Today's Reading

¹"Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

²Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

³'Why have we fasted,' say they, 'and you do not see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge?' "Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.

⁴Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you do not fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

⁶"Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

⁷Isn't it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?

⁸Then your light shall break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

⁹Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' "If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly;

¹⁰and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light shall rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday;

¹¹and the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

¹²Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

¹³"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:

¹⁴then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father:" for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

¹Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear:

²but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

³For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.

⁴None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

⁵They hatch adders' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.

⁶Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

⁷Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.

⁸The way of peace they do not know; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes therein does not know peace.

⁹Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.

¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.

¹¹We roar all like bears, and moan bitterly like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

¹³transgressing and denying the Lord, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

¹⁴Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter.

¹⁵Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

¹⁶He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld him.

¹⁷He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.

¹⁸According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.

¹⁹So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of the Lord drives.

²⁰"A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob," says the Lord.

²¹"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the Lord. "My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed," says the Lord, "from henceforth and forever."

¹"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen on you.

²For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you.

³Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

⁴"Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms.

⁵Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

⁶The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of the Lord.

⁷All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar; and I will glorify the house of my glory.

⁸"Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

⁹Surely the islands shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you.

¹⁰"Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you: for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor have I had mercy on you.

¹¹Your gates also shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings led captive.

¹²For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

¹³"The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

¹⁴The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you; and all those who despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵"Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man passed through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

¹⁶You shall also drink the milk of the nations, and shall nurse from royal breasts; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

¹⁷For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also make your officers peace, and righteousness your ruler.

¹⁸Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

¹⁹The sun shall be no more your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light to you: but the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.

²⁰Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

²¹Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

²²The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time."

¹Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, even as you are living, that you excel more and more.

²For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

³For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,

⁴that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

⁵not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who do not know God;

⁶that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.

⁷For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.

⁸Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.

⁹But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,

¹⁰for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more;

¹¹and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you;

¹²that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

¹³But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

¹⁵For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁶For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God's trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,

¹⁷then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.

¹⁸Therefore comfort one another with these words.

¹The words of king Lemuel; the oracle which his mother taught him.

²"Oh, my son! Oh, son of my womb! Oh, son of my vows!

³Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.

⁴It is not for kings, Lemuel; it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes to say, 'Where is strong drink?'

⁵lest they drink, and forget the decree, and pervert the justice due to anyone who is afflicted.

⁶Give strong drink to him who is ready to perish; and wine to the bitter in soul:

⁷Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

⁸Open your mouth for the mute, in the cause of all who are left desolate.

⁹Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy."

¹⁰Who can find a worthy woman? For her price is far above rubies.

¹¹The heart of her husband trusts in her. He shall have no lack of gain.

¹²She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.

¹³She seeks wool and flax, and works eagerly with her hands.

¹⁴She is like the merchant ships. She brings her bread from afar.

¹⁵She rises also while it is yet night, gives food to her household, and portions for her servant girls.

¹⁶She considers a field, and buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard.

¹⁷She girds her waist with strength, and makes her arms strong.

¹⁸She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp doesn't go out by night.

¹⁹She lays her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

²⁰She opens her arms to the poor; yes, she extends her hands to the needy.

²¹She is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

²²She makes for herself carpets of tapestry. Her clothing is fine linen and purple.

²³Her husband is respected in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land.

²⁴She makes linen garments and sells them, and delivers sashes to the merchant.

²⁵Strength and dignity are her clothing. She laughs at the time to come.

²⁶She opens her mouth with wisdom. Faithful instruction is on her tongue.

²⁷She looks well to the ways of her household, and doesn't eat the bread of idleness.

²⁸Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also praises her:

²⁹"Many women do noble things, but you excel them all."

³⁰Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

³¹Give her of the fruit of her hands! Let her works praise her in the gates!