Isaiah 14:3-27
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Downfall of the King of Babylon
3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve,(A) 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has ceased!
How his insolence[a] has ceased!(B)
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6 that struck down the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.(C)
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 The cypresses exult over you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you were laid low,
no one comes to cut us down.”(D)
9 Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.(E)
10 All of them will speak
and say to you:
“You, too, have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!”
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
and worms are your covering.(F)
12 How you are fallen from heaven,
O Morning Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!(G)
13 You said to yourself,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
on the heights of Zaphon;[b](H)
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”(I)
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit.(J)
16 Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,(K)
17 who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who would not let his prisoners go home?”(L)
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb,
19 but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like loathsome carrion,[c]
clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the Pit
like a corpse trampled underfoot.(M)
20 You will not be joined with them in burial
because you have destroyed your land;
you have killed your people.
May the descendants of evildoers
nevermore be named!(N)
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons
because of the guilt of their father.[d]
Let them never rise to possess the earth
or cover the face of the world with cities.(O)
22 I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the Lord.(P) 23 And I will make it a possession of the screech owl[e] and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts.(Q)
An Oracle concerning Assyria
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have designed,
so shall it be,
and as I have planned,
so shall it come to pass:(R)
25 I will break the Assyrian in my land
and on my mountains trample him under foot;
his yoke shall be removed from them
and his burden from their shoulders.(S)
26 This is the plan that is planned
concerning the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.(T)
27 For the Lord of hosts has planned,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?(U)
Mark 3:13-35
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jesus Appoints the Twelve
13 He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him.(A) 14 And he appointed twelve[a] to be with him and to be sent out to preach 15 and to have authority to cast out demons. 16 So he appointed the twelve:[b] Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter),(B) 17 James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder), 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who handed him over.
Jesus and Beelzebul
20 Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.(C) 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”(D) 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.”(E) 23 And he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?(F) 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.(G)
28 “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter,(H) 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
The True Kindred of Jesus
31 Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him.(I) 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers[c] are outside asking for you.” 33 And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
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Isaiah 17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
An Oracle concerning Damascus
17 An oracle concerning Damascus.
See, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.(A)
2 Her towns will be deserted forever;[a]
they will be places for flocks,
which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.(B)
3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim
and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the people of Israel,
says the Lord of hosts.(C)
4 On that day
the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.(D)
5 And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain
and their arms harvest the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.(E)
6 Gleanings will be left in it,
as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
on the branches of a fruit tree,
says the Lord God of Israel.(F)
7 On that day people will look to their Maker, with their eyes on the Holy One of Israel;(G) 8 they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles[b] or the altars of incense.(H)
9 On that day their fortified cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites,[c] which they deserted because of the people of Israel, and there will be desolation.(I)
10 For you have forgotten God your Savior
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant gardens
and set out branches of a foreign god,(J)
11 though you make them grow on the day that you plant them
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away
in a day of sickness and incurable pain.(K)
12 Woe, the thunder of many peoples,
they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
The roar of nations,
they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!(L)
13 [[When the nations roar like the roaring of many waters,]][d]
he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
and like whirling dust before the storm.(M)
14 At evening time, sudden terror!
Before morning, they are no more.
This is the fate of those who despoil us
and the lot of those who plunder us.(N)
Revelation 10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Angel with the Little Scroll
10 And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire.(A) 2 He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 he gave a great shout, like a lion roaring. And when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded.(B) 4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”(C) 5 Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land
raised his right hand to heaven(D)
6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever,
who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it: “There will be no more delay,(E) 7 but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”(F)
8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll, and he said to me, “Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.”(G) 10 So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.(H)
11 Then they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.