Old/New Testament

56 ¶ Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do righteousness: for my saving health is near to come, and my righteousness to be manifested.

² Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man that lays hold on it; that keeps from polluting the sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

³ ¶ Neither let the son of the stranger that has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, The LORD shall utterly separate me from his people: nor let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

⁴ For thus has the LORD said unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;

⁵ even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall never be cut off.

⁶ Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and that love the name of the LORD, to be his slaves, every one that keeps from polluting the sabbath, and takes hold of my covenant;

⁷ even them will I bring to the mountain of my holiness, and refresh them in the house of my prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar; for my house shall be called, House of prayer for all peoples.

⁸ The Lord GOD who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, I will still gather upon him his gathered ones.

⁹ ¶ All ye beasts of the field, all ye beasts of the forest; come to devour.

¹⁰ His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant; they are all dumb dogs; they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, they love to slumber.

¹¹ And these anxious dogs are insatiable, and even the shepherds did not know enough to understand: they all look to their own ways, each one for his gain, from his quarter.

¹² Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, or much more excellent.

57 ¶ The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

² He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

³ ¶ But come here, ye sons of the sorceress, generation of the adulterer and the whore.

⁴ Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom do ye make a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Are ye not rebellious sons, a lying seed of transgression,

⁵ inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?

⁶ Among the smooth stones of the valley is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even unto them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a present. Should I not avenge these things?

⁷ Upon the lofty and high mountain thou hast set thy bed: even there thou didst go up to offer sacrifice.

⁸ Behind the doors also and the posts thou hast set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed and made thee a covenant with them; thou didst love their bed wherever thou didst see it.

⁹ And thou didst go to the king with ointment and didst multiply thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto Sheol.

¹⁰ Thou became wearied in the multitude of thy ways; yet thou didst not say, There is no remedy: thou hast found that which thou wast searching for; therefore thou repented not.

¹¹ And of whom hast thou reverenced or feared? Why dost thou lie; that thou hast not remembered me, nor have I come to thy thought? Have I not held my peace even of old, and thou hast never feared me?

¹² I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.

¹³ ¶ When thou criest, let thy companions deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that waits in me shall have the land by inheritance and shall possess the mountain of my holiness.

¹⁴ And shall say, Clear away, clear away, level the way, take away the stumblingblocks out of the way of my people.

¹⁵ For thus has said the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is The Holy One; I dwell in the high place and in holiness and with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to cause the spirit of the humble to live and to cause the heart of the contrite ones to live.

¹⁶ For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for by me is the spirit covered by the body, and I have made the souls.

¹⁷ ¶ For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth and smote him: I hid my face and was wroth, and he went on rebelliously in the way of his heart.

¹⁸ I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.

¹⁹ I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near, said the LORD; and healed him.

²⁰ But the wicked are like the sea in tempest, that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

²¹ There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked.

58 ¶ Cry aloud, do not hold back; lift up thy voice like a shofar and preach to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sin.

² That they seek me daily and want to know my ways, as people that do righteousness and have not forsaken the rights of their God: they ask me of the rights of righteousness and desire to approach God.

³ ¶ Why have we fasted, they say, and thou dost not see? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou dost take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure and exact your own estates.

⁴ Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵ Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the LORD?

⁶ Is not rather the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the ties of oppression, to release into freedom those who are broken, and that ye break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share thy bread with the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou not hide thyself from thy brother?

⁸ ¶ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall gather thee.

⁹ Then shalt thou call, and thou shalt hear the LORD; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

¹⁰ and if thou pour out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

¹¹ And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

¹² And they shall build up out of thee the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the fallen foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

¹³ ¶ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy will on my holy day; and call the sabbath the delightful, holy, glorious day of the LORD; and shalt honour him by not doing thine own ways, nor seeking thine own will, nor speaking thine own words:

¹⁴ Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and cause thee to eat of the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

2 ¶ Now we beseech you, brethren, regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together unto him,

² that ye not be easily shaken in understanding or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as if the day of Christ is at hand.

³ ¶ Let no one deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,

⁴ opposing and exalting himself against all that is called God, or divinity, so that he as God sits in the temple of God, making himself appear to be God.

⁵ Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

⁶ And ye know what impedes this now, that he might be revealed in his time.

⁷ For the mystery of iniquity is already working, except that he who dominates now will dominate until he is taken out of the way.

⁸ And then shall that Wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and remove with the clarity of his coming:

⁹ that wicked one, who shall come by the working of Satan with great power and signs and lying miracles,

¹⁰ and with all deception of iniquity working in those that perish because they did not receive the charity of the truth, to be saved.

¹¹ Therefore, for this cause, God shall send the operation of error in them, that they should believe the lie;

¹² that they all might be condemned who did not believe the truth, but consented to the iniquity.

¹³ ¶ But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to saving health through the sanctification of the Spirit and faith in the truth,

¹⁴ unto which he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵ Therefore, brethren, stand fast and retain the doctrine which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle.

¹⁶ ¶ Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, who has loved us and has given us eternal consolation and good hope through grace,

¹⁷ comfort your hearts and confirm you in every good word and work.