Isaiah 49:1-13

New American Standard Bible

Salvation Reaches to the Ends of the Earth

49 Listen to Me, you ^(A)islands,
And pay attention, you peoples from afar.
^(B)The Lord called Me from the womb;
From the ^[a]body of My mother He named Me.
²He has made My ^(C)mouth like a sharp sword,
In the ^(D)shadow of His hand He has concealed Me;
And He has also made Me a sharpened ^(E)arrow,
He has hidden Me in His quiver.
³He said to Me, “^(F)You are My Servant, Israel,
^(G)In whom I will show My glory.”
⁴But I said, “I have ^(H)labored in vain,
I have spent My strength for nothing and futility;
Nevertheless, the justice due to Me is with the Lord,
And My ^(I)reward is with My God.”

⁵And now says ^(J)the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him, so that ^(K)Israel might be gathered to Him
(For I am ^(L)honored in the sight of the Lord,
And My God is My ^(M)strength),
⁶He says, “It is too ^[b]small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ^(N)protected ones of Israel;
I will also make You a ^(O)light ^[c]of the nations
So that My salvation may ^[d]reach to the ^(P)end of the earth.”
⁷This is what the Lord, the ^(Q)Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,
Says to the ^[e]^(R)despised One,
To the One abhorred by the nation,
To the Servant of rulers:
“^(S)Kings will see and arise,
Princes will also ^(T)bow down,
Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

⁸This is what the Lord says:
“At a ^(U)favorable time I answered You,
And on a day of salvation I helped You;
And I will ^(V)watch over You and ^(W)make You a covenant of the people,
To ^[f]^(X)restore the land, to give as inheritances the deserted hereditary lands;
⁹Saying to those who are ^(Y)bound, ‘^[g]Go free,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
They will feed along the roads,
And their pasture will be on all ^(Z)bare heights.
¹⁰They will ^(AA)not hunger or thirst,
Nor will the scorching ^(AB)heat or sun strike them down;
For ^(AC)He who has compassion on them will ^(AD)lead them,
And He will guide them to ^(AE)springs of water.
¹¹I will make all ^(AF)My mountains a road,
And My ^(AG)highways will be raised up.
¹²Behold, these will come ^(AH)from afar;
And behold, these will come from the ^(AI)north and from the west,
And these from the land of Aswan.”
¹³^(AJ)Shout for joy, you heavens! And rejoice, you earth!
Break forth into joyful shouting, mountains!
For the ^(AK)Lord has comforted His people
And will ^(AL)have compassion on His afflicted.

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Footnotes

Isaiah 49:1 Lit inward parts
Isaiah 49:6 Lit light
Isaiah 49:6 Or to
Isaiah 49:6 Lit be
Isaiah 49:7 Lit despised of soul
Isaiah 49:8 Lit establish
Isaiah 49:9 Lit Go out

Luke 3:15-22

New American Standard Bible

¹⁵Now while the people were in a state of expectation and they all were thinking carefully in their hearts about John, ^(A)whether he himself perhaps was the ^[a]Christ, ¹⁶^(B)John responded to them all, saying, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but He is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the straps of His sandals; He will baptize you ^[b]with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷His ^(C)winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with ^(D)unquenchable fire.”

¹⁸So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people. ¹⁹But when ^(E)Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him regarding ^(F)Herodias, his brother’s wife, and regarding all the evil things which ^(G)Herod had done, ²⁰Herod also added this to them all: ^(H)he locked John up in prison.

Jesus Is Baptized

²¹^(I)Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized, and while He was ^(J)praying, heaven was opened, ²²and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: “^(K)You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.”

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