Isaiah 26–29
26:1In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;he sets up salvationas walls and bulwarks.2Open the gates,that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.3You keep him in perfect peacewhose mind is stayed on you,because he trusts in you.4Trust in the LORD forever,for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.5For he has humbledthe inhabitants of the height,the lofty city.He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,casts it to the dust.6The foot tramples it,the feet of the poor,the steps of the needy.” 7The path of the righteous is level;you make level the way of the righteous.8In the path of your judgments,O LORD, we wait for you;your name and remembranceare the desire of our soul.9My soul yearns for you in the night;my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.For when your judgments are in the earth,the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.10If favor is shown to the wicked,he does not learn righteousness;in the land of uprightness he deals corruptlyand does not see the majesty of the LORD.11O LORD, your hand is lifted up,but they do not see it.Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.12O LORD, you will ordain peace for us,for you have indeed done for us all our works.13O LORD our God,other lords besides you have ruled over us,but your name alone we bring to remembrance.14They are dead, they will not live;they are shades, they will not arise;to that end you have visited them with destructionand wiped out all remembrance of them.15But you have increased the nation, O LORD,you have increased the nation; you are glorified;you have enlarged all the borders of the land. 16O LORD, in distress they sought you;they poured out a whispered prayerwhen your discipline was upon them.17Like a pregnant womanwho writhes and cries out in her pangswhen she is near to giving birth,so were we because of you, O LORD;18we were pregnant, we writhed,but we have given birth to wind.We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.19Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!For your dew is a dew of light,and the earth will give birth to the dead. 20Come, my people, enter your chambers,and shut your doors behind you;hide yourselves for a little whileuntil the fury has passed by.21For behold, the LORD is coming out from his placeto punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,and will no more cover its slain.
27:1In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2In that day,“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!3I, the LORD, am its keeper;every moment I water it.Lest anyone punish it,I keep it night and day;4I have no wrath.Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!I would march against them,I would burn them up together.5Or let them lay hold of my protection,let them make peace with me,let them make peace with me.” 6In days to come Jacob shall take root,Israel shall blossom and put forth shootsand fill the whole world with fruit. 7Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them?Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?8Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them;he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.9Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:when he makes all the stones of the altarslike chalkstones crushed to pieces,no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.10For the fortified city is solitary,a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;there the calf grazes;there it lies down and strips its branches.11When its boughs are dry, they are broken;women come and make a fire of them.For this is a people without discernment;therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;he who formed them will show them no favor.
12In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
28:1Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!2Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong;like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters,he casts down to the earth with his hand.3The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraimwill be trodden underfoot;4and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,which is on the head of the rich valley,will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer:when someone sees it, he swallows itas soon as it is in his hand. 5In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory,and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,6and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. 7These also reel with wineand stagger with strong drink;the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,they are swallowed by wine,they stagger with strong drink,they reel in vision,they stumble in giving judgment.8For all tables are full of filthy vomit,with no space left. 9“To whom will he teach knowledge,and to whom will he explain the message?Those who are weaned from the milk,those taken from the breast?10For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,line upon line, line upon line,here a little, there a little.” 11For by people of strange lipsand with a foreign tonguethe LORD will speak to this people,12to whom he has said,“This is rest;give rest to the weary;and this is repose”;yet they would not hear.13And the word of the LORD will be to themprecept upon precept, precept upon precept,line upon line, line upon line,here a little, there a little,that they may go, and fall backward,and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers,who rule this people in Jerusalem!15Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,and with Sheol we have an agreement,when the overwhelming whip passes throughit will not come to us,for we have made lies our refuge,and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;16therefore thus says the Lord GOD,“Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion,a stone, a tested stone,a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’17And I will make justice the line,and righteousness the plumb line;and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”18Then your covenant with death will be annulled,and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;when the overwhelming scourge passes through,you will be beaten down by it.19As often as it passes through it will take you;for morning by morning it will pass through,by day and by night;and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.20For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.21For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim;as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused;to do his deed—strange is his deed!and to work his work—alien is his work!22Now therefore do not scoff,lest your bonds be made strong;for I have heard a decree of destructionfrom the Lord GOD of hosts against the whole land. 23Give ear, and hear my voice;give attention, and hear my speech.24Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?Does he continually open and harrow his ground?25When he has leveled its surface,does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,and put in wheat in rowsand barley in its proper place,and emmer as the border?26For he is rightly instructed;his God teaches him. 27Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,but dill is beaten out with a stick,and cumin with a rod.28Does one crush grain for bread?No, he does not thresh it forever;when he drives his cart wheel over itwith his horses, he does not crush it.29This also comes from the LORD of hosts;he is wonderful in counseland excellent in wisdom.
29:1Ah, Ariel, Ariel,the city where David encamped!Add year to year;let the feasts run their round.2Yet I will distress Ariel,and there shall be moaning and lamentation,and she shall be to me like an Ariel.3And I will encamp against you all around,and will besiege you with towersand I will raise siegeworks against you.4And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,and from the dust your speech shall whisper. 5But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust,and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.And in an instant, suddenly,6you will be visited by the LORD of hostswith thunder and with earthquake and great noise,with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.7And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.8As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking,and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,so shall the multitude of all the nations bethat fight against Mount Zion. 9Astonish yourselves and be astonished;blind yourselves and be blind!Be drunk, but not with wine;stagger, but not with strong drink!10For the LORD has poured out upon youa spirit of deep sleep,and has closed your eyes (the prophets),and covered your heads (the seers).
11And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
13And the Lord said:“Because this people draw near with their mouthand honor me with their lips,while their hearts are far from me,and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,14therefore, behold, I will againdo wonderful things with this people,with wonder upon wonder;and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” 15Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel,whose deeds are in the dark,and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”16You turn things upside down!Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,that the thing made should say of its maker,“He did not make me”;or the thing formed say of him who formed it,“He has no understanding”? 17Is it not yet a very little whileuntil Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?18In that day the deaf shall hearthe words of a book,and out of their gloom and darknessthe eyes of the blind shall see.19The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD,and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.20For the ruthless shall come to nothingand the scoffer cease,and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,21who by a word make a man out to be an offender,and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.
22Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,no more shall his face grow pale.23For when he sees his children,the work of my hands, in his midst,they will sanctify my name;they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacoband will stand in awe of the God of Israel.24And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
Luke 2:1–7
2:1In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Psalm 46
To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song.
46:1God is our refuge and strength,a very present help in trouble.2Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way,though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,3though its waters roar and foam,though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah 4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,the holy habitation of the Most High.5God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;God will help her when morning dawns.6The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;he utters his voice, the earth melts.7The LORD of hosts is with us;the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8Come, behold the works of the LORD,how he has brought desolations on the earth.9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;he burns the chariots with fire.10“Be still, and know that I am God.I will be exalted among the nations,I will be exalted in the earth!”11The LORD of hosts is with us;the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Proverbs 1:32–33
32For the simple are killed by their turning away,and the complacency of fools destroys them;33but whoever listens to me will dwell secureand will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”
