Isaiah 41-42

English Standard Version

Fear Not, for I Am with You

41 ^(A)Listen to me in silence, ^(B)O coastlands;
let the peoples renew their strength;
let them approach, then let them speak;
let us together draw near for judgment.

²^(C)Who stirred up one from the east
    whom victory meets at every ^(D)step?^[a]
^(E)He gives up nations before him,
    so that he tramples kings underfoot;
he makes them like dust with his sword,
    ^(F)like driven stubble with his bow.
³He pursues them and passes on safely,
    by paths his feet have not trod.
⁴^(G)Who has performed and done this,
    calling the generations from the beginning?
^(H)I, the Lord, the first,
    and with the last; I am he.

⁵^(I)The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
    the ends of the earth tremble;
    they have drawn near and come.
⁶Everyone helps his neighbor
    and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
⁷^(J)The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith,
    and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
    and they strengthen it with nails ^(K)so that it cannot be moved.

⁸But you, Israel, ^(L)my servant,
    Jacob, ^(M)whom I have chosen,
    the offspring of Abraham, ^(N)my friend;
⁹you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
    and called ^(O)from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are ^(P)my servant,
    ^(Q)I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
¹⁰fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with ^(R)my righteous right hand.

¹¹^(S)Behold, all who are incensed against you
    shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you
    shall be as nothing and shall perish.
¹²^(T)You shall seek those who contend with you,
    but you shall not find them;
^(U)those who war against you
    shall be as nothing at all.
¹³For I, the Lord your God,
    hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
    I am the one who helps you.”

¹⁴Fear not, you ^(V)worm Jacob,
    you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;
    your ^(W)Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵^(X)Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,
    new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh ^(Y)the mountains and crush them,
    and you shall make the hills like chaff;
¹⁶^(Z)you shall winnow them, and ^(AA)the wind shall carry them away,
    and the tempest shall scatter them.
^(AB)And you shall rejoice in the Lord;
    in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

¹⁷^(AC)When the poor and needy seek water,
    and there is none,
    and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
    I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
¹⁸^(AD)I will open rivers on the bare heights,
    and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
^(AE)I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
    and the dry land springs of water.
¹⁹^(AF)I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
    the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert ^(AG)the cypress,
    the plane and the pine together,
²⁰that they may see and know,
    may consider and understand together,
that ^(AH)the hand of the Lord has done this,
    the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Futility of Idols

²¹Set forth your case, says the Lord;
    bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
²²Let them bring them, and ^(AI)tell us
    what is to happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are,
    that we may consider them,
that we may know their outcome;
    or declare to us the things to come.
²³^(AJ)Tell us what is to come hereafter,
    that we may know that you are gods;
^(AK)do good, or do harm,
    that we may be dismayed and terrified.^[b]
²⁴Behold, ^(AL)you are nothing,
    and your work is less than nothing;
    an abomination is he who chooses you.

²⁵^(AM)I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,
    ^(AN)from the rising of the sun, ^(AO)and he shall call upon my name;
he shall trample on rulers as on mortar,
    as the potter treads clay.
²⁶^(AP)Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know,
    and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”?
There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed,
    none who heard your words.
²⁷^(AQ)I was the first to say^[c] to Zion, “Behold, here they are!”
    and ^(AR)I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news.
²⁸^(AS)But when I look, there is no one;
    among these there is no counselor
    who, when I ask, gives an answer.
²⁹^(AT)Behold, they are all a delusion;
    their works are nothing;
    their metal images are empty wind.

The Lord's Chosen Servant

42 ^(AU)Behold ^(AV)my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, ^(AW)in whom my soul delights;
^(AX)I have put my Spirit upon him;
    ^(AY)he will bring forth justice to the nations.
²He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
³^(AZ)a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    ^(BA)he will faithfully bring forth justice.
⁴He will not grow faint or be discouraged^[d]
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and ^(BB)the coastlands wait for his law.

⁵Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens ^(BC)and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
^(BD)who gives breath to the people on it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
⁶“I am the Lord; ^(BE)I have called you^[e] in righteousness;
    I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you ^(BF)as a covenant for the people,
    ^(BG)a light for the nations,
⁷    ^(BH)to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    ^(BI)from the prison those who sit in darkness.
⁸I am the Lord; that is my name;
    ^(BJ)my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.
⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass,
    ^(BK)and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
    I tell you of them.”

Sing to the Lord a New Song

¹⁰^(BL)Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise from the end of the earth,
^(BM)you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,
    ^(BN)the coastlands and their inhabitants.
¹¹Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,
    the villages that ^(BO)Kedar inhabits;
let the habitants of ^(BP)Sela sing for joy,
    let them shout from the top of the mountains.
¹²Let them give glory to the Lord,
    and declare his praise in ^(BQ)the coastlands.
¹³^(BR)The Lord goes out like a mighty man,
    like a man of war ^(BS)he stirs up his zeal;
he cries out, ^(BT)he shouts aloud,
    he shows himself mighty against his foes.

¹⁴For a long time I have held my peace;
    I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out ^(BU)like a woman in labor;
    I will gasp and pant.
¹⁵^(BV)I will lay waste mountains and hills,
    and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn the rivers into islands,^[f]
    and dry up the pools.
¹⁶^(BW)And I will lead the blind
    in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
    I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    ^(BX)the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
    and I do not forsake them.
¹⁷^(BY)They are turned back and utterly put to shame,
    who trust in carved idols,
who say to metal images,
    “You are our gods.”

Israel's Failure to Hear and See

¹⁸Hear, you deaf,
    and look, you blind, that you may see!
¹⁹Who is blind but my servant,
    or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as my dedicated one,^[g]
    or blind as the servant of the Lord?
²⁰^(BZ)He sees many things, but does not observe them;
    ^(CA)his ears are open, but he does not hear.
²¹The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness' sake,
    to magnify his law and make it glorious.
²²But this is a people plundered and looted;
    they are all of them trapped in holes
    ^(CB)and hidden in prisons;
they have become plunder with none to rescue,
    spoil with none to say, “Restore!”
²³Who among you will give ear to this,
    will attend and listen for the time to come?
²⁴Who gave up Jacob to the looter,
    and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned,
    in whose ways they would not walk,
    and whose law they would not obey?
²⁵So he poured on him the heat of his anger
    and the might of battle;
it set him on fire all around, ^(CC)but he did not understand;
    it burned him up, ^(CD)but he did not take it to heart.

Footnotes

Isaiah 41:2 Or whom righteousness calls to follow?
Isaiah 41:23 Or that we may both be dismayed and see
Isaiah 41:27 Or Formerly I said
Isaiah 42:4 Or bruised
Isaiah 42:6 The Hebrew for you is singular; four times in this verse
Isaiah 42:15 Or into coastlands
Isaiah 42:19 Or as the one at peace with me

Colossians 1

English Standard Version

Greeting

1 Paul, ^(A)an apostle of Christ Jesus ^(B)by the will of God, and Timothy ^(C)our brother,

²To the ^(D)saints and faithful brothers^[a] in Christ at Colossae:

^(E)Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

³^(F)We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴since we heard of ^(G)your faith in Christ Jesus and of ^(H)the love that you have for all the saints, ⁵because of ^(I)the hope ^(J)laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in ^(K)the word of the truth, the gospel, ⁶which has come to you, as indeed ^(L)in the whole world it is ^(M)bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you ^(N)heard it and understood ^(O)the grace of God in truth, ⁷just as you learned it from ^(P)Epaphras our beloved ^(Q)fellow servant.^[b] He is ^(R)a faithful minister of Christ on your^[c] behalf ⁸and has made known to us your ^(S)love in the Spirit.

⁹And so, ^(T)from the day we heard, ^(U)we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that ^(V)you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all ^(W)spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰so as ^(X)to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, ^(Y)fully pleasing to him: ^(Z)bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹^(AA)being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for ^(AB)all endurance and patience ^(AC)with joy; ¹²^(AD)giving thanks^[d] to the Father, who has qualified you^[e] to share in ^(AE)the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³He ^(AF)has delivered us from ^(AG)the domain of darkness and transferred us to ^(AH)the kingdom of ^(AI)his beloved Son, ¹⁴^(AJ)in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Preeminence of Christ

¹⁵^(AK)He is the image of ^(AL)the invisible God, ^(AM)the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by^[f] him all things were created, ^(AN)in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether ^(AO)thrones or ^(AP)dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created ^(AQ)through him and for him. ¹⁷And ^(AR)he is before all things, and in him all things ^(AS)hold together. ¹⁸And ^(AT)he is the head of the body, the church. He is ^(AU)the beginning, ^(AV)the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹For ^(AW)in him all the ^(AX)fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and ^(AY)through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, ^(AZ)making peace ^(BA)by the blood of his cross.

²¹^(BB)And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, ^(BC)doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled ^(BD)in his body of flesh by his death, ^(BE)in order to present you holy and blameless and ^(BF)above reproach before him, ²³^(BG)if indeed you continue in the faith, ^(BH)stable and steadfast, not shifting from ^(BI)the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed ^(BJ)in all creation^[g] under heaven, ^(BK)and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Paul's Ministry to the Church

²⁴Now ^(BL)I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh ^(BM)I am filling up ^(BN)what is lacking in Christ's afflictions ^(BO)for the sake of his body, that is, the church, ²⁵^(BP)of which I became a minister according to ^(BQ)the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶^(BR)the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. ²⁷^(BS)To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are ^(BT)the riches of the glory of ^(BU)this mystery, which is Christ in you, ^(BV)the hope of glory. ²⁸Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that ^(BW)we may present everyone ^(BX)mature in Christ. ²⁹For this ^(BY)I toil, ^(BZ)struggling ^(CA)with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Footnotes

Colossians 1:2 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
Colossians 1:7 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word sundoulos, see Preface
Colossians 1:7 Some manuscripts our
Colossians 1:12 Or patience, with joy giving thanks
Colossians 1:12 Some manuscripts us
Colossians 1:16 That is, by means of; or in
Colossians 1:23 Or to every creature