Old/New Testament
The Reign of the Davidic King
11 “A shoot will come out
from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch will bear fruit
from his roots.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and power,
the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
3 His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.
He won’t judge by what his eyes see,
nor decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
and decide with equity for[a] earth’s poor.[b]
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,[c]
and the wicked will be killed[d] with the breath of his lips.
5 Righteousness will be the sash around his loins,
and faithfulness the belt around his waist.”
A Transformed Ecology
6 “The wolf will live with the lamb;
the leopard will lie down with the young goat.
The calf and the lion will graze[e] together,
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze,
and[f] their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child will play
over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child will put his hand on vipers’ dens.[g]
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on[h] my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full
of the knowledge[i] of the Lord,[j]
as the waters cover the sea.”
Israel Regathered
10 At that time,[k] as to[l] the root of Jesse, who will be standing as a banner for the peoples, the nations will rally to him, and his resting place is[m] glorious.
11 At that time,[n] the Lord will reach out his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt,[o] from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands[p] of the sea.
12 He will raise a banner for the nations
and will assemble the dispersed of Israel;
he will gather the scattered people of Judah
from the corners[q] of the earth.
Israel’s Victory over Its Enemies
13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,[r]
and those who are hostile to Judah will be eliminated;[s]
Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah,
and Judah will not be hostile to Ephraim.
14 But they[t] will swoop down
on the slopes[u] of the Philistines to the west,
and they will plunder[v] the people to[w] the east.
They’ll lay their hands on Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be subject to them.
15 The Lord will totally destroy
the gulf[x] of the Sea of Egypt.
He will sweep his hand
over the Euphrates River
with a violent wind,[y]
breaking it up into seven streams,
and making a way for people to cross on foot.
16 And there will be a highway
for the remnant that is left of his people out of Assyria,
as there was for Israel
when they came up
from the land of Egypt.
Israel’s Praise to the Lord
12 At that time,[z] you will say:
“I will praise you, Lord,
for although you were angry with me,
your anger has turned away,
and you have comforted me.
2 “Look! God—yes God—is[aa] my salvation;
I will trust, and not be afraid.
For the Lord[ab] is my strength and my song,[ac]
and he has become my salvation.”
3 You will draw water joyfully from the wells of salvation. And you will say at that time:[ad]
4 “Give thanks to the Lord;
call on his name.
Make known his actions
among the nations.
Proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 “Sing praises to the Lord,[ae]
because he has acted gloriously,
being made[af] known in all the world.
6 Shout aloud, and sing for joy,
you who live in Zion,
because great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel.”
The Destruction of Babylon
13 A message[ag] that Amoz’s son Isaiah received[ah] about Babylon:
2 “Raise a banner on a bare hilltop!
Cry out loud to them!
Give a wave of the hand,
signaling[ai] for them to enter[aj]
the gates of the nobles.
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones;
I have also summoned my warriors,
those who rejoice in my triumph,
to carry out my angry judgments.[ak]
4 “Listen! There’s a noise on the mountains
like that of a great multitude!
Listen! There’s an uproar among the kingdoms,
like that of nations massing together!
The Lord of the Heavenly Armies is mustering
an army for battle.
5 They’re coming from a faraway land,
from the distant horizon—[al]
the Lord and the weapons of his anger—
to destroy the entire land.”[am]
The Day of the Lord
6 Wail out loud, because the Day of the Lord is near.
It will come like destruction from the Almighty!
7 Because of this, every hand[an] will go limp,
and every man’s courage[ao] will melt.
8 They will be terrified;
pain and anguish will seize them;
they’ll writhe like a woman in labor.
They’ll look aghast at one another;
and[ap] their faces will be ablaze with fear.[aq]
9 Watch out! The Day of the Lord is coming—
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger—
to turn the entire inhabited[ar] earth[as] into a desolation
and to annihilate sinners[at] from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
won’t shine[au] their light;
the sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon won’t shine its light.
11 I’ll punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I’ll put an end to the pomposity of the arrogant,
and overthrow the insolence of tyrants.
12 I’ll make people scarcer[av] than pure gold,
and mankind rarer[aw] than gold from Ophir.
13 Therefore I’ll make the heavens tremble.
The earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
at the time[ax] of his burning anger.[ay]
14 They[az] will be like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with no one to gather them,[ba]
each will turn to his own people,
and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall dead, killed[bb] by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces
before their eyes,
and[bc] their houses will be looted,
and their wives slept with.[bd]
Babylon Falls
17 Watch out! I’m stirring up the Medes against them,
who care nothing for silver
and take no delight in gold.
18 Their bows will dash the young men to pieces;
they’ll show no pity on those not yet born,[be]
and[bf] their eyes will not spare children.
19 Babylon, that jewel of kingdoms,
the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah,
when God overthrew them—
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in through all generations;
no Bedouin[bg] will pitch his tent there;
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But desert beasts will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there owls[bh] will dwell,
and goat-demons[bi] will dance there.
22 Hyenas will howl in its strongholds,[bj]
and jackals will make their dens in its citadels.[bk]
Its[bl] time is close at hand,
and its days will not be extended any further.[bm]
The Messiah’s Gifts to the Church
4 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to live in a way that is worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 demonstrating all expressions of humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another in love. 3 Do your best to maintain the unity of the Spirit by means of the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit. Likewise, you were called to the one hope of your calling.
5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all,
who is above all, through all, and in all.
7 Now to each one of us grace has been given proportionate to the measure of the Messiah’s[a] gift. 8 That is why God[b] says,
“When he went up to the highest place,
he led captives into captivity
and gave gifts to people.”[c]
9 Now what does this “he went up” mean except that he also had gone[d] down into the lower parts of the earth?[e] 10 The one who went down is the same one who went up above all the heavens so that all things would be fulfilled. 11 And it is he who gifted some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, and still others to be pastors and teachers, 12 to equip[f] the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to build up the body of the Messiah[g] 13 until all of us are united in the faith and in the full knowledge of God’s Son, and until we attain mature adulthood and the full standard of development in the Messiah.[h] 14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed like waves and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, or by clever strategies that would lead us astray. 15 Instead, by speaking the truth in love, we will grow up completely and become one with the head, that is, one with the Messiah,[i] 16 in whom the whole body is united and held together by every ligament with which it is supplied. As each individual part does its job, the body builds itself up in love.
The Old Life and the New
17 Therefore, I tell you and insist on[j] in the Lord not to live any longer like the gentiles live, thinking worthless thoughts.[k] 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. 19 Since they have lost all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to sensuality and practice every kind of sexual perversion without restraint. 20 However, that is not the way you came to know the Messiah.[l] 21 Surely you have listened to him and have been taught by him, since truth is in Jesus. 22 Regarding your former way of life, you were taught[m] to strip off your old nature, which is being ruined by its deceptive desires, 23 to be renewed in your mental attitude, 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new nature, which was created according to God’s image[n] in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Therefore, stripping off falsehood, “let each of us speak the truth to his neighbor,”[o] for we belong to one another. 26 “Be angry, yet do not sin.”[p] Do not let the sun set while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the Devil an opportunity to work.[q] 28 The thief must no longer steal but must work hard and do what is good with his own hands, so that he might earn something to give to the needy.
29 Let no filthy talk be heard from your mouths, but only what is good for building up people and meeting the need of the moment.[r] This way you will administer grace to those who hear you. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, quarreling, and slander be put away from you, along with all hatred. 32 And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another just as God has forgiven you[s] in the Messiah.[t]
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