Old/New Testament
41 ¶ Listen unto me, O islands; and let the peoples strengthen themselves; let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment.
2 Who raised up righteousness from the east, called him that he might follow him, gave the Gentiles before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow.
3 He pursued them and passed in peace by the way that his feet had never entered.
4 Who has wrought and done it? Who calls the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and I, myself am with those who are last.
5 The isles saw it and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid; they congregated and came.
6 Each one helped his neighbour; and each one said to his brother, Be of good courage.
7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smooths with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is well joined and he strengthened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
8 But thou, Israel, my slave, Jacob whom I have chosen, art the seed of Abraham my friend.
9 For I have taken thee from the ends of the earth and called thee from the boundaries thereof and said unto thee Thou shalt be my slave; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
10 ¶ Do not fear for I am with thee; do not be dismayed, for I am thy God, who strengthens thee; I will help thee always; I will always uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
11 Behold, all those that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and those that strive with thee shall perish.
12 Thou shalt seek them and shalt not find them, even those that contended with thee; those that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought.
13 For I am the LORD thy God that holds thy right hand saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye dead of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I have placed thee as a threshing instrument, as a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaff.
16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; but thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 The poor and needy seek the waters that are not; their tongue fails for thirst; I the LORD will hear them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the plains; I will turn the wilderness into pools of water and the dry land into springs of water.
19 I will bring forth in the wilderness cedars, thorns, myrtles, and olive trees; I will set in the desert the fir tree and the pine and the box tree together:
20 That they may see and know and take warning and understand together that the hand of the LORD does this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21 ¶ Explain your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your foundations, saith the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring forth and declare unto us what shall happen; tell us what has happened from the beginning, and we shall consider it in our hearts; and we shall know what his end shall be, and cause us to understand that which is to come.
23 Give us news of that which is to come hereafter that we may know that ye are gods; or at least do good or do evil that we may have something to tell, and together we shall marvel.
24 Behold, ye are of nothing and your works of vanity; an abomination is he that chooses you.
25 I have raised up one from the north, and he came from the rising of the sun; he called in my name and came unto princes as upon clay and as the potter treads clay.
26 Who has declared from the beginning, that we shall know? and beforetime that we shall say, He is righteous? yea, there is no one that declares this, yea, there is no one that teaches, yea, there is no one that hears your words.
27 I am the first that has taught these things unto Zion, and unto Jerusalem I brought the news.
28 For I beheld, and there was no one; and I asked regarding these things, and there was no counsellor; I asked them, and they did not answer a word.
29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
42 ¶ Behold my slave, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall give judgment unto the Gentiles.
2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets.
3 He shall not break a bruised reed, nor shall he quench the smoking flax; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
4 He shall not tire nor faint until he has set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law.
5 ¶ Thus saith God the LORD, the Creator of the heavens and he that stretches them out; he that spreads forth the earth and that which comes out of it; he that gives breath unto the people upon it and spirit to those that walk therein:
6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness and will hold thee by thine hand; I will keep thee and place thee as my covenant unto the people as light unto the Gentiles
7 that thou might open the eyes of the blind, that thou might bring out the prisoners from the prison and those that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
8 I am the LORD. This is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and I declare new things: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
10 Sing unto the LORD a new song and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout {Heb. command} from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory unto the LORD and declare his praise in the islands.
13 ¶ The LORD shall go forth as a giant; he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; he shall cry out a battle cry; he shall prevail against his enemies.
14 I have long time held my peace; I have been still and refrained myself; now will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.
15 I will make waste mountains and hills and dry up all their grass, and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will cause them to walk in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them and not forsake them.
17 They shall be turned back; they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.
18 ¶ Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
19 Who is blind, but my slave? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the slave of the LORD,
20 who sees many things and does not warn; who opens his ears and does not hear.
21 The LORD, jealous for his righteousness, will magnify the law and enlarge it.
22 Therefore this people is robbed and spoiled; all of them shall be snared in holes and hid in prison houses; they shall be for a prey, and no one delivers; for a spoil, and no one saith, Restore.
23 Who among you will give ear to this? Who will warn and consider regarding the time to come?
24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers? Did not the LORD? Because we sinned against him, and they did not desire to walk in his ways, neither did they hearken unto his law.
25 Therefore he has poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle; he put fire round about him, yet he was careless; and it set him on fire, yet he did not lay it to heart.
1 ¶ Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of the Thessalonians congregated in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 ¶ We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers,
3 remembering without ceasing the work of your faith and labour and charity and of waiting with the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,
4 being certain, beloved brethren, that you are chosen of God.
5 For our gospel did not come unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in full assurance as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
6 ¶ And ye were made imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word with much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Spirit:
7 So that ye have become examples to all that have believed in Macedonia and Achaia.
8 For through you the word of the Lord has been divulged not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith, which is in God, has become extended, so that we have no need to say anything.
9 For they themselves tell of us what an entrance we had unto you and in what manner ye were converted to God from idols to serve the living and true God
10 and to wait for his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come.
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