Isaiah 59
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Injustice and Oppression to Be Punished
59 See, the Lord’s arm is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.(A)
2 Rather, your iniquities have been barriers
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.(B)
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.(C)
4 No one brings suit justly;
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas; they speak lies,
conceiving mischief and bearing iniquity.(D)
5 They hatch adders’ eggs
and weave the spider’s web;
whoever eats their eggs dies,
and the crushed egg hatches out a viper.(E)
6 Their webs cannot serve as clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
and deeds of violence are in their hands.(F)
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they rush to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.(G)
8 The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their ways.
Their roads they have made crooked;
no one who walks in them knows peace.(H)
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
and deliverance does not reach us;
we wait for light, but there is only darkness;
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.(I)
10 We grope like the blind along a wall,
groping like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among the vigorous[a] as though we were dead.(J)
11 We all growl like bears;
like doves we moan mournfully.
We wait for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.(K)
12 For our transgressions before you are many,
and our sins testify against us.
Our transgressions indeed are with us,
and we know our iniquities:(L)
13 transgressing and denying the Lord
and turning away from following our God,
talking oppression and revolt,
conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.(M)
14 Justice is turned back,
and deliverance stands at a distance,
for truth stumbles in the public square,
and uprightness cannot enter.(N)
15 Truth is lacking,
and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.
The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.(O)
16 He saw that there was no one
and was appalled that there was no one to intervene,
so his own arm brought him victory,
and his righteousness upheld him.(P)
17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing
and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle.(Q)
18 According to their deeds, so will he repay
wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies;
to the coastlands he will render requital.(R)
19 So those in the west shall fear the name of the Lord,
and those in the east, his glory,
for he will come like a pent-up stream
that the wind of the Lord drives on.(S)
20 And he will come to Zion as Redeemer,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord.(T)
21 And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouths of your children or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the Lord, from now on and forever.(U)
Footnotes
- 59.10 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Mark 12:13-34
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Question about Paying Taxes
13 Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said.(A) 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay them, or should we not?” But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.” 16 And they brought one. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” They answered, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.(B)
The Question about the Resurrection
18 Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man[a] shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.(C) 20 There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children, 21 and the second married the widow[b] and died, leaving no children, and the third likewise; 22 none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise,[c] whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her.”
24 Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when people rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.(D) 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?(E) 27 He is God not of the dead but of the living; you are quite wrong.”
The First Commandment
28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?”(F) 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;(G) 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”(H) 32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’;(I) 33 and ‘to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”(J) 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.(K)
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Isaiah 60:1-7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Ingathering of the Dispersed
60 Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.(A)
2 For darkness shall cover the earth
and thick darkness the peoples,
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.(B)
3 Nations shall come to your light
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.(C)
4 Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together; they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried in their nurses’ arms.(D)
5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,[a]
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you;
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.(E)
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense
and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.(F)
7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;
the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;
they shall be acceptable on my altar,[b]
and I will glorify my glorious house.(G)
2 Peter 2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
False Prophets and Their Punishment
2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.(A) 2 Even so, many will follow their debaucheries, and because of these teachers[a] the way of truth will be maligned. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.(B)
4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains[b] of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;(C) 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;(D) 6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to destruction[c] and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;[d] 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the debauchery of the lawless(E) 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous until the day of judgment, when they will be punished(F) 10 —especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust and who despise authority.
Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,[e](G) 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment.[f] 12 These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and as those creatures are destroyed,[g] they also will be destroyed, 13 suffering[h] the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures[i] while they feast with you.(H) 14 They have eyes full of adultery,[j] insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor,[k] who loved the wages of doing wrong(I) 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved.(J) 18 For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased[l] desires of the flesh they entice people who have just[m] escaped from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.(K) 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the[n] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.(L) 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them.(M) 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb,
“The dog turns back to its own vomit,”
and,
“The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.”(N)
Footnotes
- 2.2 Gk because of them
- 2.4 Other ancient authorities read pits
- 2.6 Other ancient authorities lack to destruction
- 2.6 Other ancient authorities read an example to those who were to be ungodly
- 2.10 Or angels; Gk glories
- 2.11 Other ancient authorities add from the Lord or before the Lord
- 2.12 Gk in their destruction
- 2.13 Other ancient authorities read receiving
- 2.13 Other ancient authorities read love feasts
- 2.14 Gk adulteress; or longing for an adulteress
- 2.15 Other ancient authorities read Beor
- 2.18 Or debauched
- 2.18 Other ancient authorities read actually
- 2.20 Other ancient authorities read our
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.