Old/New Testament

A Nation of Right Living

32 See, a king will rule by what is right and good and princes will be fair. ² Each will be like a safe place from the wind, and a covering from the storm. Each will be like rivers of water in a dry country, and like the shadow of a large rock in a waste land. ³ Then the eyes of those who see will be able to see. And the ears of those who hear will listen. ⁴ The mind of those who act in a hurry will understand the truth. And the tongue of those who have trouble speaking will hurry to speak well. ⁵ The fool will no more be called great. The bad man will no more be called a man of honor. ⁶ For a fool speaks foolish things. His mind plans wrong-doing, to sin and to say false things against the Lord, to keep the hungry person hungry, and to keep drink from the thirsty. ⁷ The ways of the bad man are sinful. He makes sinful plans to destroy the suffering with lies, even when the one in need asks for what is right. ⁸ But the man of honor makes good plans, and he stands for what is good.

The Women of Jerusalem

⁹ Rise up, you women who live an easy life, and hear my voice. Listen to what I say, you daughters. ¹⁰ In a little more than a year, you will be troubled. There will be no grapes to gather, the wine will not be made. ¹¹ Shake with fear, you women who live an easy life. Be troubled, you daughters, who feel safe. Take off your clothes and cover your bodies with cloth made from hair. ¹² Beat your breasts for the good fields, for the vine full of fruit, ¹³ and for the land of my people in which thorns and thistles will come up. Yes, be sorry for all the houses of joy, and for the happy city, ¹⁴ because the king’s house will be empty. The city full of people will be left empty. The hill and the watch-tower will become a place for wild animals forever, a happy place for wild donkeys, a field for flocks. ¹⁵ It will be this way until the Spirit is poured out upon us from heaven, and the desert becomes a field giving so much fruit, that it seems as if it has many trees. ¹⁶ Then what is right and fair will be in the desert. What is right and good will be in the field of much fruit. ¹⁷ The work of being right and good will give peace. From the right and good work will come quiet trust forever. ¹⁸ Then my people will live in a place of peace, in safe homes, and in quiet resting places. ¹⁹ But it will hail when the many trees come down and all the city will be laid waste. ²⁰ How happy will you be, you who plant seeds beside all waters, and let the cattle and donkeys eat in any field.

A Prayer for Help

33 It is bad for you, O destroyer, you who were not destroyed yourself! You cannot be trusted, but others have trusted you. As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed. As soon as you stop lying, others will lie to you. ² O Lord, be kind to us. We have waited for You. Be our strength every morning. Save us in the time of trouble. ³ At the loud noise of battle, the people run. When You lift Yourself up, nations divide and run. ⁴ The things taken in war will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men rush upon it like locusts. ⁵ The Lord is honored, for He lives on high. He has filled Zion with what is right and fair and good. ⁶ He will be for you what is sure and faithful for your times, with much saving power, wisdom and learning. The fear of the Lord is worth much. ⁷ See, their men with strength of heart cry in the streets. The men sent to bring peace cry many tears. ⁸ The roads are empty. The traveler does not travel. He has broken the agreement. He has hated the cities. He does not care for man. ⁹ The land is filled with sorrow and wastes away. Lebanon is put to shame and wastes away. Sharon is like a desert. And Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹⁰ “Now I will rise up,” says the Lord. “Now I will be honored. Now I will be lifted up. ¹¹ You bring life to what is of no worth. You give birth to what is of no use. My breath will destroy you like a fire. ¹² The people will be burned to white dust, like thorns cut down and burned in the fire.

¹³ “You who are far away, hear what I have done. And you who are near, speak of My power.” ¹⁴ Sinners in Zion are filled with fear. The sinful shake with fear. They cry, “Who among us can live with the fire that destroys? Who among us can live with the fire that burns forever?” ¹⁵ He who walks with God, and whose words are good and honest, he who will not take money received from wrong-doing, and will not receive money given in secret for wrong-doing, he who stops his ears from hearing about killing, and shuts his eyes from looking at what is sinful, ¹⁶ he will have a place on high. His safe place will be a rock that cannot be taken over. He will be given food and will have water for sure.

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the King in His beauty. They will see a land that is far away. ¹⁸ Your heart will think about fear, asking, “Where is he who numbers? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who numbers the towers?” ¹⁹ You will not see people who show no pity, people whose language no one knows, whose strange tongue you cannot understand. ²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our special suppers! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet resting place, a tent that will not be moved. Its tie-downs will never be pulled up, and none of its ropes will be broken. ²¹ But there the Lord in His great power will be for us. It will be a place of rivers and wide waterways, where no rowboats can go, and where no powerful ships can pass. ²² For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our law-giver. The Lord is our king. He will save us. ²³ Your ropes are loose. They cannot hold the sail up in its place or spread it out. Then the many riches taken in battle will be divided. Even those who cannot walk will take the riches. ²⁴ And no one living there will say, “I am sick.” The people who live there will be forgiven of their sin.

Paul Gives Thanks for the Christians in Colossae

1 This letter is from Paul, a missionary for Jesus Christ. God wanted me to work for Him. This letter is from brother Timothy also. ² I am writing to you who belong to Christ in the city of Colossae. May all the Christian brothers there have loving-favor and peace from God our Father.

³ We always pray and give thanks to God for you. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ We give thanks to God for you because we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. We thank God for your love for all those who belong to Christ. ⁵ We thank God for the hope that is being kept for you in heaven. You first heard about this hope through the Good News which is the Word of Truth. ⁶ The Good News came to you the same as it is now going out to all the world. Lives are being changed, just as your life was changed the day you heard the Good News. You understood the truth about God’s loving-kindness. ⁷ You heard the Good News through our much-loved brother Epaphras who is taking my place. He is a faithful servant of Christ. ⁸ He told us that the Holy Spirit had given you much love.

⁹ This is why I have never stopped praying for you since I heard about you. I ask God that you may know what He wants you to do. I ask God to fill you with the wisdom and understanding the Holy Spirit gives. ¹⁰ Then your lives will please the Lord. You will do every kind of good work, and you will know more about God. ¹¹ I pray that God’s great power will make you strong, and that you will have joy as you wait and do not give up. ¹² I pray that you will be giving thanks to the Father. He has made it so you could share the good things given to those who belong to Christ who are in the light. ¹³ God took us out of a life of darkness. He has put us in the holy nation of His much-loved Son. ¹⁴ We have been bought by His blood and made free. Our sins are forgiven through Him.

¹⁵ Christ is as God is. God cannot be seen. Christ lived before anything was made. ¹⁶ Christ made everything in the heavens and on the earth. He made everything that is seen and things that are not seen. He made all the powers of heaven. Everything was made by Him and for Him. ¹⁷ Christ was before all things. All things are held together by Him. ¹⁸ Christ is the head of the church which is His body. He is the beginning of all things. He is the first to be raised from the dead. He is to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ God the Father was pleased to have everything made perfect by Christ, His Son. ²⁰ Everything in heaven and on earth can come to God because of Christ’s death on the cross. Christ’s blood has made peace. ²¹ At one time you were strangers to God and your minds were at war with Him. Your thoughts and actions were wrong. ²² But Christ has brought you back to God by His death on the cross. In this way, Christ can bring you to God, holy and pure and without blame. ²³ This is for you if you keep the faith. You must not change from what you believe now. You must not leave the hope of the Good News you received. The Good News was preached to you and to all the world. And I, Paul, am one of Christ’s missionaries.

Paul Is Sent by God to Preach

²⁴ Now I am full of joy to be suffering for you. In my own body I am doing my share of what has to be done to make Christ’s sufferings complete. This is for His body which is the Church. ²⁵ I became a preacher in His church for your good. In the plan of God I am to preach the Good News. ²⁶ This great secret was hidden to the people of times past, but it is now made known to those who belong to Christ. ²⁷ God wants these great riches of the hidden truth to be made known to the people who are not Jews. The secret is this: Christ in you brings hope of all the great things to come. ²⁸ We preach Christ. We tell every man how he must live. We use wisdom in teaching every man. We do this so every man will be complete in Christ. ²⁹ This is the reason I am working. God’s great power is working in me.