Isaiah 26-29
Christian Standard Bible
The Song of Judah
26 On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city.
Salvation is established as walls and ramparts.(A)
2 Open the gates
so a righteous nation can come in—
one that remains faithful.
3 You will keep the mind that is dependent on you
in perfect peace,(B)
for it is trusting in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
because in the Lord, the Lord himself, is an everlasting rock!(C)
5 For he has humbled those who live in lofty places—
an inaccessible city.(D)
He brings it down; he brings it down to the ground;
he throws it to the dust.
6 Feet trample it,
the feet of the humble,
the steps of the poor.
God’s People Vindicated
7 The path of the righteous is level;(E)
you clear a straight path for the righteous.
8 Yes, Lord, we wait for you
in the path of your judgments.
Our desire is for your name and renown.(F)
9 I long for you in the night;(G)
yes, my spirit within me diligently seeks you,
for when your judgments are in the land,
the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 But if the wicked man is shown favor,
he does not learn righteousness.
In a righteous land he acts unjustly
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, your hand is lifted up to take action,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people
and be put to shame.
Let fire consume your adversaries.
12 Lord, you will establish peace for us,
for you have also done all our work for us.
13 Lord our God, lords other than you have owned[a] us,
but we remember your name alone.(H)
14 The dead do not live;
departed spirits do not rise up.
Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them;
you have wiped out all memory of them.(I)
15 You have added to the nation, Lord.(J)
You have added to the nation; you are honored.
You have expanded all the borders of the land.(K)
16 Lord, they went to you in their distress;(L)
they poured out whispered prayers
because your discipline fell on them.[b]
17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pains,(M)
so we were before you, Lord.
18 We became pregnant, we writhed in pain;
we gave birth to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
and the earth’s inhabitants have not fallen.
19 Your dead will live; their bodies[c] will rise.(N)
Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust!
For you will be covered with the morning dew,[d]
and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.
20 Go, my people, enter your rooms
and close your doors behind you.
Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed.(O)
21 For look, the Lord is coming from his place(P)
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.(Q)
The earth will reveal the blood shed on it
and will no longer conceal her slain.
Leviathan Slain
27 On that day the Lord with his relentless, large, strong sword will bring judgment on Leviathan,(R) the fleeing serpent—Leviathan, the twisting serpent. He will slay the monster that is in the sea.(S)
The Lord’s Vineyard
2 On that day
sing about a desirable vineyard:(T)
3 I am the Lord, who watches over it
to water it regularly.
So that no one disturbs it,
I watch over it night and day.
4 I am not angry.
If only there were thorns and briers(U) for me to battle,
I would trample them
and burn them to the ground.
5 Or let it take hold of my strength;
let it make peace with me—
make peace with me.
6 In days to come, Jacob will take root.(V)
Israel will blossom and bloom(W)
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Did the Lord strike Israel
as he struck the one who struck Israel?(X)
Was Israel killed like those killed by the Lord?
8 You disputed with Israel
by banishing and driving her away.[e]
He removed her with his severe storm
on the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore Jacob’s iniquity(Y) will be atoned for in this way,
and the result of the removal of his sin will be this:(Z)
when he makes all the altar stones
like crushed bits of chalk,
no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
10 For the fortified city will be desolate,
pastures deserted and abandoned like a wilderness.
Calves will graze there,
and there they will spread out and strip its branches.
11 When its branches dry out, they will be broken off.
Women will come and make fires with them,
for they are not a people with understanding.(AA)
Therefore their Maker(AB) will not have compassion on them,
and their Creator will not be gracious to them.
12 On that day(AC)
the Lord will thresh grain from the Euphrates River
as far as the Wadi of Egypt,(AD)
and you Israelites will be gathered one by one.
13 On that day
a great ram’s horn(AE) will be blown,
and those lost in the land of Assyria will come,
as well as those dispersed in the land of Egypt;
and they will worship the Lord
at Jerusalem on the holy mountain.
Woe to Samaria
28 Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards,(AF)
and to the fading flower of its beautiful splendor,
which is on the summit above the rich valley.
Woe to those overcome with wine.
2 Look, the Lord has a strong and mighty one(AG)—
like a devastating hail storm,
like a storm with strong flooding water.
He will bring it across the land with his hand.
3 The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards
will be trampled underfoot.
4 The fading flower of his beautiful splendor,
which is on the summit above the rich valley,
will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest.(AH)
Whoever sees it will swallow it
while it is still in his hand.
5 On that day
the Lord of Armies will become a crown of beauty
and a diadem of splendor(AI)
to the remnant of his people,
6 a spirit of justice
to the one who sits in judgment,(AJ)
and strength
to those who repel attacks at the city gate.
7 Even these stagger because of wine
and stumble under the influence of beer:
Priest and prophet stagger because of beer.
They are confused by wine.(AK)
They stumble because of beer.
They are muddled in their visions.
They stumble in their judgments.
8 Indeed, all their tables are covered with vomit;
there is no place without a stench.
9 Who is he trying to teach?
Who is he trying to instruct?
Infants[f] just weaned from milk?
Babies[g] removed from the breast?
10 “Law after law, law after law,
line after line, line after line,
a little here, a little there.”[h]
11 For he will speak to this people
with stammering speech
and in a foreign language.(AL)
12 He had said to them,
“This is the place of rest;
let the weary rest;(AM)
this is the place of repose.”
But they would not listen.
13 The word of the Lord will come to them:
“Law after law, law after law,
line after line, line after line,
a little here, a little there,”
so they go stumbling backward,
to be broken, trapped, and captured.(AN)
A Deal with Death
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord,(AO) you scoffers(AP)
who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death,
and we have an agreement with Sheol;
when the overwhelming catastrophe[i] passes through,(AQ)
it will not touch us,
because we have made falsehood our refuge
and have hidden behind treachery.”
16 Therefore the Lord God said:
“Look, I have laid a stone(AR) in Zion,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;(AS)
the one who believes will be unshakable.[j](AT)
17 And I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the mason’s level.”(AU)
Hail will sweep away the false refuge,
and water will flood your hiding place.
18 Your covenant with Death will be dissolved,
and your agreement with Sheol will not last.
When the overwhelming catastrophe passes through,
you will be trampled.
19 Every time it passes through,
it will carry you away;
it will pass through every morning—
every day and every night.
Only terror(AV) will cause you
to understand the message.[k]
20 Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on,
and its cover too small to wrap up in.
21 For the Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim.(AW)
He will rise in wrath, as at the Valley of Gibeon,(AX)
to do his work, his unexpected work,
and to perform his task, his unfamiliar task.
22 So now, do not scoff,
or your shackles will become stronger.
Indeed, I have heard from the Lord God of Armies
a decree of destruction for the whole land.(AY)
God’s Wonderful Advice
23 Listen and hear my voice.
Pay attention and hear what I say.
24 Does the plowman plow every day to plant seed?
Does he continuously break up and cultivate the soil?
25 When he has leveled its surface,
does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin?
He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots,
with spelt as their border.
26 His God teaches him order;
he instructs him.
27 Certainly black cumin is not threshed
with a threshing board,
and a cart wheel is not rolled over the cumin.
But black cumin is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Bread grain is crushed,
but is not threshed endlessly.
Though the wheel of the farmer’s cart rumbles,
his horses do not crush it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of Armies.
He gives wondrous advice;
he gives great wisdom.(AZ)
Woe to Jerusalem
29 Woe to Ariel,[l] Ariel,
the city where David camped!(BA)
Continue year after year;
let the festivals recur.
2 I will oppress Ariel,
and there will be mourning and crying,
and she will be to me like an Ariel.
3 I will camp in a circle around you;
I will besiege you with earth ramps,
and I will set up my siege towers against you.
4 You will be brought down;
you will speak from the ground,
and your words will come from low in the dust.
Your voice will be like that of a spirit from the ground;(BB)
your speech will whisper from the dust.
5 Your many foes[m] will be like fine dust,(BC)
and many of the ruthless, like blowing chaff.
Then suddenly, in an instant,(BD)
6 you will be punished by the Lord of Armies
with thunder, earthquake, and loud noise,
storm, tempest, and a flame of consuming fire.(BE)
7 All the many nations(BF)
going out to battle against Ariel—
all the attackers, the siege works against her,
and those who oppress her—
will then be like a dream, a vision in the night.(BG)
8 It will be like a hungry one who dreams he is eating,
then wakes and is still hungry;
and like a thirsty one who dreams he is drinking,
then wakes and is still thirsty, longing for water.
So it will be for all the many nations
who go to battle against Mount Zion.
9 Stop and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk,[n] but not with wine;
they stagger,[o] but not with beer.(BH)
10 For the Lord has poured out on you
an overwhelming urge to[p] sleep;(BI)
he has shut your eyes (the prophets)
and covered your heads (the seers).(BJ)
11 For you the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document.(BK) If it is given to one who can read and he is asked to read it,[q] he will say, “I can’t read it, because it is sealed.” 12 And if the document is given to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it,[r] he will say, “I can’t read.”
13 The Lord said:
These people approach me with their speeches(BL)
to honor me with lip-service,[s]
yet their hearts are far from me,
and human rules direct their worship of me.[t]
14 Therefore, I will again confound these people
with wonder after wonder.(BM)
The wisdom of their wise will vanish,(BN)
and the perception of their perceptive will be hidden.
15 Woe to those who go to great lengths
to hide their plans from the Lord.(BO)
They do their works in the dark,
and say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” (BP)
16 You have turned things around,
as if the potter were the same as the clay.
How can what is made say about its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?(BQ)
How can what is formed
say about the one who formed it,
“He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”?
17 Isn’t it true that in just a little while
Lebanon will become an orchard,
and the orchard will seem like a forest?(BR)
18 On that day the deaf will hear(BS)
the words of a document,
and out of a deep darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The humble will have joy
after joy in the Lord,
and the poor people will rejoice(BT)
in the Holy One of Israel.(BU)
20 For the ruthless one will vanish,
the scorner will disappear,(BV)
and all those who lie in wait with evil intent
will be killed—
21 those who, with their speech,
accuse a person of wrongdoing,
who set a trap for the one mediating at the city gate
and without cause deprive the righteous of justice.(BW)
22 Therefore, the Lord who redeemed Abraham(BX) says this about the house of Jacob:
Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
and his face will no longer be pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands within his nation,
they will honor my name,
they will honor the Holy One of Jacob(BY)
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.(BZ)
24 Those who are confused will gain understanding,
and those who grumble will accept instruction.
Footnotes
- 26:13 Or married
- 26:16 Hb obscure
- 26:19 Lit live; my body they
- 26:19 Lit For your dew is a dew of lights
- 27:8 Hb obscure
- 28:9 Lit Those
- 28:9 Lit Those
- 28:10 Hb obscure, also in v. 13
- 28:15 Or whip; Hb obscure, also in v. 18
- 28:16 Lit will not hurry
- 28:19 Or The understanding of the message will cause sheer terror
- 29:1 Or Altar Hearth, or Lion of God; Hb obscure, also in v. 2
- 29:5 Lit foreigners
- 29:9 LXX, Tg, Vg read Be drunk
- 29:9 Tg, Vg read wine; stagger
- 29:10 Lit you a spirit of
- 29:11 Lit If one gives it to one who knows the document, saying, “Read this, please”
- 29:12 Lit who does not know the document, saying, “Read this, please”
- 29:13 Lit their mouth and honor me with its lips
- 29:13 Lit their fearing of me is a taught command of men
Psalm 65
Christian Standard Bible
Psalm 65
God’s Care for the Earth
For the choir director. A psalm of David. A song.
1 Praise is rightfully yours,[a]
God, in Zion;
vows to you will be fulfilled.(A)
2 All humanity will come to you,
the one who hears prayer.(B)
3 Iniquities overwhelm me;
only you can atone for our rebellions.(C)
4 How happy is the one you choose
and bring near to live in your courts!
We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house,(D)
the holiness of your temple.[b](E)
5 You answer us in righteousness,
with awe-inspiring works,
God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the distant seas.(F)
6 You establish the mountains by your power;
you are robed with strength.(G)
7 You silence the roar of the seas,
the roar of their waves,
and the tumult of the nations.(H)
8 Those who live far away are awed by your signs;
you make east and west shout for joy.(I)
9 You visit the earth and water it abundantly,
enriching it greatly.
God’s stream is filled with water,
for you prepare the earth in this way,
providing people with grain.(J)
10 You soften it with showers and bless its growth,
soaking its furrows and leveling its ridges.(K)
11 You crown the year with your goodness;
your carts overflow with plenty.[c](L)
12 The wilderness pastures overflow,
and the hills are robed with joy.(M)
13 The pastures are clothed with flocks
and the valleys covered with grain.(N)
They shout in triumph; indeed, they sing.(O)
1 Corinthians 4
Christian Standard Bible
The Faithful Manager
4 A person should think of us in this way: as servants(A) of Christ and managers(B) of the mysteries of God.(C) 2 In this regard, it is required that managers be found faithful.(D) 3 It is of little(E) importance to me that I should be judged(F) by you or by any human court.[a] In fact, I don’t even judge myself. 4 For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified(G) by this. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 So don’t judge(H) anything prematurely, before the Lord comes,(I) who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.(J)
The Apostles’ Example of Humility
6 Now, brothers and sisters,(K) I have applied these things to myself and Apollos(L) for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be arrogant, favoring one person over another. 7 For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it? 8 You are already full! You are already rich! You have begun to reign as kings without us—and I wish you did reign, so that we could also reign with you! 9 For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: We have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. 10 We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ!(M) We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! 11 Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless; 12 we labor, working(N) with our own hands.(O) When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the scum of the earth, like everyone’s garbage.(P)
Paul’s Fatherly Care
14 I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.(Q) 15 For you may have countless instructors in Christ, but you don’t have many fathers. For I became your father(R) in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 This is why I have sent(S) Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful(T) child in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
18 Now some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon,(U) if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk, but the power of those who are arrogant. 20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 21 What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod,(V) or in love and a spirit of gentleness?(W)
Footnotes
- 4:3 Lit a human day
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
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