Isaiah 12–16
12:1You will say in that day:“I will give thanks to you, O LORD,for though you were angry with me,your anger turned away,that you might comfort me. 2“Behold, God is my salvation;I will trust, and will not be afraid;for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,and he has become my salvation.”
3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the LORD,call upon his name,make known his deeds among the peoples,proclaim that his name is exalted. 5“Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;let this be made known in all the earth.6Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
13:1The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2On a bare hill raise a signal;cry aloud to them;wave the hand for them to enterthe gates of the nobles.3I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,my proudly exulting ones. 4The sound of a tumult is on the mountainsas of a great multitude!The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,of nations gathering together!The LORD of hosts is musteringa host for battle.5They come from a distant land,from the end of the heavens,the LORD and the weapons of his indignation,to destroy the whole land. 6Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;as destruction from the Almighty it will come!7Therefore all hands will be feeble,and every human heart will melt.8They will be dismayed:pangs and agony will seize them;they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.They will look aghast at one another;their faces will be aflame. 9Behold, the day of the LORD comes,cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,to make the land a desolationand to destroy its sinners from it.10For the stars of the heavens and their constellationswill not give their light;the sun will be dark at its rising,and the moon will not shed its light.11I will punish the world for its evil,and the wicked for their iniquity;I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.12I will make people more rare than fine gold,and mankind than the gold of Ophir.13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,and the earth will be shaken out of its place,at the wrath of the LORD of hostsin the day of his fierce anger.14And like a hunted gazelle,or like sheep with none to gather them,each will turn to his own people,and each will flee to his own land.15Whoever is found will be thrust through,and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.16Their infants will be dashed in piecesbefore their eyes;their houses will be plunderedand their wives ravished. 17Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,who have no regard for silverand do not delight in gold.18Their bows will slaughter the young men;they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;their eyes will not pity children.19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,will be like Sodom and Gomorrahwhen God overthrew them.20It will never be inhabitedor lived in for all generations;no Arab will pitch his tent there;no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.21But wild animals will lie down there,and their houses will be full of howling creatures;there ostriches will dwell,and there wild goats will dance.22Hyenas will cry in its towers,and jackals in the pleasant palaces;its time is close at handand its days will not be prolonged.
14:1For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.
3When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
“How the oppressor has ceased,the insolent fury ceased!5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,the scepter of rulers,6that struck the peoples in wrathwith unceasing blows,that ruled the nations in angerwith unrelenting persecution.7The whole earth is at rest and quiet;they break forth into singing.8The cypresses rejoice at you,the cedars of Lebanon, saying,‘Since you were laid low,no woodcutter comes up against us.’9Sheol beneath is stirred upto meet you when you come;it rouses the shades to greet you,all who were leaders of the earth;it raises from their thronesall who were kings of the nations.10All of them will answerand say to you:‘You too have become as weak as we!You have become like us!’11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,the sound of your harps;maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,and worms are your covers. 12“How you are fallen from heaven,O Day Star, son of Dawn!How you are cut down to the ground,you who laid the nations low!13You said in your heart,‘I will ascend to heaven;above the stars of GodI will set my throne on high;I will sit on the mount of assemblyin the far reaches of the north;14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;I will make myself like the Most High.’15But you are brought down to Sheol,to the far reaches of the pit.16Those who see you will stare at youand ponder over you:‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,who shook kingdoms,17who made the world like a desertand overthrew its cities,who did not let his prisoners go home?’18All the kings of the nations lie in glory,each in his own tomb;19but you are cast out, away from your grave,like a loathed branch,clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,who go down to the stones of the pit,like a dead body trampled underfoot.20You will not be joined with them in burial,because you have destroyed your land,you have slain your people. “May the offspring of evildoersnevermore be named!21Prepare slaughter for his sonsbecause of the guilt of their fathers,lest they rise and possess the earth,and fill the face of the world with cities.”
22“I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the LORD. 23“And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.
24The LORD of hosts has sworn:“As I have planned,so shall it be,and as I have purposed,so shall it stand,25that I will break the Assyrian in my land,and on my mountains trample him underfoot;and his yoke shall depart from them,and his burden from their shoulder.” 26This is the purpose that is purposedconcerning the whole earth,and this is the hand that is stretched outover all the nations.27For the LORD of hosts has purposed,and who will annul it?His hand is stretched out,and who will turn it back?
28In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle:
29Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,that the rod that struck you is broken,for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder,and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.30And the firstborn of the poor will graze,and the needy lie down in safety;but I will kill your root with famine,and your remnant it will slay.31Wail, O gate; cry out, O city;melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!For smoke comes out of the north,and there is no straggler in his ranks. 32What will one answer the messengers of the nation?“The LORD has founded Zion,and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
15:1An oracle concerning Moab.
Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,Moab is undone;because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,Moab is undone.2He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon,to the high places to weep;over Nebo and over MedebaMoab wails.On every head is baldness;every beard is shorn;3in the streets they wear sackcloth;on the housetops and in the squareseveryone wails and melts in tears.4Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;his soul trembles.5My heart cries out for Moab;her fugitives flee to Zoar,to Eglath-shelishiyah.For at the ascent of Luhiththey go up weeping;on the road to Horonaimthey raise a cry of destruction;6the waters of Nimrimare a desolation;the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,the greenery is no more.7Therefore the abundance they have gainedand what they have laid upthey carry awayover the Brook of the Willows.8For a cry has gonearound the land of Moab;her wailing reaches to Eglaim;her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.9For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;for I will bring upon Dibon even more,a lion for those of Moab who escape,for the remnant of the land.16:1Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,from Sela, by way of the desert,to the mount of the daughter of Zion.2Like fleeing birds,like a scattered nest,so are the daughters of Moabat the fords of the Arnon. 3“Give counsel;grant justice;make your shade like nightat the height of noon;shelter the outcasts;do not reveal the fugitive;4let the outcasts of Moabsojourn among you;be a shelter to themfrom the destroyer.When the oppressor is no more,and destruction has ceased,and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,5then a throne will be established in steadfast love,and on it will sit in faithfulnessin the tent of Davidone who judges and seeks justiceand is swift to do righteousness.” 6We have heard of the pride of Moab—how proud he is!—of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;in his idle boasting he is not right.7Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,let everyone wail.Mourn, utterly stricken,for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth. 8For the fields of Heshbon languish,and the vine of Sibmah;the lords of the nationshave struck down its branches,which reached to Jazerand strayed to the desert;its shoots spread abroadand passed over the sea.9Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazerfor the vine of Sibmah;I drench you with my tears,O Heshbon and Elealeh;for over your summer fruit and your harvestthe shout has ceased.10And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field,and in the vineyards no songs are sung,no cheers are raised;no treader treads out wine in the presses;I have put an end to the shouting.11Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab,and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.
12And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.
13This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab in the past. 14But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.”
Luke 1:39–56
39In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
46And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,48for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;49for he who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is his name.50And his mercy is for those who fear himfrom generation to generation.51He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;52he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;53he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.54He has helped his servant Israel,in remembrance of his mercy,55as he spoke to our fathers,to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Psalm 10:12–18
12Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand;forget not the afflicted.13Why does the wicked renounce Godand say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?14But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,that you may take it into your hands;to you the helpless commits himself;you have been the helper of the fatherless.15Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;call his wickedness to account till you find none. 16The LORD is king forever and ever;the nations perish from his land.17O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear18to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
Proverbs 1:17–19
17For in vain is a net spreadin the sight of any bird,18but these men lie in wait for their own blood;they set an ambush for their own lives.19Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;it takes away the life of its possessors.
