay say to its potter, “What are you making?
Your work looks like something made by a potter with no hands”?
¹⁰Woe to anyone who says to his father, “What have you fathered?”
or to a woman, “What are you giving birth to?”

¹¹This is what the Lord says,
the Holy One of Israel, who formed Israel.
    Do you wish to question me concerning things to come?
    Will you give me orders about my children
    and about the work of my hands?
¹²    I myself made the earth,
    and I created Adam ^[3] upon it.
    With my hands I stretched out the heavens,
    and I commanded all their army.

Cyrus as the Lord’s Servant

¹³I myself will arouse him in righteousness,
and I will make all his roads level for him.
He himself will rebuild my city.
He will set my exiles free—
but not for a price and not for a gift,
says the Lord of Armies.
¹⁴This is what the Lord says.
The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush
and those tall Sabeans will cross over to you and become yours.
They will walk behind you and approach you in chains.
They will bow down to you and plead with you and say,
“Yes, God is with you, and there is no other.
There is no other God.”

The Hidden God Is Revealed

¹⁵Indeed, you are a God who hides himself.
You are the God of Israel, the Savior.
¹⁶They will be ashamed.
All of them will also be disgraced.
Together they will walk in humiliation—those experts at crafting images.
¹⁷Israel will be saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation.
You will not be ashamed or disgraced for all eternity.

¹⁸This is what the Lord says.
He created the heavens,
He is God!
He formed the earth and made it.
Yes, he established it!
He did not create it to remain empty. ^[4]
He formed it to be inhabited.

I am the Lord, and there is no other.
¹⁹I did not speak in secret,
or from someplace in a land of darkness.
I did not say to the descendants ^[5] of Jacob,
“Seek me in the midst of chaos.” ^[6]
I, the Lord, am speaking in righteousness.
I am declaring what is right.

²⁰Gather! Come! Draw near together,
you survivors from the nations.
They have no knowledge—
those who are lifting up their idols of wood
and praying to a god that cannot save.
²¹Make an announcement and come close.
Let them consult together.
Who made this known ahead of time?
From time past who announced it?
Was it not I, the Lord?
There is no god except me,
a righteous God and Savior.
There is no one except me.
²²Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth,
because I am God,
and there is no other.
²³I have sworn by myself.
From my mouth a righteous word has gone out,
and it will not return unfulfilled.
Indeed, to me every knee will bow,
and every tongue will swear allegiance.
²⁴“Only in the Lord,” they will say of me,
“Only in the Lord is there true righteousness and strength.”
To him they will come and be ashamed—
all those who are angry at him.
²⁵In the Lord, all the descendants ^[7] of Israel will be justified.
They will be praised by him. ^[8]

Footnotes

Isaiah 44:25 Or omen readers
Isaiah 45:2 The translation mountains follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and the Greek Old Testament. The word in the standard Hebrew text occurs only here. It may mean rough places or walls.
Isaiah 45:12 Or mankind
Isaiah 45:18 The same Hebrew word translated empty describes the first stage of creation in Genesis 1.
Isaiah 45:19 Literally the seed
Isaiah 45:19 The same Hebrew translated chaos describes the first stage of creation in Genesis 1.
Isaiah 45:25 Or all the seed
Isaiah 45:25 Or be confident in him or shine in glory

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 11

2025/01/11/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 11

Isaiah 43:14 – 44:23 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 11

Bible reading based on Isaiah 43:14 – 44:23 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Isaiah 43

¹⁴This is what the Lord says,
    the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
    For your sake I am taking action against Babylon,
    and I will bring down all the Chaldeans as refugees,
        in the ships over which they rejoiced.
¹⁵    I am the Lord, your Holy One,
    Israel’s Creator, your King.
¹⁶    This is what the Lord says,
    who makes a road through the sea
    and a path through mighty waters,
¹⁷    who brings out the chariot and the horses,
    the army and the strong warrior.
    They will all lie down together.
    They will not get up.
    They are extinguished.
    Like a wick they go out.

¹⁸    Do not remember the former ^[1] things.
    Do not keep thinking about ancient things.
¹⁹    Watch, I am about to do a new thing.
    Now it will spring up. Don’t you know about it?
    Indeed I will make a road in the wilderness.
    In the wasteland I will make rivers.
²⁰    The wild animals, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me,
    because I am providing water in the wilderness,
    rivers in a parched wasteland,
    water for my chosen people to drink.
²¹    This people that I formed for myself will declare my praise.

²²    But you have not called on me, O Jacob.
    Instead, you have become weary of me, O Israel.
²³    You have not brought me sheep as your whole burnt offerings.
    You did not glorify me with your sacrifices.
    I did not make you serve me with a grain offering.
    I did not make you weary with demands for incense.
²⁴    You did not purchase fragrant cane for me with silver
    or satisfy me with the fat from your sacrifices.
    Instead you have made me serve because of your sins.
    You have made me weary because of your guilt.
²⁵    I, yes I, am he.
    I blot out your rebellious deeds for my own sake,
    and I will not remember your sins.
²⁶    Refresh my memory.
    Let us review your case together.
    Present your defense so that you may be acquitted.
²⁷    Your first father sinned,
    and your mediators rebelled against me.
²⁸    Therefore I am repudiating the officials of the sanctuary,
    and I am giving Jacob over to complete destruction
    and Israel to insults. ^[2]

The Lord Comforts His People

Isaiah 44

But now listen, O Jacob my servant,
O Israel, whom I have chosen.
²This is what the Lord, your Maker, says,
the Lord who formed you from the womb, who will help you.
Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob,

    Jeshurun, ^[3] whom I have chosen,
³    because I will pour out water upon a thirsty land,
    and streams of water upon dry ground.
    I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
    and my blessing on your descendants.
⁴    They will spring up like a tree in a grassy meadow, ^[4]
    like willows beside flowing streams.

⁵    One person will say, “I belong to the Lord.”
    Another will be called by the name of Jacob.
    Another will write on his hand, “Belonging to the Lord,”
    and he will take the name of Israel.

The Lord Confronts Idols

⁶This is what the Lord, the King of Israel,
Israel’s Redeemer, the Lord of Armies, says.
    I am the first, and I am the last.
    Except for me, there is no god.
⁷    For who is like me? Let him declare it.
    Let him recite in order for me the things that took place
        since the time I established an ancient people.
    Or let them declare what is yet to come,
    and what is going to take place.

⁸    Do not tremble, and do not be frightened.
    Did I not announce this to you,
    and declare it already long ago?
    You are my witnesses.
    Is there any god except me?
    There is no other Rock. I am not aware of any other.
⁹    All those who form an idol are good for nothing.
    All the things which delight them provide no benefit.
    As for their witnesses—they do not see.
    They know nothing, so they will be ashamed.

¹⁰Who is this who forms a god or casts a metal image that can provide no profit? ¹¹Look at him! All his associates will be ashamed. The craftsmen are merely men. Let them all gather themselves and take a stand. They will be terrified and ashamed together.

¹²A blacksmith uses a cutting tool and makes an idol over hot coals. With hammers he shapes it. He makes it with his strong arm, but he becomes hungry and has no strength left. He does not drink water, and so he grows faint.

¹³A woodworker stretches out a measuring line. He marks the lines with a stylus. He shapes the idol with chisels. He marks it with a compass. Then he carves it till it is shaped like a person, like a splendid man to inhabit a shrine.

¹⁴He goes to cut down cedars for himself, or he chooses a holm tree ^[5] or an oak, and he lets it grow strong among the trees of a forest. Or he plants a cedar, and rain causes it to grow tall, ¹⁵but it becomes fuel for a man to burn. He takes part of it to warm himself. He lights a fire to bake bread, and then from the rest he makes a god and worships it. He carves an idol and bows down to it. ¹⁶Half of it he burns in a fire—over that half he eats meat. He roasts meat and is satisfied. So he is warm and says, “Ah! I am warm. I see the light of the fire.” ¹⁷Then from what is left he makes a god to serve as his idol. He bows down to it. He worships it, and he prays to it, “Save me, because you are my god.”

¹⁸They are ignorant. They do not understand, because their eyes are plastered shut, ^[6] and they cannot see. Their hearts are unable to gain insight. ¹⁹A person does not take this to heart, so he has no knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I burn in the fire, and I bake bread on its coals. I roast meat, and I eat. Should I make the rest of it into a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to a piece of wood?” ²⁰He is like a sheep grazing on ashes. A deceived mind leads him astray. He will not save his life, nor will he say, “Isn’t what I am holding in my right hand a fraud?”

Israel Will Be Restored

²¹Remember these things, O Jacob, because you are my servant, Israel. I am forming you to be my servant. You, Israel, you will never be forgotten by me. ^[7] ²²I am blowing away your rebellious deeds like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to me, because I am redeeming you.

²³Shout for joy, you heavens, because of what the Lord is doing.
Make a joyful shout, you depths of the earth.
Burst forth with shouts of joy, you mountains,
you forest and every tree in it,
because the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
and in Israel he will display his beauty.

Footnotes

Isaiah 43:18 Or first
Isaiah 43:28 Or condemnation
Isaiah 44:2 Jeshurun is another name for Israel. It means the upright one.
Isaiah 44:4 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and some other manuscripts. The standard Hebrew text reads spring up between the grass.
Isaiah 44:14 Also called an evergreen oak
Isaiah 44:18 Or he has blinded their eyes
Isaiah 44:21 Or you must not forget me

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 10

2025/01/10/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 10

Isaiah 42:1 – 43:13 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 10

Bible reading based on Isaiah 42:1 – 43:13 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Isaiah 42

The First Servant Song ^[1]

The Servant Is Called to Bring Justice

¹Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight.
I am placing my Spirit on him.
He will announce a just verdict ^[2] for the nations.

²He will not cry out.
He will not raise his voice.
He will not make his voice heard in the street.
³A bent reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out.
He will faithfully bring forth a just verdict.
⁴He will not burn out, and he will not be broken
until he establishes justice on the earth.
The coastlands will wait for his law. ^[3]
⁵This is what the true God says,
the Lord who creates the heavens and stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth
and everything that it produces,
who gives breath to the people on it
and life to those who walk on it.
⁶    I am the Lord.
    I have called you in righteousness.
    I will hold on to your hand,
    and I will guard you.
    I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people,
    to be a light for the nations,
⁷    to open the eyes of the blind,
    to bring the prisoners out from the dungeon,
    and to bring those who sit in darkness out of prison.

⁸    I am the Lord; that is my name.
    I will not give my glory to another,
    nor my praise to idols.
⁹    Look, the former things have taken place,
    and I am declaring new things.
    I am making them known to you before they spring forth.

Creation Rejoices

¹⁰Sing to the Lord a new song.
Sing his praise from the end of the earth,
you people who go down to the sea
and everything that fills it,
you coastlands and those who inhabit them.
¹¹Let the wilderness and its towns lift up their voice,
along with the settlements where Kedar lives.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy.
Let them shout from the mountain tops.
¹²Let them give glory to the Lord,
and let them declare his praise among the coastlands.
¹³The Lord will set out like a hero.
Like a warrior, he will work himself into a frenzy.
He will shout. Yes, he will raise a war cry.
He will be heroic against his enemies.

The Lord Shouts

¹⁴I have been silent for a long time.
I have kept still. I have restrained myself.
But now, like a woman giving birth, I will scream.
I will gasp and pant.
¹⁵I will dry up mountains and hills.
I will make all their grass wither.
I will turn rivers into islands.
I will dry up pools.
¹⁶I will lead the blind on a way they do not know.
Along paths they do not know I will direct them.
Ahead of them I will turn darkness into light
and rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will accomplish for them.
I will not abandon them.

¹⁷They will be turned back and completely disgraced—
those who trust in an idol,
those who say to molten images, “You are our gods.”

But Israel Does Not Notice

¹⁸You deaf ones, listen!
You blind ones, watch carefully so that you can see!
¹⁹Who is as blind as my servant?
Who is as deaf as my messenger whom I sent?
Who is as blind as my associate, ^[4]
as blind as the servant of the Lord?
²⁰You, Israel, see many things, but you do not observe.
Israel opens his ears, but he does not hear.
²¹Because of his own righteousness,
the Lord was pleased to make his law ^[5] great and glorious.
²²But this is a people plundered and looted.
All of them are trapped in holes,
and they are hidden in prisons.
They have become plunder, and there is no rescuer.
They have become loot and no one says, “Give it back!”
²³Who among you will turn his ear toward this?
Who will pay attention and listen for the future?
²⁴Who gave up Jacob to looters
and Israel to plunderers?
Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?
But they were not willing to walk in his ways,
and they did not listen to his law.
²⁵So he poured out wrath on them,
his anger, and the violence of battle.
It set them on fire all around, but they did not understand.
It burned in them, but they did not take it to heart.

The Lord’s New Act of Salvation

Isaiah 43

¹But now this is what the Lord says,
the Lord who created you, O Jacob,
the Lord who formed you, O Israel.
    Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you.
    I have called you by name. You are mine.
²    When you cross through the waters, I will be with you.
    When you cross the rivers, they will not sweep you away.
    When you walk through fire, you will not be burned,
    and the flame will not set you on fire.

³    Because I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior,
    I gave Egypt as your ransom,
    Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
⁴    Because you are precious and honored in my eyes,
    and I myself love you,
    I will give people in exchange for you,
    and peoples in exchange for your life.
⁵    Do not be afraid, because I am with you.
    From the east I will bring your offspring,
    and from the west I will gather you.
⁶    I will say to the north, “Give them back!”
    and to the south, “Do not hold them.”
    Bring my sons from far away
    and my daughters from the end of the earth—
⁷    everyone who is called by my name,
    everyone I created for my glory,
    everyone I formed,
    yes, everyone I have made.

⁸    Bring out the people who are blind, though they have eyes,
    and the people who are deaf, though they have ears.
⁹    Let all the nations be gathered together,
    and let peoples be assembled.
    Who among them has declared this?
    Who has made known to us the former things?
    Let them produce their witnesses to show that they were right,
    so that people can hear and say, “This is truth.”

¹⁰    You are my witnesses, declares the Lord.
    You are my servant, whom I have chosen,
    so that you may know me and believe in me,
    so that you will understand that I am he.
    Before me no god was formed,
    and after me there will not be another.
¹¹    I, yes I, am the Lord,
    and apart from me there is no savior.
¹²    I myself declared it.
    I brought salvation, and I announced it.
    It was not some strange god among you.
    You are my witnesses, declares the Lord,
    and I am God.
¹³    Indeed, from the first day, I am he.
    There is no one who can deliver anyone from my hand.
    I act, and who can reverse it?

Footnotes

Isaiah 42:1 The Lord has many servants. Among his servants in Isaiah are Israel and Cyrus. In this collection of songs his Servant par excellance is Jesus the Messiah.
Isaiah 42:1 Or bring forth justice
Isaiah 42:4 Or teaching. Law here refers to the whole Word of God.
Isaiah 42:19 Or my dedicated one or the one at peace with me. The meaning of this word is uncertain.
Isaiah 42:21 Or teaching

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 9

2025/01/09/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 9

Isaiah 41 (EHV)

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Through My Bible – January 9

Bible reading based on Isaiah 41 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Isaiah 41

A Summons to Judgment

¹Prepare to present your case to me, ^[1] you coastlands,
and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near. Yes, let them say,
“We will gather together for the verdict.”

A Mystery Man Is Summoned From the East

²Who has aroused this one from the east?
In righteousness he summons him to his feet.
He gives nations to him
and causes him to rule over kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
like wind-driven stubble with his bow.
³He pursues them and passes by safely.
His feet do not touch the ground. ^[2]
⁴Who accomplished this and carried it out
by summoning generations from the beginning?

The Lord Controls History

I, the Lord, am the first,
and at the very end I will still be the one.
⁵The coastlands see and fear.
The ends of the earth tremble.
They draw near. They come.

The Idol Makers Appear

⁶Each one assists his neighbor,
and to his brother he says, “Be strong.”
⁷The craftsman strengthens the refiner.
The one who flattens with the hammer
strengthens the one who strikes the anvil.
Concerning the soldering he says, “It is good.”
He fastens it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

The Lord Is Your Defender

⁸But you, O Israel, my servant,
O Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring ^[3] of Abraham, whom I love,
⁹whom I have snatched from the ends of the earth,
whom I have called from its corners—
I have said to you, “You are my servant.”
I have chosen you and not rejected you.
¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not be overwhelmed, ^[4] for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
¹¹Just watch, they will be ashamed and humiliated—
all those who are angry with you.
They will become nothing and perish—
those men who oppose you.
¹²You will look for them, but you will not find them—
those men who contend against you.
They will become absolutely nothing, less than nothing—
those men who battle against you.
¹³For I am the Lord your God.
I am the one who is holding on to your right hand.
I am the one who says to you, “Do not fear. I myself am helping you.”
¹⁴Do not fear, you worm, Jacob, you few men of Israel. ^[5]
I myself am helping you, declares the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵Look, I am making you into a sharp, new threshing sledge
    with double-edged blades.
You will thresh mountains and crush them.
You will turn hills into chaff.
¹⁶You will winnow them,
and a wind will lift them up.
A strong wind will scatter them.
But you, you will rejoice in the Lord.
In the Holy One of Israel you will be confident.
¹⁷The afflicted and the poor seek water, but there is none.
Their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the Lord, I myself will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will not leave them.
¹⁸I will open rivers on the barren heights.
In the middle of valleys there will be springs.
I will turn the wilderness into a pool of water,
and the dry land will pour out water.
¹⁹In the wilderness I will place cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees.
In the wasteland I will plant fir, maple, and pines together,
²⁰so that they may see and know,
and pay attention and perceive this all together,
    that the hand of the Lord has done this,
    and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Idols Are Placed on Trial

²¹“Present your case,” says the Lord.
“Set forth your strongest points,” says the King of Jacob.
²²Let them present and declare to us what is going to occur.
What were the first things you predicted?
Tell us, so that we can ponder them,
so that we can know their outcome.
Or, announce to us the coming things.
²³Declare to us the things that are still coming in the distant future.
Then we will know that you are gods.
In fact, just do something, do anything—good or evil,
so that we may be overwhelmed and terrified together.
²⁴Look, you are less than nothing,
and your work is less than zero.
Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

The Man From the North

²⁵I have stirred up someone from the north,
and he is coming from the rising of the sun.
He will call upon my name.
He will walk over rulers as if they were mud,
the way a potter tramples clay.

²⁶Who declared this from the beginning so that we could know it,
and ahead of time so that we could say, “He is right”?
In fact, not one of them declares this.
In fact, not one of them makes this known.
In fact, no one hears you say anything.
²⁷I was first to announce to Zion, “Look, here they are,”
and I sent a herald of good news to Jerusalem.
²⁸When I looked, there was no one.
None of them could give advice,
even when I kept asking them to respond.
²⁹Look, all of them are useless.
Their works are nothing.
Their images are empty wind.

Footnotes

Isaiah 41:1 Or be silent before me. The Hebrew root used here does often mean be silent, but the context seems to require a preparation for legal action. There is a Hebrew homonym that means fabricate. This meaning fits the context. The Greek Old Testament and the parallelism also support this meaning.
Isaiah 41:3 Literally he does not enter a path with his feet. This seems to mean that he moves so fast that his feet don’t touch the ground, or that he goes in new paths where he has never gone before, or that he quickly gains new territory.
Isaiah 41:8 Literally the seed
Isaiah 41:10 Or dismayed
Isaiah 41:14 Or you insect, Israel. The Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll reads dead ones.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 8

2025/01/08/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 8

Isaiah 40 (EHV)

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Bible reading based on Isaiah 40 (EHV)

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Isaiah 40

Overview of the Lord’s Plan

¹Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
²Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her.
Her warfare ^[1] really is over.
Her guilt is fully paid for.
Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
³A voice is calling out:
In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord.
In the wasteland make a level ^[2] highway for our God.
⁴Every valley will be raised up,
and every mountain and hill will be made low.
The rugged ground will become level,
and the rough places will become a plain.
⁵Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all flesh together will see it.
    Yes, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
⁶A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry out?”
    All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty ^[3] is like a wildflower in the countryside.
⁷    Grass withers, flowers fade,
    when the breath ^[4] of the Lord blows on them.
    Yes, the people are grass.
⁸    Grass withers, flowers fade,
    but the Word of our God endures forever.

⁹Get up on a high mountain,
O Zion, you herald of good news.
Lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, you herald of good news.
Lift it up! Do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
¹⁰Look, God the Lord will come with strength,
and his arm is ruling for him.
Look, his reward is with him.
The result of his work is in front of him.
¹¹Like a shepherd he will care for his flock.
With his arm he will gather the lambs.
He will lift them up on his lap.
He will gently lead the nursing mothers.

The Lord Is Beyond Compare

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?
Who marked off the heavens with the width of his hand?
Who scooped up the dust of the earth with a measuring cup?
Who weighed the mountains with a balance
and the hills with scales?

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?
Who can teach him anything or serve as his advisor?
¹⁴Who was his advisor to give him insight?
Who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge?
Who showed him the way to complete understanding?

¹⁵Indeed, nations are like a drop in a bucket,
and they are treated like powder on a scale.
Look, he lifts up islands like dust!
¹⁶Not even the forests of Lebanon could provide enough wood to burn,
and its animals are not enough for a whole burnt offering.
¹⁷All the nations are nothing to him.
By him they are regarded as worthless,
as less than nothing.

¹⁸So to whom will you compare God?
What image can you compare to him?
¹⁹A craftsman casts the idol,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold.
He forges silver chains for it.
²⁰He chooses mulberry wood as an offering, ^[5]
wood that will not rot.
He looks for a skillful craftsman
to erect an idol that will not fall over.

²¹Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood it from the founding of the earth?
²²He is the one who sits above the circle of the earth.
To him its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and he spreads them out like a tent to live in.
²³He is the one who reduces dignitaries to nothing.
He makes the judges of the world useless.
²⁴They have hardly been planted.
They have hardly been sown.
Their stem has hardly taken root in the earth.
Then he blows on them, and they dry up.
A driving storm carries them away like chaff.

²⁵To whom can you compare me as if we were equals?
says the Holy One.
²⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and see who created these things.
See who brings out their army in great number
and calls them all by name.
Because of his great strength and mighty power,
not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you speak, O Jacob?
O Israel, why do you say,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and justice for me is ignored by my God”?
²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God.
He is the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired, and he will not become weary.
No one can find a limit to his understanding.
²⁹He is the one who gives strength to the weak,
and he increases the strength of those who lack power.
³⁰Young men grow tired and become weary.
Even strong men stumble and fall.
³¹But those who wait for the Lord will receive new strength.
They will lift up their wings and soar like eagles.
They will run and not become weary.
They will walk and not become tired.

Footnotes

Isaiah 40:2 Or hard labor
Isaiah 40:3 Or straight
Isaiah 40:6 The Hebrew literally reads mercy or faithfulness.
Isaiah 40:7 The word also means wind and Spirit.
Isaiah 40:20 Or the poor person chooses wood as an offering

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 7

2025/01/07/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 7

2 John & 3 John (EHV)

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Bible reading based on 2 John and 3 John (EHV)

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2 John

Greeting

The Elder,

To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—not only I, but also everyone who knows the truth— ²because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever:

³Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from ^[1] Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love.

Keep on Walking According to God’s Word

⁴I was overjoyed to find out that some of your children are walking in the truth, in keeping with the command we received from the Father. ⁵And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing a new command to you, but the one we have had from the beginning—let us love one another. ⁶And this is love: that we walk according to his commands. This is the command: Just as you have heard from the beginning, keep on walking in it.

Beware of Deceivers

⁷Many deceivers who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. ⁸Watch yourselves so that you do not lose what we ^[2] have labored for but receive a full reward.

⁹Anyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰If someone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house. Do not even wish him well. ¹¹For the one who wishes him well shares in his wicked works.

Final Greetings

¹²I have many things to write to you, but I did not want to do it with paper and ink. I hope instead to be with you and speak to you face to face so that our ^[3] joy may be made complete.

¹³The children of your chosen sister greet you.

3 John

Greeting

The Elder,

To dear Gaius, whom I love in the truth:

Joy at Gaius’ Faithfulness and Cooperation in the Truth

²Dear friend, I pray that you are doing well in every way and have good health, just as your soul is doing well. ³Indeed, I was overjoyed when brothers ^[4] came and testified to your truthfulness because you are walking in the truth. ⁴I have no greater joy than when I hear that my children are walking in the truth.

⁵Dear friend, you are being faithful in what you are doing for the brothers even though they are strangers. ⁶They have testified before the church about your love. You will do well to send them off in a manner worthy of God. ⁷They went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. ⁸Therefore, we have an obligation to support such men, so that we may be coworkers for the truth.

A Warning About Diotrephes

⁹I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, does not welcome us. ¹⁰For this reason, if I do come, I will call attention to what he is doing. He is disparaging us with wicked words, and he is not content with that. He also refuses to welcome the brothers. He even hinders and puts out of the church those who wish to welcome them.

¹¹Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does what is good is from God. The one who does what is evil has not seen God.

¹²Demetrius has been endorsed by everyone, even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.

Final Greeting

¹³I had many things to write you, but I do not want to do it with pen and ink. ¹⁴I hope to see you soon, and we will speak face to face.

¹⁵Peace to you. Your friends here send their greetings to you. Greet our friends there by name.

Footnotes

2 John 1:3 Some witnesses to the text add the Lord. (“Witnesses to the text” mentioned in footnotes may include Greek manuscripts, lectionaries, translations, and quotations in the church fathers.)
2 John 1:8 Some witnesses to the text read you.
2 John 1:12 Some witnesses to the text read your
3 John 1:3 When context indicates it, the Greek word for brothers may refer to all fellow believers, male and female.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 6

2025/01/06/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 6

1 John 5:4-21 (EHV)

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Bible reading based on 1 John 5:4-21 (EHV)

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1 John 5

⁴because everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. ⁵Who is the one who overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁶This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. He did not come by the water alone but by the water and by the blood. The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷In fact, there are three that testify: ^[1] ⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one.

⁹If we accept the testimony of people, God’s testimony is even greater, because it is the testimony that God gave about his Son. ¹⁰The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in him, but the one who does not believe has made God out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God gave about his Son. ¹¹This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

¹⁴This is the confidence that we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we also know that we receive the things we have asked from him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not result in death, he will ask, and God will give life—to those who commit sin that does not result in death. There is sin that results in death; I am not saying that he should ask about that. ¹⁷All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin that does not result in death.

¹⁸We know that anyone who has been born of God does not go on sinning. But the one who was born of God protects him, ^[2] and the Evil One cannot take hold of him. ¹⁹We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies in the grip of the Evil One. ²⁰We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹Dear children, guard yourselves from idols.

Footnotes

1 John 5:7 Only a very few late Greek witnesses to the text read testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. 8 And there are three that testify on earth:
1 John 5:18 Some witnesses to the text read himself.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 5

2025/01/05/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 5

1 John 4:7-5:3 (EHV)

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Bible reading based on 1 John 4:7-5:3 (EHV)

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1 John 4

God Is Love

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we also should love one another.

¹²No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love has been brought to its goal in us. ¹³This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. ¹⁶We also have come to know and trust the love that God has for us.

God is love. Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. ¹⁷In this way his love has been brought to its goal among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are just like Jesus. ^[1] ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but complete love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who continues to be afraid has not been brought to the goal in love.

¹⁹We love ^[2] because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, ^[3] love God, whom he has not seen? ²¹This then is the command we have from him: The one who loves God should also love his brother.

1 John 5

Faith, Love, and Obedience

¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the God who has given birth ^[4] also loves one who has been born of him. ²This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commands. ³In fact, this is love for God: that we keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

Footnotes

1 John 4:17 Literally that one
1 John 4:19 A few witnesses to the text add God or him.
1 John 4:20 A few witnesses to the text read For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God.
1 John 5:1 Or everyone who loves the Father

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 4

2025/01/04/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 4

1 John 3:11-4:6 (EHV)

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Bible reading based on 1 John 3:11-4:6 (EHV)

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1 John 3

Love One Another

¹¹This is the message you have heard from the beginning: Love one another. ¹²Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own works were evil, while those of his brother were righteous. ¹³Do not be surprised, brothers,^[1] if the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have crossed over from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love^[2] remains in death. ¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. ¹⁶This is how we have come to know love: Jesus^[3] laid down his life for us. And we also should lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷Whoever has worldly wealth and sees his brother in need but closes his heart against him—how can God’s love remain in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us love not only with word or with our tongue, but also in action and truth.

¹⁹This is how we know that we are of the truth and how we will set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. ²²We also receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. ²³This then is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love one another just as he commanded us. ²⁴The one who keeps his commands remains in God^[4] and God^[5] in him. This is how we know that he remains in us: We know it from the Spirit, whom he has given to us.

John 4

Test the Spirits

¹Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³and every spirit who does not confess Jesus^[6] is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. ⁴You are from God, dear children, and you have overcome the false prophets,^[7] because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. ⁵They are from the world. That is why they speak from a worldly perspective and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we can distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Footnotes

1 John 3:13 When context indicates it, the Greek word for brothers may refer to all fellow believers, male and female.
1 John 3:14 Some witnesses to the text add his brother.
1 John 3:16 Literally that one
1 John 3:24 Literally him
1 John 3:24 Literally he
1 John 4:3 Some witnesses to the text read that Jesus has come in the flesh.
1 John 4:4 Literally them, referring to the false prophets of verse 1.

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 2

2025/01/02/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 2

1 John 2:3-27 (EHV)

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Bible reading based on 1 John 2:3-27 (EHV)

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1 John 2

³This is how we know that we have known him: if we keep his commands. ⁴The one who says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵If anyone keeps God’s word, the love of God is truly made complete in him. This is how we know that we are in him: ⁶The one who says he remains in him should walk as Jesus^[1] walked.

⁷Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one that you have had since the beginning. The old command is the message you heard. ⁸At the same time, the command I am writing is new—it is true in Jesus^[2] and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. ⁹The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is still in the darkness. ¹⁰The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and nothing causes him to stumble. ¹¹The one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹²I am writing to you, dear children,
    because your sins have been forgiven because of his name.
¹³I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the Evil One.
¹⁴I have written to you, little children,
    because you have known the Father.
I have written to you, fathers,
    because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God remains in you,
    and you have overcome the Evil One.

Do Not Love the World

¹⁵Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, boasting about material possessions—is not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

Warning Against False Teachers

¹⁸Dear children, it is the last hour. The Antichrist is coming, just as you have heard, and even now many antichrists have come. (This is how you know that it is the last hour.) ¹⁹They went out from us, but they really were not part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. Instead they all showed that they were not part of us.

²⁰You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.^[3] ²¹I did not write to you because you do not know the truth but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. ²²Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is an antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. ²³Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father. But the one who confesses the Son has the Father as well. ²⁴Let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and the Father. ²⁵And this is what he promised you: eternal life.

²⁶I have written these things to you about those who are misleading you. ²⁷As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you have no need for someone to teach you. Rather, since his anointing teaches you all things and since it is true and is no lie, remain in him, just as it has taught you.

Footnotes

1 John 2:6 Literally that one
1 John 2:8 Literally him
1 John 2:20 A few witnesses to the text read But all of you know that you have an anointing from the Holy One.

Click here to add your own text

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 1

2025/01/01/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 1

1 John 1-2:2 (EHV)

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Bible reading based on 1 John 1-2:2 (EHV)

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1 John 1

The Word of Life

¹That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have observed and our hands have touched regarding the Word of Life— ²the life appeared, and we have seen it. We testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³We are proclaiming what we have seen and heard also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴We write these things to you so that our^[1] joy may be complete.

Walking in the Light

⁵This is the message we heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say we have fellowship with him but still walk in darkness, we are lying and do not put the truth into practice. ⁷But if we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,^[2] his Son, cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his Word^[3] is not in us.

1 John 2

¹My children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin. If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ²He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world.

Footnotes

1 John 1:4 Some witnesses to the text read your. (“Witnesses to the text” mentioned in footnotes may include Greek manuscripts, lectionaries, translations, and quotations in the church fathers.)
1 John 1:7 Some witnesses to the text omit Christ.
1 John 1:10 Or word. This term could refer to Jesus (Word) or God’s message (word).

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 31

2024/12/31/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 31

Isaiah 38 – 39

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Through My Bible – December 31

Isaiah 38 – 39 (EHV)

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Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

Isaiah 38

¹In those days Hezekiah became sick and was dying. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says. Give instructions to your household, because you are going to die. You will not survive.”

²So Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. ³He said, “Please remember, Lord, how I have walked before you in truth and with my whole heart. I have done what is good in your eyes.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.

⁵Go back and tell Hezekiah that this is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says:

I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Now then, I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

⁷This will be the sign from the Lord to you. The Lord will do what he has promised. ⁸Watch! I will make the shadow of the setting sun that has moved down the stairway of Ahaz move back, ten steps higher on the staircase.

Then the sun’s shadow moved backwards, ten steps higher on the stairway that it had just descended.

⁹A poem written by Hezekiah king of Judah, after his illness and recovery.^[1]

¹⁰I thought that, only halfway through my life,
I was entering into the gates of death,^[2]
deprived of the remaining years of my life.
¹¹I thought, I will not see the Lord—
the Lord^[3] in the land of the living.
I will no longer see anyone among the inhabitants of the world.^[4]
¹²My dwelling place is being pulled down.
It is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He is cutting me off from the loom.
From day until night, you make an end of me.^[5]
¹³I pondered this until the morning.
He will break all my bones like a lion!
From day until night, you make an end of me.
¹⁴I chirp weakly like a swift or a swallow.
I mourn like a dove.
My eyes are tired from looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed.
Be my security.

¹⁵What can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he is the one to act.
I will march slowly throughout all my years,
because my heart is bitter.^[6]
¹⁶Lord, people live because you give them life.
My spirit lives through this.^[7]
Restore me, and let me live.^[8]
¹⁷The bitter things I experienced were for my benefit.
Your love has preserved my life from the pit of destruction,
for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.
¹⁸The grave^[9] cannot thank you.
Death cannot praise you.
Those who go down into the pit cannot trust your faithfulness.
¹⁹The living one, the living one, he praises you, as I do today.
A father tells his children about your faithfulness.
²⁰The Lord will save me,
so we will sing songs with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives in the House of the Lord.

²¹Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs, apply it as a poultice on the inflamed spot, and he will recover.”

²²Hezekiah had also asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the House of the Lord?”

Hezekiah Receives Envoys From Babylon

Isaiah 39

¹At that time, Merodak^[10] Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered. ²Hezekiah was happy to receive the envoys, and he showed them his palace treasury—the silver and the gold, the spices and the precious oil, his whole armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace or in all his domain that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did those men say? Where did they come from?”

Hezekiah replied, “They have come from a faraway country, from Babylon.”

⁴The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”

Hezekiah said, “They have seen everything in my palace. There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the Lord of Armies. ⁶Listen carefully. The days are coming when whatever is in your house—everything that your fathers have stored up until today—will be carried away to Babylon. Not a thing will be left, says the Lord. ⁷They will take away some of the sons who were born to you, your own children, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

⁸Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.” For Hezekiah also said, “There will be peace and stability during my days.”

Footnotes

Isaiah 38:9 This poem is not included in 2 Kings.
Isaiah 38:10 Hebrew sheol
Isaiah 38:11 The Hebrew text here has two occurrences of Yah, the short form of the divine name. Some Hebrew manuscripts have a single occurrence of Yahweh.
Isaiah 38:11 Hebrew variant this passing world
Isaiah 38:12 Or day, and then night! So quickly you have made an end of me. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Isaiah 38:15 The translation follows the Hebrew. The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah and the Syriac read What can I say? I will say to him that he is the one to act. I cannot sleep, because my heart is bitter.
Isaiah 38:16 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Isaiah 38:16 Or you restore me, and you let me live!
Isaiah 38:18 Hebrew sheol
Isaiah 39:1 Merodak is probably a derogatory form of the name Marduk, the chief god of Babylon.

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 30

2024/12/30/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 30

Isaiah 36 – 37

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Through My Bible – December 30

Isaiah 36 – 37 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Assyria Threatens Jerusalem

Isaiah 36

¹Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all of the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. ²The king of Assyria sent his herald^[1] from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. A large army was with him. He stood by the water channel from the upper pool on the road to the launderer’s^[2] field. ³Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna, who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, came out to meet him.

⁴The herald told them this.

Tell Hezekiah this is what the Great King, the king of Assyria, says.

What makes you so confident? ⁵Your wisdom and military strength are based on empty promises. Who do you trust, so that you now have rebelled against me? ⁶Tell me! Are you really trusting in Egypt to be your staff, that splintered reed that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it? That is what happens to anyone who relies on Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁷If you say to me that you trust in the Lord your God, isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? Didn’t Hezekiah tell Judah and Jerusalem to worship at this altar?

⁸Now then, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, if you can find enough riders for them. ⁹How can you resist even one officer from among the least of my lord’s servants? How can you put your trust in Egypt for chariots and charioteers?

¹⁰What’s more, have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord’s orders? The Lord is the one who said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the herald, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew, because there are people on the city wall who are listening.”

¹²But the herald replied, “Has my lord sent me only to you and to your lord to speak these words, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”^[3]

¹³Then the herald stood up and called out in a loud voice in Hebrew. He said:

Listen to the words of the Great King, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴This is what the king says.

Do not let Hezekiah deceive you! He will not be able to deliver you. ¹⁵Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord, when he says that the Lord will save you, and that this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says. Make a peace treaty with me and surrender to me. Each one of you will eat from his own vine, from his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink water from his own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and sweet wine, a land with bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah make you think that the Lord will deliver you!

Have any of the gods of the nations kept them from being handed over to the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? ²⁰Which of the gods of these countries have delivered their country from my hand? Will the Lord really deliver Jerusalem from my hand?

²¹But the officials remained silent, saying nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna, who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, went to Hezekiah with their clothing torn and told him everything the herald had said.

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Advice

Isaiah 37

¹When King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord. ²He sent Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

³They told him what Hezekiah said: “This is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation, because children are about to be born, but there is no strength left to give birth. ⁴Perhaps the Lord your God will take note of the words of this herald, who was sent by his lord, the king of Assyria, in defiance of the living God, and perhaps the Lord your God will rebuke him for what he has heard. So please, pray for the small group that is left here.”

⁵When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶he said to them, “Tell your master that this is what the Lord says. Do not be afraid of what you have heard. The lackeys^[4] of the king of Assyria have blasphemed against me. ⁷Watch! I will put a spirit in him, so that when he hears certain news, he will return to his own land. There I will cause him to be killed.”

⁸Then the herald went back. He heard that the king of Assyria had already left Lachish and was fighting against Libnah.

⁹When Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush^[5] had set out to fight against him, he sent messengers to Hezekiah ¹⁰to say this to Hezekiah king of Judah:

Do not let the God you trust deceive you, saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. ¹¹Listen, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other lands, destroying them completely. And you expect to be saved? ¹²Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed save them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden, who were in Tel Assar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the kings of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. He went up to the House of the Lord and placed it there before the Lord. ¹⁵Then he prayed to the Lord.

¹⁶O Lord of Armies, God of Israel, seated above the cherubim, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷Turn your ear toward me, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to all of the words of Sennacherib, who has defied the living God. ¹⁸It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these lands and their territory. ¹⁹They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods at all, but the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ²⁰Now, Lord our God, save us from his power, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that you are the Lord, and you alone.

The Lord Replies to Hezekiah Through Isaiah

²¹Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah.

The Lord, the God of Israel, says that because you have prayed to him about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²²the Lord sends you this reply about him.

The virgin daughter of Zion^[6] despises you and jeers at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you in scorn.
²³Who is it whom you have mocked and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted up your proud eyes?
It is against the Holy One of Israel.
²⁴You have used your servants to mock the Lord.
You have boasted, “I have driven my many chariots
up the high mountains, to the most remote parts of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars and its best fir trees.
I have reached its highest peak, its most lush forest.
²⁵I dug wells and drank their water,
and I dried up all the rivers of Egypt with the soles of my feet.”

²⁶Have you not heard?
I did all this long ago.
I formed all this in ancient times.
Now I caused it all to take place.
I enabled you to destroy fortified cities,
reducing them to heaps of ruins.
²⁷Their inhabitants were powerless.
Overwhelmed and ashamed,
they were like plants in the field,
like fresh green grass, like grass on a housetop,
and like a field before it has grown.^[7]
²⁸But I know when you stand and when you sit,^[8]
when you go out and when you come in,
and how you rage wildly against me.
²⁹Because you rage against me,
and because your arrogance has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you go back by the same way that you came.

³⁰This will be a sign for you:

This year you will eat what grows by itself.
Next year you will eat what springs up from that.
But in the third year, you will sow crops and harvest them.
You will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
³¹The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again put down roots below and bear fruit above.
³²For from Jerusalem a remnant will go out,
and survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

³³This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

He will not enter this city.
He will not shoot an arrow there.
He will not advance against it with a shield,
and he will not build a siege ramp against it.
³⁴He will go back by the same route that he came,
and he will not enter this city, declares the Lord.
³⁵For I will defend this city to save it,
for my own sake,
and for the sake of my servant David.

The Destruction of Sennacherib

³⁶Then an angel of the Lord went and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early in the morning, there they were—all the dead bodies. ³⁷Then Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned to Nineveh and remained there. ³⁸One day when Sennacherib was worshipping in the house of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They fled to the land of Ararat,^[9] and his son Esarhaddon became king in his place.

Footnotes

Isaiah 36:2 Or chief spokesman. The Hebrew/Assyrian term rab shakeh refers to a high-ranking military officer.
Isaiah 36:2 Or washerman’s or wool-cleaner’s
Isaiah 36:12 The Hebrew terms for excrement and urine are apparently coarse, because the scribal notes substitute euphemisms for them.
Isaiah 37:6 Or junior officers, an insulting term to use for such high-ranking officers
Isaiah 37:9 Cush is the ancient name for the territory south of the First Cataract of the Nile River. Called Ethiopia in Roman times, it included most of present-day Sudan and some of present-day Ethiopia. The Cushite or Nubian kings were the pharaohs of Egypt at this time.
Isaiah 37:22 Daughter of Zion is a personification of Jerusalem and the people of Judah.
Isaiah 37:27 The translation follows the main Hebrew reading of this verse. The parallel text in 2 Kings 19:26 reads scorched before it becomes a full-grown stalk. The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah reads scorched by the east wind.
Isaiah 37:28 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah. The Hebrew does not have when you stand and.
Isaiah 37:38 The region of present-day Armenia

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 29

2024/12/29/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 29

Isaiah 33 – 35

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Through My Bible – December 29

Isaiah 33 – 35 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Rise Up, O Lord!

Isaiah 33

¹Woe to you who destroy, even though you have not been destroyed,

you who betray, though you have not been betrayed!
When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed,
and when you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.

²O Lord, be gracious to us. We wait hopefully for you.
Be our strength every morning.
Be our salvation in times of trouble.
³At the thunder of your voice, people flee.
When you stir up your great power, nations scatter.
⁴Your plunder will be taken away
the way a caterpillar^[1] eats things up.
People will swarm on it like a locust swarm.
⁵The Lord is exalted, because he dwells on high.
He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶There will be stability in your time,
a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
Your treasure will be the fear of the Lord.
⁷Listen! Their elite troops^[2] are crying in the streets.
The peace envoys weep bitterly.
⁸The highways are deserted.
All travel has stopped.
The treaty has been broken.
Witnesses^[3] are despised,
and no one is respected.
⁹The land mourns and becomes weak.
Lebanon is ashamed and withers away.
The Plain of Sharon is like the Arabah,
and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

¹⁰Now I will arise, says the Lord.
Now I will lift myself up.
Now I will be exalted.
¹¹You will conceive chaff
and give birth to stubble.
Like fire, your own breath will consume you.
¹²People will be burned to lime,^[4]
like thorns that are cut and burned in the fire.
¹³You who are far away, recognize what I have done.
You who are close by, acknowledge my mighty acts.

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the ungodly.
Who of us can live with a consuming fire?
Who of us can live in a place that burns without end?
¹⁵Those who walk righteously and speak blamelessly,
those who despise dishonest gain,
whose hands refuse a bribe,
whose ears will not listen to violent plans,
whose eyes reject evil—
¹⁶they will dwell on high.
Their defense will be a fortress on the cliffs.
Their bread will be provided.
Their water supply will be reliable.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King^[5] in his splendor.
They will see a land that stretches far and wide.
¹⁸Your heart will think about the past terrors.
You will think, “Where is the one who took the inventory?^[6]
Where is the one who weighed the silver?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
¹⁹You will no longer see a barbaric people,
a people with unintelligible speech, which you cannot understand,
a people who babble in a language that makes no sense.
²⁰Look at Zion, the city where we hold our festivals.
You will see Jerusalem as a peaceful place,
as a tent that cannot be removed.
Its stakes will never be pulled up.
Its ropes will never be broken.
²¹There the Lord will be with us in majesty,
as in a place with wide rivers and streams,
where no enemy warship can row,
where no sailing ship can slip past.
²²Because the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
and the Lord is our king,
he is the one who will save us.

²³Your rigging hangs loose.
The mast is not steady.
The sail is not set.^[7]

When they divide all the plunder,
there will be so much that even the crippled will take part.
²⁴No one who lives there will say, “I am sick.”
The guilt of the people who live there will be forgiven.

Judgment Against the Nations

Isaiah 34

¹Come near, you nations, and hear!

Listen, you peoples.
Let the earth and everything in it hear,
the world and everything that it produces.

²The Lord is angry with all the nations,
and he is furious with all their armies.
He has condemned them to destruction.
He has handed them over for slaughter.
³Their fallen bodies will lie unburied,
and the stench of their corpses will linger.
The mountains will flow with their blood.
⁴The whole army of the heavens will fall apart.
The sky will be rolled up like a scroll,
and its whole army will waste away and fall,
like leaves withering on a vine,
like fruit that falls from a fig tree.

⁵Yes, my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.
Now it will fall on Edom,
on the people I have sentenced to judgment.
⁶The sword of the Lord is covered with blood.
It is coated with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat from the kidneys of rams,
for the Lord has made a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a massive slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷Wild oxen will fall along with them,
bull calves and powerful bulls.
Their land will be soaked with blood,
and their dust will be saturated with fat.
⁸It will be a day of vengeance for the Lord,
a year of retribution for Zion’s sake.^[8]
⁹Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
its dust into sulfur,
and its land will become burning pitch,
¹⁰which will not be extinguished night or day.
Its smoke will go up forever.
Generation after generation, it will lie in ruins.
No one will ever pass through it. Never again!
¹¹But the desert owl and the porcupine will live there.^[9]
The screech owl and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch a measuring line for chaos over Edom,
and a plumb line for uninhabited ruins.^[10]
¹²There will be nothing left for its nobles to call a kingdom.
All its officials will be gone.
¹³Thorns will cover its citadels.
Thistles and briers will overgrow its fortresses.
It will be a den of jackals,
a haunt for ostriches.
¹⁴Desert animals and hyenas will gather,
and wild goats^[11] will bleat to each other.
Creatures of the night^[12] will settle there
and find a resting place.
¹⁵An owl^[13] will nest there.
She will lay eggs, hatch them,
and gather her young under her shade.
Falcons will gather there too,
each with its mate.

¹⁶Search through the book of the Lord, and read.
Not one of them will be missing.
Not one will lack her mate.
For his mouth has commanded this,
and his Spirit has gathered them together.
¹⁷He has allotted this land for these creatures.
His hand has divided it up for them with a surveying line.
They will possess it forever.
They will live there generation after generation.

The Joyful Return

Isaiah 35

¹The wilderness and the desert will be glad.

The wasteland of the Arabah will rejoice and blossom like a crocus.
²It will bloom lavishly,
and there will be great joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it.
It will be excellent like Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands,
and make the shaky knees steady.
⁴Tell those who have a fearful heart:
    Be strong.
    Do not be afraid.
    Look! Your God will come with vengeance.
    With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.
⁶The crippled will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
Waters will flow in the wilderness,
and streams in the wasteland.
⁷The burning sand will become a pool,
and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.
There will be grass, reeds, and rushes where the haunts
of jackals once lay.
⁸A highway will be there,
a road that will be called the holy way.
The impure will not walk there.
It will be reserved for those who walk in that holy way.
Wicked fools will not wander onto it.
⁹No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious animal go up on it.
They will not be found there,
but only the redeemed will walk there.
¹⁰Then those ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with a joyful shout,
and everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Happiness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Footnotes

Isaiah 33:4 The term refers to a life stage or a type of locust.
Isaiah 33:7 Or the people of Ariel
Isaiah 33:8 The translation follows the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah. The standard Hebrew text reads cities.
Isaiah 33:12 Or to ashes
Isaiah 33:17 Or the king
Isaiah 33:18 The verse apparently refers to the actions of the enemy officers as they plundered Jerusalem.
Isaiah 33:23 Or Your ropes are loose. Their flagpole is not firmly set, and the flag will not fly. But see verse 21.
Isaiah 34:8 Or a time of retribution for the Defender of Zion
Isaiah 34:11 The precise identification of these animals and other animals in this section is uncertain. The word translated porcupine may be another type of owl.
Isaiah 34:11 The words translated chaos and uninhabited ruins are the same words that describe the undeveloped, empty world on the first day of creation.
Isaiah 34:14 The term translated wild goats later became associated with satyrs and demons, but here it seems to refer to regular animals.
Isaiah 34:14 Hebrew lilith. In later Jewish writing this term became the name of a female demon.
Isaiah 34:15 Or the arrow snake. The meaning of the Hebrew term is uncertain.

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 28

2024/12/28/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 28

Isaiah 30:18 – 32:20

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Through My Bible – December 28

Isaiah 30:18 – 32:20 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Isaiah 30

¹⁸But the Lord is eager to be gracious to you.
He waits on high to have mercy on you,
for the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all those who long for him.

¹⁹So people will live in Zion. In Jerusalem you will weep no more. The Lord will be very gracious to you when he hears your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. ²⁰Though the Lord has given you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, he is your teacher.^[1] He will not be hidden any longer. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. ²¹Whenever you are tempted to turn to the right or to the left, you will hear his voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” ²²You will defile your idols that are plated with silver and your images overlaid with gold. You will throw them away like a filthy cloth,^[2] saying, “Get away from me!”

²³Then he will give you rain so that you can sow seed in the ground. The bread from your land’s harvest will be excellent and plentiful. On that day your livestock will graze in wide pastures. ²⁴The oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat the best feed^[3]—winnowed with a shovel and a winnowing fork. ²⁵On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams flowing with water.

It will be a day of terrible slaughter, when towers fall. ²⁶The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day when the Lord will bind up the wounds of his people and heal the injuries he inflicted.

God Will Punish Assyria

²⁷Look! The name of the Lord is coming from far away,
burning with anger, in a column of thick smoke.
His lips are full of anger,
and his tongue is a consuming fire.
²⁸His breath is a stream at flood stage,
surging all the way up to your neck.
He shakes the nations in a sieve to destroy them,
and he puts a bridle in their mouths to lead them to destruction.
²⁹You will sing as you do on the night of a holy festival,
with glad hearts,
as when they go up with flutes to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
³⁰The Lord will cause the majestic splendor of his voice to be heard.
He will make them see his arm come crashing down in fierce anger,
like the flames of a consuming fire,
like driving rain, a furious storm with hailstones.
³¹The voice of the Lord will terrify Assyria.
He will strike it with his rod.
³²Every stroke of the punishing rod^[4] which the Lord will lay on them
will be accompanied by the music of drums and lyres.
He himself will fight, battling them, swinging weapons.
³³Topheth has long been made ready.
It is prepared for the king,
a flaming funeral pyre, deep and wide, with plenty of wood.
The breath of the Lord, like a river of liquid fire, sets it ablaze.

Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt

Isaiah 31

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,

who put their faith in horses,
who trust in chariots because there are many of them,
who trust in charioteers^[5] because they are very powerful.
They do not trust in the Holy One of Israel.
They do not seek the Lord.
²The Lord is wise, and he will bring disaster.
He will not go back on his word,
but he will deal with those who do evil,
and with those who help the wicked.
³The Egyptians are merely men, not gods.
Their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand to punish,
both the helper and the one seeking help will fall.
Together they will perish.

⁴This is what the Lord said to me:
    When a lion or a young lion snarls over its prey,
    and a band of shepherds is called out to drive it away,
    it is not afraid of their shouts,
    and it is not bothered by the noise they make.
    In the same way, the Lord of Armies will fearlessly come down
        to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.
⁵Like a hovering^[6] bird,
the Lord of Armies will protect Jerusalem.
He will protect it and deliver it.
He will pass over it and preserve it.
⁶O people of Israel, return to the one you have so completely betrayed. ⁷In that day every one of you will throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—things you made, which caused you to sin.

⁸Assyria will fall, but not by a human sword.
A sword will devour him, but not one wielded by men.
He will flee from the sword,
but his young men will be forced into slavery.
⁹His rocky stronghold will pass away because of fear,
and his officials will abandon their banner in panic,
declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,
whose blast furnace is in Jerusalem.

The Righteous Kingdom

Isaiah 32

¹See, a king will reign in righteousness,

and officials will govern with justice.
²Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water for a dry place,
like the shade of a massive cliff in a parched land.
³The eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴Hasty hearts^[7] will gain understanding,
and stammering tongues will speak clearly.

⁵The fool will no longer be called noble,
nor will rogues be treated like respectable people.^[8]
⁶The fool speaks folly,
and his heart plots evil:
to do what is ungodly,
to tell lies about the Lord,
to deny food to the hungry,
and to refuse even one drink for the thirsty.
⁷The rogue’s ways are evil.
He plots evil to ruin the humble with lies,
even when the poor speak with justice.

⁸But the noble man plans noble deeds,
and by noble deeds he stands.

Judgment and Restoration

⁹Get up, you complacent women, and listen!
You carefree girls, hear what I have to say!
¹⁰In a little more than a year, you carefree women will be worried,
because the grape harvest will fail,
and the fruit harvest will not arrive.
¹¹Tremble, you complacent women!
Be worried, you carefree girls!
Strip yourselves naked,
and put sackcloth around your waist.
¹²Beat your breasts in mourning
    for the pleasant fields,
    for the fruitful vines,
¹³because my people’s land will yield only thorns and briers.
Weep for all the houses where you partied,
    in the city where you celebrated.
¹⁴Then the fortress will be abandoned.
The crowded city will be deserted.
The citadel and the watchtower will become
    rugged ruins^[9] for a long time,
    enjoyed by wild donkeys,
    and a pasture for flocks,
¹⁵until the Spirit is poured out on us from on high,
and the wilderness becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest.
¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness will live in the fertile field.
¹⁷The result of righteousness will be peace,
and righteousness will bring lasting tranquility and security.
¹⁸My people will live in a peaceful place,
in secure dwellings,
and in quiet resting places.
¹⁹Even if hail destroys the forest,
or if the city is totally leveled,
²⁰how blessed you will be,
as you sow seed beside streams,
and let your cattle and donkeys run free.

Footnotes

Isaiah 30:20 The Hebrew reads teachers, perhaps referring to the prophets, but the singular he occurs throughout verses 20-26.
Isaiah 30:22 The Hebrew words refer to a cloth stained with menstrual blood. Blood made a person who contacted it ceremonially unclean.
Isaiah 30:24 Or seasoned feed
Isaiah 30:32 Or the appointed rod
Isaiah 31:1 Or horsemen
Isaiah 31:5 Or swooping
Isaiah 32:4 Or rash minds
Isaiah 32:5 Or celebrities
Isaiah 32:14 Or animals’ dens

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 27

2024/12/27/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 27

Isaiah 29:1 – 30:17

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Through My Bible – December 27

Isaiah 29:1 – 30:17 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Woe to the City of David

Isaiah 29

¹Woe to Ariel! [1] Ariel, the city where David made his camp.

Add one year to another.
Let your cycle of festivals roll on.
²But then I will bring distress to Ariel,
and there will be mourning and lamentation.
Then she will become an altar hearth^[2] to me.
³I will encamp against you on all sides,
and I will lay siege against you with towers.^[3]
I will raise siege works against you.
⁴You will be brought so low
that you will speak from the ground.
You will murmur from the dust.
Your voice will be like a ghost from a pit in the ground,
and your speech will whisper from the dust.
⁵But your many foes will become like fine dust,
and the ruthless hordes like blowing chaff.
This will take place suddenly, in an instant.
⁶You will be visited by the Lord of Armies
with thunder, earthquake, and a loud noise,
with a strong wind and a storm,
and with the flames of a devouring fire.
⁷The hordes of nations that fight against Ariel,
all who fight against her and her stronghold,
all who besiege her—
all of them will be like a dream,
like a vision in the night.
⁸They will be like a hungry man who dreams and sees himself eating,
but then he wakes up, and his hunger is not satisfied.
They will be like a thirsty man who dreams and sees himself drinking,
but then he wakes up and, sure enough, he is weak with thirst.
That is how it will be with the hordes of nations
that fight against Mount Zion.
⁹Be stunned! Be amazed!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine.
They stagger, but not from beer.^[4]
¹⁰For the Lord has poured out a spirit of deep sleep over you.
He has closed your eyes—the prophets.
He has covered your heads—the seers.

¹¹For you this whole vision has become like the words of a sealed scroll. If you give it to someone who can read, and you say, “Read this, please,” he will say, “I can’t. It is sealed.” ¹²And if you give it to someone who cannot read, and you say, “Read this, please,” he will say, “I can’t read.”

¹³The Lord says:
These people approach me with their words,
and they honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is nothing but commandments taught by men.^[5]
¹⁴So watch how I will continue to amaze these people
with amazing, extraordinary things.
The wisdom of the wise will perish,
and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.

Hope for the Future

¹⁵Woe to those who try to hide their plans from the Lord.
Their deeds are done in darkness,
and they think that no one sees them
or knows what they are doing.

¹⁶You turn things upside down!
Should the potter be treated like clay?
Should the thing that was made say to its maker,
“You didn’t make me”?
Should the creation say to the creator,
“You know nothing”?

¹⁷Isn’t it true that in a very short time
Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field,
and the fertile field will seem like a forest?
¹⁸On that day, the deaf will hear the words from a book,
and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
¹⁹The humble will rejoice in the Lord once again,
and the poor will delight in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰But the ruthless will come to nothing.
Those who mock will be no more,
and all those who plan evil will be cut off—
²¹all those who slander others with a word,
all those who argue cases at the city gate,
all those who use false testimony to deprive the innocent of justice.

²²Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham,
says about the house of Jacob:
    Jacob will not be ashamed anymore.
    His face will not grow pale.
²³    But when his children see what I do among them,
    they will honor my name.
    They will honor the Holy One of Jacob.
    They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
²⁴    Those who are confused will come to understand,
    and those who complain will gladly receive instruction.

A Useless Treaty With Egypt

Isaiah 30

¹Woe to this rebellious people, says the Lord.

They take advice, but not from me.
They establish an alliance, but not by my Spirit.
Then they sin more and more.
²Woe to those who go down to Egypt, without consulting me.
They seek Pharaoh’s protection,
and they take refuge in the shade of Egypt!
³So Pharaoh’s protection will bring you shame.
Taking refuge in the shade of Egypt will be your downfall.
⁴Even though Israel’s officials are in Zoan,
and their envoys have gone as far as Hanes,
⁵they will all be humiliated
because of a people that is useless to them.
They can neither help nor provide any benefit.
They bring only shame and reproach.

Judah’s Envoys Take Tribute to Egypt

⁶An oracle about the animals of the Negev.

Through the land of trouble and distress,
the land of the lioness and the lion,
of the viper and the venomous flying serpent,
Judah’s envoys carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on camels’ humps,
to a nation that cannot help them.
⁷For Egypt’s help is useless and serves no purpose.
That is why I have called her “the dragon that just sits there.”^[6]
⁸Go and write it on a tablet for them.
Record it on a scroll,
so that in the future it may serve as a permanent witness.
⁹These are a rebellious people, lying children,
children unwilling to hear the law of the Lord,
¹⁰who tell the seers, “Stop seeing!”
who tell the prophets, “Stop prophesying what is right!
Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy illusions.
¹¹Leave the way! Turn from the path!
Stop getting in our face about the Holy One of Israel!”
¹²This is what the Holy One of Israel says:
    Since you have rejected my word,
    and you trust in oppression and deceit,
    and you rely on them,
¹³    your guilt will be like a crack in a wall,
    bulging out and about to collapse.
    It will suddenly fall without warning.
¹⁴    It will crash like a broken clay pot,
    smashed to pieces so violently that not one useful piece will be left,
    not even a piece good enough to pick up a coal from the hearth
    or to ladle water from a cistern.
¹⁵This is what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says:
    If you repent and wait quietly, you will be saved.
    Your strength will depend on quietness and trust.
But you refused.
¹⁶You said, “No, we will flee on horseback!”
Yes indeed, you will flee.
You said, “We will ride away swiftly!”
Yes indeed, you will be pursued swiftly.
¹⁷A thousand will flee when just one threatens.
When five threaten, you will flee,
until you are like a single flag, fluttering on a mountaintop,
like a lonely banner on a hill.

Footnotes

Isaiah 29:1 That is, Jerusalem. Ariel means Lion of God, but it also can mean an altar hearth of burning coals, which is what Jerusalem will become.
Isaiah 29:2 Hebrew Ariel
Isaiah 29:3 Or a garrison or an invading army or earthen ramps
Isaiah 29:9 Beer refers to any fermented drink not made from grapes. Distilled alcohol was unknown in biblical times.
Isaiah 29:13 The translation follows the Hebrew. The Greek reads: They worship me in vain. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. See Matthew 15:8-9.
Isaiah 30:7 Literally Rahab who sits still. Rahab was the name of a dragon-like sea monster or river monster. See Job 26:12; Psalm 89:9-10.

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 26

2024/12/26/in Through My Bible

Through My Bible Yr 01 – December 26

Isaiah 28

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Through My Bible – December 26

Isaiah 28 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

A Warning to the Northern Kingdom

¹Woe to drunken Ephraim’s proud crown,

to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
on the peak that overlooks a fertile valley.
Woe to those who are overcome with wine!

²Look, the Lord has someone who is strong and mighty.
Like a hailstorm,
like a destructive windstorm,
like a hurricane that drives surging waters,
he will throw them down to the earth with his own hand.
³Drunken Ephraim’s proud crown will be trampled underfoot.
⁴The fading flower of its glorious beauty, on the peak overlooking
        a fertile valley,
    will be like the early figs before summer,
    which someone picks and swallows as soon as he sees them.
⁵On that day the Lord of Armies will become a glorious crown
and a beautifully braided headband for the remnant of his people.
⁶He will provide a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment,
and strength for those who turn back the battle at the gate.

The Drunken Prophets and Priests

⁷They stagger into error because of wine,
and they stumble off the way because of beer.
The priests and prophets stagger with beer,
and they are dizzy from wine.
They stumble from beer.
They stagger when they see visions.
They reel when they render judgment.
⁸All their tables are covered with vomit.
There is not a spot without filth.

⁹They^[1] say:
    Who is he trying to teach?
    Who needs his instruction?
    A baby who has just been weaned from milk?
    An infant just taken from the breast?
¹⁰They say:
    Law by law, law by law,
    rule by rule, rule by rule,^[2]
    a little here, a little there.
¹¹So the Lord will speak to this people
    with barbarous lips and in a foreign tongue.
¹²He said to them,
“This is the resting place.
Let the weary rest.
This is the place to be refreshed,”
but they would not listen.
¹³That is why to them the word of the Lord will be:
    Law by law, law by law,
    rule by rule, rule by rule,^[3]
    a little here, a little there.
As a result they will try to walk,
but they will fall backwards.
They will be hurt, trapped, and taken.

A Covenant With Death

¹⁴So now, hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers,
who rule this people in Jerusalem.
¹⁵You said:
    We have made a covenant with death,
    an agreement with the grave.^[4]
    When the punishing whip^[5] comes, it will not touch us,
    for we have made lies our refuge,
    and we have hidden ourselves behind falsehood.

A Cornerstone for Zion

¹⁶Therefore, this is what the Lord God says:
    Look, I am laying a stone in Zion as a foundation,
    a tested stone,
    a precious cornerstone to provide a sure foundation.
    Whoever believes will not be put to shame.^[6]
¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line.
A hailstorm will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and floodwaters will wash away your shelter.
¹⁸Your covenant with death will be canceled,
and your agreement with the grave will not stand.
When the punishing whip comes,
you will be beaten down by it.
¹⁹Every time it comes, it will carry you away.
It could come any morning, any day, any night.

If you understand this message, you will be utterly terrified:
²⁰    The bed is too short to lie on,
    and the blanket is too narrow to cover you.
²¹For the Lord will rise up as he did on Mount Perazim.
He will be enraged, as he was in the valley of Gibeon,
    to do his work, his strange work,
    and to accomplish his task, his foreign task.
²²Now stop your scornful attitude, or your chains
        will be made stronger,
because I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord,
        the Lord of Armies,
    against the whole earth.

A Parable

²³Listen! Hear my voice.
Pay attention to what I say.
²⁴Does the plowman keep plowing all day in order to plant?
Does he keep tilling the soil and turning over the dirt?
²⁵When he has leveled the surface,
doesn’t he plant the dill
and scatter cumin seed?
He plants the wheat in one place,
barley in another field,
and spelt along the edge.
²⁶His God instructs him
and teaches him good judgment.
²⁷Of course he does not thresh the dill with a threshing sledge,
nor does he roll the wheel of a cart over the cumin.
No, he beats the dill with a stick
and strikes the cumin with a staff.
²⁸Flour for bread needs to be ground,
so he does not thresh endlessly.
He drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it
and even his team of horses,
but he does not pulverize it.
²⁹This also springs forth from the Lord of Armies.
He gives amazing advice.
He provides great guidance.

Footnotes

Isaiah 28:9 That is, the drunken priests and prophets who mock Isaiah
Isaiah 28:10 The Hebrew text reads sav lasav sav lasav kav lakav kav lakav. It is possible that these are meaningless sounds imitating a baby’s babble and mocking the prophet’s words and rejecting God’s laws.
Isaiah 28:13 The Hebrew is the same as in verse 10, but now the Lord uses the words of the mockers as a warning about the foreign speech of the invading Assyrians.
Isaiah 28:15 Hebrew sheol
Isaiah 28:15 Or overwhelming judgment. The two words in this phrase do not match well. The noun means whip. The adjective means flooding. Also in verse 18.
Isaiah 28:16 The translation here follows the Greek text. The Hebrew and Latin read will not be in haste.

WELS CENTER FOR MISSION AND MINISTRY

Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 25

Isaiah 61 – 63:6 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 25

The Fifth Servant Song

The Spirit Anoints Him [1]

Isaiah 61

The Result of the Servant’s Work

For Zion’s Sake, Cry Out

Isaiah 62

The Day of Vengeance

The Prophet’s Question

Isaiah 63

The Servant’s Response

The Prophet’s Question

The Servant’s Response

Footnotes

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Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 24

Isaiah 60 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 24

A New Day Dawns for Zion

Isaiah 60

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Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 23

Isaiah 59 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 23

Guilt Separates People From God

Isaiah 59

Footnotes

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Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 22

Isaiah 58 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 22

Fast for the Right Reasons

Isaiah 58

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Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 21

Isaiah 56 & 57 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 21

Isaiah 56

The Lord Welcomes All People

The Coming Judgment Against Israel’s Leaders

There Will Be Peace for the Righteous Even in Death

Isaiah 57

The Coming Judgment Against Israel’s Leaders

Footnotes

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Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 20

Isaiah 55 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 20

Come to the Water

Isaiah 55

The Creator’s Everlasting Covenant

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Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 19

Isaiah 54 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 19

Jerusalem Will Have Many Children

Isaiah 54

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Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 18

Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 18

The Fourth Servant Song The Lord’s

Servant Suffers for Straying Sheep

Isaiah 52

Isaiah 53

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Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 17

Isaiah 51:17 – 52:12 (EHV)

Through My Bible – January 17

The Cup of the Lord’s Wrath

Isaiah 51

Freedom for Zion

Isaiah 52

The Spirit Anoints Him ^[1]

The Fourth Servant Song
The Lord’s

The Third Servant Song
The Lord’s Servant Is Vindicated

The Second Servant Song
The Lord’s Servant Saves the Nations