Isaiah 51

New King James Version

The Lord Comforts Zion^(A)

51 “Listen to Me, ^(B)you who ^[a]follow after righteousness,
You who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
²^(C)Look to Abraham your father,
And to Sarah who bore you;
^(D)For I called him alone,
And ^(E)blessed him and increased him.”

³For the Lord will ^(F)comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert ^(G)like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

⁴“Listen to Me, My people;
And give ear to Me, O My nation:
^(H)For law will proceed from Me,
And I will make My justice rest
^(I)As a light of the peoples.
⁵^(J)My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth,
^(K)And My arms will judge the peoples;
^(L)The coastlands will wait upon Me,
And ^(M)on My arm they will trust.
⁶^(N)Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
And look on the earth beneath.
For ^(O)the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
^(P)The earth will grow old like a garment,
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be ^(Q)forever,
And My righteousness will not be ^[b]abolished.

⁷“Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
You people ^(R)in whose heart is My law:
^(S)Do not fear the reproach of men,
Nor be afraid of their insults.
⁸For ^(T)the moth will eat them up like a garment,
And the worm will eat them like wool;
But My righteousness will be forever,
And My salvation from generation to generation.”

⁹^(U)Awake, awake, ^(V)put on strength,
O arm of the Lord!
Awake ^(W)as in the ancient days,
In the generations of old.
^(X)Are You not the arm that cut ^(Y)Rahab apart,
And wounded the ^(Z)serpent?

¹⁰Are You not the One who ^(AA)dried up the sea,
The waters of the great deep;
That made the depths of the sea a road
For the redeemed to cross over?
¹¹So ^(AB)the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness;
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

¹²“I, even I, am He ^(AC)who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid
^(AD)Of a man who will die,
And of the son of a man who will be made ^(AE)like grass?
¹³And ^(AF)you forget the Lord your Maker,
^(AG)Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth;
You have feared continually every day
Because of the fury of the oppressor,
When he has prepared to destroy.
^(AH)And where is the fury of the oppressor?
¹⁴The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed,
^(AI)That he should not die in the pit,
And that his bread should not fail.
¹⁵But I am the Lord your God,
Who ^(AJ)divided the sea whose waves roared—
The Lord of hosts is His name.
¹⁶And ^(AK)I have put My words in your mouth;
^(AL)I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
^(AM)That I may ^[c]plant the heavens,
Lay the foundations of the earth,
And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ ”

God’s Fury Removed

¹⁷^(AN)Awake, awake!
Stand up, O Jerusalem,
You who ^(AO)have drunk at the hand of the Lord
The cup of His fury;
You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling,
And drained it out.
¹⁸There is no one to guide her
Among all the sons she has brought forth;
Nor is there any who takes her by the hand
Among all the sons she has brought up.
¹⁹^(AP)These two things have come to you;
Who will be sorry for you?—
Desolation and destruction, famine and sword—
^(AQ)By whom will I comfort you?
²⁰^(AR)Your sons have fainted,
They lie at the head of all the streets,
Like an antelope in a net;
They are full of the fury of the Lord,
The rebuke of your God.

²¹Therefore please hear this, you afflicted,
And drunk ^(AS)but not with wine.
²²Thus says your Lord,
The Lord and your God,
Who ^(AT)pleads the cause of His people:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
The cup of trembling,
The dregs of the cup of My fury;
You shall no longer drink it.
²³^(AU)But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
Who have said to ^[d]you,
‘Lie down, that we may walk over you.’
And you have laid your body like the ground,
And as the street, for those who walk over.”

Footnotes

Isaiah 51:1 pursue
Isaiah 51:6 broken
Isaiah 51:16 establish
Isaiah 51:23 Lit. your soul

Romans 7:7-25

New King James Version

Sin’s Advantage in the Law

⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, ^(A)I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ^(B)“You shall not covet.” ⁸But ^(C)sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For ^(D)apart from the law sin was dead. ⁹I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. ¹⁰And the commandment, ^(E)which was to bring life, I found to bring death. ¹¹For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. ¹²Therefore ^(F)the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Law Cannot Save from Sin

¹³Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, ^(G)sold under sin. ¹⁵For what I am doing, I do not understand. ^(H)For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸For I know that ^(I)in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. ²²For I ^(J)delight in the law of God according to ^(K)the inward man. ²³But ^(L)I see another law in ^(M)my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me ^(N)from this body of death? ²⁵^(O)I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!