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Yahweh Frees Israel
12 “Listen to me, Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called:[a]
I am he. I am the first;
also I am the last.
13 Indeed, my hand founded the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon[b] them, they stand in position together.
14 Assemble, all of you, and hear!
Who among them declared these things?
Yahweh loves him;
he shall perform[c] his wish against Babylon
and his arm against the Chaldeans.[d]
15 I, I myself, I have spoken!
Indeed, I have called him.
I have brought him,
and he will be successful in his way.
16 Draw near to me; hear this! I have not spoken in secrecy from the beginning;[e]
from the time it came to be,[f] there I have been;
And now the Lord Yahweh has sent me and his Spirit.”
17 Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the holy one of Israel:
“I am Yahweh your God, who teaches[g] you to profit,
leads you in the way you should go.
18 O that you had listened attentively to my commandments!
Then[h] your prosperity would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 And your offspring would have been like the sand,
and the descendants of your body[i] like its grains.[j]
It would not be cut off,
and its name would not be destroyed from my presence.”
20 Go out from Babylon!
Flee from Chaldea!
Proclaim[k] it with a shout[l] of rejoicing; proclaim[m] this!
Send it forth[n] to the end of the earth;
say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21 And when he led them through the deserts, they were not thirsty;
he made water flow from the rock for them,
and he split the rock,
and the water gushed out.
22 “There is no peace,” says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”
Yahweh’s Servant Brings Salvation
49 Listen to me, coastlands,
and listen attentively, peoples from far away!
Yahweh called me from the womb;
from the body[o] of my mother he made my name known.
2 And he made[p] my mouth like a sharp sword;
he hid me in the shadow of his hand,
and he made[q] me like an sharpened arrow;
he hid me in his quiver.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will show my glory.”
4 But[r] I myself said, “I have labored in[s] vain;
I have used up my strength for nothing and vanity!
Nevertheless, my justice is with Yahweh,
and my reward is with my God.”
5 And now Yahweh says,
who formed me from the womb as a servant for him,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might not[t] be gathered,
for[u] I am honored in the eyes of Yahweh,
and my God has become my strength.
6 And he says, “It is trivial for you to be[v] a servant for me,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel.
I will give you as a light to the nations,
to be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
7 Thus says Yahweh, the redeemer of Israel, his holy one,
to the one who despises[w] life,
to the one who abhors the nation,
to the slave of rulers:
“Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall bow down,
for the sake of Yahweh, who is faithful,
the holy one of Israel, and he has chosen you.”
Yahweh Restores the Afflicted
8 Thus says Yahweh:
“I have answered you in a time of favor,
and helped you on a day of salvation,
and watched over you,
and given you as a covenant of the people,
to raise up the land,
to give the desolate hereditary property as an inheritance,
9 saying to the prisoners,[x] “Come out!”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves!”
they shall feed along[y] the ways,
and their pasturage shall be on all the barren heights.
10 They shall not be hungry or thirsty,
and heat and sun shall not strike them,
for he who takes pity on them will lead them,
and he will guide them to springs of water.
11 And I will make[z] all my mountains like a road,
and my highways shall lead up.[aa]
12 Look! These shall come from afar,
And look! These from the north and from the west
and these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing for joy, heavens, and rejoice, earth!
Mountains must break forth in rejoicing!
For Yahweh has comforted his people,
and he will take pity on his afflicted ones.
Yahweh Remembers Zion
14 But[ab] Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,
and the Lord has forgotten me!”
15 Can a woman forget her suckling,
refrain from having compassion on the child of her womb?
Indeed, these may forget,
but[ac] I, I will not forget you!
16 Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children hasten;
your destroyers and those who laid you waste depart[ad] from you.
18 Lift your eyes up all around and see;
all of them gather; they come to you.
As surely as I live,[ae]
declares[af] Yahweh,
surely you shall put on all of them like an ornament,
and you shall bind them on like a bride.
19 Surely your sites of ruins and desolate places and land of ruins,[ag]
surely now you will be too cramped for your[ah] inhabitants,[ai]
and those who engulfed you will be far away.
20 Yet the children born when you were bereaved[aj] will say in your hearing,[ak]
“The place is too cramped for me;
make room[al] for me so that I can dwell.”
21 Then[am] you will say in your heart,
“Who has borne me these?”
And, “I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and thrust away;
so[an] who raised these?
Look at me! I was left alone;
where have these come from?”[ao]
22 Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
“Look! I will lift my hand up to the nations,
and I will raise my signal to the peoples,
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.[ap]
23 And kings shall be your guardians,[aq]
and their queens your nurses.
They shall bow down, faces[ar] to the ground, to you,
and they will lick up the dust of your feet.
Then[as] you will know that I am Yahweh;
those who await me shall not be ashamed.
24 Can war-booty be taken from the mighty?
or can a captive of a righteous[at] person be rescued?
25 But thus says Yahweh:
“Indeed a captive of the mighty shall be taken,
and the war-booty of the tyrant shall be rescued,
for[au] I myself will dispute with your opponent,
and I myself will save your children.
26 And I will feed your oppressors their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their blood as with wine.
Then[av] all flesh shall know that I am Yahweh,
your savior and redeemer, the strong one of Jacob.”
50 Thus says Yahweh:
“Where is this divorce document of your mother’s divorce, with which I dismissed her?
or to whom of my creditors did I sell you?
Look! you were sold because of your sin,
and your mother was dismissed because of your transgressions.
2 Why was there no man when I came,
no one who answered when I called?
Do I lack the strength to save?[aw]
Or is there no power in me to deliver?
Look! by my rebuke I dry up the sea;
I make[ax] the rivers a desert;
their fish stink because there is no water,
and they[ay] die because of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with darkness,
and I make[az] their covering sackcloth.”
The Servant’s Vindication
4 The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of a pupil,
to know how to help the weary with a word.
He awakens morning by morning,[ba]
awakens an ear for me to listen as do the pupils.
5 The Lord Yahweh has opened an ear for me,
and I, I was not rebellious.
I did not turn backwards;
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;[bb]
I did not hide my face from insults and spittle.
7 And the Lord Yahweh helps me,
therefore I have not been put to shame;
therefore I have set my face like flint.
And I know that I shall not be ashamed;
8 he who obtains rights for me is near.
Who will contend with me? Let us stand together.
Who is the master of my judgment? Let him approach me.
9 Look! The Lord Yahweh helps me.
Who is the one who will declare me guilty?
Look! All of them will be worn out like a garment;
the moth will eat them.
10 Who among you is in fear of Yahweh,
obeys[bc] the voice of his servant?
Who walks in darkness
and has no light,
trusts in the name of Yahweh
and depends on his God?
11 Look! All of you are kindlers of fire,
who gird yourselves with flaming arrows.
Walk in the light of your fire,
and among the flaming arrows you have kindled!
You shall have this from my hand:
you shall lie down in[bd] a place of torment.
Appeal for New Behavior
17 This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk: in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, 19 who, becoming callous, gave themselves over to licentiousness, for the pursuit of all uncleanness in greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard about him, and you were taught by him (just as truth is in Jesus), 22 that you take off, according to your former way of life, the old man, who is being destroyed according to deceitful desires, 23 be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new man (in accordance with God), who is created in righteousness and holiness from the truth.
Old Behavior, New Behavior, and Motivation
25 Therefore, putting aside the lie, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor,[a] because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin;[b] do not let the sun set on your anger, 27 nor give place to the devil. 28 The one who steals must steal no longer, but instead must labor, working with his own hands what is good, so that he may have something to share with the one who has need. 29 No rotten word must proceed[c] from your mouth, but only something good for the building up of the need, in order that it may give grace to those who hear, 30 and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 All bitterness, and rage, and wrath, and clamor, and abusive speech, must be removed from you, together with all wickedness. 32 Become[d] kind toward one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as also God in Christ has forgiven you.
A Plea for Deliverance from Persecution
For the music director, according to The Lilies. Of David.[a]
69 Save me, O God,
because waters have come up to my neck.[b]
2 I sink in the mud of the deep, and there is no foothold.
I have come to watery depths,
and the torrent floods over me.
3 I am weary with my calling out; my throat is parched.
My eyes are exhausted in my waiting for my God.
4 More numerous than the hairs of my head
are those hating me without a cause.
Those who are destroying me—my enemies wrongfully[c]— are mighty.
What I did not steal, I then must restore.
5 O God, you yourself know[d] my foolishness,
and my guilty deeds are not hidden from you.
6 Let those who wait for you not be put to shame because of me,
O Lord Yahweh of hosts.
Let those who seek you not be disgraced because of me,
O God of Israel.
7 Because on account of you I have borne reproach;
disgrace has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,
9 because the zeal for your house[e] has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those reproaching you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept in the fasting of my soul,
it became reproaches for me.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became for them a byword.
12 Those sitting at the gate talk about me
as also[f] the songs of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Yahweh, for a favorable time,
O God, according to the abundance of your loyal love.
Answer me with the faithfulness of your salvation.
14 Deliver me from the mud and do not let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me
and from the watery depths.
15 Do not let the torrent of waters flood over me,
or the deep swallow me,
or the pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, O Yahweh, because your loyal love is good;
according to your abundant mercies, turn to me,
17 and do not hide your face from your servant.
Because I am in trouble, answer me quickly.
18 Draw near to my soul; redeem it.
Because of my enemies, ransom me.
5 The warrior of wisdom is in strength,
and a man of knowledge is strong in power.
6 For with wise guidance you shall make war for yourself,
and victory is in an abundance of counsel.
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