Isaiah 52:1-10

New King James Version

God Redeems Jerusalem

52 Awake, awake!
Put on your strength, O Zion;
Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city!
For the uncircumcised ^(A)and the unclean
Shall no longer come to you.
²^(B)Shake yourself from the dust, arise;
Sit down, O Jerusalem!
^(C)Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion!

³For thus says the Lord:

^(D)“You have sold yourselves for nothing,
And you shall be redeemed ^(E)without money.”

⁴For thus says the Lord God:

“My people went down at first
Into ^(F)Egypt to ^[a]dwell there;
Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
⁵Now therefore, what have I here,” says the Lord,
“That My people are taken away for nothing?
Those who rule over them
^[b]Make them wail,” says the Lord,
“And My name is ^(G)blasphemed continually every day.
⁶Therefore My people shall know My name;
Therefore they shall know in that day
That I am He who speaks:
‘Behold, it is I.’ ”

⁷^(H)How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
^(I)“Your God reigns!”
⁸Your watchmen shall lift up their voices,
With their voices they shall sing together;
For they shall see eye to eye
When the Lord brings back Zion.
⁹Break forth into joy, sing together,
You waste places of Jerusalem!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰^(J)The Lord has ^[c]made bare His holy arm
In the eyes of ^(K)all the nations;
And all the ends of the earth shall see
The salvation of our God.

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Footnotes

Isaiah 52:4 As resident aliens
Isaiah 52:5 DSS Mock; LXX Marvel and wail; Tg. Boast themselves; Vg. Treat them unjustly
Isaiah 52:10 Revealed His power

Isaiah 34

New King James Version

Judgment on the Nations

34 Come ^(A)near, you nations, to hear;
And heed, you people!
^(B)Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
The world and all things that come forth from it.
²For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations,
And His fury against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to the ^(C)slaughter.
³Also their slain shall be thrown out;
^(D)Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
⁴^(E)All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
^(F)All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as ^(G)fruit falling from a fig tree.

⁵“For ^(H)My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it ^(I)shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
⁶The ^(J)sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made ^[a]overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For ^(K)the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust ^[b]saturated with fatness.”

⁸For it is the day of the Lord’s ^(L)vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
⁹^(M)Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰It shall not be quenched night or day;
^(N)Its smoke shall ascend forever.
^(O)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
¹¹^(P)But the ^[c]pelican and the ^[d]porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And ^(Q)He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³And ^(R)thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
^(S)It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
¹⁴The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the ^[e]jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also ^[f]the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
¹⁵There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.

¹⁶“Search from ^(T)the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”

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Footnotes

Isaiah 34:6 Lit. fat
Isaiah 34:7 Lit. made fat
Isaiah 34:11 Or owl
Isaiah 34:11 Or hedgehog
Isaiah 34:14 Lit. howling creatures
Isaiah 34:14 Heb. lilith

Matthew 1:18-25

New King James Version

Christ Born of Mary^(A)

¹⁸Now the ^(B)birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child ^(C)of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Then Joseph her husband, being ^[a]a just man, and not wanting ^(D)to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. ²⁰But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, ^(E)for that which is ^[b]conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹^(F)And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name ^[c]Jesus, ^(G)for He will save His people from their sins.”

²²So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ²³^(H)“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

²⁴Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, ²⁵and ^[d]did not know her till she had brought forth ^(I)her^[e] firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.

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