Old/New Testament
Chapter 32
The Kingdom of Justice
1 See, a king will reign justly
and princes will rule rightly.(A)
2 Each of them will be like a shelter from the wind,
a refuge from the rain.
They will be like streams of water in a dry country,
like the shade of a great rock in a parched land.(B)
3 The eyes of those who see will not be closed;
the ears of those who hear will be attentive.(C)
4 The hasty of heart shall take thought to know,
and tongues of stutterers shall speak readily and clearly.
5 No more will the fool be called noble,
nor the deceiver be considered honorable.(D)
6 For the fool speaks folly,
his heart plans evil:
Godless actions,
perverse speech against the Lord,
Letting the hungry go empty
and the thirsty without drink.(E)
7 The deceits of the deceiver are evil,
he plans devious schemes:
To ruin the poor with lies,
and the needy when they plead their case.(F)
8 But the noble plan noble deeds,
and in noble deeds they persist.
The Women of Jerusalem
9 You women so complacent, rise up and hear my voice,
daughters so confident, give heed to my words.(G)
10 In a little more than a year
your confidence will be shaken;
For the vintage will fail,
no fruit harvest will come in.(H)
11 Tremble, you who are so complacent!
Shudder, you who are so confident!
Strip yourselves bare,
with only a loincloth for cover.(I)
12 Beat your breasts
for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vine;(J)
13 For the soil of my people,
overgrown with thorns and briers;
For all the joyful houses,
the exultant city.(K)
14 The castle[a] will be forsaken,
the noisy city deserted;
Citadel and tower will become wasteland forever,
the joy of wild donkeys, the pasture of flocks;(L)
15 [b]Until the spirit from on high
is poured out on us.
And the wilderness becomes a garden land
and the garden land seems as common as forest.(M)
16 Then judgment will dwell in the wilderness
and justice abide in the garden land.
17 The work of justice will be peace;
the effect of justice, calm and security forever.(N)
18 My people will live in peaceful country,
in secure dwellings and quiet resting places.(O)
19 And the forest will come down completely,
the city will be utterly laid low.[c](P)
20 Happy are you who sow beside every stream,
and let the ox and the donkey go freely!(Q)
Chapter 33
Overthrow of Assyria[d]
1 Ah! You destroyer never destroyed,
betrayer never betrayed!
When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed;
when you have stopped betraying, you will be betrayed.(R)
2 Lord, be gracious to us; for you we wait.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in time of trouble!(S)
3 At the roaring sound, peoples flee;
when you rise in your majesty, nations are scattered.(T)
4 Spoil is gathered up as caterpillars gather,
an onrush like the rush of locusts.(U)
5 The Lord is exalted, enthroned on high;
he fills Zion with right and justice.(V)
6 That which makes her seasons certain,
her wealth, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge,
is the fear of the Lord, her treasure.(W)
7 See, the men of Ariel cry out in the streets,
the messengers of Shalem[e] weep bitterly.
8 The highways are desolate,
travelers have quit the paths,
Covenants are broken, witnesses spurned;
yet no one gives it a thought.(X)
9 The country languishes in mourning,
Lebanon withers with shame;
Sharon[f] is like the Arabah,
Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.(Y)
10 Now I will rise up, says the Lord,
now exalt myself,
now lift myself up.(Z)
11 You conceive dry grass, bring forth stubble;
my spirit shall consume you like fire.
12 The peoples shall be burned to lime,
thorns cut down to burn in fire.(AA)
13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14 In Zion sinners are in dread,
trembling grips the impious:
“Who of us can live with consuming fire?
who of us can live with everlasting flames?”(AB)
15 Whoever walks righteously and speaks honestly,
who spurns what is gained by oppression,
Who waves off contact with a bribe,
who stops his ears so as not to hear of bloodshed,
who closes his eyes so as not to look on evil—(AC)
16 That one shall dwell on the heights,
with fortresses of rock for stronghold,
food and drink in steady supply.
17 Your eyes will see a king[g] in his splendor,
they will look upon a vast land.(AD)
18 Your mind will dwell on the terror:
“Where is the one who counted, where the one who weighed?
Where the one who counted the towers?”(AE)
19 You shall no longer see a defiant people,
a people of speech too obscure to comprehend,
stammering in a tongue not understood.(AF)
20 Look to Zion, the city of our festivals;
your eyes shall see Jerusalem
as a quiet abode, a tent not to be struck,
Whose pegs will never be pulled up,
nor any of its ropes severed.(AG)
21 Indeed the Lord in majesty will be there for us
a place of rivers and wide streams
on which no galley may go,
where no majestic ship[h] may pass.(AH)
22 For the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
the Lord is our king;
he it is who will save us.
23 The rigging hangs slack;
it cannot hold the mast in place,
nor keep the sail spread out.
Then the blind will divide great spoils
and the lame will carry off the loot.(AI)
24 No one who dwells there will say, “I am sick”;
the people who live there will be forgiven their guilt.(AJ)
I. Address
Chapter 1
Greeting.[a] 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,(A) 2 to the holy ones and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae: grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Thanksgiving.[b] 3 We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,(B) 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the holy ones 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. Of this you have already heard through the word of truth, the gospel,(C) 6 that has come to you. Just as in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing, so also among you, from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth, 7 (D)as you learned it from Epaphras[c] our beloved fellow slave, who is a trustworthy minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
Prayer for Continued Progress.[d] 9 Therefore, from the day we heard this, we do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding(E) 10 to live in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 strengthened with every power, in accord with his glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy 12 [e]giving thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light.(F) 13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.(G)
II. The Preeminence of Christ
His Person and Work
15 [f]He is the image[g] of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.(H)
16 For in him[h] were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.(I)
17 He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
18 He is the head of the body, the church.[i]
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.(J)
19 For in him all the fullness[j] was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the blood of his cross[k]
[through him], whether those on earth or those in heaven.(K)
21 [l]And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds(L) 22 he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, 23 provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, am a minister.
Christ in Us.[m] 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking[n] in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, 25 of which I am a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, 26 the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones,(M) 27 to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.(N) 28 It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.(O) 29 For this I labor and struggle, in accord with the exercise of his power working within me.(P)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.