Today's Reading

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, and they do not seek the Lord!

²Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.

³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

⁴For thus says the Lord to me, "As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.

⁵As birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it."

⁶Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.

⁷For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold-sin which your own hands have made for you.

⁸"The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor.

⁹His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner," says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

¹Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice.

²A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.

³The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

⁶For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against the Lord, To make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

⁷The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

⁸But the noble devises noble things; and he will continue in noble things.

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!

¹⁰For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage shall fail. The harvest won't come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

¹³Thorns and briars will come up on my people's land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;

¹⁵Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.

¹⁷The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

¹⁹Though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.

¹Woe to you who destroy, but you weren't destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed.

²Lord, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

³At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.

⁴Your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.

⁵The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is your treasure.

⁷Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

⁸The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn't regard man.

⁹The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

¹⁰"Now I will arise," says the Lord; "Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted.

¹¹You will conceive chaff. You will bring forth stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you.

¹²The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire.

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might."

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?

¹⁵He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil-

¹⁶he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land.

¹⁸Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?

¹⁹You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can't comprehend, with a strange language that you can't understand.

²⁰Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won't be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.

²¹But there the Lord will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there.

²²For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us.

²³Your rigging is untied. They couldn't strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn't spread the sail. Then the prey of a great spoil was divided. The lame took the prey.

²⁴The inhabitant won't say, "I am sick." The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.

¹Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.

²Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

³For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;

⁴though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more:

⁵circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

⁶concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

⁷However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.

⁸More than that, I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ

⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

¹⁰that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;

¹¹if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

¹³Brothers, I do not regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forward to the things which are ahead,

¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

¹⁶Nevertheless, to what we have attained, to the same continue on.

¹⁷Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

¹⁸For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

²⁰For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

²¹who will change our lowly bodies into the likeness of his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

¹A good name is more desirable than great riches, and loving favor is better than silver and gold.

²The rich and the poor have this in common: The Lord is the maker of them all.

³A prudent man sees danger, and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

⁴The result of humility and the fear of the Lord is wealth, honor, and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked: whoever guards his soul stays from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

⁷The rich rule over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender.

⁸He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.

⁹He who has a generous eye will be blessed; for he shares his food with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out the mocker, and strife will go out; yes, quarrels and insults will stop.

¹¹He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully is the king's friend.

¹²The eyes of the Lord watch over knowledge; but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.

¹³The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!"

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit: he who is under the Lord's wrath will fall into it.

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child: the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

¹⁶Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.

¹⁷Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching.

¹⁸For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips.

¹⁹That your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you.

²⁰Haven't I written to you thirty excellent things of counsel and knowledge,

²¹To teach you truth, reliable words, to give sound answers to the ones who sent you?

²²Do not exploit the poor, because he is poor; and do not crush the needy in court;

²³for the Lord will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them.

²⁴Do not befriend a hot-tempered man, and do not associate with one who harbors anger:

²⁵lest you learn his ways, and ensnare your soul.

²⁶Do not be one of those who strike hands, of those who are collateral for debts.

²⁷If you do not have means to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?

²⁸Do not move the ancient boundary stone, which your fathers have set up.

²⁹Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings. He won't serve obscure men.