Isaiah 28:14-30:11
Tree of Life Version
14 Therefore hear the word of Adonai, you scoffers,
who rule this people who are in Jerusalem:
15 “Because you have said,
‘We cut a covenant with death,
we made a pact with Sheol,
so when the overflowing scourge passes through,
it won’t come for us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
and hid ourselves in falsehood’—
16 Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim:
‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a tested stone,
a costly cornerstone,[a] a firm foundation—
whoever trusts will not flee in haste.[b]
17 But I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line.
Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and water will overflow the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death is annulled,
and your pact with Sheol will not stand.
An overflowing scourge will pass through
and you will be its trampling place.
19 As often as it passes through, it will seize you—
morning by morning, by day and by night passing through.
It will be sheer terror
to understand the message.’”
20 For too short is the bed to stretch on,
too narrow the blanket to wrap up in.
21 For Adonai will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will quake with awe as at the valley of Gibeon,
to do His deed, His strange deed,
and to work His work, His extraordinary work.
22 So now, stop your scoffing,
lest your shackles be strengthened!
For I have heard from Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
of destruction determined upon the whole land.
23 Give ear and hear my voice!
Pay attention and hear my words.
24 Does a plowman plow all day to sow the seed?
Does he continually break open
and harrow his ground?
25 No! When he has leveled its surface,
he scatters dill and sows cumin,
plants wheat in rows,
places barley, and rye on its border.
26 For his God teaches him judgment,
instructing him.
27 For dill is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin.
Rather, dill is beaten out with a staff,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Bread grain is crushed, but not endlessly.
Rumbling cart wheels and horses over it
would only crush it to powder.
29 This also comes from Adonai-Tzva’ot:
Wonderful is His counsel, great is His wisdom.
Night Vision of Ariel
29 Oy, Ariel[c], Ariel! City where David camped.
Year to year again—festivals in a cycle.
2 But I will distress Ariel.
There will be lamenting and moaning—
then will she be like Ariel to Me?
3 I will encamp against you all around,
I will set up siege-works against you
and will raise up ramps against you.
4 You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground.
From the dust where you are prostrate your speech will come.
Your voice will be like a ghost out of the ground,
and your speech will whisper out of the dust.
5 Yet the multitude of your foes will become like fine dust,
and the multitude of the terrifying like chaff that passes away.
It will happen in an instant, suddenly.
6 You will be visited by Adonai-Tzva’ot
with thunder, earthquake, huge noise,
whirlwind and storm-wind, and the flame of a consuming fire.
7 It will be like a dream, a night vision:
the multitude of all the nations warring against Ariel,
yes, all warring against her,
the ramparts around her and her besiegers.
8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming and behold, he is eating,
but awakes with his hunger unsatisfied,
or like a thirsty man dreaming and behold, he is drinking,
but awakes faint, his soul thirsting.
So it will be with the multitude of all the nations
warring against Mount Zion.
9 Wait, and be astounded!
Blind yourselves, and be blind!
Drunk, but not with wine,
Stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For Adonai has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep,
and has shut your eyes—the prophets,
and covered your heads—the seers.
11 So this entire vision is for you like the words of a sealed scroll, which they give to one who knows books, saying, “Read this, please,” but he says, “I can’t, because it’s sealed.” 12 Then the scroll is given to one who does not know books, saying, “Read this, please,” but he says, “I don’t know books.”
13 So Adonai says,
“Since these people draw near with their mouths
and honor Me with their lips,
yet their hearts are far from Me,
and their fear of Me is a mitzvah taught by men.[d]
14 Therefore, behold, once more I will do a marvelous work among this people—
a marvel and a wonder—
so the wisdom of their wise will perish,
and the discernment of their discerning will be concealed.”
15 Oy, those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from Adonai!
Their works are in the dark.
They say, “Who sees us?
Who knows us?”
16 Your perversity!
Should the potter be regarded the same as the clay?
Should the thing made say to its maker,
“You did not make me”?
Or the thing formed say of its former,
“You have no understanding?”[e]
17 Will it not be just a very little while
before Lebanon turns into a garden,
and a garden will seem like a forest?
18 In that day the deaf will hear words of a book,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The meek will add to their joy in Adonai,
and the needy of humanity will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless will come to an end
and the scorner will be finished,
and all watching to do evil cut off.
21 Those who make a man out to be guilty with a word,
and trap him who reproves at the gate,
and deny justice with meaninglessness.
22 Therefore, thus says Adonai, Redeemer of Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
no longer will his face grow pale;
23 for when he sees his children,
the work of My hands in his midst,
they will sanctify My Name;
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will learn instruction.”
No Help In Egypt
30 “Oy, the rebellious children”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“Who carry out a plan, but not Mine,
and make an alliance, but not of My Ruach,
so they may add sin to sin,
2 who go down to Egypt,
but did not consult Me,
to take refuge in Pharaoh’s stronghold,
to seek shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
3 Therefore Pharaoh’s stronghold will become your shame,
and the shelter in Egypt’s shadow will become your disgrace.
4 For though their princes are at Zoan
and their ambassadors reach Hanes,
5 they will all be ashamed of a people
who cannot profit them.
They are neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
6 The burden concerning the beasts of the Negev[f]:
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
in which are lioness and lion,
viper and flying serpent,
they are carrying their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
their treasures on camel humps,
to a people who cannot profit them.
7 Egypt’s help is futile and pointless.
Therefore I have called her
“Rahab who just sits.”
Witness Against False Prophets
8 Now go, write it on a tablet for them
and inscribe it in a scroll,
so that it may be as a witness
for the last day, forever.
9 For this is a rebellious people, lying children,
children unwilling to obey the Torah of Adonai.
10 They say to the seers,
“Do not see,”
and to the prophets,
“Do not prophesy to us what is right.
Speak to us smooth words.
Prophesy illusions.
11 Get out of the way!
Turn away from the path!
Let’s hear no more about
the Holy One of Israel.”
Notas al pie
- Isaiah 28:16 cf. Matt. 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:19-20.
- Isaiah 28:16 cf. Rom. 9:33; 10:11; 1 Pet. 2:6.
- Isaiah 29:1 Meaning Lion of God; i.e., Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 29:13 cf. Matt. 15:8-9; Mark 7:6-7.
- Isaiah 29:16 cf. Rom. 9:20.
- Isaiah 30:6 Or the South.
Galatians 3:23-4:31
Tree of Life Version
23 Now before faith came, we were being guarded under Torah—bound together until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the Torah became our guardian to lead us to Messiah, so that we might be made right based on trusting. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 For you are all sons of God through trusting in Messiah Yeshua. 27 For all of you who were immersed in Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. 29 And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s seed—heirs according to the promise.
Living as Heirs
4 Now I am saying, so long as the heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, even though he is the owner of everything. 2 Instead, he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were subservient to the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time came, God sent out His Son, born of a woman and born under law— 5 to free those under law, so we might receive adoption as sons. 6 Now because you are sons, God sent the Ruach of His Son into our hearts, who cries out, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son—and if a son, also an heir through God. [a] 8 But at that time, when you did not know God, you served those who by nature are not gods at all. 9 But now you have come to know God—or rather you have come to be known by God. So how can you turn back again to those weak and worthless principles? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain!
12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong— 13 you know it was because of a physical ailment that I proclaimed the Good News to you the first time; 14 and though my physical condition was a trial to you, you did not hate or reject me. No, you welcomed me as a messenger of God—or even as Messiah Yeshua. 15 So where is your sense of joy? For I testify that you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me, if possible. 16 So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?! 17 Others zealously court you—not in a good way, but they wish to shut you out so that you will court them. 18 To be courted is good, but let it always be in a good way—and not just when I am there with you. 19 My dear children! Again I suffer labor pains until Messiah is formed in you. 20 I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, for I don’t know what to make of you.
Midrash on Abraham’s Two Sons
21 Tell me, you who want to be under Torah, don’t you understand[b] the Torah? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. [c] 23 But one—the son by the slave woman—was born naturally;[d] while the other—the son by the free woman—was through the promise. 24 Now these things are being treated allegorically, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, giving birth to slavery—this is Hagar. 25 But this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free—she is our mother. 27 For it is written:
“Rejoice, O barren woman
who bears no children.
Break forth and shout,
you who suffer no labor pains.
For more are the children of the desolate
than of the one who has a husband.”[e]
28 Now you, brothers and sisters—like Isaac, you are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Ruach, so it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son”[f] of the free woman. 31 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.
Notas al pie
- Galatians 4:8 Some mss. read heir of God through Messiah.
- Galatians 4:21 Or hear, listen to the law; cf. Deut. 6:4; 18:15; Exod. 24:7.
- Galatians 4:23 cf. Gen. 16:15; Gen. 21:2.
- Galatians 4:23 Lit. according to the flesh.
- Galatians 4:27 Isa. 54:1.
- Galatians 4:30 Gen. 21:10(LXX).
Psalm 62:1-12
Tree of Life Version
My Rock and My Salvation
Psalm 62
1 For the music director, on Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
2 My soul, wait in stillness, only for God—
from Him comes my salvation.
3 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress—I will never be moved.
4 How long will all of you assault a man,
to crush him, like a leaning wall,
a fence to be torn down?
5 They only plot to topple him from his rank.
Delighting in falsehood, they bless with their mouth,
but inwardly they curse. Selah
6 My soul, wait in stillness, only for God—
for from Him comes my expectation.
7 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my strong tower—I will not be moved.
8 On God, my salvation and my glory is the rock of my strength.
My refuge is in God.
9 Trust in Him at all times, you people.
Pour out your heart in His presence.
God is our refuge. Selah
10 Sons of Adam are a vapor,
sons of man are an illusion.
In balanced scales they go up—
altogether they are less than a breath.
11 Do not trust in extortion,
and do not put vain hope in plunder.
Though these things increase riches,
do not set your heart on them.
12 Once God has spoken,
twice I have heard this:
might belongs to God.
Proverbs 23:19-21
Tree of Life Version
19 Listen, my son, and be wise,
and guide your heart in the right way.
20 Do not join those drinking too much wine
or gorging on meat,
21 for both drunkards and gluttons will be impoverished—
grogginess will clothe them with rags.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.