Isaiah 26-27

Contemporary English Version

A Song of Victory

26 The time is coming when the people of Judah will sing this song:

“Our city^[a] is protected.
The Lord is our fortress,
    and he gives us victory.
²Open the city gates
for a law-abiding nation
    that is faithful to God.
³The Lord gives perfect peace
    to those whose faith is firm.
⁴So always trust the Lord
because he is forever
    our mighty rock.^[b]
⁵God has put down our enemies
in their mountain city^[c]
    and rubbed it in the dirt.
⁶Now the poor and abused
    trample all over that city.”

The Lord Can Be Trusted

⁷Our Lord, you always do right,
and you make the path smooth
    for those who obey you.
⁸You are the one we trust
    to bring about justice;
above all else we want
    your name to be honored.
⁹Throughout the night,
    my heart searches for you,
because your decisions
show everyone on this earth
    how to live right.

¹⁰Even when the wicked
are treated with mercy
    in this land of justice,
they do wrong and are blind
    to your glory, our Lord.
¹¹^(A) Your hand is raised and ready
    to punish them,
but they don't see it.
    Put them to shame!
Show how much you care for us
and throw them into the fire
    intended for your enemies.

¹²You will give us peace, Lord,
because everything we have done
    was by your power.
¹³Others have ruled over us
besides you, our Lord God,
    but we obey only you.
¹⁴Those enemies are now dead
    and can never live again.
You have punished them—
they are destroyed,
    completely forgotten.
¹⁵Our nation has grown
    because of you, our Lord.
We have more land than before,
    and you are honored.

The Lord Gives Life to the Dead

¹⁶When you punished our people,
they turned and prayed
    to you, our Lord.^[d]
¹⁷Because of what you did to us,
we suffered like a woman
    about to give birth.
¹⁸But instead of having a child,
our terrible pain
    produced only wind.
We have won no victories,
and we have no descendants
    to take over the earth.

¹⁹Your people will rise to life!
Tell them to leave their graves
and celebrate with shouts.
You refresh the earth
like morning dew;
you give life to the dead.

²⁰Go inside and lock the doors,
my people.
Hide there for a little while,
until the Lord
is no longer angry.

The Earth and the Sea Will Be Punished

²¹The Lord will come out
to punish everyone on earth
for their sins.
And when he does,
those who did violent crimes
will be known and punished.

27 ^(B) On that day, Leviathan,^[e]
the sea monster,
will squirm and try to escape,
but the Lord will kill him
with a cruel, sharp sword.

Protection and Forgiveness

The Lord said:

²At that time you must sing
    about a fruitful^[f] vineyard.
³I, the Lord, will protect it
    and always keep it watered.
I will guard it day and night
    to keep it from harm.
⁴I am no longer angry.
    But if it produces thorns,
I will go to war against it
    and burn it to the ground.
⁵Yet if the vineyard depends
    on me for protection,
it will become my friend
    and be at peace with me.

⁶Someday Israel will take root
like a vine.
It will blossom and bear fruit
that covers the earth.

⁷I, the Lord, didn't punish and kill
    the people of Israel
as fiercely as I punished
    and killed their enemies.
⁸I carefully measured out
    Israel's punishment^[g]
and sent the scorching heat
    to chase them far away.

⁹There's only one way
that Israel's sin and guilt
can be completely forgiven:
They must crush the stones
of every pagan altar
and place of worship.

The Lord Will Bring His People Together

¹⁰Fortress cities are left
like a desert
    where no one lives.
Cattle walk through the ruins,
    stripping the trees bare.
¹¹When broken branches
    fall to the ground,
women pick them up
    to feed the fire.
But these people are so stupid
that the God who created them
    will show them no mercy.

¹²The time is coming when the Lord will shake the land between the Euphrates River and the border of Egypt, and one by one he will bring all of his people together. ¹³A loud trumpet will be heard. Then the people of Israel who were dragged away to Assyria and Egypt will return to worship the Lord on his holy mountain in Jerusalem.

Footnotes

26.1 city: Probably Jerusalem.
26.4 mighty rock: See the note at 17.10.
26.5 our enemies … city: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
26.16 Lord: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 16.
27.1 Leviathan: God's victory over this monster sometimes stands for God's power over all creation and sometimes for his defeat of his enemies, especially Egypt.
27.2 fruitful: Some Hebrew manuscripts have “lovely.”
27.8 I … punishment: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.

Philippians 2

Contemporary English Version

True Humility

2 Christ encourages you, and his love comforts you. God's Spirit unites you, and you are concerned for others. ²Now make me completely happy! Live in harmony by showing love for each other. Be united in what you think, as if you were only one person. ³Don't be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. ⁴Care about them as much as you care about yourselves ⁵and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought:^[a]

⁶Christ was truly God.
But he did not try to remain^[b]
    equal with God.
⁷Instead he gave up everything^[c]
    and became a slave,
when he became
    like one of us.

⁸Christ was humble.
He obeyed God and even died
    on a cross.
⁹Then God gave Christ
    the highest place
and honored his name
    above all others.

¹⁰^(A) So at the name of Jesus
    everyone will bow down,
those in heaven, on earth,
    and under the earth.
¹¹And to the glory
    of God the Father
everyone will openly agree,
    “Jesus Christ is Lord!”

Lights in the World

¹²My dear friends, you always obeyed when I was with you. Now that I am away, you should obey even more. So work with fear and trembling to discover what it really means to be saved. ¹³God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey him.

¹⁴Do everything without grumbling or arguing. ¹⁵^(B) Then you will be the pure and innocent children of God. You live among people who are crooked and evil, but you must not do anything they can say is wrong. Try to shine as lights among the people of this world, ¹⁶as you hold firmly to^[d] the message that gives life. Then on the day when Christ returns, I can take pride in you. I can also know that my work and efforts were not useless.

¹⁷Your faith in the Lord and your service are like a sacrifice offered to him. And my own blood may have to be poured out with the sacrifice.^[e] If this happens, I will be glad and rejoice with you. ¹⁸In the same way, you should be glad and rejoice with me.

Timothy and Epaphroditus

¹⁹I want to be encouraged by news about you. So I hope the Lord Jesus will soon let me send Timothy to you. ²⁰I don't have anyone else who cares about you as much as he does. ²¹The others think only about what interests them and not about what concerns Christ Jesus. ²²But you know what kind of person Timothy is. He has worked with me like a son in spreading the good news. ²³I hope to send him to you, as soon as I find out what is going to happen to me. ²⁴And I feel sure the Lord will also let me come soon.

²⁵I think I ought to send my dear friend Epaphroditus back to you. He is a follower and a worker and a soldier of the Lord, just as I am. You sent him to look after me, ²⁶but now he is eager to see you. He is worried, because you heard he was sick. ²⁷In fact, he was very sick and almost died. But God was kind to him, and also to me, and he kept me from being burdened down with sorrow.

²⁸Now I am more eager than ever to send Epaphroditus back again. You will be glad to see him, and I won't have to worry any longer. ²⁹Be sure to give him a cheerful welcome, just as people who serve the Lord deserve. ³⁰He almost died working for Christ, and he risked his own life to do for me what you could not.

Footnotes

2.5 think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: Or “think the way you should because you belong to Christ Jesus.”
2.6 remain: Or “become.”
2.7 he gave up everything: Greek, “he emptied himself.”
2.16 hold firmly to: Or “offer them.”
2.17 my own blood may have to be poured out with the sacrifice: Offerings of water or wine were sometimes poured out when animals were sacrificed on the altar.