Old/New Testament
Judgment on the Nations
34 Come near, nations, to hear;
and peoples, listen attentively!
Let the earth hear, and that which fills it;
the world and all its offspring.
2 For the anger of Yahweh is against all the nations,
and his wrath is against all their armies;
he has put them under a ban,
he has given them up for slaughter.
3 And their slain shall be cast out;
as for[a] their corpses, their stench shall go up.
And the mountains shall melt with[b] their blood,
4 and all the host of heaven shall rot.
And the skies shall roll up like a scroll,
and all their host shall wither
like the withering of a leaf from a vine,
or[c] like the withering from a fig tree.
5 When my sword is drenched in the heavens,
look! It will descend upon Edom,
and upon the people of my ban, for judgment.
6 Yahweh has a sword;[d]
it is full of blood.
It is covered with[e] fat,
with[f] the blood of lambs and goats,
with[g] the fat of the kidneys of rams,
for Yahweh has a sacrifice[h] in Bozrah
and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And wild oxen shall go down with them,
and steers with strong bulls.
And their land shall be drenched with[i] blood,
and their soil shall be fattened with[j] fat.
8 For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,[k]
a year of retribution for the strife of Zion.
9 And its streams shall be changed to pitch and its soil to sulfur,
and its land shall become like burning pitch.
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall be in ruins;
forever and ever there will be no one who passes through her.
11 But[l] the large bird and the hedgehog shall take possession of it,
and the owl and the raven shall live in it.
And he shall stretch the measuring line of confusion out over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—but no kingdom is there—shall call,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall go up her citadel fortress,
weeds[m] and thistle plants[n] in her fortresses;
and it shall be the settlement of jackals,
green grass for the daughters of an ostrich.
14 And desert creatures shall meet with hyenas,
and a goat-demon shall call to his neighbor;
surely there Lilith[o] shall repose,
and she shall find a resting place for herself.
15 There the owl shall nest and lay
and hatch and care for her chicks in her shadow;
surely there the birds of prey shall be gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek from the book of Yahweh and read;[p]
none of these shall be missing;
none shall miss her mate.
For my[q] mouth is the one that[r] has commanded,
and his spirit is the one that[s] has gathered them.
17 And he is the one that[t] has cast the lot for them,
and his hand has apportioned it to them with the measuring line;
they shall take possession of it forever,
they shall live in it from generation to generation.[u]
The Ransomed Return to Zion
35 Wilderness and dry land shall be glad,[v]
and desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus.
2 It shall blossom abundantly,
and it shall rejoice indeed with rejoicing and exulting.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They are the ones who[w] shall see the glory of Yahweh,
the majesty of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands
and make the staggering knees firm.
4 Say to those who are hasty of heart,
“Be strong; you must not fear!
Look! your God will come with vengeance,
with divine retribution.[x]
He is the one who[y] will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be opened.
6 Then the lame shall leap like the deer,
and the tongue of the dumb shall sing for joy,
for waters shall break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
7 And the parched ground shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Her resting place is in a settlement of jackals;
the grass shall become like reeds[z] and rushes.[aa]
8 And a highway shall be there, and a way,
and it shall be called the way of holiness.
The unclean shall not travel through it,
but[ab] it is for them, he who walks on the way;
and fools shall not wander about.
9 No lion shall be there,
and no ferocious wild beast shall go up it.
It shall not be found there,
but[ac] the redeemed shall walk there.
10 And the ransomed of Yahweh shall return,
and they shall come to Zion with rejoicing.
And everlasting joy shall be on their head;
joy and gladness shall overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee.
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
36 And this happened: In the fourteenth year[ad] of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he captured them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh[ae] from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a large army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the field of the washer. 3 And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace,[af] came out to him, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder.
4 And Rabshakeh said to them, “Now say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What is this confidence in which you trust? 5 I said, ‘Only a word of lips! War has power and a plan!’[ag] Now, in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Look, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which if a man leans on it, goes into his hand and bores through it! Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all those who trust in him. 7 And if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ was it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? And he said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall bow down in the presence[ah] of this altar.’” 8 And now please make a wager with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, that is, if you are able put[ai] riders for yourself on them! 9 But how can you drive back one governor among the least of my master’s servants,[aj] when[ak] you trust in Egypt for chariots[al] and horsemen? 10 And now was it without Yahweh that I have come up against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it!”’”
11 And Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we can understand[am] it, and you must not speak to us in Judean in the hearing[an] of the people who are on the wall.”
12 But[ao] Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your masters and you? Was it not for the people who sit on the wall, to eat their dung and drink their urine[ap] with you?”
13 Then[aq] Rabshakeh stood and called in a great voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you! 15 And do not let Hezekiah make you rely on Yahweh, saying, “Surely Yahweh will deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!” 16 You must not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: “Make a blessing[ar] with me, and come out to me, and each one will eat from his vine and from his fig tree and drink water from[as] his cistern, 17 until I come[at] and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, 18 lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, ‘Yahweh will save us!’ Did the gods of the nations each save his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20 Who are there among all the gods of these countries who have saved their land from my hand, that Yahweh should save Jerusalem from my hand?”’”
21 But[au] they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the command of the king was, “You must not answer him.” 22 Then[av] Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the palace,[aw] Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder, came to Hezekiah with torn garments and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Christ, the Mystery of God
2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on behalf of you, and those in Laodicea, and all those who have not seen my face in person[a], 2 so that their hearts may be encouraged, united in love and into all the wealth of the full assurance of insight into the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ, 3 in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. 4 I say this in order that no one will deceive you with persuasive speech, 5 for even if I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
Made Alive in Christ
6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, live in him, 7 firmly rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding with thankfulness. 8 Beware lest anyone take you captive[b] through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition[c], according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ, 9 because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you are filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority, 11 in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, by the removal of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which also you were raised together with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And although you were dead[d][e] in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 having destroyed the certificate of indebtedness in ordinances against us, which was hostile to us, and removed it out of the way by[f] nailing it to the cross. 15 When he[g] had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a display of them in public, triumphing over them by it.[h]
Do Not Be Judged by Human Religious Rules
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with reference to eating or[i] drinking or participation in a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath, 17 which are a shadow of what is to come, but the reality is Christ. 18 Let no one condemn you, taking pleasure in humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about the things which he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by the ligaments and sinews, grows with the growth of God.
20 If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world? 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,” 22 which things are all meant for destruction by consuming according to human commandments and teachings, 23 which things although they have[j],[k] to be sure, an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and unsparing treatment of the body, do not have any value[l] against the indulgence of the flesh.
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