Isaiah 49:1-6

New King James Version

The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles

49 “Listen, ^(A)O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
^(B)The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the ^[a]matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
²And He has made ^(C)My mouth like a sharp sword;
^(D)In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me ^(E)a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

³“And He said to me,
^(F)‘You are My servant, O Israel,
^(G)In whom I will be glorified.’
⁴^(H)Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my ^[b]just reward is with the Lord,
And my ^[c]work with my God.’ ”

⁵“And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel ^(I)is ^[d]gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
⁶Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a ^(J)light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

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Footnotes

Isaiah 49:1 Lit. inward parts
Isaiah 49:4 justice
Isaiah 49:4 recompense
Isaiah 49:5 Qr., DSS, LXX gathered to Him; Kt. not gathered

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

New King James Version

Flee from Idolatry

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, ^(A)flee from idolatry. ¹⁵I speak as to ^(B)wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶^(C)The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the ^[a]communion of the blood of Christ? ^(D)The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? ¹⁷For ^(E)we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.

¹⁸Observe ^(F)Israel ^(G)after the flesh: ^(H)Are not those who eat of the sacrifices ^[b]partakers of the altar? ¹⁹What am I saying then? ^(I)That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? ²⁰Rather, that the things which the Gentiles ^(J)sacrifice ^(K)they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. ²¹^(L)You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and ^(M)the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the ^(N)Lord’s table and of the table of demons. ²²Or do we ^(O)provoke the Lord to jealousy? ^(P)Are we stronger than He?

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Footnotes

1 Corinthians 10:16 fellowship or sharing
1 Corinthians 10:18 fellowshippers or sharers

Galatians 1:11-24

New King James Version

Call to Apostleship^(A)

¹¹^(B)But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. ¹²For ^(C)I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came ^(D)through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how ^(E)I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and ^(F)tried to destroy it. ¹⁴And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, ^(G)being more exceedingly zealous ^(H)for the traditions of my fathers.

¹⁵But when it pleased God, ^(I)who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, ¹⁶^(J)to reveal His Son in me, that ^(K)I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with ^(L)flesh and blood, ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

Contacts at Jerusalem^(M)

¹⁸Then after three years ^(N)I went up to Jerusalem to see ^[a]Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But ^(O)I saw none of the other apostles except ^(P)James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰(Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)

²¹^(Q)Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which ^(R)were in Christ. ²³But they were ^(S)hearing only, “He who formerly ^(T)persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they ^(U)glorified God in me.