Isaiah 26:1-19

English Standard Version

You Keep Him in Perfect Peace

26 In that day ^(A)this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;
    he sets up ^(B)salvation
    as walls and bulwarks.
²^(C)Open the gates,
    that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
³^(D)You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.
⁴Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
⁵^(E)For he has humbled
    the inhabitants of the height,
    the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
    casts it to the dust.
⁶The foot tramples it,
    the feet of ^(F)the poor,
    the steps of ^(G)the needy.”

⁷The path of the righteous is level;
    ^(H)you make level the way of the righteous.
⁸In the path of your judgments,
    O Lord, we wait for you;
^(I)your name and ^(J)remembrance
    are the desire of our soul.
⁹My soul yearns for you in the night;
    my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
^(K)For when your judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰^(L)If favor is shown to the wicked,
    he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
    and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹O Lord, ^(M)your hand is lifted up,
    but ^(N)they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
    Let ^(O)the fire for your adversaries consume them.
¹²O Lord, you will ordain ^(P)peace for us,
    for you have indeed done for us all our works.
¹³O Lord our God,
    ^(Q)other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    ^(R)but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
¹⁴They are dead, they will not live;
    they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
    and wiped out all remembrance of them.
¹⁵^(S)But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    ^(T)you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶O Lord, ^(U)in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a whispered prayer
    when your discipline was upon them.
¹⁷^(V)Like a pregnant woman
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs
    when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
¹⁸    ^(W)we were pregnant, we writhed,
    but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
¹⁹^(X)Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For ^(Y)your dew is a dew of light,
    and the earth will give birth to the dead.

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1 John 3

English Standard Version

3 See ^(A)what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called ^(B)children of God; and so we are. The reason why ^(C)the world does not know us is that ^(D)it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are ^(E)God's children ^(F)now, and what we will be ^(G)has not yet appeared; but we know that ^(H)when he appears^[a] ^(I)we shall be like him, because ^(J)we shall see him as he is. ³And everyone who ^(K)thus hopes in him ^(L)purifies himself as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; ^(M)sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that ^(N)he appeared in order to ^(O)take away sins, and ^(P)in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; ^(Q)no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, ^(R)let no one deceive you. ^(S)Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸^(T)Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was ^(U)to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹^(V)No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's^[b] seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, ^(W)nor is the one who ^(X)does not love his brother.

Love One Another

¹¹For ^(Y)this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, ^(Z)that we should love one another. ¹²We should not be like ^(AA)Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? ^(AB)Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. ¹³Do not be surprised, brothers,^[c] ^(AC)that the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that ^(AD)we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ¹⁵^(AE)Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that ^(AF)no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶By this we know love, that ^(AG)he laid down his life for us, and ^(AH)we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷But ^(AI)if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet ^(AJ)closes his heart against him, ^(AK)how does God's love abide in him? ¹⁸Little children, let us not ^(AL)love in word or talk but in deed and ^(AM)in truth.

¹⁹By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹Beloved, ^(AN)if our heart does not condemn us, ^(AO)we have confidence before God; ²²and ^(AP)whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and ^(AQ)do what pleases him. ²³And this is his commandment, ^(AR)that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and ^(AS)love one another, ^(AT)just as he has commanded us. ²⁴^(AU)Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,^[d] and God^[e] in him. And ^(AV)by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

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Footnotes

1 John 3:2 Or when it appears
1 John 3:9 Greek his
1 John 3:13 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters; also verses 14, 16
1 John 3:24 Greek him
1 John 3:24 Greek he