Isaiah 53-56

English Standard Version

53 ^(A)Who has believed what he has heard from us?^[a]
    And to whom has ^(B)the arm of the Lord been revealed?
²For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    ^(C)and like a root out of dry ground;
^(D)he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
³^(E)He was despised and rejected^[b] by men,
    a man of sorrows^[c] and acquainted with^[d] grief;^[e]
and as one from whom men hide their faces^[f]
    he was despised, and ^(F)we esteemed him not.

⁴^(G)Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    ^(H)smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵^(I)But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    ^(J)and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶^(K)All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
^(L)and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    ^(M)yet he opened not his mouth;
^(N)like a ^(O)lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, ^(P)who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
⁹And they made his grave with the wicked
    ^(Q)and with a rich man in his death,
although ^(R)he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet ^(S)it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;^[g]
^(T)when his soul makes^[h] an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
^(U)the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
¹¹Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see^[i] and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall ^(V)the righteous one, my servant,
    ^(W)make many to be accounted righteous,
    ^(X)and he shall bear their iniquities.
¹²^(Y)Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,^[j]
    ^(Z)and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,^[k]
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
^(AA)yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The Eternal Covenant of Peace

54 ^(AB)“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
    break forth into singing and cry aloud,
    you who have not been in labor!
For the children of ^(AC)the desolate one ^(AD)will be more
    than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.
²^(AE)“Enlarge the place of your tent,
    and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords
    and strengthen your stakes.
³^(AF)For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,
    and your offspring will possess the nations
    and will people the desolate cities.

⁴“Fear not, ^(AG)for you will not be ashamed;
    be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth,
    and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
⁵^(AH)For your Maker is your husband,
    the Lord of hosts is his name;
^(AI)and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
    ^(AJ)the God of the whole earth he is called.
⁶^(AK)For the Lord has called you
    like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off,
    says your God.
⁷^(AL)For a brief moment I deserted you,
    but with great compassion I will gather you.
⁸^(AM)In overflowing anger for a moment
    I hid my face from you,
^(AN)but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”
    says the Lord, your Redeemer.

⁹“This is like ^(AO)the days of Noah^[l] to me:
    as I swore that the waters of Noah
    should no more go over the earth,
so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you,
    and will not rebuke you.
¹⁰For the mountains may depart
    and the hills be removed,
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
    and ^(AP)my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

¹¹^(AQ)“O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,
    behold, ^(AR)I will set your stones in antimony,
    ^(AS)and lay your foundations with sapphires.^[m]
¹²I will make your pinnacles of agate,^[n]
    your gates of carbuncles,^[o]
    and all your wall of precious stones.
¹³^(AT)All your children ^(AU)shall be taught by the Lord,
    ^(AV)and great shall be the peace of your children.
¹⁴In righteousness you shall be established;
    you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
    and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
¹⁵^(AW)If anyone stirs up strife,
    it is not from me;
whoever stirs up strife with you
    shall fall because of you.
¹⁶Behold, I have created the smith
    who blows the fire of coals
    and produces a weapon for its purpose.
I have also created the ravager to destroy;
¹⁷    no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
    and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
    ^(AX)and their vindication^[p] from me, declares the Lord.”

The Compassion of the Lord

55 ^(AY)“Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    ^(AZ)come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.
²^(BA)Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.
³Incline your ear, and come to me;
    ^(BB)hear, that your soul may live;
^(BC)and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
    ^(BD)my steadfast, sure love for ^(BE)David.
⁴^(BF)Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
    ^(BG)a leader and commander for the peoples.
⁵^(BH)Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
    and ^(BI)a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
    ^(BJ)for he has glorified you.

⁶^(BK)“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
⁷let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹^(BL)For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰^(BM)“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    ^(BN)giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but ^(BO)it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

¹²^(BP)“For you shall go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
^(BQ)the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
¹³^(BR)Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

Salvation for Foreigners

56 Thus says the Lord:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
^(BS)for soon my salvation will come,
    and my righteousness be revealed.
²Blessed is the man who does this,
    and the son of man who holds it fast,
^(BT)who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
    and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

³Let not ^(BU)the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
    “Behold, I am ^(BV)a dry tree.”
⁴For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs ^(BW)who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
⁵^(BX)I will give in my house and within my walls
    a ^(BY)monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
^(BZ)I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.

⁶“And ^(CA)the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
everyone ^(CB)who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
    and holds fast my covenant—
⁷^(CC)these I will bring to ^(CD)my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
^(CE)their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for ^(CF)my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.”
⁸The Lord God,
    ^(CG)who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
^(CH)“I will gather yet others to him
    besides those already gathered.”

Israel's Irresponsible Leaders

⁹^(CI)All you beasts of the field, come to devour—
    all you beasts in the forest.
¹⁰^(CJ)His watchmen are blind;
    they are all without knowledge;
they are all silent ^(CK)dogs;
    they cannot bark,
dreaming, lying down,
    loving to slumber.
¹¹^(CL)The dogs have a mighty appetite;
    they never have enough.
But ^(CM)they are shepherds who have no understanding;
    they have all turned to their own way,
    ^(CN)each to his own gain, one and all.
¹²^(CO)“Come,” they say, “let me get wine;
    let us fill ourselves with strong drink;
^(CP)and tomorrow will be like this day,
    great beyond measure.”

Footnotes

Isaiah 53:1 Or Who has believed what we have heard?
Isaiah 53:3 Or forsaken
Isaiah 53:3 Or pains; also verse 4
Isaiah 53:3 Or and knowing
Isaiah 53:3 Or sickness; also verse 4
Isaiah 53:3 Or as one who hides his face from us
Isaiah 53:10 Or he has made him sick
Isaiah 53:10 Or when you make his soul
Isaiah 53:11 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll he shall see light
Isaiah 53:12 Or with the great
Isaiah 53:12 Or with the numerous
Isaiah 54:9 Some manuscripts For this is as the waters of Noah
Isaiah 54:11 Or lapis lazuli
Isaiah 54:12 Or jasper, or ruby
Isaiah 54:12 Or crystal
Isaiah 54:17 Or righteousness

2 Peter 2

English Standard Version

False Prophets and Teachers

2 But ^(A)false prophets also arose among the people, ^(B)just as there will be false teachers among you, who will ^(C)secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master ^(D)who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ²And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth ^(E)will be blasphemed. ³And ^(F)in their greed they will exploit you ^(G)with false words. ^(H)Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴For if God did not spare ^(I)angels when they sinned, but ^(J)cast them into hell^[a] and committed them to chains^[b] of gloomy darkness ^(K)to be kept until the judgment; ⁵if he did not spare the ancient world, but ^(L)preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ^(M)a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶if by ^(N)turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, ^(O)making them an example of ^(P)what is going to happen to the ungodly;^[c] ⁷and ^(Q)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, ^(R)he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹then ^(S)the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,^[d] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰and especially ^(T)those who indulge^[e] in the lust of defiling passion and ^(U)despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble ^(V)as they blaspheme the glorious ones, ¹¹^(W)whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. ¹²^(X)But these, like irrational animals, ^(Y)creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, ¹³suffering wrong as ^(Z)the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure ^(AA)to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,^[f] while ^(AB)they feast with you. ¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery,^[g] ^(AC)insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts ^(AD)trained in greed. ^(AE)Accursed children! ¹⁵Forsaking the right way, ^(AF)they have gone astray. They have followed ^(AG)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved ^(AH)gain from wrongdoing, ¹⁶but was rebuked for his own transgression; ^(AI)a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

¹⁷^(AJ)These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. ^(AK)For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. ¹⁸For, ^(AL)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely ^(AM)escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹They promise them ^(AN)freedom, ^(AO)but they themselves are slaves^[h] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. ²⁰For if, ^(AP)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(AQ)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(AR)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹For ^(AS)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(AT)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²²What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(AU)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Footnotes

2 Peter 2:4 Greek Tartarus
2 Peter 2:4 Some manuscripts pits
2 Peter 2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly
2 Peter 2:9 Or temptations
2 Peter 2:10 Greek who go after the flesh
2 Peter 2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts
2 Peter 2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress
2 Peter 2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface