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Jerusalem Will Be Saved

62 Jerusalem, I will speak up
    for your good.
I will never be silent
till you are safe and secure,
    sparkling like a flame.
Your great victory will be seen
    by every nation and king;
the Lord will even give you
    a new name.
You will be a glorious crown,
a royal headband
    for the Lord your God.

Your name will no longer be
“Deserted and Childless,”
    but “Happily Married.”
You will please the Lord;
your country
    will be his bride.
Your people will take the land,[a]
just as a young man
    takes a bride.
The Lord will be pleased
    because of you,
just as a husband is pleased
    with his bride.

Jerusalem, on your walls
I have stationed guards,
    whose duty it is
to speak out day and night,
    without resting.
They must remind the Lord
    and not let him rest
till he makes Jerusalem strong
    and famous everywhere.

The Lord has given his word
    and made this promise:
“Never again will I give
    to your enemies
the grain and grapes
    for which you struggled.
As surely as you harvest
    your grain and grapes,
you will eat your bread
    with thankful hearts,
and you will drink your wine
    in my temple.”

10 People of Jerusalem,
    open your gates!
Repair the road to the city
    and clear it of stones;
raise a banner to help
    the nations find their way.
11 (A) Here is what the Lord has said
    for all the earth to hear:
“Soon I will come to save
the city of Zion
    and to reward you.
12 Then you will be called,
‘The Lord's Own People,
    The Ones He Rescued!’
Your city will be known
as a good place to live
    and a city full of people.”

The Lord's Victory over the Nations

63 (B) Who is this coming
from Bozrah[b] in Edom
    with clothes stained red?
Who is this hero marching
    in his glorious uniform?

“It's me, the Lord!
I have won the battle,
    and I can save you!”

What are those red spots?
Your clothes look stained
    from trampling on grapes.[c]

(C) “I alone trampled the grapes!
    None of the nations helped.
I trampled nations in my anger
and stained my clothes
    with their blood.
I did this because I wanted
    to take revenge—
the time had come
    to rescue my people.
(D) No one was there to help me
    or to give support;
my mighty arm won the battle,
    strengthened by my anger.
In my fury I trampled on nations
    and made them drunk;
their blood poured out
    everywhere on earth.”

The Lord's Goodness to His People

I will tell about the kind deeds
the Lord has done.
    They deserve praise!
The Lord has shown mercy
to the people of Israel;
    he has been kind and good.

The Lord rescued his people,
and said, “They are mine.
    They won't betray me.”
It troubled the Lord
to see them in trouble,
    and his angel saved them.[d]
The Lord was truly merciful,
    so he rescued his people.
He took them in his arms
and carried them all those years.

10 Then the Lord's people
turned against him and made
    his Holy Spirit sad.
So he became their enemy
    and attacked them.
11 But his people remembered
what had happened
    during the time of Moses.[e]
Didn't the Lord[f] bring them
and their leaders
    safely through the sea?
Didn't he[g] give them
    his Holy Spirit?
12 (E) The glorious power of the Lord
    marched beside Moses.
The Lord will be praised forever
    for dividing the sea.
13 He led his people across
like horses running wild
    without stumbling.
14 His Spirit gave them rest,
just as cattle find rest
    when led into a valley.[h]
The name of the Lord was praised
    for doing these things.

A Prayer for Mercy and Help

15 Please, Lord, look down
    from your holy and glorious
home in the heavens
    and see what's going on.
Have you lost interest?
    Where is your power?
Show that you care about us[i]
    and have mercy!
16 (F) Our ancestors Abraham and Jacob
    have both rejected us.
But you are still our Father;
you have been our protector
    since ancient times.

17 Why did you make us turn away
    from you, our Lord?
Why did you make us want
    to disobey you?
Please change your mind!
We are your servants,
    your very own people.
18 For a little while,
    your temple belonged to us;[j]
and now our enemies
    have torn it down.
19 We act as though you
had never ruled us
    or called us your people.

64 Rip the heavens apart!
Come down, Lord;
    make the mountains tremble.
Be a spark that starts a fire
    causing water to boil.[k]
Then your enemies will know
    who you are;
all nations will tremble
    because you are nearby.

Your fearsome deeds
    have completely amazed us;
even the mountains shake
    when you come down.
(G) You are the only God
    ever seen or heard of
who works miracles
    for his followers.

You help all who gladly obey
and do what you want,
    but sin makes you angry.
Only by your help
    can we ever be saved.[l]
We are unfit to worship you;
each of our good deeds
    is merely a filthy rag.
We dry up like leaves;
our sins are storm winds
    sweeping us away.
No one worships in your name
    or remains faithful.
You have turned your back on us
and let our sins melt us away.[m]

You, Lord, are our Father.
    We are nothing but clay,
but you are the potter
    who molded us.
Don't be so furious
or keep our sins
    in your thoughts forever!
Remember that all of us
    are your people.
10 Every one of your towns
has turned into a desert,
    especially Jerusalem.
11 Zion's glorious and holy temple
where our ancestors praised you
    has been destroyed by fire.
Our beautiful buildings
    are now a pile of ruins.
12 When you see these things,
how can you just sit there
    and make us suffer more?

Footnotes

  1. 62.5 Your … land: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  2. 63.1 Bozrah: The main city of Edom.
  3. 63.2 trampling on grapes: This is one way that grapes were crushed to make them into juice.
  4. 63.9 It … them: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  5. 63.11 But … Moses: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  6. 63.11 the Lord: Or “Moses.”
  7. 63.11 he: Or “Moses.”
  8. 63.14 His … valley: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  9. 63.15 us: Hebrew “me.”
  10. 63.18 For … us: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  11. 64.2 Be … boil: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  12. 64.5 saved: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 5.
  13. 64.7 and let … away: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.

From Paul.

God our Savior and Christ Jesus commanded me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, who gives us hope.

(A) Timothy, because of our faith, you are like a son to me. I pray that God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind and merciful to you. May they bless you with peace!

Warning against False Teaching

When I was leaving for Macedonia, I asked you to stay on in Ephesus and warn certain people there to stop spreading their false teachings. You needed to warn them to stop wasting their time on senseless stories and endless lists of ancestors. Such things only cause arguments. They don't help anyone to do God's work that can only be done by faith.

You must teach people to have genuine love, as well as a good conscience and true faith. There are some who have given up these for nothing but empty talk. They want to be teachers of the Law of Moses. But they don't know what they are talking about, even though they think they do.

We know the Law is good, if it is used in the right way. We also understand it wasn't given to control people who please God, but to control lawbreakers, criminals, godless people, and sinners. It is for wicked and evil people, and for murderers, who would even kill their own parents. 10 The Law was written for people who are sexual perverts or who live as homosexuals or are kidnappers or liars or won't tell the truth in court. It is for anything else that opposes the correct teaching 11 of the good news the glorious and wonderful God has given me.

Being Thankful for God's Kindness

12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me the strength for my work because he knew he could trust me. 13 (B) I used to say terrible and insulting things about him, and I was cruel. But Christ had mercy on me because I didn't know what I was doing, and I had not yet put my faith in him. 14 Christ Jesus our Lord treated me with undeserved grace and has greatly blessed my life with faith and love just like his own.

15 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” This saying is true, and it can be trusted. I was the worst sinner of all! 16 But since I was worse than anyone else, God had mercy on me and let me be an example of the endless patience of Christ Jesus. He did this so that others would put their faith in Christ and have eternal life. 17 I pray that honor and glory will always be given to the only God, who lives forever and is the invisible and eternal King! Amen.

18 Timothy, my son, the instructions I am giving you are based on what some prophets[a] once said about you. If you follow these instructions, you will fight like a good soldier. 19 You will be faithful and have a clear conscience. Some people have made a mess of their faith because they didn't listen to their consciences. 20 Two of them are Hymenaeus and Alexander. I have given these men over to the power of Satan, so they will learn not to oppose God.

Footnotes

  1. 1.18 prophets: Probably the Christian prophets referred to in 4.14.

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