Isaiah 64-65

English Standard Version

64 ^(A)Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    ^(B)that the mountains might quake at your presence—
²^[a] as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
^(C)to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³^(D)When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
⁴^(E)From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
^(F)no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
⁵You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?^[b]
⁶^(G)We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
^(H)We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷^(I)There is no one who calls upon your name,
    who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have made us melt in^[c] the hand of our iniquities.

⁸^(J)But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
    ^(K)we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    ^(L)we are all the work of your hand.
⁹^(M)Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
    ^(N)and remember not iniquity forever.
    Behold, please look, we are all your people.
¹⁰^(O)Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
    Zion has become a wilderness,
    Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹^(P)Our holy and beautiful^[d] house,
    where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
¹²^(Q)Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?
    Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

Judgment and Salvation

65 ^(R)I was ready to be sought by ^(S)those who did not ask for me;
    I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
    to a nation that was not called by^[e] my name.
²^(T)I spread out my hands all the day
    to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
    following their own devices;
³a people who provoke me
    to my face continually,
^(U)sacrificing in gardens
    and making offerings on bricks;
⁴who sit in tombs,
    and spend the night in secret places;
^(V)who eat pig's flesh,
    and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
⁵who say, “Keep to yourself,
    do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
^(W)These are a smoke in my nostrils,
    a fire that burns all the day.
⁶Behold, ^(X)it is written before me:
    ^(Y)“I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
^(Z)I will indeed repay into their lap
⁷    both your iniquities ^(AA)and your fathers' iniquities together,
says the Lord;
^(AB)because they made offerings on the mountains
    ^(AC)and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
    payment for their former deeds.”^[f]

⁸Thus says the Lord:
^(AD)“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
    and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
    for there is a blessing in it,’
so I will do for my servants' sake,
    ^(AE)and not destroy them all.
⁹^(AF)I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
    and from Judah possessors of my mountains;
my chosen shall possess it,
    and my servants shall dwell there.
¹⁰^(AG)Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,
    and ^(AH)the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
    for my people ^(AI)who have sought me.
¹¹But ^(AJ)you who forsake the Lord,
    who forget ^(AK)my holy mountain,
who ^(AL)set a table for Fortune
    and ^(AM)fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,
¹²I will destine you to the sword,
    and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,
^(AN)because, when I called, you did not answer;
    when I spoke, you did not listen,
^(AO)but you did what was evil in my eyes
    and chose what I did not delight in.”

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, ^(AP)my servants shall eat,
    but you shall be hungry;
behold, my servants shall drink,
    but you shall be thirsty;
behold, my servants shall rejoice,
    but you shall be put to shame;
¹⁴behold, ^(AQ)my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,
    but you shall cry out for pain of heart
    and shall wail for breaking of spirit.
¹⁵You shall leave your name to ^(AR)my chosen ^(AS)for a curse,
    and the Lord God will put you to death,
    but his servants ^(AT)he will call by another name,
¹⁶so that he who ^(AU)blesses himself in the land
    shall bless himself by ^(AV)the God of truth,
and he who takes an oath in the land
    shall swear by ^(AW)the God of truth;
^(AX)because the former troubles are forgotten
    and are hidden from my eyes.

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷“For behold, ^(AY)I create new heavens
    and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
    or come into mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever
    in that which I create;
for behold, ^(AZ)I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
    and her people to be a gladness.
¹⁹^(BA)I will rejoice in Jerusalem
    and be glad in my people;
^(BB)no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
    and the cry of distress.
²⁰No more shall there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for ^(BC)the young man shall die a hundred years old,
    and ^(BD)the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
²¹^(BE)They shall build houses and inhabit them;
    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²²^(BF)They shall not build and another inhabit;
    they shall not plant and another eat;
^(BG)for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
    and my chosen shall long enjoy^[g] the work of their hands.
²³^(BH)They shall not labor in vain
    ^(BI)or bear children for calamity,^[h]
for ^(BJ)they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,
    and their descendants with them.
²⁴^(BK)Before they call I will answer;
    ^(BL)while they are yet speaking I will hear.
²⁵^(BM)The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
    and ^(BN)dust shall be the serpent's food.
^(BO)They shall not hurt or destroy
    in all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.

Footnotes

Isaiah 64:2 Ch 64:1 in Hebrew
Isaiah 64:5 Or in your ways is continuance, that we might be saved
Isaiah 64:7 Masoretic Text; Septuagint, Syriac, Targum have delivered us into
Isaiah 64:11 Or holy and glorious
Isaiah 65:1 Or that did not call upon
Isaiah 65:7 Or I will first measure their payment into their lap
Isaiah 65:22 Hebrew shall wear out
Isaiah 65:23 Or for sudden terror

2 Corinthians 11:16-33

English Standard Version

Paul's Sufferings as an Apostle

¹⁶I repeat, ^(A)let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ¹⁷What I am saying ^(B)with this boastful confidence, ^(C)I say not as the Lord would^[a] but as a fool. ¹⁸Since ^(D)many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. ¹⁹For you gladly bear with fools, ^(E)being wise yourselves! ²⁰For you bear it if someone ^(F)makes slaves of you, or ^(G)devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or ^(H)strikes you in the face. ²¹To my shame, I must say, ^(I)we were too weak for that!

But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. ²²Are they Hebrews? ^(J)So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. ²³Are they ^(K)servants of Christ? ^(L)I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, ^(M)far more imprisonments, ^(N)with countless beatings, and ^(O)often near death. ²⁴Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the ^(P)forty lashes less one. ²⁵Three times I was ^(Q)beaten with rods. ^(R)Once I was stoned. Three times I ^(S)was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, ^(T)danger from my own people, ^(U)danger from Gentiles, ^(V)danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; ²⁷^(W)in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, ^(X)in hunger and thirst, often without food,^[b] in cold and exposure. ²⁸And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for ^(Y)all the churches. ²⁹^(Z)Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

³⁰^(AA)If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. ³¹^(AB)The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, ^(AC)he who is blessed forever, ^(AD)knows that I am not lying. ³²At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas ^(AE)was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, ³³^(AF)but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

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Footnotes

2 Corinthians 11:17 Greek not according to the Lord
2 Corinthians 11:27 Or often in fasting

Psalm 108:6-13

English Standard Version

⁶^(A)That your beloved ones may be delivered,
give salvation by your right hand and answer me!

⁷God has promised in his holiness:^[a]
    “With exultation I will divide up Shechem
    and portion out the Valley of Succoth.
⁸Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet,
    Judah my scepter.
⁹Moab is my washbasin;
    upon Edom I cast my shoe;
    ^(B)over Philistia I shout in triumph.”

¹⁰Who will bring me to the fortified city?
    Who will lead me to Edom?
¹¹Have you not rejected us, O God?
    You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
¹²Oh grant us help against the foe,
    for vain is the salvation of man!
¹³With God we shall do valiantly;
    it is he who will tread down our foes.

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Footnotes

Psalm 108:7 Or sanctuary

Proverbs 23:31-33

English Standard Version

³¹Do not look at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup
    and goes down smoothly.
³²In the end it ^(A)bites like a serpent
    and stings like an adder.
³³Your eyes will see strange things,
    and your heart utter ^(B)perverse things.