Ephesians 4:17-32

English Standard Version

The New Life

¹⁷Now this I say and ^(A)testify in the Lord, ^(B)that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, ^(C)in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They ^(D)are darkened in their understanding, ^(E)alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to ^(F)their hardness of heart. ¹⁹They ^(G)have become callous and ^(H)have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰But that is not the way you ^(I)learned Christ!— ²¹assuming that ^(J)you have heard about him and ^(K)were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²²to ^(L)put off ^(M)your old self,^[a] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through ^(N)deceitful desires, ²³and ^(O)to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to put on ^(P)the new self, ^(Q)created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you ^(R)speak the truth with his neighbor, for ^(S)we are members one of another. ²⁶^(T)Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and ^(U)give no opportunity to the devil. ²⁸Let the thief no longer steal, but rather ^(V)let him labor, ^(W)doing honest work with his own hands, so ^(X)that he may have something to share with anyone in need. ²⁹^(Y)Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give ^(Z)grace to those who hear. ³⁰And ^(AA)do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, ^(AB)by whom you were sealed for the day of ^(AC)redemption. ³¹^(AD)Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³²^(AE)Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, ^(AF)forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

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Footnotes

Ephesians 4:22 Greek man; also verse 24

Isaiah 48:12-50:11

English Standard Version

The Lord's Call to Israel

¹²“Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; ^(A)I am the first,
    and I am the last.
¹³My hand ^(B)laid the foundation of the earth,
    and my right hand ^(C)spread out the heavens;
^(D)when I call to them,
    they stand forth together.

¹⁴“Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    ^(E)Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
    ^(F)he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against ^(G)the Chaldeans.
¹⁵^(H)I, even I, have spoken and called him;
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
¹⁶^(I)Draw near to me, hear this:
    from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now ^(J)the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.

¹⁷Thus says the Lord,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you to profit,
    who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸^(K)Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    ^(L)Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
¹⁹^(M)your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.”

²⁰^(N)Go out from Babylon, flee from ^(O)Chaldea,
    declare this ^(P)with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, ^(Q)“The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
²¹^(R)They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    ^(S)he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he split the rock and the water gushed out.

²²^(T)“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

The Servant of the Lord

49 Listen to me, ^(U)O coastlands,
    and give attention, you peoples ^(V)from afar.
^(W)The Lord called me from the womb,
    from the body of my mother he named my name.
²^(X)He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
    ^(Y)in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
    in his quiver he hid me away.
³And he said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, ^(Z)in whom I will be glorified.”^[a]
⁴^(AA)But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the Lord,
    and my recompense with my God.”

⁵^(AB)And now the Lord says,
    he ^(AC)who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for ^(AD)I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
    and my God has become my strength—
⁶he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
^(AE)I will make you ^(AF)as a light for the nations,
    that ^(AG)my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

⁷Thus says the Lord,
    ^(AH)the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
^(AI)to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
    the servant of rulers:
^(AJ)“Kings shall see and arise;
    princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

The Restoration of Israel

⁸Thus says the Lord:
^(AK)“In a ^(AL)time of favor I have answered you;
    in a day of salvation I have helped you;
I will keep you ^(AM)and give you
    as a covenant to the people,
to establish the land,
    ^(AN)to apportion the desolate heritages,
⁹^(AO)saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
    to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’
^(AP)They shall feed along the ways;
    on all bare heights shall be their pasture;
¹⁰^(AQ)they shall not hunger or thirst,
    neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them,
for he who has pity on them ^(AR)will lead them,
    and by springs of water will guide them.
¹¹^(AS)And I will make all my mountains a road,
    and my highways shall be raised up.
¹²^(AT)Behold, these shall come from afar,
    and behold, ^(AU)these from the north and from the west,^[b]
    and these from the land of Syene.”^[c]

¹³^(AV)Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord ^(AW)has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴But Zion said, ^(AX)“The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵^(AY)“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶Behold, ^(AZ)I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷Your builders make haste;^[d]
    ^(BA)your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
¹⁸^(BB)Lift up your eyes around and see;
    they all gather, they come to you.
^(BC)As I live, declares the Lord,
    ^(BD)you shall put them all on as an ornament;
    you shall bind them on as a bride does.

¹⁹“Surely your waste and your desolate places
    and your devastated land—
^(BE)surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰^(BF)The children of your bereavement
    will yet say in your ears:
^(BG)‘The place is too narrow for me;
    make room for me to dwell in.’
²¹Then you will say in your heart:
    ‘Who has borne me these?
^(BH)I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away,
    but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
    from where have these come?’”

²²Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
    ^(BI)and raise my signal to the peoples;
^(BJ)and they shall bring your sons in their arms,^[e]
    and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
²³^(BK)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
^(BL)With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
    and ^(BM)lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    ^(BN)those who wait for me ^(BO)shall not be put to shame.”

²⁴Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
    or the captives of a tyrant^[f] be rescued?
²⁵For thus says the Lord:
^(BP)“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
    and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
    and I will save your children.
²⁶^(BQ)I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
    and they shall be drunk ^(BR)with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
    that ^(BS)I am the Lord your Savior,
    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Israel's Sin and the Servant's Obedience

50 Thus says the Lord:
“Where is ^(BT)your mother's certificate of divorce,
    with which ^(BU)I sent her away?
Or ^(BV)which of my creditors is it
    to whom I have sold you?
^(BW)Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,
    and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
²^(BX)Why, when I came, was there no man;
    why, when I called, was there no one to answer?
^(BY)Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
    Or have I no power to deliver?
^(BZ)Behold, by my rebuke ^(CA)I dry up the sea,
    ^(CB)I make the rivers a desert;
^(CC)their fish stink for lack of water
    and die of thirst.
³^(CD)I clothe the heavens with blackness
    and make sackcloth their covering.”

⁴The Lord God has given ^(CE)me
    the tongue of those who are taught,
that ^(CF)I may know how to sustain with a word
    ^(CG)him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
    he awakens my ear
    to hear as those who are taught.
⁵^(CH)The Lord God has opened my ear,
    ^(CI)and I was not rebellious;
    I turned not backward.
⁶^(CJ)I gave my back to those who strike,
    and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
    from disgrace and spitting.

⁷But the Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
^(CK)therefore I have set my face like a flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
⁸    ^(CL)He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
    Let him come near to me.
⁹^(CM)Behold, the Lord God helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up.

¹⁰Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys ^(CN)the voice of his servant?
^(CO)Let him who walks in darkness
    and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on his God.
¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
    who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
    and by the torches that you have kindled!
^(CP)This you have from my hand:
    you shall lie down in torment.

Footnotes

Isaiah 49:3 Or I will display my beauty
Isaiah 49:12 Hebrew from the sea
Isaiah 49:12 Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text Sinim
Isaiah 49:17 Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text Your children make haste
Isaiah 49:22 Hebrew in their bosom
Isaiah 49:24 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac, Vulgate (see also verse 25); Masoretic Text of a righteous man

Psalm 69:1-18

English Standard Version

Save Me, O God

To the choirmaster: according to ^(A)Lilies. Of David.

69 Save me, O God!
    For ^(B)the waters have come up to my neck.^[a]
²I sink in deep ^(C)mire,
    where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
    and the flood ^(D)sweeps over me.
³^(E)I am weary with my crying out;
    ^(F)my throat is parched.
^(G)My eyes grow dim
    with ^(H)waiting for my God.

⁴^(I)More in number than the hairs of my head
    are ^(J)those who hate me ^(K)without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me,
    ^(L)those who attack me with lies.
What I did not steal
    must I now restore?
⁵O God, you know my folly;
    the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

⁶Let not those who hope in you ^(M)be put to shame through me,
    O Lord God of hosts;
let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
    O God of Israel.
⁷For it is ^(N)for your sake that I have borne reproach,
    that dishonor has covered my face.
⁸I have become ^(O)a stranger to my brothers,
    an alien to my mother's sons.

⁹For ^(P)zeal for your house has consumed me,
    and ^(Q)the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
¹⁰When I wept and humbled^[b] my soul with fasting,
    it became my reproach.
¹¹When I made ^(R)sackcloth my clothing,
    I became ^(S)a byword to them.
¹²I am the talk of those who ^(T)sit in the gate,
    and the drunkards make ^(U)songs about me.

¹³But as for me, my ^(V)prayer is to you, O Lord.
    At ^(W)an acceptable time, O God,
    in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
¹⁴Deliver me
    from sinking in ^(X)the mire;
^(Y)let me be delivered from my enemies
    and from ^(Z)the deep waters.
¹⁵Let not the flood sweep over me,
    or the deep swallow me up,
    or ^(AA)the pit close ^(AB)its mouth over me.

¹⁶Answer me, O Lord, for your ^(AC)steadfast love is good;
    according to your abundant ^(AD)mercy, ^(AE)turn to me.
¹⁷^(AF)Hide not your face from your servant,
    ^(AG)for I am in distress; ^(AH)make haste to answer me.
¹⁸Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
    ransom me because of my enemies!

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Footnotes

Psalm 69:1 Or waters threaten my life
Psalm 69:10 Hebrew lacks and humbled

Proverbs 24:5-6

English Standard Version

⁵^(A)A wise man is full of strength,
and a man of knowledge enhances his might,
⁶for by ^(B)wise guidance you can wage your war,
and in ^(C)abundance of counselors there is victory.