Isaiah 64
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
64 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—(A)
2 [a]as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!(B)
3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence.(C)
4 From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.(D)
5 You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.[b](E)
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.(F)
7 There is no one who calls on your name
or attempts to take hold of you,
for you have hidden your face from us
and have delivered[c] us into the hand of our iniquity.(G)
8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.(H)
9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people.(I)
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.(J)
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned by fire,
and all our pleasant places have become ruins.(K)
12 After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
Will you keep silent and punish us so severely?(L)
Matthew 2:19-23
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Return from Egypt
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20 “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 21 Then Joseph[a] got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee.(A) 23 There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazarene.”[b](B)
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Isaiah 65:1-16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Righteousness of God’s Judgment
65 I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that did not call on my name.(A)
2 I held out my hands all day long
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;(B)
3 a people who provoke me
to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
and offering incense on bricks;(C)
4 who sit inside tombs
and spend the night in secret places;
who eat the flesh of pigs,
with broth of abominable things in their vessels;(D)
5 who say, “Keep to yourself;
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all day long.(E)
6 See, it is written before me:
I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their laps(F)
7 their[a] iniquities and their[b] ancestors’ iniquities together,
says the Lord;
because they offered incense on the mountains
and reviled me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
full payment for their actions.(G)
8 Thus says the Lord:
As the 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
and not destroy them all.
9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob
and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;
my chosen shall inherit it,
and my servants shall settle there.(H)
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks
and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
for my people who have sought me.(I)
11 But you who forsake the Lord,
who forget my holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,(J)
12 I will destine you to the sword,
and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter;
because, when I called, you did not answer,
when I spoke, you did not listen,
but you did what was evil in my sight
and chose what I did not delight in.(K)
13 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
My servants shall eat,
but you shall be hungry;
my servants shall drink,
but you shall be thirsty;
my servants shall rejoice,
but you shall be put to shame;(L)
14 my servants shall sing with gladness of heart,
but you shall cry out in pain of heart
and shall wail in anguish of spirit.(M)
15 You shall leave your name to my chosen to use as a curse,
and the Lord God will put you to death,
but to his servants he will give a different name.(N)
16 Then whoever invokes a blessing in the land
shall bless by the God of faithfulness,
and whoever takes an oath in the land
shall swear by the God of faithfulness,
because the former troubles are forgotten
and are hidden from my sight.(O)
1 Thessalonians 2:1-16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Paul’s Ministry in Thessalonica
2 You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, 2 but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.(A) 3 For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, 4 but, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals but to please God, who tests our hearts.(B) 5 As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed,(C) 6 nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others,(D) 7 though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle[a] among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. 8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
9 You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.(E) 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers.(F) 11 As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, 12 urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.(G)
13 We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.(H) 14 For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews(I) 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets[b] and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone(J) 16 by hindering us from speaking to the gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins, but wrath[c] has overtaken them at last.[d](K)
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