Today's Reading

¹"Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.

²"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."

³The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.

⁵The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it."

⁶The voice of one saying, "Cry!" One said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, because the Lord's breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.

⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever."

⁹You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God!"

¹⁰Behold, the Lord God will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.

¹²Who has measured the waters of the sea in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who has known the mind of the Lord, or has taught him as his counselor?

¹⁴Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?

¹⁹A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.

²⁰He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved.

²¹Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?

²²It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;

²³who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless.

²⁴They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

²⁵"To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.

²⁷Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"

²⁸Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

²⁹He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.

³⁰Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;

³¹But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

¹"Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let's meet together for judgment.

²Who has raised up one from the east? Whom he called to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.

³He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.

⁴Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he."

⁵The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come.

⁶Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, "Be strong!"

⁷So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

⁸"But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,

⁹You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;'

¹⁰Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

¹¹Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.

¹²You will seek them, and won't find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.

¹³For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, 'Do not be afraid. I will help you.'

¹⁴Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you," says the Lord, "and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in the Lord. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

¹⁹I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;

²⁰that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹Produce your cause," says the Lord. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob.

²²"Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

²³Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.

²⁴Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵"I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.

²⁶Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, 'He is right?' Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.

²⁷I am the first to say to Zion, 'Behold, look at them;' and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.

²⁸When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.

²⁹Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.

¹"Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights- I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.

²He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street.

³He won't break a bruised reed. He won't quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.

⁴He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and for his law the coastlands will hope."

⁵Thus says God the Lord, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.

⁶"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations;

⁷to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.

⁸"I am the Lord. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.

⁹Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up."

¹⁰Sing to the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants.

¹¹Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains!

¹²Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands.

¹³The Lord will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.

¹⁴"I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.

¹⁵I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way that they do not know. I will lead them in paths that they do not know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷"Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, 'You are our gods' will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.

¹⁸"Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as the Lord's servant?

²⁰You see many things, but do not observe. His ears are open, but he doesn't listen.

²¹It pleased the Lord, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.

²²But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become a prey, and no one delivers; and a spoil, and no one says, 'Restore them!'

²³Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?

²⁴Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.

²⁵Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he did not know; and it burned him, but he did not take it to heart."

¹For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

²that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, which is Christ,

³in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.

⁴Now this I say that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.

⁵For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

⁶As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,

⁷rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.

⁸Be careful that you do not let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.

⁹For in him all the fullness of God's nature dwells bodily,

¹⁰and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;

¹¹in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;

¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

¹⁴wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;

¹⁵having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

¹⁶Let no man therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,

¹⁷which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's.

¹⁸Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

¹⁹and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God's growth.

²⁰If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,

²¹"Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch"

²²(all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?

²³Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

¹These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.

²It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

³As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.

⁴Take away the dross from the silver, and material comes out for the refiner;

⁵Take away the wicked from the king's presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

⁶Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, or claim a place among great men;

⁷for it is better that it be said to you, "Come up here," than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen.

⁸Do not be hasty in bringing charges to court. What will you do in the end when your neighbor shames you?

⁹Debate your case with your neighbor, and do not betray the confidence of another;

¹⁰lest one who hears it put you to shame, and your bad reputation never depart.

¹¹A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

¹²As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear.

¹³As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him; for he refreshes the soul of his masters.

¹⁴As clouds and wind without rain, so is he who boasts of gifts deceptively.

¹⁵By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone.

¹⁶Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you eat too much, and vomit it.

¹⁷Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he be weary of you, and hate you.

¹⁸A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.

¹⁹Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth, or a lame foot.

²⁰As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, or vinegar on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink:

²²for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

²³The north wind brings forth rain: so a backbiting tongue brings an angry face.

²⁴It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than to share a house with a contentious woman.

²⁵Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

²⁶Like a muddied spring, and a polluted well, so is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.

²⁷It is not good to eat much honey; nor is it honorable to seek one's own honor.

²⁸Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man whose spirit is without restraint.