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The Vindication and Salvation of Zion

62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her vindication goes forth as brightness,
    and her salvation as a burning torch.
The nations shall see your vindication,
    and all the kings your glory;
and you shall be called by a new name
    which the mouth of the Lord will give.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
    and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be termed Forsaken,[a]
    and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;[b]
but you shall be called My delight is in her,[c]
    and your land Married;[d]
for the Lord delights in you,
    and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a virgin,
    so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
    so shall your God rejoice over you.

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem,
    I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night
    they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance,
    take no rest,
and give him no rest
    until he establishes Jerusalem
    and makes it a praise in the earth.
The Lord has sworn by his right hand
    and by his mighty arm:
“I will not again give your grain
    to be food for your enemies,
and foreigners shall not drink your wine
    for which you have labored;
but those who garner it shall eat it
    and praise the Lord,
and those who gather it shall drink it
    in the courts of my sanctuary.”

10 Go through, go through the gates,
    prepare the way for the people;
build up, build up the highway,
    clear it of stones,
    lift up an ensign over the peoples.
11 Behold, the Lord has proclaimed
    to the end of the earth:
Say to the daughter of Zion,
    “Behold, your salvation comes;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.”
12 And they shall be called The holy people,
    The redeemed of the Lord;
and you shall be called Sought out,
    a city not forsaken.

Vengeance on Edom

63 Who is this that comes from Edom,
    in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
he that is glorious in his apparel,
    marching in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, announcing vindication,
    mighty to save.”

Why is thy apparel red,
    and thy garments like his that treads in the wine press?

“I have trodden the wine press alone,
    and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
    and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments,
    and I have stained all my raiment.
For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
    and my year of redemption[e] has come.
I looked, but there was no one to help;
    I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me victory,
    and my wrath upheld me.
I trod down the peoples in my anger,
    I made them drunk in my wrath,
    and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

God’s Mercy Remembered

I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,
    the praises of the Lord,
according to all that the Lord has granted us,
    and the great goodness to the house of Israel
which he has granted them according to his mercy,
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, Surely they are my people,
    sons who will not deal falsely;
    and he became their Savior.
In all their affliction he was afflicted,[f]
    and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
    he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

10 But they rebelled
    and grieved his holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
    and himself fought against them.
11 Then he remembered the days of old,
    of Moses his servant.
Where is he who brought up out of the sea
    the shepherds of his flock?
Where is he who put in the midst of them
    his holy Spirit,
12 who caused his glorious arm
    to go at the right hand of Moses,
who divided the waters before them
    to make for himself an everlasting name,
13     who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert,
    they did not stumble.
14 Like cattle that go down into the valley,
    the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
So thou didst lead thy people,
    to make for thyself a glorious name.

A Prayer of Penitence

15 Look down from heaven and see,
    from thy holy and glorious habitation.
Where are thy zeal and thy might?
    The yearning of thy heart and thy compassion
    are withheld from me.
16 For thou art our Father,
    though Abraham does not know us
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
thou, O Lord, art our Father,
    our Redeemer from of old is thy name.
17 O Lord, why dost thou make us err from thy ways
    and harden our heart, so that we fear thee not?
Return for the sake of thy servants,
    the tribes of thy heritage.
18 Thy holy people possessed thy sanctuary a little while;
    our adversaries have trodden it down.
19 We have become like those over whom thou hast never ruled,
    like those who are not called by thy name.

64 O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at thy presence—
[g]as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make thy name known to thy adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at thy presence!
When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,
    thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence.
From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides thee,
    who works for those who wait for him.
Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness,
    those that remember thee in thy ways.
Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?[h]
We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one that calls upon thy name,
    that bestirs himself to take hold of thee;
for thou hast hid thy face from us,
    and hast delivered[i] us into the hand of our iniquities.

Yet, O Lord, thou art our Father;
    we are the clay, and thou art our potter;
    we are all the work of thy hand.
Be not exceedingly angry, O Lord,
    and remember not iniquity for ever.
    Behold, consider, we are all thy people.
10 Thy holy cities have become a wilderness,
    Zion has become a wilderness,
    Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
    where our fathers praised thee,
has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
12 Wilt thou restrain thyself at these things, O Lord?
    Wilt thou keep silent, and afflict us sorely?

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 62:4 Heb Azubah
  2. Isaiah 62:4 Heb Shemamah
  3. Isaiah 62:4 Heb Hephzibah
  4. Isaiah 62:4 Heb Beulah
  5. Isaiah 63:4 Or the year of my redeemed
  6. Isaiah 63:9 Another reading is he did not afflict
  7. Isaiah 64:2 Ch 64.1 in Heb
  8. Isaiah 64:5 Hebrew obscure
  9. Isaiah 64:7 Gk Syr Old Latin Tg: Heb melted

Relations with Others

18 Do not exchange a friend for money,
    or a real brother for the gold of Ophir.
19 Do not deprive yourself of a wise and good wife,
    for her charm is worth more than gold.
20 Do not abuse a servant who performs his work faithfully,
    or a hired laborer who devotes himself to you.
21 Let your soul love[a] an intelligent servant;
    do not withhold from him his freedom.

22 Do you have cattle? Look after them;
    if they are profitable to you, keep them.
23 Do you have children? Discipline them,
    and make them obedient[b] from their youth.
24 Do you have daughters? Be concerned for their chastity,[c]
    and do not show yourself too indulgent with them.
25 Give a daughter in marriage; you will have finished a great task.
    But give her to a man of understanding.

26 If you have a wife who pleases you,[d] do not cast her out;
    but do not trust yourself to one whom you detest.
27 With all your heart honor your father,
    and do not forget the birth pangs of your mother.
28 Remember that through your parents[e] you were born;
    and what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?

29 With all your soul fear the Lord,
    and honor his priests.
30 With all your might love your Maker,
    and do not forsake his ministers.
31 Fear the Lord and honor the priest,
    and give him his portion, as is commanded you:
the first fruits, the guilt offering, the gift of the shoulders,
    the sacrifice of sanctification, and the first fruits of the holy things.

32 Stretch forth your hand to the poor,
    so that your blessing may be complete.
33 Give graciously to all the living,
    and withhold not kindness from the dead.
34 Do not fail those who weep,
    but mourn with those who mourn.
35 Do not shrink from visiting a sick man,
    because for such deeds you will be loved.
36 In all you do, remember the end of your life,
    and then you will never sin.

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Footnotes

  1. Sirach 7:21 The Hebrew text reads Love like yourself
  2. Sirach 7:23 Gk bend their necks
  3. Sirach 7:24 Gk body
  4. Sirach 7:26 Heb Syr omit who pleases you
  5. Sirach 7:28 Gk them

The Example of Jesus

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,[a] looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons?—

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor lose courage when you are punished by him.
For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Warnings against Rejecting God’s Grace

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled; 16 that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly[b] of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Footnotes

  1. 12.1ff After explaining in the preceding chapters how we are redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ, the author now exhorts his readers to run the race with perseverance.
  2. Hebrews 12:23 Or angels, and to the festal gathering and assembly

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