Isaiah 25-27
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
Praise for Deliverance from Oppression
25 O Lord, thou art my God;
I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name;
for thou hast done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
2 For thou hast made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the palace of aliens is a city no more,
it will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify thee;
cities of ruthless nations will fear thee.
4 For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the blast of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
5 like heat in a dry place.
Thou dost subdue the noise of the aliens;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is stilled.
6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined. 7 And he will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, as straw is trodden down in a dung-pit. 11 And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim; but the Lord will lay low his pride together with the skill[a] of his hands. 12 And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.
Judah’s Song of Victory
26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation which keeps faith
may enter in.
3 Thou dost keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusts in thee.
4 Trust in the Lord for ever,
for the Lord God
is an everlasting rock.
5 For he has brought low
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.”
7 The way of the righteous is level;
thou[b] dost make smooth the path of the righteous.
8 In the path of thy judgments,
O Lord, we wait for thee;
thy memorial name
is the desire of our soul.
9 My soul yearns for thee in the night,
my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee.
For when thy judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals perversely
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, thy hand is lifted up,
but they see it not.
Let them see thy zeal for thy people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for thy adversaries consume them.
12 O Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us,
thou hast wrought for us all our works.
13 O Lord our God,
other lords besides thee have ruled over us,
but thy name alone we acknowledge.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end thou hast visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 But thou hast increased the nation, O Lord,
thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified;
thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.
16 O Lord, in distress they sought thee,
they poured out a prayer[c]
when thy chastening was upon them.
17 Like a woman with child,
who writhes and cries out in her pangs,
when she is near her time,
so were we because of thee, O Lord;
18 we were with child, we writhed,
we have as it were brought forth wind.
We have wrought no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19 Thy dead shall live, their bodies[d] shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For thy dew is a dew of light,
and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath is past.
21 For behold, the Lord is coming forth out of his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon her,
and will no more cover her slain.
Israel’s Redemption
27 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Levi′athan the fleeing serpent, Levi′athan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day:
“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest any one harm it,
I guard it night and day;
4 I have no wrath.
Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would set out against them,
I would burn them up together.
5 Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come[e] Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots,
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Has he smitten them as he smote those who smote them?
Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8 Measure by measure,[f] by exile thou didst contend with them;
he removed them with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no Ashe′rim or incense altars will remain standing.
10 For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes,
there he lies down, and strips its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
For this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them,
he that formed them will show them no favor.
12 In that day from the river Euphra′tes to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gathered one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 25:11 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
- Isaiah 26:7 Cn Compare Gk: Heb thou (that art) upright
- Isaiah 26:16 Heb uncertain
- Isaiah 26:19 Cn Compare Syr Tg: Heb my body
- Isaiah 27:6 Heb Those to come
- Isaiah 27:8 Compare Syr Vg Tg: The meaning of the Hebrew word is unknown
Habakkuk 3
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
3 A prayer of Habak′kuk the prophet, according to Shigion′oth.
The Prophet’s Prayer
2 O Lord, I have heard the report of thee,
and thy work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years renew it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
Selah
4 His brightness was like the light,
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
5 Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed close behind.
6 He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered,
the everlasting hills sank low.
His ways were as of old.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Mid′ian did tremble.
8 Was thy wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was thy anger against the rivers,
or thy indignation against the sea,
when thou didst ride upon thy horses,
upon thy chariot of victory?
9 Thou didst strip the sheath from thy bow,
and put the arrows to the string.[a]
Selah
Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw thee, and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice,
it lifted its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation[b]
at the light of thine arrows as they sped,
at the flash of thy glittering spear.
12 Thou didst bestride the earth in fury,
thou didst trample the nations in anger.
13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people,
for the salvation of thy anointed.
Thou didst crush the head of the wicked,[c]
laying him bare from thigh to neck.[d]
Selah
14 Thou didst pierce with thy[e] shafts the head of his warriors,[f]
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
15 Thou didst trample the sea with thy horses,
the surging of mighty waters.
16 I hear, and my body trembles,
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones,
my steps totter[g] beneath me.
I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
Trust and Joy in the Midst of Trouble
17 Though the fig tree do not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like hinds’ feet,
he makes me tread upon my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed[h] instruments.
Footnotes
- Habakkuk 3:9 Cn: Heb obscure
- Habakkuk 3:11 Heb uncertain
- Habakkuk 3:13 Cn: Heb head from the house of the wicked
- Habakkuk 3:13 Heb obscure
- Habakkuk 3:14 Heb his
- Habakkuk 3:14 Vg Compare Gk Syr: Heb uncertain
- Habakkuk 3:16 Cn Compare Gk: Heb I tremble because
- Habakkuk 3:19 Heb my stringed
Proverbs 11:5-8
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
5 The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight,
but the wicked falls by his own wickedness.
6 The righteousness of the upright delivers them,
but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.
7 When the wicked dies, his hope perishes,
and the expectation of the godless comes to nought.
8 The righteous is delivered from trouble,
and the wicked gets into it instead.
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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