Old/New Testament
Babylon Will Fall
47 “Fall down! Sit in the dirt,
O virgin[a] daughter Babylon!
Sit on the ground, not on a throne,
O daughter of the Babylonians!
Indeed,[b] you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.
2 Pick up millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil,
strip off your skirt,
expose your legs,
cross the streams.
3 Let your naked body be exposed.
Your shame will be on display![c]
I will get revenge;
I will not have pity on anyone,”[d]
4 says our Protector—
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name,
the Holy One of Israel.[e]
5 “Sit silently! Go to a hiding place,[f]
O daughter of the Babylonians!
Indeed,[g] you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’
6 I was angry at my people;
I defiled my special possession
and handed them over to you.
You showed them no mercy;[h]
you even placed a very heavy burden on old people.[i]
7 You said,
‘I will rule forever as permanent queen!’[j]
You did not think about these things;[k]
you did not consider how it would turn out.[l]
8 So now, listen to this,
O one who lives so lavishly,[m]
who lives securely,
who says to herself,[n]
‘I am unique! No one can compare to me![o]
I will never have to live as a widow;
I will never lose my children.’[p]
9 Both of these will come upon you
suddenly, in one day!
You will lose your children and be widowed.[q]
You will be overwhelmed by these tragedies,[r]
despite[s] your many incantations
and your numerous amulets.[t]
10 You were complacent in your evil deeds;[u]
you thought,[v] ‘No one sees me.’
Your self-professed[w] wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,
when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’[x]
11 Disaster will overtake you;
you will not know how to charm it away.[y]
Destruction will fall on you;
you will not be able to appease it.
Calamity will strike you suddenly,
before you recognize it.[z]
12 Persist[aa] in trusting[ab] your amulets
and your many incantations,
which you have faithfully recited[ac] since your youth!
Maybe you will be successful[ad]—
maybe you will scare away disaster.[ae]
13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice.[af]
Let them take their stand—
the ones who see omens in the sky,
who gaze at the stars,
who make monthly predictions—
let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you![ag]
14 Look, they are like straw,
that the fire burns up;
they cannot rescue themselves
from the heat[ah] of the flames.
There are no coals to warm them,
no firelight to enjoy.[ai]
15 They will disappoint you,[aj]
those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth.[ak]
Each strays off in his own direction,[al]
leaving no one to rescue you.”
The Lord Appeals to the Exiles
48 Listen to this, O family of Jacob,[am]
you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’
and are descended from Judah,[an]
who take oaths in the name of the Lord,
and invoke[ao] the God of Israel—
but not in an honest and just manner.[ap]
2 Indeed, they live in the holy city;[aq]
they trust in[ar] the God of Israel,
whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
3 “I announced events beforehand,[as]
I issued the decrees and made the predictions;[at]
suddenly I acted and they came to pass.
4 I did this[au] because I know how stubborn you are.
Your neck muscles are like iron
and your forehead like bronze.[av]
5 I announced them to you beforehand;
before they happened, I predicted them for you,
so you could never say,
‘My image did these things,
my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’
6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence![aw]
Will you not admit that what I say is true?[ax]
From this point on I am announcing to you new events
that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.[ay]
7 Now they come into being,[az] not in the past;
before today you did not hear about them,
so you could not say,
‘Yes,[ba] I know about them.’
8 You did not hear,
you do not know,
you were not told beforehand.[bb]
For I know that you are very deceitful;[bc]
you were labeled[bd] a rebel from birth.
9 For the sake of my reputation[be] I hold back my anger;
for the sake of my prestige[bf] I restrain myself from destroying you.[bg]
10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have purified you[bh] in the furnace of misery.
11 For my sake alone[bi] I will act,
for how can I allow my name to be defiled?[bj]
I will not share my glory with anyone else![bk]
12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
Israel, whom I summoned.
I am the one;
I am present at the very beginning
and at the very end.[bl]
13 Yes, my hand founded the earth;
my right hand spread out the sky.
I summon them;
they stand together.
14 All of you, gather together and listen!
Who among them[bm] announced these things?
The Lord’s ally[bn] will carry out his desire against Babylon;
he will exert his power against the Babylonians.[bo]
15 I, I have spoken—
yes, I have summoned him;
I lead him and he will succeed.[bp]
16 Approach me—listen to this!
From the very first I have not spoken in secret;
when it happens,[bq] I am there.”
So now, the Sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his Spirit.[br]
17 This is what the Lord, your Protector,[bs] says,
the Holy One of Israel:[bt]
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had obeyed my[bu] commandments,
prosperity would have flowed to you like a river,[bv]
deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea.[bw]
19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand,[bx]
and your children[by] like its granules.
Their name would not have been cut off
and eliminated from my presence.[bz]
20 Leave Babylon!
Flee from the Babylonians!
Announce it with a shout of joy!
Make this known—
proclaim it throughout the earth![ca]
Say, ‘The Lord protects[cb] his servant Jacob.
21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;
he makes water flow out of a rock for them;
he splits open a rock and water flows out.’[cc]
22 There will be no prosperity for the wicked,” says the Lord.
Delivery of the Exiles
49 Listen to me, you coastlands![cd]
Pay attention, you people who live far away!
The Lord summoned me from birth;[ce]
he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world.[cf]
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
he hid me in the hollow of his hand;
he made me like a sharpened[cg] arrow,
he hid me in his quiver.[ch]
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.”[ci]
4 But I thought,[cj] “I have worked in vain;
I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.”[ck]
But the Lord will vindicate me;
my God will reward me.[cl]
5 So now the Lord says,
the one who formed me from birth[cm] to be his servant—
he did this[cn] to restore Jacob to himself,
so that Israel might be gathered to him;
and I will be honored[co] in the Lord’s sight,
for my God is my source of strength[cp]—
6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,
to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the remnant[cq] of Israel?[cr]
I will make you a light to the nations,[cs]
so you can bring[ct] my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”
7 This is what the Lord,
the Protector[cu] of Israel, their Holy One,[cv] says
to the one who is despised[cw] and rejected[cx] by nations,[cy]
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect,[cz]
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
8 This is what the Lord says:
“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;
in the day of deliverance I will help you;
I will protect you[da] and make you a covenant mediator for people,[db]
to rebuild[dc] the land[dd]
and to reassign the desolate property.
9 You will say[de] to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
and to those who are in dark dungeons,[df] ‘Emerge.’[dg]
They will graze beside the roads;
on all the slopes they will find pasture.
10 They will not be hungry or thirsty;
the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them,[dh]
for one who has compassion on them will guide them;
he will lead them to springs of water.
11 I will make all my mountains into a road;
I will construct my roadways.”
12 Look, they come from far away!
Look, some come from the north and west,
and others from the land of Sinim.[di]
13 Shout for joy, O sky![dj]
Rejoice, O earth!
Let the mountains give a joyful shout!
For the Lord consoles his people
and shows compassion to the[dk] oppressed.
The Lord Remembers Zion
14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,
the Lord[dl] has forgotten me.’
15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast?[dm]
Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne?[dn]
Even if mothers[do] were to forget,
I could never forget you![dp]
16 Look, I have inscribed your name[dq] on my palms;
your walls are constantly before me.
17 Your children hurry back,
while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.
18 Look all around you![dr]
All of them gather to you.
As surely as I live,” says the Lord,
“you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry;
you will put them on as if you were a bride.
19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;
it is desolate and devastated.[ds]
But now you will be too small to hold your residents,
and those who devoured you will be far away.
20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement
will say within your hearing,
‘This place is too cramped for us,[dt]
make room for us so we can live here.’[du]
21 Then you will think to yourself,[dv]
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced.[dw]
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”
22 This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“Look I will raise my hand to the nations;
I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.
They will bring your sons in their arms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
23 Kings will be your children’s[dx] guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children.[dy]
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you,
and they will lick the dirt on[dz] your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior,
or captives be rescued from a conqueror?[ea]
25 Indeed,” says the Lord,
“captives will be taken from a warrior;
spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.
I will oppose your adversary
and I will rescue your children.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine.[eb]
Then all humankind[ec] will recognize that
I am the Lord, your Deliverer,
your Protector,[ed] the Powerful One of Jacob.”[ee]
A Life Pleasing to God
4 Finally then, brothers and sisters,[a] we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how[b] you must live and please God (as you are in fact living)[c] that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is God’s will: that you become holy,[d] that you keep away from sexual immorality, 4 that each of you know how to possess his own body[e] in holiness and honor, 5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. 6 In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him,[f] because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases,[g] as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly. 7 For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. 8 Consequently the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority[h] but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
9 Now on the topic of brotherly love[i] you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 10 And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters[j] in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,[k] 11 to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. 12 In this way you will live[l] a decent life before outsiders and not be in need.[m]
The Lord Returns for Believers
13 Now we do not want you to be uninformed,[n] brothers and sisters,[o] about those who are asleep,[p] so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that[q] God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.[r] 15 For we tell you this by the word of the Lord,[s] that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel,[t] and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left,[u] will be suddenly caught up[v] together[w] with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
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