Old/New Testament
Chapter 41
The Lord Redeems Israel
1 Be silent and listen to me, O coastlands;
let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them draw near and speak;
let us meet together at the place of judgment.
2 Who has raised up a victor from the east
and summoned him to his service?
He delivers up nations to him
and overthrows their kings.
With his sword he scatters them like dust,
and with his bow he reduces them to stubble.
3 He pursues them and advances unscathed,
scarcely touching the path with his feet.
4 Who has performed these deeds and accomplished this?
Who has summoned the nations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, am the first,
and I will be there with the last.
5 The coastlands have seen and become frightened;
the ends of the earth tremble.
These things are fast approaching;
they will come to pass.
6 Each worker helps another;
they encourage each other to take heart.
7 The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,
and the polisher the one who strikes the anvil;
he declares the soldering to be good,
and he fastens the image with nails
so that it will be secure.
8 But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the descendants of my friend Abraham,
9 you whom I have taken to myself
from the ends of the earth
and summoned from its farthest corners,
to whom I have said, “You are my servant;
I have chosen you and will not cast you off.
10 Do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and give you help,
I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”
11 All those who rage against you
will be put to shame and disgraced;
those who oppose you
will be reduced to nothing and perish.
12 You will search for those who oppose you
but you will not find them.
Those who take up arms against you
will be reduced to nothing.
13 For I, the Lord, am your God
and I grasp your right hand.
It is I who say to you,
Do not fear; I will help you.
14 Do not fear, you worm, Jacob,
you maggot, Israel.
I will help you, says the Lord;
your redeemer[a] is the Holy One of Israel.
15 Now I will make of you a threshing sledge,
sharp, new, with numerous teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you will reduce the hills to chaff.
16 You will winnow them,
the wind will carry them away,
and the gale will scatter them.
Then you will rejoice in the Lord
and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy search for water
and there is none,
and their tongues are parched with thirst,
I the Lord will come to their aid;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open up rivers on the barren heights
and fountains in the midst of valleys.
I will turn the wilderness into a lake
and the dry land into springs of water.
19 In the wilderness I will plant cedars,
acacias, myrtles, and olive trees;
in the wasteland I will place cypress trees
to grow side by side with plane trees and pine trees,
20 so that all may see and know,
observe and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21 Present your case, says the Lord.
Produce your arguments, says the king of Jacob.
22 Let them bring forth their idols
and reveal to us what is going to happen.
What happened in the past?
Inform us so that we may reflect on it
and that we may know what the outcome will be
or declare to us the things to come.
23 Reveal to us what is yet to come
so that we may know that you are gods.
Do something, whether good or bad,
that will cause us to be alarmed and terrified.
24 But you cannot do so, for you are nothing,
and your works are truly worthless.
To choose you is an abomination.
25 I have stirred up one from the north,
and he has come forth;
from the east he has been summoned by name.
He will trample on rulers as if they were mud,
like a potter treading clay.
26 Who revealed this to us from the beginning
so that we might know it,
or advised us beforehand
so that we might say, “He is right”?
No one foretold it, no one proclaimed it,
no one has heard you say anything in this regard.
27 I was the first to declare it to Zion,
and I sent a bearer of glad tidings to Jerusalem.
28 But when I look around, I see no one;
there is not a single one of them to offer counsel
or to give an answer when I question them.
29 No, they are a delusion.
Nothing they do amounts to anything;
their idols are empty wind.
Chapter 42
The Mission of the Servant[b]
1 Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom my soul delights.
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will establish justice among the nations.
2 He will not cry out or shout
or make his voice heard in the street.
3 He will not break a bruised reed,
nor will he snuff out a smoldering wick;
faithfully he will establish justice.
4 He will not falter or become discouraged
until he has established justice upon the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who fashioned the earth and all that grows in it,
who gives breath to the people who dwell on it
and spirit to those who walk upon it:
6 I, the Lord, have called you for a righteous purpose;
I have taken you by the hand.
I have formed you and established you
to be a covenant to the people
and a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes of the blind,
and to lead captives out of prison,
and to release from the dungeon
those who live in darkness.
8 I am the Lord; that is my name.
My glory I do not grant to another,
nor my praise to idols.
9 Behold, the earlier prophecies have come to pass,
and now I will reveal new things.
Before they actually occur,
I will announce them to you.
Israel Saved despite Its Sins
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the ends of the earth.
Let the sea resound and all that fills it,
the coastlands and all its inhabitants.
11 Let the desert and its towns rejoice,
the villages where Kedar[c] dwells.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;
let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them all give glory to God
and sing his praise in the coastlands.
13 The Lord marches forth like a hero;
like a warrior he stirs up his fury.
He shouts forth his battle cry
and triumphs against his foes.[d]
14 For a long time I have restrained myself;
I have maintained my silence and held my peace.
Now I will cry out like a woman in labor,
gasping and panting.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation.
I will convert rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.
16 I will lead the blind[e]
and guide them along paths they do not know.
I will turn darkness into light before them
and make straight their winding roads.
These are the things I will do for them,
and I will not forsake them.
17 But those who place their trust in idols
and who say to carved images,
“You are our gods,”
will be turned back in bitter shame.
18 You who are deaf, listen!
You who are blind, look and see!
19 Who is so blind as my servant,
or so deaf as the messenger I send?
Who is so blind as the one dedicated to my service,
or so deaf as the servant of the Lord?
20 You have seen many things without comprehending them;
your ears are open but you do not hear.
21 For the sake of his justice the Lord was pleased
to make his law great and glorious.
22 But this is a people despoiled and plundered,
all of them trapped in holes
and hidden away in dungeons.
They have been pillaged with no one to rescue them;
they are plundered with no one to demand their release.
23 Who among you will pay heed to this?
Who will pay attention and listen in the future?
24 Who handed over Jacob to be plundered,
who gave up Israel to be despoiled?
Was it not the Lord,
against whom we have sinned?
They refused to walk in his ways,
and they would not obey his laws.
25 Therefore, he poured out upon them
his blazing anger and the fury of battle.
It enveloped them in flames,
but they did not understand,
it burned them,
but they did not take it to heart.
Salutation
Chapter 1
Address and Greeting. 1 Paul, Silvanus,[a] and Timothy to the Church of Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace.
Evangelization Is the Work of the Spirit[b]
A Model for All Believers.[c] 2 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers. 3 We constantly remember before our God and Father your work of faith and your labor of love and your perseverance in hope[d] in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 Brethren, beloved by God, we know that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel[e] came to you not merely in words alone but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with profound conviction. And you are fully aware what sort of people we proved to be when we were among you for your sake.
6 And you in turn became imitators[f] of us and of the Lord, for despite great suffering you received the word with joy in the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.[g]
8 Not only has the word of the Lord rung forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but also your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not have the need to speak about it. 9 For the people themselves report what kind of reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10 and await his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who will deliver us from the wrath that is to come.
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