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11 Thus says the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel and his Maker:
Ask Me of things to come
concerning My sons,
and you shall commit to Me the work of My hands.
12 I have made the earth
and created man on it.
I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens,
and I have ordained all their host.
13 I have raised him up in righteousness,
and I will direct all his ways;
he shall build My city,
and he shall let My captives go,
neither for price nor reward,
says the Lord of Hosts.
The Only Savior
14 Thus says the Lord:
The products of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia
and of the Sabeans—men of stature—
shall come over to you,
and they shall be yours;
they shall come after you;
in chains they shall come over,
and they shall fall down before you.
They shall make supplication to you, saying,
“Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
there is no other God.”
15 Truly You are a God who hides Yourself,
O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 They shall be ashamed and also humiliated, all of them;
the craftsmen of idols shall go away in confusion together,
17 but Israel shall be saved by the Lord
with an everlasting salvation;
you shall not be ashamed nor humiliated
to all eternity.
18 For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens,
who is God,
who formed the earth and made it,
who has established it,
who did not create it in vain,
who formed it to be inhabited:
I am the Lord,
and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret
in a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the descendants of Jacob,
“Seek Me in a waste place”;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness;
I declare things that are right.
20 Assemble yourselves and come;
draw near together, you fugitives of the nations.
They have no knowledge who set up the wood of their carved image,
and pray to a god that cannot save.
21 Declare and set forth your case;
let them take counsel together.
Who has declared this from ancient times?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord?
And there is no God besides Me,
a righteous God and Savior;
there is no other besides Me.
22 Turn to Me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth.
For I am God, and there is no other.
23 I have sworn by Myself,
the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness
and shall not return,
that to Me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall take an oath.
24 Surely, one shall say, “Only in the Lord
are righteousness and strength.”
Men shall come to him,
and all who are incensed at Him shall be ashamed.
25 In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel
be justified and shall glory.
The Idols of Babylon
46 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops,
their idols are appointed to the beasts and the cattle.
The things that you carry are burdensome;
they are a burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop, they bow down together;
they could not deliver the burden,
but themselves have gone into captivity.
3 Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who are borne by Me from birth
and are carried from the womb:
4 And even to your old age I am He,
and even to your graying years I will carry you;
I have done it, and I will bear you;
even I will carry, and will deliver you.
5 To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal,
and compare Me that we may be alike?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag,
and weigh silver on the scales;
they hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god;
they fall down and worship it.
7 They lift it on the shoulder, they carry it,
and they set it in its place, and it stands;
from its place it does not move.
If one shall cry to it, it cannot answer
nor save him out of his trouble.
8 Remember this, and show yourselves men;
bring it to mind again, O transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old,
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
“My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all My good pleasure,”
11 calling a ravenous bird from the east,
the man who executes My counsel from a far country.
Indeed, I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it; I will also do it.
12 Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted,
who are far from righteousness;
13 I bring My righteousness near;
it shall not be far off,
and My salvation shall not tarry.
And I will grant salvation in Zion,
and My glory for Israel.
The Fall of Babylon
47 Come down, and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
sit on the ground; there is no throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you shall no more be called
tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind meal.
Uncover your veil,
strip off the skirt, uncover the leg,
pass over the rivers.
3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
and your shame shall be seen;
I will take vengeance,
and I will not meet you as a man.
4 As for our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is His name,
the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit silently, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
for you shall no more be called
the queen of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with My people;
I have polluted My inheritance
and given them into your hand.
You did not show them mercy;
on the aged
you have laid your yoke very heavily.
7 You said, “I shall be a queen forever,”
but you did not take these things to heart,
nor remember the outcome of them.
8 Therefore, now hear this, you who are given to pleasures,
who dwell carelessly,
who say in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
nor shall I know the loss of children”;
9 but these two things shall come to you
in a moment, in one day,
the loss of children and widowhood.
They shall come upon you in their fullness
because of the multitude of your sorceries
and for the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 For you have trusted in your wickedness;
you have said, “No one sees me”;
your wisdom and your knowledge have perverted you;
and you have said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
11 Therefore, evil shall come upon you,
which you shall not know from where it rises.
And disaster shall fall upon you,
for which you shall not be able to atone.
And desolation shall come upon you suddenly,
which you shall not know.
12 Stand fast now with your enchantments,
and with the multitude of your sorceries
in which you have labored from your youth.
Perhaps you shall be able to profit,
perhaps you may cause trembling.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels;
let now the astrologers, the stargazers,
the monthly prognosticators stand up
and save you from these things that shall come upon you.
14 Surely they shall be as stubble,
the fire shall burn them;
they shall not deliver themselves
from the power of the flame;
it shall not be coal to be warmed by
nor a fire to sit before.
15 Thus those shall be to you
with whom you have labored,
even your merchants, from your youth;
they shall wander, everyone to his quarter.
No one shall save you.
Israel Refined for God’s Glory
48 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel,
and have come forth from the waters of Judah;
who swear by the name of the Lord,
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in truth or in righteousness;
2 for they call themselves after the holy city,
and lean on the God of Israel;
the Lord of Hosts is His name:
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning;
and they went forth from My mouth, and I announced them.
Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew,
and your brow bronze;
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to you;
before it came to pass I announced it to you,
lest you should say,
“My idol has done them,
and my carved image and my molded image has commanded them.”
6 You have heard; see all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have shown you new things from this time,
even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now and not from the beginning;
even before the day when you did not hear them,
lest you should say,
“Yes, I knew them.”
8 You have not heard, you have not known,
indeed, from long ago your ear has not been open.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
and that from birth you have been called a rebel.
9 For My name’s sake I will defer My anger,
and for My praise I will restrain it for you
so that you are not cut off.
10 See, I have refined you, but not with silver;
I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For My own sake, even for My own sake, I will do it;
for how can My name be polluted?
And I will not give My glory to another.
Unity of the Body
4 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called. 2 With all humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
and gave gifts to men.”[a]
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also He who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.)
11 He gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, and for the building up of the body of Christ, 13 until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so we may no longer be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness with deceitful scheming. 15 But, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, Christ Himself, 16 from whom the whole body is joined together and connected by every joint and ligament, as every part effectively does its work and grows, building itself up in love.
19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits,
even the God who is our salvation. Selah
20 That God is for us, the God of saving acts;
and to God the Lord belongs escape from death.
21 But God will shatter the head of His enemies,
and the scalp of one who walks in his trespasses.
22 The Lord said, “I will cause them to return from Bashan,
I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea,
23 that your foot may stomp in the blood of your enemies,
and the tongue of your dogs may have a portion in it.”
24 They have seen Your processions, O God,
the processions of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.
25 The singers went before,
the players on instruments followed after;
among them were the young women playing tambourines.
26 Bless God in the congregations,
the Lord, from the fountain of Israel.
27 There is little Benjamin leading them,
the princes of Judah and their throng of people,
the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.
28 Your God has commanded your strength;
strengthen, O God, what You have done for us.
29 From Your temple above Jerusalem,
kings will bring gifts to You.
30 Rebuke the animals that live among the reeds,
the herd of bulls, with the calves of the people,
until everyone submits himself with pieces of silver;
scatter peoples who delight in war.
31 Ambassadors will come out of Egypt;
Ethiopia will stretch out its hands to God.
32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth;
oh, sing praises to the Lord; Selah
33 to Him who rides on the heavens, the ancient heavens;
He who sends out His voice, a mighty voice.
34 Ascribe strength to God;
His majesty is over Israel,
and His strength is in the clouds.
35 O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuaries;
the God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to people.
Blessed be God!
Saying Twenty-One
3 Through wisdom is a house built,
and by understanding it is established;
4 and by knowledge the rooms will be filled
with all precious and pleasant riches.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.