Proverbs 29

English Standard Version

29 ^(A)He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck,
    will suddenly be ^(B)broken ^(C)beyond healing.
²When ^(D)the righteous increase, the people rejoice,
    but when ^(E)the wicked rule, the people groan.
³He who ^(F)loves wisdom makes his father glad,
    but ^(G)a companion of prostitutes ^(H)squanders his wealth.
⁴By justice a king ^(I)builds up the land,
    but he who exacts gifts^[a] tears it down.
⁵^(J)A man who flatters his neighbor
    spreads ^(K)a net for his feet.
⁶An evil man is ^(L)ensnared in his transgression,
    but a righteous man ^(M)sings and rejoices.
⁷A righteous man ^(N)knows the rights of the poor;
    a wicked man does not ^(O)understand such knowledge.
⁸^(P)Scoffers set a city aflame,
    but the wise turn away wrath.
⁹If a wise man has an argument with a fool,
    the fool only rages and laughs, and there is ^(Q)no quiet.
¹⁰Bloodthirsty men ^(R)hate one who is blameless
    and seek the life of the upright.^[b]
¹¹A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
    but a wise man quietly holds it back.
¹²If a ruler listens to falsehood,
    all his officials will be wicked.
¹³The poor man and the oppressor ^(S)meet together;
    the Lord ^(T)gives light to the eyes of both.
¹⁴If a king ^(U)faithfully judges the poor,
    his throne will ^(V)be established forever.
¹⁵^(W)The rod and reproof give wisdom,
    but a child left to himself ^(X)brings shame to his mother.
¹⁶When the wicked increase, transgression increases,
    but ^(Y)the righteous will look upon their downfall.
¹⁷^(Z)Discipline your son, and he will give you rest;
    he will give delight to your heart.
¹⁸Where ^(AA)there is no prophetic vision the people ^(AB)cast off restraint,^[c]
    but blessed is he who ^(AC)keeps the law.
¹⁹By mere words a servant is not disciplined,
    for though he understands, he will not respond.
²⁰Do you see a man who is hasty in his words?
    ^(AD)There is more hope for a fool than for him.
²¹Whoever pampers his servant from childhood
    will in the end find him his heir.^[d]
²²^(AE)A man of wrath stirs up strife,
    and one given to anger causes much transgression.
²³^(AF)One's pride will bring him low,
    ^(AG)but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.
²⁴The partner of a thief ^(AH)hates his own life;
    ^(AI)he hears the curse, but discloses nothing.
²⁵^(AJ)The fear of man lays a snare,
    but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
²⁶Many ^(AK)seek the face of a ruler,
    but it is from the Lord that a man ^(AL)gets justice.
²⁷^(AM)An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,
    but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked.

Footnotes

Proverbs 29:4 Or who taxes heavily
Proverbs 29:10 Or but the upright seek his soul
Proverbs 29:18 Or the people are discouraged
Proverbs 29:21 The meaning of the Hebrew word rendered his heir is uncertain

Isaiah 45

English Standard Version

Cyrus, God's Instrument

45 Thus says the Lord to ^(A)his anointed, to Cyrus,
    ^(B)whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
    and ^(C)to loose the belts of kings,
to open doors before him
    that gates may not be closed:
²“I will go before you
    and ^(D)level the exalted places,^[a]
^(E)I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
    and cut through the bars of iron,
³^(F)I will give you the treasures of darkness
    and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
    the God of Israel, ^(G)who call you by your name.
⁴For the sake of my servant Jacob,
    and Israel my chosen,
^(H)I call you by your name,
    ^(I)I name you, though you do not know me.
⁵^(J)I am the Lord, and there is no other,
    besides me there is no God;
    ^(K)I equip you, though you do not know me,
⁶^(L)that people may know, from the rising of the sun
    and from the west, that there is none besides me;
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and ^(M)create calamity;
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

⁸^(N)“Shower, O heavens, from above,
    and ^(O)let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
    let the earth cause them both to sprout;
    I the Lord have created it.

⁹^(P)“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
    a pot among earthen pots!
^(Q)Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
    or ‘Your work has no handles’?
¹⁰Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
    or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

¹¹Thus says ^(R)the Lord,
    the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
^(S)“Ask me of things to come;
    will you command me ^(T)concerning my children and ^(U)the work of my hands?^[b]
¹²^(V)I made the earth
    and created man on it;
it was my hands ^(W)that stretched out the heavens,
    and ^(X)I commanded all their host.
¹³^(Y)I have stirred him up in righteousness,
    ^(Z)and I will make all his ways level;
^(AA)he shall build my city
    ^(AB)and set my exiles free,
not for price or reward,”
    says the Lord of hosts.

The Lord, the Only Savior

¹⁴Thus says the Lord:
^(AC)“The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,
    and the Sabeans, men of stature,
shall come over to you ^(AD)and be yours;
    they shall follow you;
    they shall come over in chains and bow down to you.
They will plead with you, saying:
    ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other,
    no god besides him.’”

¹⁵^(AE)Truly, you are a God who hides himself,
    O God of Israel, the Savior.
¹⁶^(AF)All of them are put to shame and confounded;
    the makers of idols go in confusion together.
¹⁷But Israel is saved by the Lord
    with everlasting salvation;
^(AG)you shall not be put to shame or confounded
    to all eternity.

¹⁸^(AH)For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
    (he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
    (he established it;
he ^(AI)did not create it empty,
    ^(AJ)he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
¹⁹^(AK)I did not speak in secret,
    in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
    ^(AL)‘Seek me in vain.’^[c]
I the Lord speak ^(AM)the truth;
    I declare what is right.

²⁰^(AN)“Assemble yourselves and come;
    draw near together,
    you survivors of the nations!
^(AO)They have no knowledge
    who ^(AP)carry about their wooden idols,
^(AQ)and keep on praying to a god
    that cannot save.
²¹^(AR)Declare and present your case;
    let them take counsel together!
Who told this long ago?
    Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
    And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God ^(AS)and a Savior;
    there is none besides me.

²²“Turn to me and be saved,
    ^(AT)all the ends of the earth!
    For I am God, and there is no other.
²³^(AU)By myself I have sworn;
    from my mouth has gone out in ^(AV)righteousness
    a word that shall not return:
^(AW)‘To me every knee shall bow,
    every tongue shall swear allegiance.’^[d]

²⁴^(AX)“Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
    are righteousness and ^(AY)strength;
to him shall come and be ashamed
    ^(AZ)all who were incensed against him.
²⁵In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
    shall be justified and shall glory.”

Footnotes

Isaiah 45:2 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint level the mountains
Isaiah 45:11 A slight emendation yields will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands?
Isaiah 45:19 Hebrew in emptiness
Isaiah 45:23 Septuagint every tongue shall confess to God

Ezekiel 39

English Standard Version

39 “And you, ^(A)son of man, ^(B)prophesy against ^(C)Gog and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, ^(D)I am against you, O Gog, ^(E)chief prince of ^(F)Meshech^[a] and ^(G)Tubal. ²^(H)And I will turn you about and drive you forward,^[b] and bring you up from ^(I)the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the ^(J)mountains of Israel. ³Then ^(K)I will strike your bow from your left hand, and ^(L)will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. ⁴^(M)You shall fall on ^(N)the mountains of Israel, you and all your ^(O)hordes and the peoples who are with you. ^(P)I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. ⁵You shall fall in the open field, for ^(Q)I have spoken, declares the Lord God. ⁶^(R)I will send fire on ^(S)Magog and on those ^(T)who dwell securely in ^(U)the coastlands, and ^(V)they shall know that I am the Lord.

⁷“And ^(W)my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and ^(X)I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And ^(Y)the nations shall know that I am ^(Z)the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. ⁸^(AA)Behold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord God. That is the day ^(AB)of which I have spoken.

⁹“Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and ^(AC)make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, ^(AD)clubs^[c] and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years, ¹⁰so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for ^(AE)they will make their fires of the weapons. ^(AF)They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God.

¹¹“On that day I will give to ^(AG)Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of ^(AH)Hamon-gog.^[d] ¹²For ^(AI)seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order ^(AJ)to cleanse the land. ¹³All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that ^(AK)I show my glory, declares the Lord God. ¹⁴They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as ^(AL)to cleanse it. At^[e] the end of ^(AM)seven months they will make their search. ¹⁵And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of ^(AN)Hamon-gog. ¹⁶(Hamonah^[f] is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land.

¹⁷“As for you, ^(AO)son of man, thus says the Lord God: ^(AP)Speak to ^(AQ)the birds of every sort and to ^(AR)all beasts of the field: ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to ^(AS)the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸^(AT)You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them ^(AU)fat beasts of Bashan. ¹⁹And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. ²⁰And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,’ declares the Lord God.

²¹“And ^(AV)I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see ^(AW)my judgment that I have executed, and ^(AX)my hand that I have laid on them. ²²^(AY)The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. ²³And ^(AZ)the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that ^(BA)I hid my face from them and ^(BB)gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. ²⁴I dealt with them ^(BC)according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.

The Lord Will Restore Israel

²⁵“Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now ^(BD)I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on ^(BE)the whole house of Israel, and ^(BF)I will be jealous for my holy name. ²⁶They shall ^(BG)forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when ^(BH)they dwell securely in their land with ^(BI)none to make them afraid, ²⁷^(BJ)when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, ^(BK)and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. ²⁸^(BL)Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. ²⁹^(BM)And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when ^(BN)I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”