Old/New Testament
50 ¶ Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities ye are sold, and for your rebellions was your mother put away,
2 for I came, and no one showed himself; I called, and no one answered. Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink because there is no water and die for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 ¶ The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the wise that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; he wakes up early, early shall he awaken my ear, that I might hear, as the wise.
5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to those that plucked off the hair: I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.
7 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore, I was not ashamed; therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8 He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together; who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? behold, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
10 ¶ Who is among you that fears the LORD? Hearken unto the voice of his slave. He who walked in darkness and had no light; let him trust in the name of the LORD and stay upon his God.
11 Behold, that all of you kindle fire and are compassed about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire and of the sparks that ye have kindled. From my hand has come this; ye shall be buried in sorrow.
51 ¶ Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD; look unto the rock from which ye are hewn and to the hole of the pit from which ye are dug.
2 Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bore you; for I called him alone and blessed him and multiplied him.
3 For the LORD shall surely comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of singing.
4 ¶ Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation: for the law shall proceed from me, and I will uncover my judgment for a light of the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near; my saving health is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me; and on my arm shall they place their hope.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and those that dwell therein shall perish in like manner; but my saving health shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall never perish.
7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; do not fear the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my saving health from age to age.
9 ¶ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in ages past. Art thou not he who cut off the proud one, and he who smote the dragon?
10 Art thou not he who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; he who turned the depths of the sea into a way, that the redeemed might pass over?
11 Therefore the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am he that comforts you. Who art thou that thou should be afraid of man that is mortal and of the son of man which shall be counted as stubble?
13 And thou hast already forgotten the LORD thy maker that has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and hast feared continually every day the fury of the oppressor when he was ready to destroy. But, where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The prisoner is anxious that he may be loosed and that he should not die in the pit nor that his bread should fail.
15 And I am the LORD thy God that divides the sea and the waves roar; I am thy God; the LORD of the hosts is his name.
16 That has placed my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee with the shadow of my hand, that thou may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
17 ¶ Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out.
18 There is no one to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword. Who shall comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
21 Therefore now hear this, thou afflicted and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus has thy Lord said, I AM thy God who pleads the cause of his people; Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of those that afflict thee, which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to those that went over.
52 ¶ Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come into thee.
2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nothing; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus has the Lord GOD said, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian captured them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nothing? And those among my people that take rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name is continually blasphemed every day.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name for this reason in that day: for even I that speak, behold, I shall be present.
7 ¶ How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace, that brings good tidings of good, that publishes saving health, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigns!
8 The voice of thy watchmen! They shall lift up the voice; together they shall rejoice: for they shall see eye to eye, how the LORD shall return to bring again Zion.
9 Sing praises, rejoice together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has made bare the arm of his holiness before the eyes of all the Gentiles; and all the ends of the earth shall see the saving health of our God.
11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from there, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will gather you together.
13 ¶ Behold, my slave shall be prospered; he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many rejected thee, in such manner was his likeness and his beauty, disfigured from the sons of men:
15 But he shall sprinkle many Gentiles; the kings shall shut their mouths over him: for that which had not been told them they shall see; and that which they had not heard they shall understand.
5 ¶ But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For ye know well that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should take you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the sons of light, and the sons of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 ¶ Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For those that sleep sleep in the night, and those that are drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet, the hope of saving health.
9 For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain saving health by our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us, that whether we watch or sleep, we should live together with him.
11 ¶ Therefore comfort and edify one another, even as ye do.
12 And we beseech you, brethren, to recognize those who labour among you and preside over you in the Lord and admonish you
13 and that you express greater charity unto them for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
14 We also exhort you, brethren, that you warn those that are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with everyone.
15 See that no one renders evil for evil unto anyone, but always follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men.
16 ¶ Always rejoice.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
19 Quench not the Spirit.
20 Despise not prophecies.
21 Examine all things; retain that which is good.
22 Separate yourselves from all appearance of evil.
23 ¶ And the very God of peace sanctify you completely, that your spirit, soul, and body be preserved whole without reprehension for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Faithful is he that has called you, who will also do it.
25 Brethren, pray for us.
26 Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
27 I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International