Podcasts about dedanites

April 25, 2025 - Equipped 2025 - Day 2 - 2:30PM Session   Looking at the life as a prophet, Ken reflects on how Isaiah wrote his inspired work.   Isaiah 20-23 -The Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia 20 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, 2 at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?' ” The Fall of Babylon Proclaimed 21 The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea. As whirlwinds in the South pass through, So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. 2 A distressing vision is declared to me; The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, And the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All its sighing I have made to cease. 3 Therefore my loins are filled with pain; Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it; I was dismayed when I saw it. 4 My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me. 5 Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield! 6 For thus has the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman, Let him declare what he sees.” 7 And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels, And he listened earnestly with great care. 8 Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime; I have sat at my post every night. 9 And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!” Then he answered and said, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground.” 10 Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, The God of Israel, I have declared to you. Proclamation Against Edom 11 The burden against Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” 12 The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!” Proclamation Against Arabia 13 The burden against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanites. 14 O inhabitants of the land of Tema, Bring water to him who is thirsty; With their bread they met him who fled. 15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, From the bent bow, and from the distress of war. 16 For thus the Lord has said to me: “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail; 17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.” Proclamation Against Jerusalem 22 The burden against the Valley of Vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops, 2 You who are full of noise, A tumultuous city, a joyous city? Your slain men are not slain with the sword, Nor dead in battle. 3 All your rulers have fled together; They are captured by the archers. All who are found in you are bound together; They have fled from afar. 4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; Do not labor to comfort me Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.” 5 For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity By the Lord God of hosts In the Valley of Vision— Breaking down the walls And of crying to the mountain. 6 Elam bore the quiver With chariots of men and horsemen, And Kir uncovered the shield. 7 It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys Shall be full of chariots, And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. 8 He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest; 9 You also saw the damage to the city of David, That it was great; And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. 10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, And the houses you broke down To fortify the wall. 11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls For the water of the old pool. But you did not look to its Maker, Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago. 12 And in that day the Lord God of hosts Called for weeping and for mourning, For baldness and for girding with sackcloth. 13 But instead, joy and gladness, Slaying oxen and killing sheep, Eating meat and drinking wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” 14 Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts, “Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, Even to your death,” says the Lord God of hosts. The Judgment on Shebna 15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Go, proceed to this steward, To Shebna, who is over the house, and say: 16 ‘What have you here, and whom have you here, That you have hewn a sepulcher here, As he who hews himself a sepulcher on high, Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock? 17 Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently, O mighty man, And will surely seize you. 18 He will surely turn violently and toss you like a ball Into a large country; There you shall die, and there your glorious chariots Shall be the shame of your master's house. 19 So I will drive you out of your office, And from your position he will pull you down. 20 ‘Then it shall be in that day, That I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah; 21 I will clothe him with your robe And strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem And to the house of Judah. 22 The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; So he shall open, and no one shall shut; And he shall shut, and no one shall open. 23 I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place, And he will become a glorious throne to his father's house. 24 ‘They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the posterity, all vessels of small quantity, from the cups to all the pitchers. 25 In that day,' says the Lord of hosts, ‘the peg that is fastened in the secure place will be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for the Lord has spoken.' ” Proclamation Against Tyre 23 The burden against Tyre. Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, So that there is no house, no harbor; From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. 2 Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland, You merchants of Sidon, Whom those who cross the sea have filled. 3 And on great waters the grain of Shihor, The harvest of the River, is her revenue; And she is a marketplace for the nations. 4 Be ashamed, O Sidon; For the sea has spoken, The strength of the sea, saying, “I do not labor, nor bring forth children; Neither do I rear young men, Nor bring up virgins.” 5 When the report reaches Egypt, They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre. 6 Cross over to Tarshish; Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland! 7 Is this your joyous city, Whose antiquity is from ancient days, Whose feet carried her far off to dwell? 8 Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, Whose merchants are princes, Whose traders are the honorable of the earth? 9 The Lord of hosts has purposed it, To bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. 10 Overflow through your land like the River, O daughter of Tarshish; There is no more strength. 11 He stretched out His hand over the sea, He shook the kingdoms; The Lord has given a commandment against Canaan To destroy its strongholds. 12 And He said, “You will rejoice no more, O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, cross over to Cyprus; There also you will have no rest.” 13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans, This people which was not; Assyria founded it for wild beasts of the desert. They set up its towers, They raised up its palaces, And brought it to ruin. 14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For your strength is laid waste. 15 Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: 16 “Take a harp, go about the city, You forgotten harlot; Make sweet melody, sing many songs, That you may be remembered.” 17 And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire, and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. 18 Her gain and her pay will be set apart for the Lord; it will not be treasured nor laid up, for her gain will be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for fine clothing.   Isaiah 35-39 - The Future Glory of Zion 35 The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; 2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, The excellency of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.” 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. 7 The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8 A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. 9 No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, 10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Sennacherib Boasts Against the Lord 36 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller's Field. 3 And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him. 4 Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What confidence is this in which you trust? 5 I say you speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? 6 Look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,' is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar'?” ' 8 Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! 9 How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.' ” 11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?” 13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; 15 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ' 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?' ” 21 But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh. Isaiah Assures Deliverance 37 And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.' ” 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ' ” Sennacherib's Threat and Hezekiah's Prayer 8 Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9 And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to make war with you.” So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 11 Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?' ” 14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 18 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. 20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord, You alone.” The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib 21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him: “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back! 23 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 24 By your servants you have reproached the Lord, And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, To the limits of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars And its choice cypress trees; I will enter its farthest height, To its fruitful forest. 25 I have dug and drunk water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.' 26 “Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. 27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power; They were dismayed and confounded; They were as the grass of the field And the green herb, As the grass on the housetops And grain blighted before it is grown. 28 “But I know your dwelling place, Your going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me. 29 Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came.” ' 30 “This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. 31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, And those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,' Says the Lord. 35 ‘For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.' ” Sennacherib's Defeat and Death 36 Then the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 38 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. Hezekiah's Life Extended 38 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' ” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, 3 and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.” ' 7 And this is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken: 8 Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down. 9 This is the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: 10 I said, “In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years.” 11 I said, “I shall not see Yah, The Lord in the land of the living; I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world. 12 My life span is gone, Taken from me like a shepherd's tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me. 13 I have considered until morning— Like a lion, So He breaks all my bones; From day until night You make an end of me. 14 Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove; My eyes fail from looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; Undertake for me! 15 “What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, And He Himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years In the bitterness of my soul. 16 O Lord, by these things men live; And in all these things is the life of my spirit; So You will restore me and make me live. 17 Indeed it was for my own peace That I had great bitterness; But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back. 18 For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth. 19 The living, the living man, he shall praise You, As I do this day; The father shall make known Your truth to the children. 20 “The Lord was ready to save me; Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life, in the house of the Lord.” 21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and apply it as a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” 22 And Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?” The Babylonian Envoys 39 At that time Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 3 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.” 4 And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.” 5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: 6 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the Lord. 7 ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' ” 8 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.”   Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_459QS0jW0   Duration 34:07

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 118 Psalm 118 (Listen) His Steadfast Love Endures Forever 118   Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;    for his steadfast love endures forever! 2   Let Israel say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.”3   Let the house of Aaron say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.”4   Let those who fear the LORD say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.” 5   Out of my distress I called on the LORD;    the LORD answered me and set me free.6   The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.    What can man do to me?7   The LORD is on my side as my helper;    I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8   It is better to take refuge in the LORD    than to trust in man.9   It is better to take refuge in the LORD    than to trust in princes. 10   All nations surrounded me;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!11   They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!12   They surrounded me like bees;    they went out like a fire among thorns;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!13   I was pushed hard,1 so that I was falling,    but the LORD helped me. 14   The LORD is my strength and my song;    he has become my salvation.15   Glad songs of salvation    are in the tents of the righteous:  “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly,16     the right hand of the LORD exalts,    the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!” 17   I shall not die, but I shall live,    and recount the deeds of the LORD.18   The LORD has disciplined me severely,    but he has not given me over to death. 19   Open to me the gates of righteousness,    that I may enter through them    and give thanks to the LORD.20   This is the gate of the LORD;    the righteous shall enter through it.21   I thank you that you have answered me    and have become my salvation.22   The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone.223   This is the LORD's doing;    it is marvelous in our eyes.24   This is the day that the LORD has made;    let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25   Save us, we pray, O LORD!    O LORD, we pray, give us success! 26   Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!    We bless you from the house of the LORD.27   The LORD is God,    and he has made his light to shine upon us.  Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,    up to the horns of the altar! 28   You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;    you are my God; I will extol you.29   Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;    for his steadfast love endures forever! Footnotes [1] 118:13 Hebrew You (that is, the enemy) pushed me hard [2] 118:22 Hebrew the head of the corner (ESV) Pentateuch and History: 2 Kings 25:22–30 2 Kings 25:22–30 (Listen) Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah 22 And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor. 23 Now when all the captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite. 24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” 25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26 Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. Jehoiachin Released from Prison 27 And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed1 Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 28 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king's table, 30 and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived. Footnotes [1] 25:27 Hebrew reign, lifted up the head of (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Isaiah 21 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: John 18:1–27 John 18:1–27 (Listen) Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus 18 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.”1 Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus2 said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” 10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant3 and cut off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.) 11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” Jesus Faces Annas and Caiaphas 12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews4 arrested Jesus and bound him. 13 First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. Peter Denies Jesus 15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 16 but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. 17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” 18 Now the servants5 and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself. The High Priest Questions Jesus 19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.” 22 When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?” 24 Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Peter Denies Jesus Again 25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” 27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. Footnotes [1] 18:5 Greek I am; also verses 6, 8 [2] 18:6 Greek he [3] 18:10 Or bondservant; twice in this verse [4] 18:12 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verses 14, 31, 36, 38 [5] 18:18 Or bondservants; also verse 26 (ESV)

Old Testament: Isaiah 20–22 Isaiah 20–22 (Listen) A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,1 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,2    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:3  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 20:3 Probably Nubia [2] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [3] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 88 Psalm 88 (Listen) I Cry Out Day and Night Before You A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil1 of Heman the Ezrahite. 88   O LORD, God of my salvation,    I cry out day and night before you.2   Let my prayer come before you;    incline your ear to my cry! 3   For my soul is full of troubles,    and my life draws near to Sheol.4   I am counted among those who go down to the pit;    I am a man who has no strength,5   like one set loose among the dead,    like the slain that lie in the grave,  like those whom you remember no more,    for they are cut off from your hand.6   You have put me in the depths of the pit,    in the regions dark and deep.7   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,    and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah 8   You have caused my companions to shun me;    you have made me a horror2 to them.  I am shut in so that I cannot escape;9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.  Every day I call upon you, O LORD;    I spread out my hands to you.10   Do you work wonders for the dead?    Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah11   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?12   Are your wonders known in the darkness,    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13   But I, O LORD, cry to you;    in the morning my prayer comes before you.14   O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?    Why do you hide your face from me?15   Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.316   Your wrath has swept over me;    your dreadful assaults destroy me.17   They surround me like a flood all day long;    they close in on me together.18   You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;    my companions have become darkness.4 Footnotes [1] 88:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms [2] 88:8 Or an abomination [3] 88:15 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [4] 88:18 Or darkness has become my only companion (ESV) New Testament: Acts 11 Acts 11 (Listen) Peter Reports to the Church 11 Now the apostles and the brothers1 who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party2 criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.' 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.' 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” The Church in Antioch 19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists3 also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. 27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). 29 So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers4 living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Footnotes [1] 11:1 Or brothers and sisters [2] 11:2 Or Jerusalem, those of the circumcision [3] 11:20 Or Greeks (that is, Greek-speaking non-Jews) [4] 11:29 Or brothers and sisters (ESV)

Old Testament: Isaiah 20–22 Isaiah 20–22 (Listen) A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,1 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,2    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:3  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 20:3 Probably Nubia [2] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [3] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) New Testament: Hebrews 10:19–39 Hebrews 10:19–39 (Listen) The Full Assurance of Faith 19 Therefore, brothers,1 since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,   “Yet a little while,    and the coming one will come and will not delay;38   but my righteous one shall live by faith,    and if he shrinks back,  my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. Footnotes [1] 10:19 Or brothers and sisters (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 88 Psalm 88 (Listen) I Cry Out Day and Night Before You A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil1 of Heman the Ezrahite. 88   O LORD, God of my salvation,    I cry out day and night before you.2   Let my prayer come before you;    incline your ear to my cry! 3   For my soul is full of troubles,    and my life draws near to Sheol.4   I am counted among those who go down to the pit;    I am a man who has no strength,5   like one set loose among the dead,    like the slain that lie in the grave,  like those whom you remember no more,    for they are cut off from your hand.6   You have put me in the depths of the pit,    in the regions dark and deep.7   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,    and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah 8   You have caused my companions to shun me;    you have made me a horror2 to them.  I am shut in so that I cannot escape;9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.  Every day I call upon you, O LORD;    I spread out my hands to you.10   Do you work wonders for the dead?    Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah11   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?12   Are your wonders known in the darkness,    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13   But I, O LORD, cry to you;    in the morning my prayer comes before you.14   O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?    Why do you hide your face from me?15   Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.316   Your wrath has swept over me;    your dreadful assaults destroy me.17   They surround me like a flood all day long;    they close in on me together.18   You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;    my companions have become darkness.4 Footnotes [1] 88:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms [2] 88:8 Or an abomination [3] 88:15 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [4] 88:18 Or darkness has become my only companion (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 24:28–29 Proverbs 24:28–29 (Listen) 28   Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause,    and do not deceive with your lips.29   Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;    I will pay the man back for what he has done.” (ESV)

Morning: Isaiah 19–21 Isaiah 19–21 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound1 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.2 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,3 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,4    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:5  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [2] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [3] 20:3 Probably Nubia [4] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [5] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Evening: Ephesians 2 Ephesians 2 (Listen) By Grace Through Faith 2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body1 and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.2 4 But3 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. One in Christ 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,4 but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by5 the Spirit. Footnotes [1] 2:3 Greek flesh [2] 2:3 Greek like the rest [3] 2:4 Or And [4] 2:19 Or sojourners [5] 2:22 Or in (ESV)

Isaiah 18–22 Isaiah 18–22 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Cush 18   Ah, land of whirring wings    that is beyond the rivers of Cush,12   which sends ambassadors by the sea,    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!  Go, you swift messengers,    to a nation tall and smooth,  to a people feared near and far,    a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide. 3   All you inhabitants of the world,    you who dwell on the earth,  when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!    When a trumpet is blown, hear!4   For thus the LORD said to me:  “I will quietly look from my dwelling    like clear heat in sunshine,    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”5   For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,  he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.6   They shall all of them be left    to the birds of prey of the mountains    and to the beasts of the earth.  And the birds of prey will summer on them,    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them. 7 At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts   from a people tall and smooth,    from a people feared near and far,  a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound2 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.3 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,4 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,5    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:6  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 18:1 Probably Nubia [2] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [3] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [4] 20:3 Probably Nubia [5] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [6] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV)

Isaiah 18–22 Isaiah 18–22 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Cush 18   Ah, land of whirring wings    that is beyond the rivers of Cush,12   which sends ambassadors by the sea,    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!  Go, you swift messengers,    to a nation tall and smooth,  to a people feared near and far,    a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide. 3   All you inhabitants of the world,    you who dwell on the earth,  when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!    When a trumpet is blown, hear!4   For thus the LORD said to me:  “I will quietly look from my dwelling    like clear heat in sunshine,    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”5   For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,  he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.6   They shall all of them be left    to the birds of prey of the mountains    and to the beasts of the earth.  And the birds of prey will summer on them,    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them. 7 At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts   from a people tall and smooth,    from a people feared near and far,  a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound2 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.3 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,4 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,5    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:6  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 18:1 Probably Nubia [2] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [3] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [4] 20:3 Probably Nubia [5] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [6] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV)

With family: Numbers 29; Psalm 73 Numbers 29 (Listen) Offerings for the Feast of Trumpets 29 “On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, 2 and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; 3 also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah1 for the bull, two tenths for the ram, 4 and one tenth for each of the seven lambs; 5 with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you; 6 besides the burnt offering of the new moon, and its grain offering, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offering, according to the rule for them, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD. Offerings for the Day of Atonement 7 “On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation and afflict yourselves.2 You shall do no work, 8 but you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old: see that they are without blemish. 9 And their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, 10 a tenth for each of the seven lambs: 11 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings. Offerings for the Feast of Booths 12 “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days. 13 And you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish; 14 and their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two tenths for each of the two rams, 15 and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs; 16 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. 17 “On the second day twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 18 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 19 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings. 20 “On the third day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 21 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 22 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 23 “On the fourth day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 24 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 25 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. 26 “On the fifth day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 27 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 28 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 29 “On the sixth day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 30 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 31 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offerings. 32 “On the seventh day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 33 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 34 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering. 35 “On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly. You shall not do any ordinary work, 36 but you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish, 37 and the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 38 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 39 “These you shall offer to the LORD at your appointed feasts, in addition to your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your grain offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.” 40 3 So Moses told the people of Israel everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses. Footnotes [1] 29:3 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [2] 29:7 Or and fast [3] 29:40 Ch 30:1 in Hebrew (ESV) Psalm 73 (Listen) Book Three God Is My Strength and Portion Forever A Psalm of Asaph. 73   Truly God is good to Israel,    to those who are pure in heart.2   But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,    my steps had nearly slipped.3   For I was envious of the arrogant    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4   For they have no pangs until death;    their bodies are fat and sleek.5   They are not in trouble as others are;    they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.6   Therefore pride is their necklace;    violence covers them as a garment.7   Their eyes swell out through fatness;    their hearts overflow with follies.8   They scoff and speak with malice;    loftily they threaten oppression.9   They set their mouths against the heavens,    and their tongue struts through the earth.10   Therefore his people turn back to them,    and find no fault in them.111   And they say, “How can God know?    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”12   Behold, these are the wicked;    always at ease, they increase in riches.13   All in vain have I kept my heart clean    and washed my hands in innocence.14   For all the day long I have been stricken    and rebuked every morning.15   If I had said, “I will speak thus,”    I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16   But when I thought how to understand this,    it seemed to me a wearisome task,17   until I went into the sanctuary of God;    then I discerned their end. 18   Truly you set them in slippery places;    you make them fall to ruin.19   How they are destroyed in a moment,    swept away utterly by terrors!20   Like a dream when one awakes,    O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.21   When my soul was embittered,    when I was pricked in heart,22   I was brutish and ignorant;    I was like a beast toward you. 23   Nevertheless, I am continually with you;    you hold my right hand.24   You guide me with your counsel,    and afterward you will receive me to glory.25   Whom have I in heaven but you?    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.26   My flesh and my heart may fail,    but God is the strength2 of my heart and my portion forever. 27   For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;    you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.28   But for me it is good to be near God;    I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,    that I may tell of all your works. Footnotes [1] 73:10 Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them [2] 73:26 Hebrew rock (ESV) In private: Isaiah 21; 2 Peter 2 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) 2 Peter 2 (Listen) False Prophets and Teachers 2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell1 and committed them to chains2 of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;3 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,4 and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge5 in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,6 while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery,7 insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves8 of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” Footnotes [1] 2:4 Greek Tartarus [2] 2:4 Some manuscripts pits [3] 2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly [4] 2:9 Or temptations [5] 2:10 Greek who go after the flesh [6] 2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts [7] 2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress [8] 2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 110 Psalm 110 (Listen) Sit at My Right Hand A Psalm of David. 110   The LORD says to my Lord:    “Sit at my right hand,  until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2   The LORD sends forth from Zion    your mighty scepter.    Rule in the midst of your enemies!3   Your people will offer themselves freely    on the day of your power,1    in holy garments;2  from the womb of the morning,    the dew of your youth will be yours.34   The LORD has sworn    and will not change his mind,  “You are a priest forever    after the order of Melchizedek.” 5   The Lord is at your right hand;    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.6   He will execute judgment among the nations,    filling them with corpses;  he will shatter chiefs4    over the wide earth.7   He will drink from the brook by the way;    therefore he will lift up his head. Footnotes [1] 110:3 Or on the day you lead your forces [2] 110:3 Masoretic Text; some Hebrew manuscripts and Jerome on the holy mountains [3] 110:3 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [4] 110:6 Or the head (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Leviticus 16 Leviticus 16 (Listen) The Day of Atonement 16 The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died, 2 and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel.1 9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. 11 “Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. 12 And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13 and put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. 14 And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. 15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel. 20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. 23 “Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the Holy Place and shall leave them there. 24 And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. 26 And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 27 And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire. 28 And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 29 “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves2 and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. 30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins. 31 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. 32 And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father's place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. 33 He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34 And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” And Aaron3 did as the LORD commanded Moses. Footnotes [1] 16:8 The meaning of Azazel is uncertain; possibly the name of a place or a demon, traditionally a scapegoat; also verses 10, 26 [2] 16:29 Or shall fast; also verse 31 [3] 16:34 Hebrew he (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Isaiah 21 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Galatians 1:11–24 Galatians 1:11–24 (Listen) Paul Called by God 11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.1 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born,2 and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to3 me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;4 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me. Footnotes [1] 1:11 Greek not according to man [2] 1:15 Greek set me apart from my mother's womb [3] 1:16 Greek in [4] 1:16 Greek with flesh and blood (ESV)

Preacher: Kathy Maskell Scripture: Isaiah 13-23 A Prophecy Against Babylon 13 A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw: 2 Raise a banner on a bare hilltop,     shout to them; beckon to them     to enter the gates of the nobles. 3 I have commanded those I prepared for battle;     I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath—     those who rejoice in my triumph. 4 Listen, a noise on the mountains,     like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,     like nations massing together! The Lord Almighty is mustering     an army for war. 5 They come from faraway lands,     from the ends of the heavens— the Lord and the weapons of his wrath—     to destroy the whole country. 6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;     it will come like destruction from the Almighty.[a] 7 Because of this, all hands will go limp,     every heart will melt with fear. 8 Terror will seize them,     pain and anguish will grip them;     they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other,     their faces aflame. 9 See, the day of the Lord is coming     —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger— to make the land desolate     and destroy the sinners within it. 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations     will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened     and the moon will not give its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil,     the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty     and will humble the pride of the ruthless. 12 I will make people scarcer than pure gold,     more rare than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;     and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty,     in the day of his burning anger. 14 Like a hunted gazelle,     like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people,     they will flee to their native land. 15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through;     all who are caught will fall by the sword. 16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;     their houses will be looted and their wives violated. 17 See, I will stir up against them the Medes,     who do not care for silver     and have no delight in gold. 18 Their bows will strike down the young men;     they will have no mercy on infants,     nor will they look with compassion on children. 19 Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,     the pride and glory of the Babylonians,[b] will be overthrown by God     like Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 She will never be inhabited     or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents,     there no shepherds will rest their flocks. 21 But desert creatures will lie there,     jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell,     and there the wild goats will leap about. 22 Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds,     jackals her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand,     and her days will not be prolonged. 14 The Lord will have compassion on Jacob;     once again he will choose Israel     and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them     and unite with the descendants of Jacob. 2 Nations will take them     and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations     and make them male and female servants in the Lord's land. They will make captives of their captors     and rule over their oppressors. 3 On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end!     How his fury[c] has ended! 5 The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked,     the scepter of the rulers, 6 which in anger struck down peoples     with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations     with relentless aggression. 7 All the lands are at rest and at peace;     they break into singing. 8 Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon     gloat over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low,     no one comes to cut us down.” 9 The realm of the dead below is all astir     to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you—     all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones—     all those who were kings over the nations. 10 They will all respond,     they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are;     you have become like us.” 11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,     along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you     and worms cover you. 12 How you have fallen from heaven,     morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth,     you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart,     “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne     above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,     on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.[d] 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;     I will make myself like the Most High.” 15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,     to the depths of the pit. 16 Those who see you stare at you,     they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth     and made kingdoms tremble, 17 the man who made the world a wilderness,     who overthrew its cities     and would not let his captives go home?” 18 All the kings of the nations lie in state,     each in his own tomb. 19 But you are cast out of your tomb     like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain,     with those pierced by the sword,     those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot, 20     you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land     and killed your people. Let the offspring of the wicked     never be mentioned again. 21 Prepare a place to slaughter his children     for the sins of their ancestors; they are not to rise to inherit the land     and cover the earth with their cities. 22 “I will rise up against them,”     declares the Lord Almighty. “I will wipe out Babylon's name and survivors,     her offspring and descendants,” declares the Lord. 23 “I will turn her into a place for owls     and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,”     declares the Lord Almighty. 24 The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,     and as I have purposed, so it will happen. 25 I will crush the Assyrian in my land;     on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people,     and his burden removed from their shoulders.” 26 This is the plan determined for the whole world;     this is the hand stretched out over all nations. 27 For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?     His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? A Prophecy Against the Philistines 28 This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died: 29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,     that the rod that struck you is broken; from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,     its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent. 30 The poorest of the poor will find pasture,     and the needy will lie down in safety. But your root I will destroy by famine;     it will slay your survivors. 31 Wail, you gate! Howl, you city!     Melt away, all you Philistines! A cloud of smoke comes from the north,     and there is not a straggler in its ranks. 32 What answer shall be given     to the envoys of that nation? “The Lord has established Zion,     and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.” A Prophecy Against Moab 15 A prophecy against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined,     destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined,     destroyed in a night! 2 Dibon goes up to its temple,     to its high places to weep;     Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved     and every beard cut off. 3 In the streets they wear sackcloth;     on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail,     prostrate with weeping. 4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,     their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,     and their hearts are faint. 5 My heart cries out over Moab;     her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,     as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the hill to Luhith,     weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim     they lament their destruction. 6 The waters of Nimrim are dried up     and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone     and nothing green is left. 7 So the wealth they have acquired and stored up     they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars. 8 Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;     their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,     their lamentation as far as Beer Elim. 9 The waters of Dimon[e] are full of blood,     but I will bring still more upon Dimon[f]— a lion upon the fugitives of Moab     and upon those who remain in the land. 16 Send lambs as tribute     to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert,     to the mount of Daughter Zion. 2 Like fluttering birds     pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab     at the fords of the Arnon. 3 “Make up your mind,” Moab says.     “Render a decision. Make your shadow like night—     at high noon. Hide the fugitives,     do not betray the refugees. 4 Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;     be their shelter from the destroyer.” The oppressor will come to an end,     and destruction will cease;     the aggressor will vanish from the land. 5 In love a throne will be established;     in faithfulness a man will sit on it—     one from the house[g] of David— one who in judging seeks justice     and speeds the cause of righteousness. 6 We have heard of Moab's pride—     how great is her arrogance!— of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;     but her boasts are empty. 7 Therefore the Moabites wail,     they wail together for Moab. Lament and grieve     for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. 8 The fields of Heshbon wither,     the vines of Sibmah also. The rulers of the nations     have trampled down the choicest vines, which once reached Jazer     and spread toward the desert. Their shoots spread out     and went as far as the sea.[h] 9 So I weep, as Jazer weeps,     for the vines of Sibmah. Heshbon and Elealeh,     I drench you with tears! The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit     and over your harvests have been stilled. 10 Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;     no one sings or shouts in the vineyards; no one treads out wine at the presses,     for I have put an end to the shouting. 11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp,     my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. 12 When Moab appears at her high place,     she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray,     it is to no avail. 13 This is the word the Lord has already spoken concerning Moab. 14 But now the Lord says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab's splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.” A Prophecy Against Damascus 17 A prophecy against Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city     but will become a heap of ruins. 2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted     and left to flocks, which will lie down,     with no one to make them afraid. 3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,     and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be     like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the Lord Almighty. 4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;     the fat of his body will waste away. 5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,     gathering the grain in their arms— as when someone gleans heads of grain     in the Valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet some gleanings will remain,     as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,     four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the Lord, the God of Israel. 7 In that day people will look to their Maker     and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. 8 They will not look to the altars,     the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles[i]     and the incense altars their fingers have made. 9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation. 10 You have forgotten God your Savior;     you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants     and plant imported vines, 11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,     and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing     in the day of disease and incurable pain. 12 Woe to the many nations that rage—     they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar—     they roar like the roaring of great waters! 13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,     when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,     like tumbleweed before a gale. 14 In the evening, sudden terror!     Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us,     the lot of those who plunder us. A Prophecy Against Cush 18 Woe to the land of whirring wings[j]     along the rivers of Cush,[k] 2 which sends envoys by sea     in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned,     to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech,     whose land is divided by rivers. 3 All you people of the world,     you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains,     you will see it, and when a trumpet sounds,     you will hear it. 4 This is what the Lord says to me:     “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine,     like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” 5 For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone     and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,     and cut down and take away the spreading branches. 6 They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey     and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer,     the wild animals all winter. 7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned,     from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech,     whose land is divided by rivers— the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty. A Prophecy Against Egypt 19 A prophecy against Egypt: See, the Lord rides on a swift cloud     and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him,     and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear. 2 “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian—     brother will fight against brother,     neighbor against neighbor,     city against city,     kingdom against kingdom. 3 The Egyptians will lose heart,     and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,     the mediums and the spiritists. 4 I will hand the Egyptians over     to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,”     declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty. 5 The waters of the river will dry up,     and the riverbed will be parched and dry. 6 The canals will stink;     the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither, 7     also the plants along the Nile,     at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile     will become parched, will blow away and be no more. 8 The fishermen will groan and lament,     all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water     will pine away. 9 Those who work with combed flax will despair,     the weavers of fine linen will lose hope. 10 The workers in cloth will be dejected,     and all the wage earners will be sick at heart. 11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools;     the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh,     “I am one of the wise men,     a disciple of the ancient kings”? 12 Where are your wise men now?     Let them show you and make known what the Lord Almighty     has planned against Egypt. 13 The officials of Zoan have become fools,     the leaders of Memphis are deceived; the cornerstones of her peoples     have led Egypt astray. 14 The Lord has poured into them     a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does,     as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit. 15 There is nothing Egypt can do—     head or tail, palm branch or reed. 16 In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LordAlmighty raises against them. 17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the Lord Almighty is planning against them. 18 In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.[l] 19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. 21 So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them. 22 The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing[m] on the earth. 25 The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— 2 at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot. 3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portentagainst Egypt and Cush,[n] 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt's shame. 5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. 6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?'” A Prophecy Against Babylon 21 A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,     an invader comes from the desert,     from a land of terror. 2 A dire vision has been shown to me:     The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!     I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused. 3 At this my body is racked with pain,     pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear,     I am bewildered by what I see. 4 My heart falters,     fear makes me tremble; the twilight I longed for     has become a horror to me. 5 They set the tables,     they spread the rugs,     they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers,     oil the shields! 6 This is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout     and have him report what he sees. 7 When he sees chariots     with teams of horses, riders on donkeys     or riders on camels, let him be alert,     fully alert.” 8 And the lookout[o] shouted, “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;     every night I stay at my post. 9 Look, here comes a man in a chariot     with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer:     ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All the images of its gods     lie shattered on the ground!'” 10 My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,     I tell you what I have heard from the Lord Almighty,     from the God of Israel. A Prophecy Against Edom 11 A prophecy against Dumah[p]: Someone calls to me from Seir,     “Watchman, what is left of the night?     Watchman, what is left of the night?” 12 The watchman replies,     “Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask;     and come back yet again.” A Prophecy Against Arabia 13 A prophecy against Arabia: You caravans of Dedanites,     who camp in the thickets of Arabia, 14     bring water for the thirsty; you who live in Tema,     bring food for the fugitives. 15 They flee from the sword,     from the drawn sword, from the bent bow     and from the heat of battle. 16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. 17 The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken. A Prophecy About Jerusalem 22 A prophecy against the Valley of Vision: What troubles you now,     that you have all gone up on the roofs, 2 you town so full of commotion,     you city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword,     nor did they die in battle. 3 All your leaders have fled together;     they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,     having fled while the enemy was still far away. 4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;     let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me     over the destruction of my people.” 5 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day     of tumult and trampling and terror     in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls     and of crying out to the mountains. 6 Elam takes up the quiver,     with her charioteers and horses;     Kir uncovers the shield. 7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,     and horsemen are posted at the city gates. 8 The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,     and you looked in that day     to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest. 9 You saw that the walls of the City of David     were broken through in many places; you stored up water     in the Lower Pool. 10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem     and tore down houses to strengthen the wall. 11 You built a reservoir between the two walls     for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it,     or have regard for the One who planned it long ago. 12 The Lord, the Lord Almighty,     called you on that day to weep and to wail,     to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. 13 But see, there is joy and revelry,     slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,     eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say,     “for tomorrow we die!” 14 The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the Lord Almighty. 15 This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says: “Go, say to this steward,     to Shebna the palace administrator: 16 What are you doing here and who gave you permission     to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height     and chiseling your resting place in the rock? 17 “Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you     and hurl you away, you mighty man. 18 He will roll you up tightly like a ball     and throw you into a large country. There you will die     and there the chariots you were so proud of     will become a disgrace to your master's house. 19 I will depose you from your office,     and you will be ousted from your position. 20 “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sasharound him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. 22 I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat[q] of honor for the house of his father. 24 All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars. 25 “In that day,” declares the Lord Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The Lord has spoken. A Prophecy Against Tyre 23 A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish!     For Tyre is destroyed     and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus     word has come to them. 2 Be silent, you people of the island     and you merchants of Sidon,     whom the seafarers have enriched. 3 On the great waters     came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile[r] was the revenue of Tyre,     and she became the marketplace of the nations. 4 Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea,     for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth;     I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.” 5 When word comes to Egypt,     they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre. 6 Cross over to Tarshish;     wail, you people of the island. 7 Is this your city of revelry,     the old, old city, whose feet have taken her     to settle in far-off lands? 8 Who planned this against Tyre,     the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes,     whose traders are renowned in the earth? 9 The Lord Almighty planned it,     to bring down her pride in all her splendor     and to humble all who are renowned on the earth. 10 Till[s] your land as they do along the Nile,     Daughter Tarshish,     for you no longer have a harbor. 11 The Lord has stretched out his hand over the sea     and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia     that her fortresses be destroyed. 12 He said, “No more of your reveling,     Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus;     even there you will find no rest.” 13 Look at the land of the Babylonians,[t]     this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it     a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers,     they stripped its fortresses bare     and turned it into a ruin. 14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish;     your fortress is destroyed! 15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: 16 “Take up a harp, walk through the city,     you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song,     so that you will be remembered.” 17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. 18 Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord;they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the Lord, for abundant food and fine clothes.

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 118 Psalm 118 (Listen) His Steadfast Love Endures Forever 118   Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;    for his steadfast love endures forever! 2   Let Israel say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.”3   Let the house of Aaron say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.”4   Let those who fear the LORD say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.” 5   Out of my distress I called on the LORD;    the LORD answered me and set me free.6   The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.    What can man do to me?7   The LORD is on my side as my helper;    I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8   It is better to take refuge in the LORD    than to trust in man.9   It is better to take refuge in the LORD    than to trust in princes. 10   All nations surrounded me;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!11   They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!12   They surrounded me like bees;    they went out like a fire among thorns;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!13   I was pushed hard,1 so that I was falling,    but the LORD helped me. 14   The LORD is my strength and my song;    he has become my salvation.15   Glad songs of salvation    are in the tents of the righteous:  “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly,16     the right hand of the LORD exalts,    the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!” 17   I shall not die, but I shall live,    and recount the deeds of the LORD.18   The LORD has disciplined me severely,    but he has not given me over to death. 19   Open to me the gates of righteousness,    that I may enter through them    and give thanks to the LORD.20   This is the gate of the LORD;    the righteous shall enter through it.21   I thank you that you have answered me    and have become my salvation.22   The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone.223   This is the LORD's doing;    it is marvelous in our eyes.24   This is the day that the LORD has made;    let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25   Save us, we pray, O LORD!    O LORD, we pray, give us success! 26   Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!    We bless you from the house of the LORD.27   The LORD is God,    and he has made his light to shine upon us.  Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,    up to the horns of the altar! 28   You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;    you are my God; I will extol you.29   Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;    for his steadfast love endures forever! Footnotes [1] 118:13 Hebrew You (that is, the enemy) pushed me hard [2] 118:22 Hebrew the head of the corner (ESV) Pentateuch and History: 2 Kings 25:22–30 2 Kings 25:22–30 (Listen) Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah 22 And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor. 23 Now when all the captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite. 24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” 25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26 Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. Jehoiachin Released from Prison 27 And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed1 Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 28 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king's table, 30 and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived. Footnotes [1] 25:27 Hebrew reign, lifted up the head of (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Isaiah 21 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: John 18:1–27 John 18:1–27 (Listen) Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus 18 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.”1 Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus2 said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” 10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant3 and cut off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.) 11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” Jesus Faces Annas and Caiaphas 12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews4 arrested Jesus and bound him. 13 First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. Peter Denies Jesus 15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 16 but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. 17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” 18 Now the servants5 and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself. The High Priest Questions Jesus 19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.” 22 When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?” 24 Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Peter Denies Jesus Again 25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” 27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. Footnotes [1] 18:5 Greek I am; also verses 6, 8 [2] 18:6 Greek he [3] 18:10 Or bondservant; twice in this verse [4] 18:12 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verses 14, 31, 36, 38 [5] 18:18 Or bondservants; also verse 26 (ESV)

Old Testament: Isaiah 20–22 Isaiah 20–22 (Listen) A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,1 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,2    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:3  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 20:3 Probably Nubia [2] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [3] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 88 Psalm 88 (Listen) I Cry Out Day and Night Before You A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil1 of Heman the Ezrahite. 88   O LORD, God of my salvation,    I cry out day and night before you.2   Let my prayer come before you;    incline your ear to my cry! 3   For my soul is full of troubles,    and my life draws near to Sheol.4   I am counted among those who go down to the pit;    I am a man who has no strength,5   like one set loose among the dead,    like the slain that lie in the grave,  like those whom you remember no more,    for they are cut off from your hand.6   You have put me in the depths of the pit,    in the regions dark and deep.7   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,    and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah 8   You have caused my companions to shun me;    you have made me a horror2 to them.  I am shut in so that I cannot escape;9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.  Every day I call upon you, O LORD;    I spread out my hands to you.10   Do you work wonders for the dead?    Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah11   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?12   Are your wonders known in the darkness,    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13   But I, O LORD, cry to you;    in the morning my prayer comes before you.14   O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?    Why do you hide your face from me?15   Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.316   Your wrath has swept over me;    your dreadful assaults destroy me.17   They surround me like a flood all day long;    they close in on me together.18   You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;    my companions have become darkness.4 Footnotes [1] 88:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms [2] 88:8 Or an abomination [3] 88:15 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [4] 88:18 Or darkness has become my only companion (ESV) New Testament: Acts 11 Acts 11 (Listen) Peter Reports to the Church 11 Now the apostles and the brothers1 who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party2 criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.' 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.' 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” The Church in Antioch 19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists3 also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. 27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). 29 So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers4 living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Footnotes [1] 11:1 Or brothers and sisters [2] 11:2 Or Jerusalem, those of the circumcision [3] 11:20 Or Greeks (that is, Greek-speaking non-Jews) [4] 11:29 Or brothers and sisters (ESV)

Old Testament: Isaiah 20–22 Isaiah 20–22 (Listen) A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,1 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,2    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:3  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 20:3 Probably Nubia [2] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [3] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) New Testament: Hebrews 10:19–39 Hebrews 10:19–39 (Listen) The Full Assurance of Faith 19 Therefore, brothers,1 since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,   “Yet a little while,    and the coming one will come and will not delay;38   but my righteous one shall live by faith,    and if he shrinks back,  my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. Footnotes [1] 10:19 Or brothers and sisters (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 88 Psalm 88 (Listen) I Cry Out Day and Night Before You A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil1 of Heman the Ezrahite. 88   O LORD, God of my salvation,    I cry out day and night before you.2   Let my prayer come before you;    incline your ear to my cry! 3   For my soul is full of troubles,    and my life draws near to Sheol.4   I am counted among those who go down to the pit;    I am a man who has no strength,5   like one set loose among the dead,    like the slain that lie in the grave,  like those whom you remember no more,    for they are cut off from your hand.6   You have put me in the depths of the pit,    in the regions dark and deep.7   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,    and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah 8   You have caused my companions to shun me;    you have made me a horror2 to them.  I am shut in so that I cannot escape;9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.  Every day I call upon you, O LORD;    I spread out my hands to you.10   Do you work wonders for the dead?    Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah11   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?12   Are your wonders known in the darkness,    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13   But I, O LORD, cry to you;    in the morning my prayer comes before you.14   O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?    Why do you hide your face from me?15   Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.316   Your wrath has swept over me;    your dreadful assaults destroy me.17   They surround me like a flood all day long;    they close in on me together.18   You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;    my companions have become darkness.4 Footnotes [1] 88:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms [2] 88:8 Or an abomination [3] 88:15 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [4] 88:18 Or darkness has become my only companion (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 24:28–29 Proverbs 24:28–29 (Listen) 28   Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause,    and do not deceive with your lips.29   Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;    I will pay the man back for what he has done.” (ESV)

Morning: Isaiah 19–21 Isaiah 19–21 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound1 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.2 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,3 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,4    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:5  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [2] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [3] 20:3 Probably Nubia [4] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [5] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Evening: Ephesians 2 Ephesians 2 (Listen) By Grace Through Faith 2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body1 and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.2 4 But3 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. One in Christ 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,4 but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by5 the Spirit. Footnotes [1] 2:3 Greek flesh [2] 2:3 Greek like the rest [3] 2:4 Or And [4] 2:19 Or sojourners [5] 2:22 Or in (ESV)

Isaiah 18–22 Isaiah 18–22 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Cush 18   Ah, land of whirring wings    that is beyond the rivers of Cush,12   which sends ambassadors by the sea,    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!  Go, you swift messengers,    to a nation tall and smooth,  to a people feared near and far,    a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide. 3   All you inhabitants of the world,    you who dwell on the earth,  when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!    When a trumpet is blown, hear!4   For thus the LORD said to me:  “I will quietly look from my dwelling    like clear heat in sunshine,    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”5   For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,  he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.6   They shall all of them be left    to the birds of prey of the mountains    and to the beasts of the earth.  And the birds of prey will summer on them,    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them. 7 At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts   from a people tall and smooth,    from a people feared near and far,  a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound2 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.3 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,4 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,5    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:6  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 18:1 Probably Nubia [2] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [3] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [4] 20:3 Probably Nubia [5] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [6] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV)

Isaiah 18–22 Isaiah 18–22 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Cush 18   Ah, land of whirring wings    that is beyond the rivers of Cush,12   which sends ambassadors by the sea,    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!  Go, you swift messengers,    to a nation tall and smooth,  to a people feared near and far,    a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide. 3   All you inhabitants of the world,    you who dwell on the earth,  when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!    When a trumpet is blown, hear!4   For thus the LORD said to me:  “I will quietly look from my dwelling    like clear heat in sunshine,    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”5   For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,  he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.6   They shall all of them be left    to the birds of prey of the mountains    and to the beasts of the earth.  And the birds of prey will summer on them,    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them. 7 At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts   from a people tall and smooth,    from a people feared near and far,  a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound2 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.3 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,4 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,5    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:6  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 18:1 Probably Nubia [2] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [3] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [4] 20:3 Probably Nubia [5] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [6] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV)

With family: Numbers 29; Psalm 73 Numbers 29 (Listen) Offerings for the Feast of Trumpets 29 “On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, 2 and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; 3 also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah1 for the bull, two tenths for the ram, 4 and one tenth for each of the seven lambs; 5 with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you; 6 besides the burnt offering of the new moon, and its grain offering, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offering, according to the rule for them, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD. Offerings for the Day of Atonement 7 “On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation and afflict yourselves.2 You shall do no work, 8 but you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old: see that they are without blemish. 9 And their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, 10 a tenth for each of the seven lambs: 11 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings. Offerings for the Feast of Booths 12 “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days. 13 And you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish; 14 and their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two tenths for each of the two rams, 15 and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs; 16 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. 17 “On the second day twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 18 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 19 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings. 20 “On the third day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 21 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 22 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 23 “On the fourth day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 24 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 25 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. 26 “On the fifth day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 27 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 28 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 29 “On the sixth day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 30 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 31 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offerings. 32 “On the seventh day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 33 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 34 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering. 35 “On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly. You shall not do any ordinary work, 36 but you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish, 37 and the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 38 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 39 “These you shall offer to the LORD at your appointed feasts, in addition to your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your grain offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.” 40 3 So Moses told the people of Israel everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses. Footnotes [1] 29:3 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [2] 29:7 Or and fast [3] 29:40 Ch 30:1 in Hebrew (ESV) Psalm 73 (Listen) Book Three God Is My Strength and Portion Forever A Psalm of Asaph. 73   Truly God is good to Israel,    to those who are pure in heart.2   But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,    my steps had nearly slipped.3   For I was envious of the arrogant    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4   For they have no pangs until death;    their bodies are fat and sleek.5   They are not in trouble as others are;    they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.6   Therefore pride is their necklace;    violence covers them as a garment.7   Their eyes swell out through fatness;    their hearts overflow with follies.8   They scoff and speak with malice;    loftily they threaten oppression.9   They set their mouths against the heavens,    and their tongue struts through the earth.10   Therefore his people turn back to them,    and find no fault in them.111   And they say, “How can God know?    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”12   Behold, these are the wicked;    always at ease, they increase in riches.13   All in vain have I kept my heart clean    and washed my hands in innocence.14   For all the day long I have been stricken    and rebuked every morning.15   If I had said, “I will speak thus,”    I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16   But when I thought how to understand this,    it seemed to me a wearisome task,17   until I went into the sanctuary of God;    then I discerned their end. 18   Truly you set them in slippery places;    you make them fall to ruin.19   How they are destroyed in a moment,    swept away utterly by terrors!20   Like a dream when one awakes,    O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.21   When my soul was embittered,    when I was pricked in heart,22   I was brutish and ignorant;    I was like a beast toward you. 23   Nevertheless, I am continually with you;    you hold my right hand.24   You guide me with your counsel,    and afterward you will receive me to glory.25   Whom have I in heaven but you?    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.26   My flesh and my heart may fail,    but God is the strength2 of my heart and my portion forever. 27   For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;    you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.28   But for me it is good to be near God;    I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,    that I may tell of all your works. Footnotes [1] 73:10 Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them [2] 73:26 Hebrew rock (ESV) In private: Isaiah 21; 2 Peter 2 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) 2 Peter 2 (Listen) False Prophets and Teachers 2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell1 and committed them to chains2 of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;3 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,4 and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge5 in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,6 while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery,7 insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves8 of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” Footnotes [1] 2:4 Greek Tartarus [2] 2:4 Some manuscripts pits [3] 2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly [4] 2:9 Or temptations [5] 2:10 Greek who go after the flesh [6] 2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts [7] 2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress [8] 2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 110 Psalm 110 (Listen) Sit at My Right Hand A Psalm of David. 110   The LORD says to my Lord:    “Sit at my right hand,  until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2   The LORD sends forth from Zion    your mighty scepter.    Rule in the midst of your enemies!3   Your people will offer themselves freely    on the day of your power,1    in holy garments;2  from the womb of the morning,    the dew of your youth will be yours.34   The LORD has sworn    and will not change his mind,  “You are a priest forever    after the order of Melchizedek.” 5   The Lord is at your right hand;    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.6   He will execute judgment among the nations,    filling them with corpses;  he will shatter chiefs4    over the wide earth.7   He will drink from the brook by the way;    therefore he will lift up his head. Footnotes [1] 110:3 Or on the day you lead your forces [2] 110:3 Masoretic Text; some Hebrew manuscripts and Jerome on the holy mountains [3] 110:3 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [4] 110:6 Or the head (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Leviticus 16 Leviticus 16 (Listen) The Day of Atonement 16 The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died, 2 and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel.1 9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. 11 “Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. 12 And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13 and put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. 14 And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. 15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel. 20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. 23 “Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the Holy Place and shall leave them there. 24 And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. 26 And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 27 And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire. 28 And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 29 “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves2 and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. 30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins. 31 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. 32 And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father's place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. 33 He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34 And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” And Aaron3 did as the LORD commanded Moses. Footnotes [1] 16:8 The meaning of Azazel is uncertain; possibly the name of a place or a demon, traditionally a scapegoat; also verses 10, 26 [2] 16:29 Or shall fast; also verse 31 [3] 16:34 Hebrew he (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Isaiah 21 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Galatians 1:11–24 Galatians 1:11–24 (Listen) Paul Called by God 11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.1 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born,2 and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to3 me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;4 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me. Footnotes [1] 1:11 Greek not according to man [2] 1:15 Greek set me apart from my mother's womb [3] 1:16 Greek in [4] 1:16 Greek with flesh and blood (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 118 Psalm 118 (Listen) His Steadfast Love Endures Forever 118   Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;    for his steadfast love endures forever! 2   Let Israel say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.”3   Let the house of Aaron say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.”4   Let those who fear the LORD say,    “His steadfast love endures forever.” 5   Out of my distress I called on the LORD;    the LORD answered me and set me free.6   The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.    What can man do to me?7   The LORD is on my side as my helper;    I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8   It is better to take refuge in the LORD    than to trust in man.9   It is better to take refuge in the LORD    than to trust in princes. 10   All nations surrounded me;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!11   They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!12   They surrounded me like bees;    they went out like a fire among thorns;    in the name of the LORD I cut them off!13   I was pushed hard,1 so that I was falling,    but the LORD helped me. 14   The LORD is my strength and my song;    he has become my salvation.15   Glad songs of salvation    are in the tents of the righteous:  “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly,16     the right hand of the LORD exalts,    the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!” 17   I shall not die, but I shall live,    and recount the deeds of the LORD.18   The LORD has disciplined me severely,    but he has not given me over to death. 19   Open to me the gates of righteousness,    that I may enter through them    and give thanks to the LORD.20   This is the gate of the LORD;    the righteous shall enter through it.21   I thank you that you have answered me    and have become my salvation.22   The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone.223   This is the LORD's doing;    it is marvelous in our eyes.24   This is the day that the LORD has made;    let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25   Save us, we pray, O LORD!    O LORD, we pray, give us success! 26   Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!    We bless you from the house of the LORD.27   The LORD is God,    and he has made his light to shine upon us.  Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,    up to the horns of the altar! 28   You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;    you are my God; I will extol you.29   Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;    for his steadfast love endures forever! Footnotes [1] 118:13 Hebrew You (that is, the enemy) pushed me hard [2] 118:22 Hebrew the head of the corner (ESV) Pentateuch and History: 2 Kings 25:22–30 2 Kings 25:22–30 (Listen) Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah 22 And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor. 23 Now when all the captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite. 24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” 25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26 Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. Jehoiachin Released from Prison 27 And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed1 Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 28 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king's table, 30 and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived. Footnotes [1] 25:27 Hebrew reign, lifted up the head of (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Isaiah 21 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: John 18:1–27 John 18:1–27 (Listen) Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus 18 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.”1 Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus2 said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” 10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant3 and cut off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.) 11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” Jesus Faces Annas and Caiaphas 12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews4 arrested Jesus and bound him. 13 First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. Peter Denies Jesus 15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 16 but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. 17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” 18 Now the servants5 and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself. The High Priest Questions Jesus 19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.” 22 When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?” 24 Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Peter Denies Jesus Again 25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” 27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. Footnotes [1] 18:5 Greek I am; also verses 6, 8 [2] 18:6 Greek he [3] 18:10 Or bondservant; twice in this verse [4] 18:12 Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verses 14, 31, 36, 38 [5] 18:18 Or bondservants; also verse 26 (ESV)

Old Testament: Isaiah 20–22 Isaiah 20–22 (Listen) A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,1 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,2    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:3  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 20:3 Probably Nubia [2] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [3] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 88 Psalm 88 (Listen) I Cry Out Day and Night Before You A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil1 of Heman the Ezrahite. 88   O LORD, God of my salvation,    I cry out day and night before you.2   Let my prayer come before you;    incline your ear to my cry! 3   For my soul is full of troubles,    and my life draws near to Sheol.4   I am counted among those who go down to the pit;    I am a man who has no strength,5   like one set loose among the dead,    like the slain that lie in the grave,  like those whom you remember no more,    for they are cut off from your hand.6   You have put me in the depths of the pit,    in the regions dark and deep.7   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,    and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah 8   You have caused my companions to shun me;    you have made me a horror2 to them.  I am shut in so that I cannot escape;9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.  Every day I call upon you, O LORD;    I spread out my hands to you.10   Do you work wonders for the dead?    Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah11   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?12   Are your wonders known in the darkness,    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13   But I, O LORD, cry to you;    in the morning my prayer comes before you.14   O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?    Why do you hide your face from me?15   Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.316   Your wrath has swept over me;    your dreadful assaults destroy me.17   They surround me like a flood all day long;    they close in on me together.18   You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;    my companions have become darkness.4 Footnotes [1] 88:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms [2] 88:8 Or an abomination [3] 88:15 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [4] 88:18 Or darkness has become my only companion (ESV) New Testament: Acts 11 Acts 11 (Listen) Peter Reports to the Church 11 Now the apostles and the brothers1 who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party2 criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.' 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.' 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” The Church in Antioch 19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists3 also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. 27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). 29 So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers4 living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Footnotes [1] 11:1 Or brothers and sisters [2] 11:2 Or Jerusalem, those of the circumcision [3] 11:20 Or Greeks (that is, Greek-speaking non-Jews) [4] 11:29 Or brothers and sisters (ESV)

Old Testament: Isaiah 20–22 Isaiah 20–22 (Listen) A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,1 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,2    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:3  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 20:3 Probably Nubia [2] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [3] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) New Testament: Hebrews 10:19–39 Hebrews 10:19–39 (Listen) The Full Assurance of Faith 19 Therefore, brothers,1 since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,   “Yet a little while,    and the coming one will come and will not delay;38   but my righteous one shall live by faith,    and if he shrinks back,  my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. Footnotes [1] 10:19 Or brothers and sisters (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 88 Psalm 88 (Listen) I Cry Out Day and Night Before You A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil1 of Heman the Ezrahite. 88   O LORD, God of my salvation,    I cry out day and night before you.2   Let my prayer come before you;    incline your ear to my cry! 3   For my soul is full of troubles,    and my life draws near to Sheol.4   I am counted among those who go down to the pit;    I am a man who has no strength,5   like one set loose among the dead,    like the slain that lie in the grave,  like those whom you remember no more,    for they are cut off from your hand.6   You have put me in the depths of the pit,    in the regions dark and deep.7   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,    and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah 8   You have caused my companions to shun me;    you have made me a horror2 to them.  I am shut in so that I cannot escape;9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.  Every day I call upon you, O LORD;    I spread out my hands to you.10   Do you work wonders for the dead?    Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah11   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?12   Are your wonders known in the darkness,    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13   But I, O LORD, cry to you;    in the morning my prayer comes before you.14   O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?    Why do you hide your face from me?15   Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.316   Your wrath has swept over me;    your dreadful assaults destroy me.17   They surround me like a flood all day long;    they close in on me together.18   You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;    my companions have become darkness.4 Footnotes [1] 88:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms [2] 88:8 Or an abomination [3] 88:15 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain [4] 88:18 Or darkness has become my only companion (ESV) Proverb: Proverbs 24:28–29 Proverbs 24:28–29 (Listen) 28   Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause,    and do not deceive with your lips.29   Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;    I will pay the man back for what he has done.” (ESV)

Morning: Isaiah 19–21 Isaiah 19–21 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound1 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.2 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,3 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,4    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:5  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [2] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [3] 20:3 Probably Nubia [4] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [5] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Evening: Ephesians 2 Ephesians 2 (Listen) By Grace Through Faith 2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body1 and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.2 4 But3 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. One in Christ 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,4 but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by5 the Spirit. Footnotes [1] 2:3 Greek flesh [2] 2:3 Greek like the rest [3] 2:4 Or And [4] 2:19 Or sojourners [5] 2:22 Or in (ESV)

Isaiah 18–22 Isaiah 18–22 (Listen) An Oracle Concerning Cush 18   Ah, land of whirring wings    that is beyond the rivers of Cush,12   which sends ambassadors by the sea,    in vessels of papyrus on the waters!  Go, you swift messengers,    to a nation tall and smooth,  to a people feared near and far,    a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide. 3   All you inhabitants of the world,    you who dwell on the earth,  when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!    When a trumpet is blown, hear!4   For thus the LORD said to me:  “I will quietly look from my dwelling    like clear heat in sunshine,    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”5   For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,  he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,    and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.6   They shall all of them be left    to the birds of prey of the mountains    and to the beasts of the earth.  And the birds of prey will summer on them,    and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them. 7 At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts   from a people tall and smooth,    from a people feared near and far,  a nation mighty and conquering,    whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. An Oracle Concerning Egypt 19 An oracle concerning Egypt.   Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud    and comes to Egypt;  and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,    and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.2   And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,    and they will fight, each against another    and each against his neighbor,    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;3   and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,    and I will confound2 their counsel;  and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,    and the mediums and the necromancers;4   and I will give over the Egyptians    into the hand of a hard master,  and a fierce king will rule over them,    declares the Lord GOD of hosts. 5   And the waters of the sea will be dried up,    and the river will be dry and parched,6   and its canals will become foul,    and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up,    reeds and rushes will rot away.7   There will be bare places by the Nile,    on the brink of the Nile,  and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,    will be driven away, and will be no more.8   The fishermen will mourn and lament,    all who cast a hook in the Nile;  and they will languish    who spread nets on the water.9   The workers in combed flax will be in despair,    and the weavers of white cotton.10   Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,    and all who work for pay will be grieved. 11   The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish;    the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.  How can you say to Pharaoh,    “I am a son of the wise,    a son of ancient kings”?12   Where then are your wise men?    Let them tell you    that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.13   The princes of Zoan have become fools,    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;  those who are the cornerstones of her tribes    have made Egypt stagger.14   The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion,  and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.15   And there will be nothing for Egypt    that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them. 18 In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.3 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20 It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. 21 And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22 And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” A Sign Against Egypt and Cush 20 In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,4 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. 6 And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'” Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,5    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:6  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” An Oracle Concerning Jerusalem 22 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.   What do you mean that you have gone up,    all of you, to the housetops,2   you who are full of shoutings,    tumultuous city, exultant town?  Your slain are not slain with the sword    or dead in battle.3   All your leaders have fled together;    without the bow they were captured.  All of you who were found were captured,    though they had fled far away.4   Therefore I said:  “Look away from me;    let me weep bitter tears;  do not labor to comfort me    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” 5   For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day    of tumult and trampling and confusion    in the valley of vision,  a battering down of walls    and a shouting to the mountains.6   And Elam bore the quiver    with chariots and horsemen,    and Kir uncovered the shield.7   Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.8   He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. 12   In that day the Lord GOD of hosts    called for weeping and mourning,    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;13   and behold, joy and gladness,    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,    eating flesh and drinking wine.  “Let us eat and drink,    for tomorrow we die.”14   The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:  “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”    says the Lord GOD of hosts. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 18:1 Probably Nubia [2] 19:3 Or I will swallow up [3] 19:18 Dead Sea Scroll and some other manuscripts City of the Sun [4] 20:3 Probably Nubia [5] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [6] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV)

With family: Numbers 29; Psalm 73 Numbers 29 (Listen) Offerings for the Feast of Trumpets 29 “On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, 2 and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; 3 also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah1 for the bull, two tenths for the ram, 4 and one tenth for each of the seven lambs; 5 with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you; 6 besides the burnt offering of the new moon, and its grain offering, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offering, according to the rule for them, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD. Offerings for the Day of Atonement 7 “On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation and afflict yourselves.2 You shall do no work, 8 but you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old: see that they are without blemish. 9 And their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, 10 a tenth for each of the seven lambs: 11 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings. Offerings for the Feast of Booths 12 “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days. 13 And you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish; 14 and their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two tenths for each of the two rams, 15 and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs; 16 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. 17 “On the second day twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 18 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 19 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings. 20 “On the third day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 21 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 22 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 23 “On the fourth day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 24 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 25 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. 26 “On the fifth day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 27 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 28 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 29 “On the sixth day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 30 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 31 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offerings. 32 “On the seventh day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish, 33 with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 34 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering. 35 “On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly. You shall not do any ordinary work, 36 but you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish, 37 and the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities; 38 also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. 39 “These you shall offer to the LORD at your appointed feasts, in addition to your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your grain offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.” 40 3 So Moses told the people of Israel everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses. Footnotes [1] 29:3 An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters [2] 29:7 Or and fast [3] 29:40 Ch 30:1 in Hebrew (ESV) Psalm 73 (Listen) Book Three God Is My Strength and Portion Forever A Psalm of Asaph. 73   Truly God is good to Israel,    to those who are pure in heart.2   But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,    my steps had nearly slipped.3   For I was envious of the arrogant    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4   For they have no pangs until death;    their bodies are fat and sleek.5   They are not in trouble as others are;    they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.6   Therefore pride is their necklace;    violence covers them as a garment.7   Their eyes swell out through fatness;    their hearts overflow with follies.8   They scoff and speak with malice;    loftily they threaten oppression.9   They set their mouths against the heavens,    and their tongue struts through the earth.10   Therefore his people turn back to them,    and find no fault in them.111   And they say, “How can God know?    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”12   Behold, these are the wicked;    always at ease, they increase in riches.13   All in vain have I kept my heart clean    and washed my hands in innocence.14   For all the day long I have been stricken    and rebuked every morning.15   If I had said, “I will speak thus,”    I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16   But when I thought how to understand this,    it seemed to me a wearisome task,17   until I went into the sanctuary of God;    then I discerned their end. 18   Truly you set them in slippery places;    you make them fall to ruin.19   How they are destroyed in a moment,    swept away utterly by terrors!20   Like a dream when one awakes,    O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.21   When my soul was embittered,    when I was pricked in heart,22   I was brutish and ignorant;    I was like a beast toward you. 23   Nevertheless, I am continually with you;    you hold my right hand.24   You guide me with your counsel,    and afterward you will receive me to glory.25   Whom have I in heaven but you?    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.26   My flesh and my heart may fail,    but God is the strength2 of my heart and my portion forever. 27   For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;    you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.28   But for me it is good to be near God;    I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,    that I may tell of all your works. Footnotes [1] 73:10 Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them [2] 73:26 Hebrew rock (ESV) In private: Isaiah 21; 2 Peter 2 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) 2 Peter 2 (Listen) False Prophets and Teachers 2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell1 and committed them to chains2 of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;3 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,4 and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge5 in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,6 while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery,7 insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves8 of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” Footnotes [1] 2:4 Greek Tartarus [2] 2:4 Some manuscripts pits [3] 2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly [4] 2:9 Or temptations [5] 2:10 Greek who go after the flesh [6] 2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts [7] 2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress [8] 2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface (ESV)

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 110 Psalm 110 (Listen) Sit at My Right Hand A Psalm of David. 110   The LORD says to my Lord:    “Sit at my right hand,  until I make your enemies your footstool.” 2   The LORD sends forth from Zion    your mighty scepter.    Rule in the midst of your enemies!3   Your people will offer themselves freely    on the day of your power,1    in holy garments;2  from the womb of the morning,    the dew of your youth will be yours.34   The LORD has sworn    and will not change his mind,  “You are a priest forever    after the order of Melchizedek.” 5   The Lord is at your right hand;    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.6   He will execute judgment among the nations,    filling them with corpses;  he will shatter chiefs4    over the wide earth.7   He will drink from the brook by the way;    therefore he will lift up his head. Footnotes [1] 110:3 Or on the day you lead your forces [2] 110:3 Masoretic Text; some Hebrew manuscripts and Jerome on the holy mountains [3] 110:3 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain [4] 110:6 Or the head (ESV) Pentateuch and History: Leviticus 16 Leviticus 16 (Listen) The Day of Atonement 16 The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died, 2 and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel.1 9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. 11 “Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. 12 And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13 and put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. 14 And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. 15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel. 20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. 23 “Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the Holy Place and shall leave them there. 24 And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. 26 And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 27 And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire. 28 And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 29 “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves2 and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. 30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins. 31 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. 32 And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments. 33 He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. 34 And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” And Aaron3 did as the LORD commanded Moses. Footnotes [1] 16:8 The meaning of Azazel is uncertain; possibly the name of a place or a demon, traditionally a scapegoat; also verses 10, 26 [2] 16:29 Or shall fast; also verse 31 [3] 16:34 Hebrew he (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Isaiah 21 Isaiah 21 (Listen) Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon 21 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.   As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,    it comes from the wilderness,    from a terrible land.2   A stern vision is told to me;    the traitor betrays,    and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam;    lay siege, O Media;  all the sighing she has caused    I bring to an end.3   Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;    pangs have seized me,    like the pangs of a woman in labor;  I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.4   My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;    the twilight I longed for    has been turned for me into trembling.5   They prepare the table,    they spread the rugs,1    they eat, they drink.  Arise, O princes;    oil the shield!6   For thus the Lord said to me:  “Go, set a watchman;    let him announce what he sees.7   When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,  let him listen diligently,    very diligently.”8   Then he who saw cried out:2  “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,    continually by day,  and at my post I am stationed    whole nights.9   And behold, here come riders,    horsemen in pairs!”  And he answered,    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;  and all the carved images of her gods    he has shattered to the ground.”10   O my threshed and winnowed one,    what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,    the God of Israel, I announce to you. 11 The oracle concerning Dumah.   One is calling to me from Seir,    “Watchman, what time of the night?    Watchman, what time of the night?”12   The watchman says:  “Morning comes, and also the night.    If you will inquire, inquire;    come back again.” 13 The oracle concerning Arabia.   In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge,    O caravans of Dedanites.14   To the thirsty bring water;    meet the fugitive with bread,    O inhabitants of the land of Tema.15   For they have fled from the swords,    from the drawn sword,  from the bent bow,    and from the press of battle. 16 For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. 17 And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.” Footnotes [1] 21:5 Or they set the watchman [2] 21:8 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac; Masoretic Text Then a lion cried out, or Then he cried out like a lion (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Galatians 1:11–24 Galatians 1:11–24 (Listen) Paul Called by God 11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.1 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born,2 and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to3 me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;4 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me. Footnotes [1] 1:11 Greek not according to man [2] 1:15 Greek set me apart from my mother’s womb [3] 1:16 Greek in [4] 1:16 Greek with flesh and blood (ESV)

Isaiah 20 (NIV)A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush1 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— 2 at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,[a] 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt's shame. 5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. 6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?'”Footnotes:[a] Isaiah 20:3 That is, the upper Nile region; also in verse 5Isaiah 21 (NIV)A Prophecy Against Babylon1 A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea:Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.2 A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.3 At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see.4 My heart falters, fear makes me tremble;the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me.5 They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink!Get up, you officers, oil the shields!6 This is what the Lord says to me:“Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.7 When he sees chariots with teams of horses,riders on donkeys or riders on camels,let him be alert, fully alert.”8 And the lookout[a] shouted,“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post.9 Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses.And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!'”10 My people who are crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heardfrom the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel.A Prophecy Against Edom11 A prophecy against Dumah[b]:Someone calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?”12 The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but also the night.If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.”A Prophecy Against Arabia13 A prophecy against Arabia:You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia,14 bring water for the thirsty;you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives.15 They flee from the sword, from the drawn sword,from the bent bow and from the heat of battle.16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. 17 The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.Footnotes:[a] Isaiah 21:8 Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac; Masoretic Text A lion[b] Isaiah 21:11 Dumah, a wordplay on Edom, means silence or stillness.Isaiah 22 (NIV)A Prophecy About Jerusalem1 A prophecy against the Valley of Vision:What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs,2 you town so full of commotion, you city of tumult and revelry?Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle.3 All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow.All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away.4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly.Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.”5 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision,a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains.6 Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield.7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates.8 The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.9 You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places;you stored up water in the Lower Pool.10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.11 You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool,but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.12 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that dayto weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.13 But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine!“Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”14 The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.15 This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says:“Go, say to this steward, to Shebna the palace administrator:16 What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here,hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?17 “Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, you mighty man.18 He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country.There you will die and there the chariots you were so proud of will become a disgrace to your master's house.19 I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position.20 “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. 22 I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat[a] of honor for the house of his father. 24 All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.25 “In that day,” declares the Lord Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The Lord has spoken.Footnotes:[a} Isaiah 22:23 Or throne

Isaiah 20 (NIV) A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush 1 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— 2 at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot. 3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,[a] 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt's shame. 5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. 6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?'” Footnotes: [a] Isaiah 20:3 That is, the upper Nile region; also in verse 5 Isaiah 21 (NIV) A Prophecy Against Babylon 1 A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror. 2 A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused. 3 At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see. 4 My heart falters, fear makes me tremble; the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me. 5 They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers, oil the shields! 6 This is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees. 7 When he sees chariots with teams of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert, fully alert.” 8 And the lookout[a] shouted, “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post. 9 Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!'” 10 My people who are crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel. A Prophecy Against Edom 11 A prophecy against Dumah[b]: Someone calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” 12 The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.” A Prophecy Against Arabia 13 A prophecy against Arabia: You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia, 14 bring water for the thirsty; you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives. 15 They flee from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and from the heat of battle. 16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. 17 The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken. Footnotes: [a] Isaiah 21:8 Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac; Masoretic Text A lion [b] Isaiah 21:11 Dumah, a wordplay on Edom, means silence or stillness. Isaiah 22 (NIV) A Prophecy About Jerusalem 1 A prophecy against the Valley of Vision: What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs, 2 you town so full of commotion, you city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. 3 All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away. 4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.” 5 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains. 6 Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield. 7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates. 8 The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest. 9 You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places; you stored up water in the Lower Pool. 10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall. 11 You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago. 12 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. 13 But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!” 14 The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the Lord Almighty. 15 This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says: “Go, say to this steward, to Shebna the palace administrator: 16 What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock? 17 “Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, you mighty man. 18 He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there the chariots you were so proud of will become a disgrace to your master's house. 19 I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position. 20 “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. 22 I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat[a] of honor for the house of his father. 24 All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars. 25 “In that day,” declares the Lord Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The Lord has spoken. Footnotes: [a} Isaiah 22:23 Or throne

Isaiah 20 (NIV)A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush1 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— 2 at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,[a] 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt's shame. 5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. 6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?'”Footnotes:[a] Isaiah 20:3 That is, the upper Nile region; also in verse 5Isaiah 21 (NIV)A Prophecy Against Babylon1 A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea:Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.2 A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.3 At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see.4 My heart falters, fear makes me tremble;the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me.5 They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink!Get up, you officers, oil the shields!6 This is what the Lord says to me:“Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.7 When he sees chariots with teams of horses,riders on donkeys or riders on camels,let him be alert, fully alert.”8 And the lookout[a] shouted,“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post.9 Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses.And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!'”10 My people who are crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heardfrom the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel.A Prophecy Against Edom11 A prophecy against Dumah[b]:Someone calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?”12 The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but also the night.If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.”A Prophecy Against Arabia13 A prophecy against Arabia:You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia,14 bring water for the thirsty;you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives.15 They flee from the sword, from the drawn sword,from the bent bow and from the heat of battle.16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. 17 The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.Footnotes:[a] Isaiah 21:8 Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac; Masoretic Text A lion[b] Isaiah 21:11 Dumah, a wordplay on Edom, means silence or stillness.Isaiah 22 (NIV)A Prophecy About Jerusalem1 A prophecy against the Valley of Vision:What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs,2 you town so full of commotion, you city of tumult and revelry?Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle.3 All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow.All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away.4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly.Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.”5 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision,a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains.6 Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield.7 Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates.8 The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.9 You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places;you stored up water in the Lower Pool.10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.11 You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool,but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.12 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that dayto weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.13 But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine!“Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”14 The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.15 This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says:“Go, say to this steward, to Shebna the palace administrator:16 What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here,hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?17 “Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, you mighty man.18 He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country.There you will die and there the chariots you were so proud of will become a disgrace to your master's house.19 I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position.20 “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. 22 I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat[a] of honor for the house of his father. 24 All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.25 “In that day,” declares the Lord Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The Lord has spoken.Footnotes:[a} Isaiah 22:23 Or throne

Introduction So, we come to Isaiah 21. It’s been a fascinating week for us as we’ve looked at the ongoing struggle that our nation is having economically, which I mentioned last week. It’s fascinating to me to see people asking questions about refuge and shelter. They’re speaking financially, of course. They’re looking for a shelter for their money and for their worldly possessions, something that will last, something utterly secure, something bullet-proof. We already know, we can tell them on the authority of Jesus Christ, there is no such place. That’s why Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in to steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6:19-21) We know that, don’t we? As Christians, we know that. Don’t put your trust, said the apostle Paul, in wealth, which is so uncertain. The Book of Proverbs says “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” (Prov 23:5) We’ve known that. Our treasure is in heaven, amen? It’s in Jesus Christ and the imputed righteousness of Christ. There’s no thief, there’s no natural disaster that can take that away. People have been using words like “refuge” and “shelter” recently. And I think it’s a fascinating thing. They look in the future and they see a storm coming. They’re looking for a place of refuge. I think about living in the Midwest, in the Plains region, where there are tornados that come and you have tornado watches. There will be a siren that will go off and you go to your safe haven, maybe a basement, or, like in the Wizard of Oz, it’s out across the farmyard. Remember how Dorothy had to make her way across and she barely made it down in the root cellar? Then she forgot Toto and had to go out and get him, and that was it. She was then whisked away by the tornado. But she was looking for shelter. Or I think about in history, in World War II during the Blitz in London, when the Germans were bombing London night after night after night after night, an onslaught. At dusk, the siren would sound, warning of the coming of the bombers. The natives of London would flee. They would run down into the subterranean areas of the tube, as they called it, or down in the subway is what we would call it. They would spend the night there with total strangers, sometimes standing up all night, or sleeping side by side with somebody they had never met. They might drink tea together or sing songs. In this way, they had shelter from the bombing that was going on up above their heads. It’s a biblical concept as well. Think about the world as it was in the days of Noah, when there was a storm coming, a flood. For one hundred and twenty years, while the ark was being built, Noah preached that there was going to be a flood, that there was going to be a coming judgment, and that there would be a refuge, a safe place. If you entered that refuge, that ark that was growing ever larger, ever stronger, and ever clearer, right in front of their eyes, then he was preaching that they would flee from the wrath to come. But I can tell you from the scripture, from the gospel, there is no safe shelter from the true storm that is coming. The true storm that is coming is not economic, my friends. It’s not financial. It’s not military through terrorism or any other way. It’s not natural disasters. “These things may come,” said Jesus, “but the end is still to come.” They’re just birth pains. The real judgment is before Almighty God, the one who has pure eyes, holy eyes, and can tolerate no evil at all. I had a witnessing opportunity with a man on a plane. Woe to the person who sits next to me on a plane. All right? Well, I hope it’s a blessing. I’m really hoping that it would be a blessing and not a woe. I don’t force anything on anybody, especially if they’re wearing headphones. You know, you see the big, thick Bose headphones, and it’s over. All right? The witnessing opportunity is done. But this was actually a great conversation, and I felt my primary responsibility was to make judgment day vivid to this man, to give him a vivid sense of the fact that someday he will stand before God and give an account. Is he ready? Does he have a shelter for that? It was a discussion of economics that led us into that. You can get to the gospel from anywhere. What is the shelter where you can put your money and it’s going to be safe? The answer is nowhere. But where can you put your soul and it will be safe? The answer is Jesus Christ, amen? He is the refuge. He is the shelter. The problem is that human beings are always casting about for some other place. It says in the Book of Proverbs, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” (Prov 18:10) There’s your refuge. Jesus Christ. Call on the name of the Lord. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You’ll stand under the refuge of the shed blood of Christ and you will be free from sin. The real danger is the wrath of God, the judgment of God. He has, by His grace, crafted a safe haven, a refuge called Jesus Christ, Amen? Trusting in Babylon: A Devastating Mistake A Message of Warning… and Comfort… to God’s People We’re always casting about, looking for some other thing, making some other plan. The Jewish people back in Isaiah’s day were no different. So we’re in the middle of the oracles of the nations. This will be my last sermon on the oracles of the nations. When I get back from Haiti, I’ll preach one sermon on ministry to the poor, and then we’ll be going to the Gospel of Matthew. Some time in the future, if God wills, we’ll come back to the Book of Isaiah. But as we’ve looked at these oracles, one after the other, we have seen how God gives these words of judgment to the nations. He’s got a lot of things going on. One thing is He’s warning those nations of the coming judgment so they will flee to Him and be saved. But He’s also speaking these oracles to the Jewish people. Why? So that they will not trust in these nations instead of God. So that they’ll not flee to Babylon as though the Babylonians are going to save them. So it’s a message of warning and of comfort to God’s people, really. Look at Isaiah 21:10. You can see the message to the Jews right in this warning, this oracle of woe against Babylon. Look at what he says in verse 10. “O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel.” He’s speaking to His people, His Chosen people. He’s giving them a word of warning and of comfort. God’s people are the point of history, from God’s perspective. However, God’s people are crushed by history from the human perspective. So today, Christians are like dust on the scales. Among the movers and shakers of human history, we don’t make much of an impact. But God has a message to His people, crushed by the wheels of the nations. That crushing, I think, refers to the twofold exile. The exile that’s about to take place in Isaiah’s day is by the Assyrians. They’re going to take the northern ten tribes, and they’re gone in 722 BC. But then one hundred and thirty-six years later, the southern kingdom of Judah would be exiled to Babylon. The Babylonians would come and take them in 586 BC. God’s people were going to be crushed by the overwhelming wheels of the rise and fall of Gentile empires. They’re going to come and crush the people of God. Now, this crushing was no accident. It wasn’t that God didn’t notice what was happening. It wasn’t that God was limited in His power, that His arm was too short to save them. It was none of that. God was bringing it. He was bringing judgment on His own people for violating the covenant. And He uses here this agricultural analogy of being crushed on the threshing floor. What would happen is, at harvest, the wheat would be gathered together and they would drag a threshing sledge or cart over the grain. It would pulverize the grain. Then they would take something like a pitchfork and they’d throw it up in the air. The wind would blow the chaff away. The light weight would just blow away, but the heavier kernels would fall back down to the threshing floor. When you do this enough, all you have left, for the most part, is wheat. The wheat has been separated from the chaff. And that’s what God is doing. He’s separating the wheat from the chaff. The wheat refers to the true believers among God’s people, those that genuinely, like Abraham, are trusting in God. God is credited to them as righteousness. The chaff is those that are Jews in name only. They really have never believed in God. They are idolaters. They worship other gods and they will be blown away. So Isaiah is giving God’s people a message of encouragement and also a warning about their time under the domination of the Gentiles, under the boot of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The encouragement is that God is sovereign over the nations. Things are not spinning out of control. Even when you go off into exile, God is still reigning. He’s still ruling and He’s going to bring back a remnant to the promised land and re-establish them. God is still sovereign. That’s the message of encouragement. What’s the message of warning? Don’t trust in Babylon for salvation. Don’t trust in the Babylonians, militarily. Setting the Context: Assyria the Threat Now what’s going on? Well, again, when Isaiah the prophet was doing his work, Assyria was the big threat. The Assyrians were evil, and King Hezekiah was against the Assyrians. Evil Assyria continued to flex its muscles in the region and to dominate those little nations. But in the east, a new power is starting to rise. There’s a city on the Euphrates called Babylon. It has an ancient history already. Through the code of Hammurabi and other things, it’s got a history. Right now, it’s a subject people, under the domination of the Assyrians. But it’s starting to become a little more powerful. There’s a young Chaldean prince under the Assyrian domination named Merodach-Baladan, son of Baladan. In Isaiah 39, the story is told of how this man, this Babylonian prince, sends envoys to King Hezekiah. Hezekiah, by this time, has seen the miraculous deliverance by an angel of the Lord, when 185,000 Assyrian troops are killed in one night. Also, because of his pride, Hezekiah was struck with a fatal illness. Isaiah told him to put his things in order; he’s gong to die. Hezekiah doesn’t accept that. He cries and prays and God graciously extends his life by fifteen years. Babylon hears about all these things. They send envoys to congratulate Hezekiah on his military victory and his healing. He was equally responsible for both, don’t you know? By faith, by the power of God, when I’m weak, then I’m strong. What did he do? He got sick and he was surrounded by almost 200,000 Assyrian troops. That’s what he did. He prayed in both cases, and God delivered. That’s how He saves sinners, friends. Call on the name of the Lord. He’ll save you. So the envoys come from Babylon, from Merodach-Baladan, and Hezekiah takes them on a tour. He shows them everything, all the gold and the silver and all the stuff accumulated there, and the military strength little Judah had. The Babylonians were impressed, very impressed. Note to self, lots of wealth in a little town called Jerusalem. Will be back later. Isaiah said they’re coming back. He gave a prophecy. He saw beyond. He saw to the day when the Babylonians would come and take Judah away into exile. This is what he said in Isaiah 39:5-7, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” It’s a dire warning of the coming exile by the Babylonians. But Isaiah sees beyond even that. Oh, he sees far beyond that! He sees the day when Babylon itself will be crushed, when Babylon itself will fall. That’s this oracle here in Isaiah 21. Babylon is going to fall. This is a message of encouragement that Babylon will not reign forever. So Isaiah’s mission here is to persuade his people, Hezekiah and the others, not to trust in Babylon. Don’t put your trust in the Babylonian uprising from the east. Babylon is going to judgment, just as he had said already concerning Egypt, in Isaiah 19 and 20, not to trust in Egypt. Don’t put your trust in these nations. Trust in the Lord because those nations, they’re all under judgment. Trust in the Lord and fear the Lord. The Lord is the one you should fear. Isaiah 8:13-14 says, “The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread and he will be a sanctuary.” What is a sanctuary but a place of refuge? That’s where you go to hide. You don’t hide in Babylon. You don’t hide in Egypt. You don’t trust in some Gentile army that you can make an alliance with. Trust in the Lord. He will be for you a sanctuary and a refuge. The Lord is the one I must trust. Again and again, Isaiah says this. In Isaiah 8:17, he says, “I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him.” I will invest in God. That’s what I’m going to trust in. I’ll put my trust in God. Or again, Isaiah 25:9 says, “In that day, they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’” By the way, the word “His” will become very, very clear on Judgment Day, in eternity-future. Amen? It was His salvation. He saved us. We trusted, but He did the saving. So He gets the glory. We get eternal joy. Isn’t that enough? I think that’s sweet. It is the future. We trust in Him. The nations, then, are nothing in God’s sight. Isaiah 40:15 says, “Surely the nations are like a drop in the bucket; they’re regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.” The nations are as nothing to God. More than that, frankly. The nations are all under God’s judgment. They’re not nothing in that sense. They’re all under God’s judgment, every one of them. Isaiah 34:2 says, “The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter.” That will be very clear when the Lord returns at the end of the world and all the nations’ armies are together against Christ to fight against Him. He will destroy them completely. Therefore, the message is: stop trusting in man. Isaiah 2:22 says, “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” That’s the message here. Babylon the “Desert by the Sea” Now, we’re talking about Babylon. Look at verse 1. “An oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea.” This is a bit of a tricky word game here. Isaiah was brilliant. He was a brilliant guy. He would have been in Mensa, I think. So he’s doing a little bit of a word puzzle here. You have to kind of unravel it. I wouldn’t be smart enough. I don’t know Hebrew well enough. But the commentators tell us that you unravel it and you end up with Babylon. We’re talking about Babylon here, the Desert by the Sea. Now, the people are tempted to trust in Babylon as an ally. But Isaiah says it’s actually a desert by the sea. This is a bit strange because Babylon isn’t by the sea. It’s actually a number of miles inland. But it’s called the Desert by the Sea. What is he doing? He’s saying, “there’s nothing there for you, oh people.” The desert is a place where there’s nothing. There’s no life. You can’t live there. You have to bring your water with you. You can’t survive in the desert. And the sea is very much like the desert. It’s a different kind of desert. “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.” If you’re out in a row boat, your first problem, within twelve hours, is where you’re going to get enough water. There’s no place you can survive. It’s a deserted place. Babylon is not your future. That’s what he’s saying here. Furthermore, Babylon is about to face the whirlwind of God’s judgment. Look what it says in verse 1, “Like a whirlwind sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.” The impending destruction of Babylon, it mentions here. The language speaks of a windstorm coming from the desert. I think that’s called a sirocco, a dry sandstorm, a big one. It’s going to erase Babylon. He’s speaking about an invader coming to destroy the Babylonian empire. The Way of the World: Babylon Betrayed by its Allies This is the way of the world. Babylon will be betrayed by its allies, its partners in crime, as it were. Look at verse 2. “A dire vision has been shown to me: the traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.” Isaiah calls it a dire vision. The rise and fall of the world is repulsive to watch. It’s disgusting. It’s violent. It’s selfish. It’s materialistic. It’s ugly. Therefore, Daniel sees these empires like beasts, ravenous beasts coming up out of a turbulent sea. It’s a dire vision. The particularly cold way that the spirit of Babylon works is this: we see Babylon rise up, make allies of Elam and Media, and together they overthrow Assyria. That’s how it works. So they’re partners together like that. But then Babylon, more powerful than the others, dominates them and subjugates them like the Assyrians did. Now Babylon is in charge. Babylon sweeps down, takes over Palestine. They are the top dog, king of the hill. But they won’t last. They won’t last because now the traitor is going to turn and betray them. The looter that’s been looting with the Babylonians is going to loot Babylon. Who are we talking about? We’re talking about the Elamites and the Media, the Medes. They’re coming. They’re going to judge. Basically the history of the world is, “what goes around, comes around.” The way you treat your neighbor, that’s the way your neighbor’s going to treat you. That’s how it works. Habakkuk 2:16 says it this way, “Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory.” That cup you gave to your neighbors, now it’s your turn. What goes around, comes around. Jesus put it this way in Mark 4:24: “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more.” So the groaning that Babylon caused will come to an end. He’s going to use their subjugated allies to rise up. These peoples are going to rise up. The Medes are coming with the Persians. They’re going to destroy Babylon. This is what Isaiah’s saying. Isaiah’s Amazing Reaction: Compassion Isaiah Overwhelmed In the midst of this oracle comes an incredible response. This is Isaiah’s response as he’s looking at this oracle. Isaiah was a visionary prophet and I think his mind is filled with visions of what the fall of Babylon is going to look like. It was overwhelming. Almost, he couldn’t stand it. It was so terrifying. Look at verses 3-4. “At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see. My heart falters, fear makes me tremble; the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me.” He is overwhelmed, get this, at the destruction of the people who exiled the Jews. How do you figure that? He knows that the Babylonians are going to come and exile the Jews. Now he sees a vision of them getting crushed and destroyed, and he’s overwhelmed. It’s like he can’t even look at it. He sees with clarity, in visionary form, the night that Babylon fell, what it would be like. Men, women, children, and sleeping infants, are slaughtered in their beds. He sees it. It’s the very thing he already told us, in Isaiah 13, would happen. Speaking of the Medes, he says, “Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants nor will they look with compassion on children. Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians’ pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.” So he’s looking at this vision inwardly in his mind and he can’t handle it. It’s so overwhelming to him. He has a visceral reaction. His body is racked with pain. Pangs like those of a woman in labor rack his body, because of the vision that he’s seeing. Compassion on the Lost This is amazing, isn’t it? This is compassion for the lost, compassion for those who are going to suffer this coming judgment. Now, God’s work of judgment is not His delight. He doesn’t delight in it, any more than He literally delighted in the suffering of His son on the cross. Jesus suffering on the cross is not God’s delight. What is God’s delight, is the effect of Jesus’ suffering on the cross. For the joy that was set before God the Father, He poured out wrath on His son. He doesn’t enjoy the wrath pouring out part. Neither does He enjoy the clearing of the threshing floor so that the kingdom can be built. There’s nothing delightful in the mind of God in the crushing and judgment of sinners. Instead, He beckons again and again, calling on them to repent. So it says in Ezekiel 33:11, “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live,’ declares the sovereign Lord, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.’ Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die?” So He’s calling out to sinners. God yearns to be gracious. Isaiah 30:18 says, “The Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.” That’s the God of the Bible. In the midst of all this judgment, God is rising to show you compassion, and His name is Jesus. That’s the compassion He wants to show you. Jesus, moved by compassion, reaches out and saves. Disaster Destroys the Party Overwhelming Desire for Pleasure Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul mourns, in Romans 9, over the Jews who were persecuting him. Isaiah is racked with pain at this image of the destruction of Babylon. Well, this destruction comes in, and, amazingly, the judgment interrupts a party. The party’s over. The party is over. Look at verse 5. “They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers, oil the shields!” I love that. That’s Isaiah giving Babylon military advice. What are you doing partying? How does that fit? You’re about to be destroyed and you’re having a party! How did it work? Well, I think they’re within the walls of Babylon. Remember, I began the sermon talking about refuge, secure places, and shelter. They thought they had it. Babylon was pretty imposing. Herodotus tells us the walls were 150 feet high. You could drive a chariot with four horses at the top of the wall. It was huge. The city had plenty of food. They could outlast you if you’re besieging them. It was a secure place. I get the image that the soldiers of Babylon were up on the walls toasting the Medes and the Persians. Do your best, but we’re going to party. See if you can get in here. They were absolutely cocky and confident. So they’re having a feast; they’re enjoying it. There’s something innate, something inside us that yearns for pleasure. We want to be happy. You know where I think that comes from? I think it comes from God, because He is happy. “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” Psalm 115:3. He’s a happy being. Our problem is that we pursue it like idolaters: materialistically and sensually. We pursue it wickedly. There’s nothing wrong with a yearning for pleasure. But these folks, they pursue it like pagans, rubbing God’s nose in their idolatry. This is the night in Daniel 5 of Belshazzar’s feast, when Belshazzar orders that the gold goblets from the temple be brought in to the feast. They used these goblets, God’s cups, to toast the gods of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. They cannot see or hear or understand. That’s what they’re doing while the Medes and the Persians are besieging Babylon, proving that their refuge is nothing of the kind. Oh, it’s a wicked drive we have inside us! Even with the Jews, in the very next chapter, Isaiah 22, when they are under judgment, when wrath is coming on them, when they are besieged, this is what happens. Just look one chapter over in Isaiah 22:12-14. “The Lord Almighty called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But behold, there’s joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine. ‘Let us eat and drink,’ you say, ‘for tomorrow we die!’ The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: ‘Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for.’” He said that to the Jews, God’s chosen people. “You should have mourned. You should have fasted. You should have prayed. You should have taken it seriously. But instead you pursued life as it has always gone on.” Just like it’s always going on. Jesus said it would be like this. It was like in the days before the flood. People were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage right up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They had no idea what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. So it was also with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot. Right up until the fire and brimstone starts coming down, they’re pursuing lustful pleasures. They’re pursuing the old way. Belshazzar’s Sinful Feast And so, we have Belshazzar’s sinful feast. And you remember the end of Daniel 5. That very night, Belshazzar, King of the Babylonians, was slain. Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of 62. Oh, what a final verse that is! The writing on the wall has been fulfilled. Babylon has fallen. How does the city fall? Well, I’ve mentioned it a number of times in my sermons. They diverted the Euphrates River. They crawled under the wall. With the city drunk or asleep, they opened up the gates. It’s just like the story of the Trojan horse. They came in. They opened it up. Then they went running through the sleeping, drunken city and kill everybody. That’s how it happened. All that Babylon needed to do was to be alert and take Isaiah’s ancient advice, from 150 years, 200 years before that. Just take his advice. Get up officers, oil the shields, get ready for battle, and you win. But they wouldn’t because God had given them over to judgment and used their own pleasures to do it. That’s how it worked. So Babylon has fallen. Jeremiah gave a clear prophecy on how it would happen in Jeremiah 51:37-39. This, again, was seventy years in advance. “Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives. Her people all roar like young lions, they growl like lion cubs. But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter – then sleep forever and not awake.” I don’t know if it could be any plainer than that, friends. In Jeremiah 51:39, He said how He would do it. He was going to set out a feast and they would get drunk and they would die that night. Judgment has come. Babylon Has Fallen… Don’t Fall with Her! The Scene Shifts: Israel Receives News In Isaiah 21, the scene shifts from Babylon to a watchman, perhaps in Jerusalem, waiting on the walls for news. The watchman is up on the walls and he’s waiting for news. Why? Well, I think this is what’s going on: by the time that the city of Babylon has fallen, the Medes and Persians have conquered the whole empire. It’s just the city that’s left. I think all of the outpost cities that were under the Babylonian Empire are waiting for news. “What’s happening? What’s happening? Has Babylon fallen? What’s going on?” So they’ve got watchmen up on the walls. They’re waiting for news, trying to find out what’s happened. Look at verses 6-9. “This is what the Lord says to me: ‘Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees. When he sees chariots with teams of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert, fully alert.’ And the lookout shouted, ‘Day after day, my lord, I stand at my watch tower; every night I stay at my post. Behold, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!’” People received the news. The watchmen on the wall were waiting for news. Nowadays, you don’t have to have a watchman on the wall. You know, the guy who walks around saying, “Two o’clock and all is well! Three o’clock and all is well!” That’s over. Now you’ve got your Blackberry. If something major happens in some part of the world, you get a little red light and you turn it on. “What is it? Oh, it’s an email from CNN.” Because you set that up, when anything big happens, they’ll tell you. They’ll let you know because you are so important and you need to know. I think that’s fascinating. How important can we be? “Twenty-four/seven, I need to be in touch with the events of the world, okay?” “Giving you the news you need.” I always wonder about that. Why do I need that news? But at any rate, there it is. We can find out immediately when a city like Babylon falls. The Watchman is Called on to be Alert… Fully Alert But back then, they were waiting on the walls, looking for some messenger coming, looking for a chariot or something, coming with the news. “What’s going on over there in Babylon?” The watchman is told to be fully alert. It could come at any moment. And at last, he sees the chariot coming. Babylon Has Fallen… Has Fallen The chariot comes and the answer comes back, almost breathless. “Babylon has fallen, has fallen! It’s done! Babylon is gone.” Then there is a focus on the religion, all the images, of Bel, Marduk, and all those false gods. They were so alluring. All those images are crushed on the ground. Final Warning: Don’t Share Babylon’s Fate So this is a warning. Don’t trust in Babylon’s gods. Don’t put your trust in Bel and Marduk. If the modern gods are called the almighty buck, or your career, or whatever the Babylonian idols are today, don’t trust in them because all of those things are getting crushed on the ground when judgment comes. So God gives this message: don’t share in Babylon’s fate. Look at verse 10. “O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel.” “I told you, I tell you what God Almighty told me to tell you. That’s prophecy. God spoke into my head these words. I’m telling you what God, who created heaven and earth, has told me to tell you. Babylon is going to fall. It’s coming down. Therefore, a warning: come out from Babylon and be separate, so that you will not share in her judgment.” Edom and Arabia No Refuge Either This Section Ends with Two More Brief Oracles Now, the rest of the chapter really just enhances the same point that’s already been made. There are two other kingdoms, Edom and Arabia. Neither one of them are a refuge either. Both of them could be a refuge. You run out of Babylon and you go to Edom. Maybe that’ll be a safe place. They had a really high, lofty mountain fortress. Maybe that will be a safe place. Then Arabia, you can go out in the desert and hide in the desert. But there is no safe refuge. Edom: A Land Silenced by Judgment Look at verse 11-12. “An oracle concerning Dumah (that’s Edom): Someone calls to me from Seir, ‘Watchman, what is left of the night?’ The watchman replies, ‘Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.’” These are the kind of verses that make Isaiah a mystery. You read it, and it’s like, “Why is that in the Bible? I don’t get it. What does it mean?” Well, it’s an oracle against Edom. Edom felt secure. Read about it in Obadiah. They felt like they were safe. They were up in a lofty mountain perch, safe and sound, all right? But they’ve got watchmen on the walls, waiting to hear about Babylon. They’re waiting to hear, has Babylon fallen? “What’s left of the night? Night is tough. It’s dark. Are we going to die tonight like the Babylonians did?” They’re waiting and the minutes are like hours. It’s the longest night of your life if you think it’s the last night that you’ll be alive. The watchman comes back, and it’s almost dawn. Morning is coming. But there’s another night, too. Come back again tomorrow and we’ll do this whole thing all over again. Waiting for judgment is all it is. The message here concerning Edom is: don’t flee to Edom. Edom is going to be judged as well. Arabia: A land Overrun by Refugees “What about Arabia? Can we go to Arabia? It seems good. Go hide in the desert. Who is going to want the desert?” Well, look at verses 13-17. “An oracle concerning Arabia: You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia, bring water for the thirsty; you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives. (Who are these fugitives? We’ll get to that in a minute) They flee from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and from the heat of battle. (That’s who the fugitives are) This is what the Lord says to me: ‘Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it (that means very accurately, counting day-by-day), all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end. The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.’ The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.” So the Babylonians run for their lives, whatever is left of them. They go out in the desert to their allies, the Arabians. Who are these people? Well, the Dedanites were descendants of Keturah, from Genesis 25:3, Abraham’s concubine. They were desert dwellers, Arabians. Tema and Kedar are names of the tribes of Ishmael. They are also descendants of Abraham. Their trade caravans have fled from the swords of the Medes and Persians. Now they’re camping, hiding in the desert. Babylonians come running from the Medes and Persians, looking for a shelter. The refugees flee out to the desert where the Arabians are. What’s the word? Don’t go there, because judgment is coming there as well. I’m telling you that within one year, the Arabians will be wiped out as well. What is God doing? What is He saying? He’s saying, there is no other refuge. It’s like, to which dry hill during Noah’s rainstorm should I go? Which one will do? What would you recommend? Well, that one’s pretty high. Let’s go to that one. But there is no other refuge. Not Edom, not Arabia, not Babylon, not Egypt, not Assyria, none of them. Nothing earthly can save us. You know why? Because God is our problem. Our sins are our problem. The only refuge there has ever been, the only refuge there will ever be, is Jesus Christ on the cross, His blood shed, and the empty tomb of Christ. There is your refuge. Flee there. Flee there, oh friends! Flee there. Maybe you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Maybe you’ve never trusted in Him. Flee to Christ. Call on the name of the Lord. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are kept safe.” That’s where you go. Application See the Marks of Babylon Around You Are we living in Babylon? Is this Babylon? Yes. Yes, it is. Does that mean everyone involved in the government is wicked? No. Daniel was second in charge, or third in charge, in Babylon. There are Godly people involved in government. But what are the marks of Babylon? Arrogance, defiance, idolatry, wickedness and pursuit of sensual pleasure. The two aspects of Babylon, military strength and trading with the nations, both of them are in Revelations 18. That’s Babylon. Are we living in Babylon? Well, if so, then don’t you think the Bile ought to let us know how to do it? How shall we live in Babylon? Trust in the Lord Above All Well, first and foremost, find what your true refuge is. It is Christ. Listen to Galatians 1:3-4. “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.” Jesus gave Himself to rescue us. He is our refuge. Trust in Him. And I don’t just say that if you’ve never trusted in Christ and you came here today to be saved. (Praise God for that! Trust in Him.) I say that to Christians as well. Keep fleeing to Christ. In your mind, every time you’re getting anxious, you read something in the news and your heart is getting anxious, flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. He’s not telling you He won’t bring you any difficulties. He’s telling you that when you pass through the waters, He will be with you. When you go through the fire, you’ll not be consumed. That’s what He’s telling you. He’s actually going to bring you through those things. You’re going to make it through. You’re going to be saved. That’s what He’s telling you. Seek the Prosperity of the City Doomed to Destruction Learn how to live in Babylon. First of all, understand that it’s going to be destroyed. It’s coming down. Everything visible is temporary. Everything. Now, Jeremiah told the exiles of Babylon to seek the peace of the city. Jeremiah 29:7 says, “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Fine, seek the peace of the city. But can I urge you that you would focus on this kind of peace: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith in Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Seek that peace for the city, not material prosperity. Furthermore, wasn’t it Jeremiah who later in this same prophecy told us that Babylon was going to be destroyed? Understand Babylon’s Final End There are people that go out and plant gardens and do different things in urban renewal projects based on Jeremiah 29:7. Look, if it’s a ministry and it gives you a chance to share the gospel to interested onlookers, do it. But if you think those gardens you plant are eternal, they’re not. Judgment is coming on Babylon. Understand that. Come out and be Separate… Live a Holy Life Finally, a message of holiness and purity. Live a holy life. Isaiah 52:11 says, “Depart, depart, go out from there. Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.” And this from Jeremiah 51:44-45, “I will punish Bel (that’s a false god) in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will not longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall. Come out of her, my people! Run for you lives! Run from the fierce anger of the Lord.” And then there’s this in Revelation 18:1-4, “After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice, he shouted: ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.’ Then I heard another voice from heaven say: ‘Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues.’” And then in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? … Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” Grieve For and Rescue the Perishing Since everything is going to be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? Peter said, “You ought to live holy and Godly lives in Babylon.” Can you not live in Babylon? No, you cannot live in Babylon. But you do. What are you going to do about it? Seek refuge in Christ. Allow Him to be a wall of protection spiritually around you. Like Isaiah, grieve for the perishing around you. Reach out with the only message that can save, the gospel. Close with me in prayer.

sermon transcript The Test of Faith: Sarai’s Barrenness and Bad Advice One of the favorite things that I used to do when I was growing up with my father was go hiking in the mountains of New Hampshire. I really enjoyed going up to the White Mountains, and they are very high mountains up there, the ones in the presidential range. I remember hiking up Mount Washington, which is the highest of those mountains up there, and as we were hiking, my dad would be telling me it wouldn't be long before we would break out above the tree line. That was always a big moment, and I was always eager for it, because then the views just got spectacular and we could see all over that whole region, that whole district, once you are above the tree line. But, as you're looking up the trail, you can always see some glimpses of blue sky and I'm thinking, "Is that it?" And so, we would reach that place and there would be more trees beyond, and so we would keep on going. As we would go, I would look up and then I would see, I thought, an opening and that wasn't it either. It was a real test of patience for someone my age. It was a test of the body for someone his age, but a test of patience for someone my age. I was looking up and I kept waiting, when are we going to break above the trees? Once we did, the view would get spectacular, and I would think, "We have got to be almost there, to the summit." Then I would look and I would see the summit right up there, just as it was curving, and I would think, "Boy, not long, and we are going to be at the top." I would reach that little curving place and there would be another little curving place further up. This is what is known as the false summits. They would go on for another hour and a half or two hours after I broke above the tree line. What an incredible test of patience it is, and so also, I think in the Christian life, God is exercising our patience. He can give you a glimpse of what is to come, a foretaste, and then it is back to the grind. The grind more than anything is a wrestling with our own wickedness and sin, our own unbelief. And so, we have what is known as the mountain top experiences, an encounter with God, something you would never forget. It isn't long after that that you are back into sin, you are struggling, you are weak, and you are needing to confess. And that's exactly what we have in Genesis 16. Genesis 15, is one of those incredible mountain top experiences in which God reveals His eternal purposes to Abraham, to Abram. He speaks a promise to him, the promise that he heard and believed, to the salvation of his soul, "So shall your offspring be." He heard and he believed, and he was justified by faith. And then, the incredible covenant cutting ceremony, the intensity of that moment, the darkness and the dread, the terror of the Lord that came over him. The burning torch and the fire pot appearing, and then just moving between the pieces, an incredible picture, answering Abraham's question, Abram's question, "How can I know that I will gain the Promised Land?" It sure doesn't look like it. How can I know? God answered the question, in effect saying, "It is as likely for me to cease existing as it is for me to lie to you about this covenant. I can neither stop existing and nor can I lie, but I will most certainly fulfill everything that I have spoken to you." And so, that is Genesis 15, an incredible mountain top experience. But then we go into Genesis 16, and we see the relapse into unbelief of Abram, our father in faith. Stunning Contrast: “Abram Believed the Lord” vs. “Abram Listened to the Voice of Sarai” What a stunning contrast between Abram believed the Lord, and Abram listened to the voice of his wife, Sarai. It's an incredible contrast, as he does something he should not have done, breaks God's pattern for marriage, all because of the expediency of the moment. It's not working out the way he thought, and so he's going to take matters in his own hands, after Sarai's advice. The Bible is consistently honest, isn't it, about the failings of its heroes? We've talked about this before, but it's one of the great evidences of the truth of the Word of God is that it's very honest about sin, it's very honest about sinfulness. For example, Noah, that great patriarch, he gets drunk and lies uncovered in his tent. What a shameful picture. David, to whom a great covenant had been made, and Jesus is called the son of David in some ways, in some places, he commits adultery with Bathsheba and conspires to kill Bathsheba's husband, Uriah. And then there's Elijah, incredible man of courage and faith, takes on the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. And then after that, he has a run in with Jezebel and runs away, fleeing for his life and lies under the broom tree and says, "Take my life, I'm ready to die." The weakness we see there in Elijah. And then there's Hezekiah, able to stand and face a huge Assyrian army, undefeated army, and just take this letter and spread it out before God in prayer, and prevailing in God in prayer, he's able to stand firm and God sends out an angel, 185,000 Assyrian troops killed. But in later years, Hezekiah grew prideful and arrogant and hard in his heart. And then there is John the Baptist. Jesus said, "No one born of women is greater than John the Baptist." Greatest man that had ever lived. And yet, he in Matthew 11, sends messengers to Jesus saying, "Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else?" A moment of weakness for him. And then there's Simon Peter, "You are the Christ, the Son of God," he confessed, revealed to him by Christ's Father in Heaven. Yet, moments later, rebuking Jesus that he would never die and go to the cross, and Jesus has to say, "Get behind me Satan." Again and again, we see the great men of the Bible and women of the Bible revealed to be sinners, because there is really only one true center, perfect center of Scripture, and that's God Almighty, the holy eternal God. And we are all sinners saved by grace, even Abram. The lesson is consistent and clear. Jesus put it this way, “No one is good, but God alone.” The apostle Paul put it this way, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” And that includes Abram. When all is said and done, everyone including our father in faith, Abram, Abraham, is saved by grace through faith alone, and no other way. And so, we have this mountain top experience in Genesis 15, and then the trial of Genesis 16. Abram’s Faith Repeatedly Tested Abram's faith is repeatedly tried, isn't it? I mean, he gets the original call in Ur the Chaldeans, and he's got to have a wrestling of faith of whether he's really going to obey, and he does so it seems in stages. He doesn't immediately obey, but it takes him a while as he kind of waits in Heron and finally separates from his father and moves on. Then his faith is tested in the Promised Land. When he gets there, a little while after that, there's a terrible famine and he and his entourage, his wife, have to go down to Egypt, so he thinks, in order to survive. Down there they meet another trial of faith in which he is tempted and yields to the temptation to fear, and he has Sarai lie for him saying that “he is my brother.” And so, that whole encounter. Then, when they get back into the Promised Land and he's restored and he's back on track, then he's got the challenge with Lot and the herdsmen as they argue and bicker over grazing rights, it seems. After that, he's got to go and gird on his sword and become powerful and strong and go rescue Lot when Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and his allies invade. Right after that, there's another test in that the king of Sodom wants to give him some of the loot, the plunder from Sodom, and he doesn't want anything to do with it. So, it's just one test after another, and here we have another test. The Rhythm of Faith’s Trials What is this test? The most severe test of all. It is waiting on the Lord to fulfill His word. Is that not the test of your life? Waiting and waiting and waiting for something you don't have yet. Waiting for heaven, waiting to see Christ face-to-face, waiting for freedom from sin forever, our full salvation. We don't want just the down payment, the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance, we want the full inheritance. And so, we're waiting and waiting. It's amazing how much we need to be on our guard, because as these trials of faith come, they come at the worst moments sometimes, don't they? A.W. Pink put it this way, "It is God's usual pattern to bless and then to test." Let me say that again. "It is God's usual pattern to bless and then to test.” It is thus highly necessary for us to take the lesson to heart. It is when we have received some special mark of the Lord's favor, or immediately after we have enjoyed some unusual season of communion with Him, that we most need to be on our guard." Abram’s Most Severe Test: Waiting on the Promise of God And so, Abraham has to face, or Abram has to face his severe test. Now, what is the nature of this test? Well, here in this chapter, it is two things. It's Sarai's barrenness and Sarai's bad advice. Sarai’s Barrenness First the barrenness. It says in Verse 1, "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children." In Verse 2, “so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children.’" Now, like Abram, she considers children to be a direct gift from God, and so they are. Therefore, the absence of children, the inability to have children, barrenness, is a direct act of God. Both Abram and Sarai see it that way, and so it is. Now, in this way, we need to understand that God doesn't completely lavish us with blessings 100% with no trials, neither does He overwhelm us with curses or trials or challenges, but there is always a wise kind of mixture in our lives, isn't there? There are blessings and there are challenges, and so it is. Look at Sarai. She's got incredible physical beauty, she's got a strong faith, she's submissive to her husband, and therefore a pattern of all godly women that follow after her. She has a wonderful husband who loves the Lord and who is greatly blessed by God. She has all of this, but she doesn't have a child, and so this is the trial, this is the burden for her. And so, she says, "The Lord has kept me from having children." And it is true. We need to understand that it is the Lord that gives and it is the Lord that chooses not to give. It is the Lord that gives, as Job said, and the Lord who chooses to take away. Think of what God said to Moses in Exodus 4, Verse 11, “The Lord said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?’” “I the Lord do all these things," he says, and says the same thing in Isaiah 45:7, "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things." And so, she is right to bring this issue to God and say specifically “it is that God has kept me from having children.” Now, why is this? Why did he do it? Well, that His glory and His power might be revealed in a far greater way. He's waiting, you see, for Abram's body to be as good as dead, He's waiting for Sarai's womb to be proven to be totally dead and hopeless. He's waiting so that there is no doubt about it whatsoever. And why? So that he can show us that He is the God that gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. And why? So that we who come later may trust in Jesus Christ to raise us from the dead. That's right. Amen. We are all waiting for resurrection from the dead, and we are trusting in the same God who was able to give a child to this barren couple. And so, in Romans 4:17, this is exactly what Paul says, "We're trusting on God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were." And so, Sarai's barrenness is the first aspect of this trial, but then comes the bad advice, Sarai's bad advice. Now, Sarai had a female servant named Hagar, who was an Egyptian. Probably, she was among those servants that had been given to Abram and Sarai by Pharaoh in that earlier encounter in Genesis 12. You remember I just alluded to it when Abram said to Sarai, "Lie for me so they don't kill me." And Pharaoh is about to take Sarai into his harem, about to take her as a wife, and God judges Pharaoh and the household. Abram has to pray for Pharaoh and Pharaoh gives them all of these possessions to get them out of there, among them were male and female servants, and I believe Hagar was one of those. So, to some degree, Hagar is a little bit of a shameful reminder of a bad moment in Abram's life, and there she is, Hagar, the female servant from Egypt. Sarai saw that she continued to be barren and she wanted to take matters in her own hands, she wanted to act. Let's get this thing going. If you have got all these great promises and if I'm not the one, then let's move on. She is willing in a way to some degree to get out of the way. But along with this is a common practice of the day, of the culture. This idea would be strange to us, but back then not so strange. The idea was that if a mistress had a servant girl, a servant woman, if that one bore to her master any children, they are really accounted or reckoned to be Sarai's in this case Now, that is a strange thought to us, but it was common in the culture of the day. You remember that later Jacob had two wives, Rachel and Leah, and each one of them had a maid servant, and so in effect he had four wives and each one bore eventually the 12 patriarchs of Israel. So, this was a common thing back in the day, but just because it is common doesn't mean it is godly. Just because it was the common practice of the culture of the day, doesn't mean it was what God intended. There are many examples of polygamy in Scripture, and none of them ever turn out well. Ever. God's pattern for marriage is established in Genesis Chapter 2, Verse 24. "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." It was the evil man Lamech who first took another wife to himself and was a polygamist. Watch out for this one, folks, it's coming soon to a country very near you. Sarai’s Bad Advice If they are going to redefine marriage, soon polygamy will come. I'm not speaking just theoretically, I'm saying it's coming if we don't define marriage by Genesis 2:24. One man, one woman, one flesh union for life. And so it was, that was God's pattern. And so, we have this bad advice from Sarai, it was not from the Lord. Now, it's bad enough to get bad advice, but it's especially tough to get it from your wife. I'm not meaning in any way to be insulting to you ladies or to my own wife who I love very dearly, I'm just executing the text. I'm just saying it's just not good to get bad advice from your wife, because it goes right to the heart. A godly wife is among God's greatest earthly gifts to a man. It's an incredible gift to get a wife who loves the Lord, who fears the Lord. “Her worth is far greater than rubies,” it says in Proverbs 31. The heart of her husband, it says, trusts in her. He can rely on her to give him good advice. She's a fountain of blessing to him in every way. She meets his physical needs, she meets his relational needs, she cares for him, she's involved in every aspect of his life and ministry. An incredible gift, a fountain of blessing. And one of the greatest gifts that she can give to her husband is godly, sound advice. Pointing to the Lord, saying, "What does the Lord want us to do?" The Danger of Bad Advice from a Wife But here, you can see the danger of bad advice from a wife. Matthew Henry said it this way, "It is the policy of Satan to tempt us by our nearest and dearest relations, for those friends that we have an opinion of and an affection for, the temptation is most dangerous when it is sent by a hand that is least suspected. It is our wisdom therefore to consider not so much who speaks, but what is spoken." You have to take each one to the Lord and to His revealed word. And so, we have barrenness and bad advice. This is the test of faith, and Abram caves in. We see his failure of faith in Verses 3 and 4, specifically in that Abram acts without prayer. The Failure of Faith: Abram Acts Without Prayer Abram’s Failure of Faith: Listening to Sarai, Not to God Abram's failure of faith is that he listened to Sarai and not to God. God clearly defined marriage, He had clearly established the pattern. Furthermore, He had made His promise clear, and so from the Genesis 2:24 standard, coupled with the fact that through his own body there would be an offspring, to me, it is clear that he needed to wait on the Lord and not go for this expedient, this culturally acceptable expedient. Sarai's barrenness should have been a cause for greater faith and more prayer, not for giving up and giving in and going some different way. In effect, he should have said, "The God who made the stars, and I'm going to have descendants as numerous as the stars, is able to make my wife fruitful. He's able to give me a son by my wife." Hints in the Text Now, we have some hints at the problem in the text. It says, "After Abram had been living in Canaan 10 years. . ." Why does it say that? Well, I think there's a sense of a chronology here and that's fine. But also, could it be the ideas of the Canaanites were getting in his mind? It's so easy for us to be influenced by a surrounding culture, to just take in as acceptable what our neighbors are doing because everybody is doing it. Note that God in the text kind of establishes the way it really should have been. Look at Verse 3, "So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife," note that, "took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar" that's who she is, "and gave her to her husband to be his wife." Do you see how this whole thing is confused and how God establishes Abram, Sarai, husband, wife, Hagar, servant in the household. That's the way it should have stayed, but instead they went across, they transgressed the boundaries that God had established. Abram’s Possible Train of Thought Now, what was Abram thinking? Do you ever wonder that? You think to yourself, "What was I thinking? How could I have done it?" Well, this I think is probably his train of thought. It seems to me that God has promised an heir, I'm going to have an heir, and it's not going to be Eleazar of Damascus, learned that last chapter. They didn't have chapters back then, but anyway, we learned that. It's going to be a son from my own body. So, there's an unfolding here. Sarai's barren, so culturally it's acceptable for me to be with Hagar. And the clincher is that Sarai's even suggesting it, and so, therefore, I'll do it. And that's kind of how it worked. It went right to his heart and he acted. Isaac’s Superior Example Now, I think his son, eventual son, Isaac, gives a superior example. In Genesis 25, Isaac had the same problem as Abraham. He had a wife, Rebecca, who was barren. But you know the interesting thing about Isaac, he doesn't get a lot of play in Scripture. We don't learn a lot about him, but one thing about him is he was a one-woman man, he never went in for polygamy unlike his son, Jacob, or his father, Abraham. He just had Rebecca. Furthermore, Rebecca was barren, as happened so frequently. And what did Isaac do? He prayed to the Lord and asked that God would open her womb. This is in Genesis 25:21, “Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebecca became pregnant.” The Fruit of Faithlessness and Broken Relationships Now, that's what he should have done. Abram instead had a failure of faith, and look at all the problems that come as a result, the fruit of faithlessness in Verses 4-6, and it really is, more than anything, broken relationships, that's what always comes from a failure in the area of marriage and sex and it always comes with broken households, broken relationships. That's where the price gets paid. Initially, you could say there's good fruit, Hagar is pregnant, and so she's expecting a child, but trouble comes soon after that, the first broken relationship is between Hagar and Sarai. Look at Verse 4, it says that “He, Abram, slept with Hagar and she conceived. When she, Hagar, knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.” Now, probably Hagar thought that her position in the household had now changed, now that she was expecting the heir that everyone was waiting for, it could be that she saw herself now as Sarai's equal, perhaps even as her superior. Perhaps she is going to take Sarai's place. Now, how did it manifest itself? Well, the Hebrew says that she despised, she disdained or made light of her mistress, maybe she was a little sluggish to obey at one point, maybe she sighed or rolled her eyes or made a comment under her breath. Maybe she was overheard in a tent saying something disparaging or maybe even mocking Sarai for her barrenness. I don't know, but we do know that she despised her mistress. It says in Proverbs 30:21-23, "Under three things, the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up; a servant who becomes a king, a fool who is full of food"−watch that one−"an unloved woman who is married, and a maid servant who displaces her mistress" and, that's what I think is going on here. Hagar has ambitions to displace Sarai in the household, broken relationship number one. Broken relationship number two is Abraham or Abram and Sarai. Look at Verse 5. “Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.’” It's your fault. Now, how did she figure that? But we'll get to that in a minute. At any rate, it is Abram's fault. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me. Well, obviously, this is what is known as a marital discussion. Now, maybe you have had marital discussions and maybe you haven't, but here is a marital discussion, and the two of them kind of have to work this thing out. To some degree, it may be that Abram is playing what is known as the passive male syndrome role, you're kicking back, laying back, just kind of letting it happen in the household. He's not taking the lead, he should have stepped in when he heard Hagar disrespect her mistress and done something about it, instead he's passive. He's just kind of watching the two ladies. I don't know if they are having a cat fight or what's going on, but he's just letting it go, he's just passive in this situation. Now, I think Sarai is unfair. She unfairly blames Abram for the conflict she is having. It's not Abram’s fault directly. You could ask Sarai, "Can I ask a question? What did you think was going to happen? This is exactly what you wanted to happen. Now it has happened. Now you don't want it?” So, I think it's very clear that Sarai didn't think through what she was doing, she wasn't ready for it. But there is nothing but trouble here, broken relationship number two. Broken relationship number three is Abram and his household as a whole. Look what he says in Verse 6, "Your servant is in your hands." Abram said, "Do with her whatever you think best." Now, there are different ways to read this, okay? But I read this as more passive male syndrome stuff. Basically, "Hey, look, don't involve me, it's between you two ladies. Work it out, everything is fine." What he should have done is step to the fore and resolve this issue and said, "You are Sarai's servant and so you will remain." But you see that he is on uncertain ground because he is already stepped outside of what God has ordained, and so he is losing his authority. Whenever you turn away from God and his commands as a leader in your home, a husband, a father, you lose your moral authority, it becomes very difficult to lead your home. And so, we see a broken home here, and then Sarai, it says, mistreated Hagar, so she fled from her. It's interesting this word “mistreated” in Verse 6 is the exact same word that is used concerning what the Egyptians will later do to the Israelites when they are in bondage. Isn't it ironic? Before the Israelites were harshly treated in bondage to the Egyptians, the thing was reversed, and an Egyptian was harshly treated by an Israelite in bondage. And so, we have it, and finally the ultimate and the most significant broken relationship is Abram, Sarai, Hagar and God Himself. The Restoration of Faithlessness He is a holy God, and there is a real problem in their relationship with Him at this point. Well, God moves and acts to restore and to redeem. Praise God, He doesn't let this decay go on. Our God is a God of restoration, He is a God of forgiveness, a God of grace and mercy, a God who can pick up the broken pieces in your life and put them back together. And that's exactly what goes on in Verses 7-14. The Angel of the Lord In Verses 7 and 8, we see the angel of the Lord and it says, "The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She answered, "I'm running away from my mistress, Sarai." Now, here we meet the angel of the Lord. Now, this angel of the Lord is an amazing person in the Book of Genesis and also in Exodus. It is my belief that the angel of the Lord here is none other than the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ himself. Well, why do I say that? Well, look what it says here in Verse 10, or Verses 9 and 10. It says, "Then the angel of the Lord told her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to her.'" Well, that is fine, angels can give commands, but Verse 10 is a little unusual for an angel. The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count." Now, can I submit to you, this is not something an angel usually does? This is something God does. God is speaking to Hagar through the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord, I believe is the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ himself. Fleeing in the Desert And so, the angel of the Lord appears to Hagar out in the desert. Now, she is fleeing in the desert, it says, in the desert, that she's meeting with him and she comes to an oasis, a spring. Water is life, especially out in the desert, and there Jesus meets her. The Grace of Restoration You know it reminds me of another woman in sin that Jesus met so much later, the Samaritan woman at the well. Do you remember what Jesus said in John Chapter 4, Verse 10, to the woman at the well there? Jesus said, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water. ‘Sir’, the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?’ Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’" This is Jesus meeting the woman in the desert, this is Jesus meeting Hagar and pointing ultimately to himself, this is the grace of restoration. It's an incredible thing that God does for us, isn't it? When we are venturing out on a sinful path, a sinful course, the worst thing that God can do in this world is to give us over to that sinful course and let us go. That's the worst thing. And that's exactly what he does to some unbelievers. He gives them over to their sin and to the hardness of their heart to continue doing that very sin. In fact, He confirms them in that wickedness and that sin, but for us, He interferes, He gets involved, He says, "No more, you've gone far enough down this road. Turn back and go where you need to be." This is the grace of restoration. Aren't you glad for it? Aren't you glad that God won't let you go in a free fall to just keep on sinning and sinning, but instead he meets you and says, "Stop, this is far enough.” And so, He comes and restores her. And how does He do it? God’s Strategy of Restoration Well, the first thing He does is He humbles her. Look at Verse 8, He said, "Hagar." Does he say, "Wife of Abram? The one carrying the promised child," does he say that? No, He says, "Hagar, servant of Sarai,” stop there. You know, before He restores you, He humbles you. He makes you see your sin; He makes you see what you really are. And so, it says in James Chapter 4, Verse 6, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." The second thing He does is He asks her two probing questions, "Where have you come from and where are you going?" Now, can I submit to you that when the devil wants you to go ever increasingly faster and faster down a road to sin, these are two questions he never wants you to ask or face? He wants you to live in the moment. Live for right now because he knows if you take a step back and look, what was it like before with the Lord? How was it then when you were obeying? What was it like in your walk with Him? And the course you're on now, where is it going to end up? Do you really want to go where you're ending up? Let's look at Hagar. Alright, Hagar, where are you going to go? You're going back to Egypt? You're going back to the gods of the Egyptians, back to Anubis, the jackal-headed god? Where are you going to go? And how are you even going to get there? You're going to go across the burning sand pregnant as you are? This is the last water stop for a long, long time. Where are you going? And where have you come from? How has it been? Don't you know that God's hand is on Abram, your master? Why are you running away? Where have you come from? And where are you going?" And thirdly, He commands her to repent. Look in Verse 9, the angel of the Lord told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” “Oh no, no. That's one thing I won't do. Alright, we've had it, we've said some things to each other and I'm moving on." "No, you're not. No, you're not. You go back and you make it right. You make it work the way I originally established. You submit yourself to her." And so, she did for 13 years, she went back and she obeyed and she submitted, she was commanded here to repent. And fourth, the angel of the Lord encouraged her with astonishing promises about the future. And so, he humbles her, he asks her probing questions, "Where have you come from and where are you going?" He commands her to repent, and then he makes some promises to her. Look what he says in Verses 10-12, “The angel added, ‘I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.’" The angel of the Lord also said to her, "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." So, he promises, the angel of the Lord promises numerous descendants. It turns out in Genesis 25 that Ishmael would give birth to 12 tribal chieftains, 12. The angel of the Lord promises therefore a son and gives him a marvelous name, Ishmael means “God hears.” God hears. And then the promise of God's ongoing concern; the Lord has heard of your misery and the Lord will continue to hear him and continue to see him, and so he gives promises. Aside: Who Are the Ishmaelites? Now, let’s take a moment just on the side and try to ask who are these Ishmaelites? Verse 12 describes them, "Ishmael will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." Amazing statement, a wild donkey of a man. Now, what does that mean? Well, Job 39:5-8 describes the wild donkey. "Who let the wild donkey go free?" says the Lord. "Who untied his ropes? I gave him the wasteland as his home, the salt flats as his habitat. He laughs at the commotion in the town; he does not hear a driver's shout. He ranges the hills for his pasture and searches for any green thing." So, this is a man who can live where the wild donkey lives out in the desert in the salt flats. And he is a free man, his ropes are untied, he can go wherever he wants, he can do whatever he wants. Hagar is chafing under the yoke of servanthood, Ishmael will not, he will be a free man. He will live in the desert, free from all human relationships, he will make his living in the desert. And so, we see two things about the Ishmaelites, we see striving and surviving. Those two things go on with them. First of all, their hand or his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers, striving. We also see surviving. He will live. He's going to survive. Now, ultimately, these folks settled in what we call Arabia. The question then is, were the Ishmaelites the fathers of the Arabs? Are they the Arabians? Listen to what it says. In Genesis 25:13-15 Ishmael's included, “Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.” Now, again, and again, when some of the names in this genealogy are listed, they are linked with Arabia. For example, caravans of Tema look for water in Job 6:19. Isaiah 21:13 and 14 says this, "An oracle concerning Arabia: You caravans of Dedanites," that's one of the descendants of Ishmael, "who camp in the thickets of Arabia, bring water for the thirsty; you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives." Ezekiel 27:21 says, "Arabia and all the princes of Kedar" that's one of the descendants of Ishmael, "were your customers; they did business with you in lambs, rams and goats." Joseph, as you remember, was sold into bondage at the hands of the Ishmaelites. There was a caravan of them when they were going down to Egypt to trade. They roamed freely in the desert, they lived in Arabia, and they traded with people in the surrounding areas. Almost every time in the Old Testament that Arab or Arabia is mentioned, it is tied to one of the descendants of Ishmael. A modern note is that the first Muslims were Arabians who lived in that exact same area, and so there is a connection here between the descendants of Ishmael and the eventual Muslims. Verse 12, "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." Hagar’s Awestruck Faith-filled Response Well, Hagar has an awestruck response to what the angel of the Lord has told her. First of all, she names God. She says, "You are the God who sees me." Isn't that remarkable? You are the God who sees me, you see my past history, you see my sin, you see my present desperate circumstances, you see my responsibilities, you see what I'm going to go back to, and you see into my distant future. You are the God who sees me. Reminds me so beautifully of Psalm 139, Verses 1-10, "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar; you discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in−behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." This is exactly the God who confronted Hagar, the God who sees me, the God who sees every one of us. The Lesson of Faith: God Hears, So Ask and Wait Now, what is the ultimate lesson of faith here in Verses 15 and 16? Well, the name Ishmael ends up being a rebuke to Abram. What's his name going to be? Ishmael. He's the God who hears, He hears prayer. Maybe next time, before you do something really, really important, you should ask God about it. George Muller, who looked after thousands of orphans in the mith century, cared for 2,000 orphans all by faith in God and by prayer. He laid out some patterns for knowing the will of God, and steps 5-8, I think are pertinent here. He was asked how he determined the will of God on any matter. Muller listed the 10 steps. Number five, he said, "I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me." Number six, "I make sure I have a clear conscience before God and man." Listen to number seven, "Every time I listened to man instead of God, I made serious mistakes." Have you ever made an important decision? Leaving a job, taking a job, getting married, buying a home, any major purchase without bathing the thing in prayer? Perhaps you can testify with George Muller, "Any time I listened to man instead of God, I made serious mistakes," and I think that is what happened to Abram in this chapter. And number eight, "I act only when I am at peace after much prayer, waiting on God with faith." And you know, the name Ishmael is not only a rebuke, it's also an encouragement. This is the way God deals with us from here back, as we look back, we get rebuked for our sin and we have to learn from it, but from here forward, we get encouraged to do the right thing. God's mercies are new every morning. And so, the God who you should have spoken to yesterday is the God who will hear you now, and so He is the God who hears. And so, therefore, pray and ask for wisdom. God hears prayer. Application Now, what application can we take from this? First and foremost, the angel of the Lord, the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ, He is the savior of the world. And He, to some degree, may be confronting you right now as you are running away from God. It's not really that you are running away from some earthly situation, some job you don't like, or some other thing, you are really running from God, and it could be that today, just like Hagar in the desert, the Lord is meeting you and saying, "Trust in me." The Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul, trust in Him, because if you do, He will become for you a spring of water welling up to eternal life inside you. But you know the principles are the same even if you are a Christian, first and foremost, He is the God who hears. Therefore, don't make any important decision or even any unimportant decision without asking Him for wisdom in prayer. Learn to wait on God and not to take matters in your own hands. Secondly, learn that the end, does not justify the means. Just because Abram was trying to achieve God's plan, God didn't give him permission to do it any way he chose. The end doesn’t justify the means. Do it God's way. Thirdly, test cultural norms by the Word of God. Do you sense any pressure in our society to redefine marriage, any pressure in the exact same area that we are facing here in Genesis 16? We've got to test what our neighbors are saying on talk radio shows, and our co-workers are saying around the water cooler and around the coffee pot about what marriage is, we need to test it and say, "No, God has already told us what it is." In Genesis 2:24, "One man, one woman, one flesh for life," that's what marriage is. And when we digress, we have problems. Fourth, test all advice you get on a key issue against the word of God, even if it comes from a wife or a husband. Test all things by the word of God. And fifth, God is a God who sees, He is searching your heart now, He sees you; nothing is hidden from Him, everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom you must give an account. And God hears, so speak to Him, tell him what is going on in your life. We don't use prayer enough. And finally, be in awe of God's specific prophecies about Ishmael. The scripture says some more things about the Ishmaelites. In Isaiah 60:7, it says that “. . .the rams of Nebaioth,” one of the descendants of Ishmael, “will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple.” They will be offered up in the eternal temple of God, the Holy City. What does that mean? It means that there are going to be Ishmaelites who will trust in Jesus Christ for the salvation of their souls. They will repent, they will believe, and they will be there on judgment day, praising Jesus Christ, the Savior of their souls.