Isaiah 44:1-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
God’s Blessing on Israel
44 But now hear, O Jacob my servant,
Israel whom I have chosen!(A)
2 Thus says the Lord who made you,
who formed you in the womb and will help you:
Do not fear, O Jacob my servant,
Jeshurun whom I have chosen.(B)
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my spirit upon your descendants
and my blessing on your offspring.(C)
4 They shall spring up like a green tamarisk,[a]
like willows by flowing streams.
5 This one will say, “I am the Lord’s”;
another will be called by the name of Jacob;
yet another will write on the hand, “The Lord’s,”
and adopt the name of Israel.(D)
6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
I am the first, and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.(E)
7 Who is like me? Let them proclaim it;
let them declare and set it forth before me.
Who has announced from of old the things to come?[b]
Let them tell us[c] what is yet to be.(F)
8 Do not fear or be afraid;
have I not told you from of old and declared it?
You are my witnesses!
Is there any god besides me?
There is no other rock; I know not one.(G)
Psalm 87
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 87
The Joy of Living in Zion
Of the Korahites. A Psalm. A Song.
1 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
2 the Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwellings of Jacob.(A)
3 Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God. Selah(B)
4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon;
Philistia, too, and Tyre, with Cush—
“This one was born there,” they say.
5 And of Zion it shall be said,
“This one and that one were born in it,”
for the Most High himself will establish it.(C)
6 The Lord records, as he registers the peoples,
“This one was born there.” Selah(D)
7 Singers and dancers alike say,
“All my springs are in you.”(E)
1 Peter 2:4-10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones let yourselves be built[a] into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.(A) 6 For it stands in scripture:
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”(B)
7 This honor, then, is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,[b]
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,”(C)
8 and
“A stone that makes them stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.(D)
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,[c] in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.(E)
10 Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.(F)
John 17:6-19
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.(A) 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.(B) 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.(C) 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them.(D) 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.(E) 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that[a] you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost,[b] so that the scripture might be fulfilled.(F) 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.[c] 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.(G) 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.[d](H) 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.(I) 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
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