Old/New Testament
The Servant, Hope of Israel
50 Thus says the Lord:
Where is the certificate of divorce
by which I sent your mother away?
Or to which of My creditors
did I sell you?
For your iniquities you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2 Why, when I came, was there no man?
When I called, was there no one to answer?
Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Indeed, at My rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink because there is no water,
and die for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness,
and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned,
that I may know how to sustain him who is weary with a word;
He awakens me morning by morning;
He awakens my ear to listen as the learned.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
nor did I turn back.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard;
I did not cover my face
from shame and spitting.
7 For the Lord God will help me;
therefore, I shall not be disgraced;
therefore, I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8 He who vindicates me is near;
who will contend with me?
Let us stand up to each other.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
9 Certainly the Lord God will help me;
who is he who condemns me?
Indeed they all shall grow old as a garment;
the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who among you fears the Lord,
who obeys the voice of His servant,
who walks in darkness
and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord,
and rely upon his God.
11 But now, all you who kindle a fire,
who encompass yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire
and among the sparks that you have ignited.
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in sorrow.
The Eternal Salvation of Zion
51 Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for I called him alone,
and blessed him, and multiplied him.
3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness shall be found in it,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 Listen to Me, O My people;
and give ear to Me, O My nation:
for a law shall proceed from Me,
and I will set My justice as a light of the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth,
and My arms shall judge the peoples;
the coastlands shall wait for Me,
and for My arm they shall expectantly wait.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look on the earth beneath.
For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke,
and the earth shall grow old like a garment,
and those who dwell in it shall die in like manner;
but My salvation shall be forever,
and My righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is My law;
do not fear the reproach of men
nor be afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,
and the worm shall eat them like wool;
but My righteousness shall be forever
and My salvation from generation to generation.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord.
Awake as in the ancient days,
in the generations of old.
Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces
and wounded the dragon?
10 Was it not You who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a pathway
for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return
and come with singing to Zion,
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head.
They shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who shall die,
and of the son of man who shall be made as grass,
13 and forget the Lord your maker
who has stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth?
And have feared continually every day
because of the fury of the oppressor
as he makes ready to destroy?
Yet where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The exile shall soon be freed,
and shall not die in the dungeon,
nor will his bread be lacking.
15 But I am the Lord your God
who divided the sea whose waves roared;
the Lord of Hosts is His name.
16 I have put My words in your mouth,
and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand
that I may plant the heavens,
and lay the foundations of the earth,
and say to Zion, “You are My people.”
The Wrath of God Ceases
17 Awake, awake,
stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord
the cup of His fury;
the cup of reeling
you have drained to the dregs.
18 There is no one to guide her
among all the sons she has brought forth;
nor is there anyone to take hold of her hand
of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things have befallen you;
who shall be mournful for you?
Desolation, and destruction, and famine, and sword—
how shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted;
they lie at the head of all the streets
as an antelope in a net;
they are full of the fury of the Lord,
the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore please hear this,
you afflicted who are drunk but not with wine.
22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord,
and your God who pleads the cause of His people:
See, I have taken out of your hand
the cup of reeling,
even the dregs of the cup of My fury;
you will never drink it again.
23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
who have said to you,
“Lie down that we may walk over you.”
And you have laid your back as the ground
and as the street for those who walk on it.
52 Awake, awake!
Put on your strength, O Zion;
put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city.
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
will no longer enter you.
2 Shake yourself from the dust;
arise, O captive Jerusalem.
Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the Lord:
You were sold for nothing,
and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus says the Lord God:
My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there;
then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what do I have here, says the Lord,
seeing that My people have been taken away for nothing?
Those who rule over them make them wail,
says the Lord,
and My name is continually blasphemed
all day long.
6 Therefore, My people shall know My name;
therefore, they shall know in that day
that I am He who does speak:
Here I am.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who proclaims peace,
who brings good news of happiness,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
8 Your watchmen lift up their voices;
they sing joyfully together;
for they shall see with their own eyes
when the Lord brings Zion back.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together,
you waste places of Jerusalem.
For the Lord has comforted His people;
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared His holy arm
in the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
11 Depart, depart, go out from there,
touch no unclean thing;
go out of the midst of her; be clean,
you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
12 For you shall not go out with haste
nor go by flight.
For the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
The Suffering Servant
13 See, My servant shall deal prudently;
he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 Just as many were astonished at you,
his visage was so marred, more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men;
15 so he shall sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at him;
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall consider.
5 Concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that I write to you. 2 For you know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 When they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all the sons of light and the sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep as others do. But let us be alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we should live together with Him. 11 So comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, just as you are doing.
Final Exhortations and Greetings
12 We ask you, brothers, to acknowledge those who labor among you, and are appointed over you in the Lord, and instruct you. 13 Esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves. 14 Now we exhort you, brothers, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, support the weak, and be patient toward everyone. 15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone. But always seek to do good to one another and to all.
16 Rejoice always. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Examine all things. Firmly hold onto what is good. 22 Abstain from all appearances of evil.
23 May the very God of peace sanctify you completely. And I pray to God that your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.
25 Brothers, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27 I command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.