Isaiah 46 Cross References - BSB

¹ Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal. ² The gods cower; they crouch together, unable to relieve the burden; but they themselves go into captivity. ³ “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth. ⁴ Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you. ⁵ To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal? To whom will you compare Me, that we should be alike? ⁶ They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship. ⁷ They lift it to their shoulder and carry it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands, not budging from that spot. They cry out to it, but it does not answer; it saves no one from his troubles. ⁸ Remember this and be brave; take it to heart, you transgressors! ⁹ Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. ¹⁰ I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’ ¹¹ I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it. ¹² Listen to Me, you stubborn people, far removed from righteousness: ¹³ I am bringing My righteousness near; it is not far away, and My salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion and adorn Israel with My splendor.

¹² On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.

³ When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

²⁰ In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.

⁹ Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

⁶ Each one helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!” ⁷ The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.” He nails it down so it will not be toppled.

⁵ Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”

¹ Concerning Moab, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Woe to Nebo, for it will be devastated. Kiriathaim will be captured and disgraced; the fortress will be shattered and dismantled. ² There is no longer praise for Moab; in Heshbon they devise evil against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.’ You too, O people of Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you. ³ A voice cries out from Horonaim: ‘Devastation and great destruction!’ ⁴ Moab will be shattered; her little ones will cry out. ⁵ For on the ascent to Luhith they weep bitterly as they go, and on the descent to Horonaim cries of distress resound over the destruction: ⁶ ‘Flee! Run for your lives! Become like a juniper in the desert.’ ⁷ Because you trust in your works and treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials. ⁸ The destroyer will move against every city, and not one town will escape. The valley will also be ruined, and the high plain will be destroyed, as the LORD has said. ⁹ Put salt on Moab, for she will be laid waste; her cities will become desolate, with no one to dwell in them. ¹⁰ Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the LORD, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed. ¹¹ Moab has been at ease from youth, settled like wine on its dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel or gone into exile. So his flavor has remained the same, and his aroma is unchanged. ¹² Therefore behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will send to him wanderers, who will pour him out. They will empty his vessels and shatter his jars. ¹³ Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was ashamed when they trusted in Bethel. ¹⁴ How can you say, ‘We are warriors, mighty men ready for battle’? ¹⁵ Moab has been destroyed and its towns have been invaded; the best of its young men have gone down in the slaughter, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts. ¹⁶ Moab’s calamity is at hand, and his affliction is rushing swiftly. ¹⁷ Mourn for him, all you who surround him, everyone who knows his name; tell how the mighty scepter is shattered—the glorious staff! ¹⁸ Come down from your glory; sit on parched ground, O daughter dwelling in Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab has come against you; he has destroyed your fortresses. ¹⁹ Stand by the road and watch, O dweller of Aroer! Ask the man fleeing or the woman escaping, ‘What has happened?’ ²⁰ Moab is put to shame, for it has been shattered. Wail and cry out! Declare by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed. ²¹ Judgment has come upon the high plain—upon Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath, ²² upon Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, ²³ upon Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, ²⁴ upon Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the towns of Moab, those far and near. ²⁵ The horn of Moab has been cut off, and his arm is broken,” declares the LORD.

² “Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’

⁴⁴ I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁷ Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her.

⁵² “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

¹⁷ And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went inside and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred armed men. ¹⁸ When they entered Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

²⁴ He replied, “You took the gods I had made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’”

²¹ There the Philistines abandoned their idols, and David and his men carried them away.

¹⁸ Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

¹² Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar?

¹⁹ They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.

¹⁷ From the rest he makes a god, his graven image. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”

²⁰ Come, gather together, and draw near, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry idols of wood and pray to a god that cannot save.

¹² I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed. ¹³ He will demolish the sacred pillars of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’”

⁷ Because you trust in your works and treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials.

⁵ The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn with its idolatrous priests—those who rejoiced in its glory—for it has been taken from them into exile. ⁶ Yes, it will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim will be seized with shame; Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols.

⁴ ‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

³¹ and in the wilderness, where the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way by which you traveled until you reached this place.”

¹¹ As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions. ¹² The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.

⁹ Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast. ¹⁰ From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.

⁶ I have leaned on You since birth; You pulled me from my mother’s womb. My praise is always for You.

⁸ Hear, O My people, and I will warn you: O Israel, if only you would listen to Me! ⁹ There must be no strange god among you, nor shall you bow to a foreign god. ¹⁰ I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it. ¹¹ But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me. ¹² So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. ¹³ If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My ways,

⁹ Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.

²² Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

¹¹ On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

⁴ Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”

¹ But now listen, O Jacob My servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. ² This is the word of the LORD, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and who will help you: “Do not be afraid, O Jacob My servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

²¹ Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are My servant, O Israel. I have made you, and you are My servant; O Israel, I will never forget you.

¹² Listen to Me, you stubborn people, far removed from righteousness:

¹ “Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, who have descended from the line of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD, who invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness—

¹⁷ Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go. ¹⁸ If only you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea.

¹ Listen to Me, O islands; pay attention, O distant peoples: The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me. ² He made My mouth like a sharp sword; He hid Me in the shadow of His hand. He made Me like a polished arrow; He hid Me in His quiver.

¹ “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.

⁷ Listen to Me, you who know what is right, you people with My law in your hearts: Do not fear the scorn of men; do not be broken by their insults.

⁹ In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

⁶ Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’ ⁷ I made you thrive like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. ⁸ Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD. ⁹ Then I bathed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck. ¹² I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be queen. ¹⁴ Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁵ But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking. ¹⁶ You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred!

¹⁴ For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even till death.

¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

¹⁴ In old age they will still bear fruit; healthy and green they will remain,

²⁶ They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them, and they will be passed on. ²⁷ But You remain the same, and Your years will never end.

⁴ Who has performed this and carried it out, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—the first and the last—I am He.”

¹³ Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”

²⁵ I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.

¹⁶ “For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel. “He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.

⁶ “Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

²⁹ For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.

¹² You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed; but You remain the same, and Your years will never end.”

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

¹¹ Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?

⁸ O Lord, there is none like You among the gods, nor any works like Yours.

⁶ For who in the skies can compare with the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD?

⁸ O LORD God of Hosts, who is like You? O mighty LORD, Your faithfulness surrounds You.

⁵ Who is like the LORD our God, the One enthroned on high?

¹⁸ To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?

²⁵ “To whom will you liken Me, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.

⁶ There is none like You, O LORD. You are great, and Your name is mighty in power. ⁷ Who would not fear You, O King of nations? This is Your due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You.

¹⁶ The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance—the LORD of Hosts is His name.

⁶ Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

² So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

³ And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.” ⁴ So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.

²⁸ After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

⁸ Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

¹⁹ To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains? ²⁰ To one bereft of an offering who chooses wood that will not rot, who seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple?

¹² The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint. ¹³ The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. ¹⁴ He cuts down cedars or retrieves a cypress or oak. He lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel, and the rain makes it grow. ¹⁵ It serves as fuel for man. He takes some of it to warm himself, and he kindles a fire and bakes his bread; he even fashions it into a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. ¹⁶ He burns half of it in the fire, and he roasts meat on that half. He eats the roast and is satisfied. Indeed, he warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” ¹⁷ From the rest he makes a god, his graven image. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.” ¹⁸ They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand. ¹⁹ And no one considers in his heart, no one has the knowledge or insight to say, “I burned half of it in the fire, and I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make something detestable with the rest of it? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”

³ For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman. ⁴ They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.

⁹ Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz—the work of a craftsman from the hands of a goldsmith. Their clothes are blue and purple, all fashioned by skilled workers.

¹⁴ Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.

⁵ As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ⁶ And whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into the blazing fiery furnace.” ⁷ Therefore, as soon as all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and all kinds of music, the people of every nation and language would fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. ⁸ At this time some astrologers came forward and maliciously accused the Jews, ⁹ saying to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, may you live forever! ¹⁰ You, O king, have issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the golden statue, ¹¹ and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into the blazing fiery furnace. ¹² But there are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—who have ignored you, O king, and have refused to serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.” ¹³ Then Nebuchadnezzar, furious with rage, summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, ¹⁴ and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden statue I have set up? ¹⁵ Now, if you are ready, as soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the statue I have made. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”

⁴ They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction. ⁵ He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? ⁶ For this thing is from Israel—a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.

¹⁸ What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. ¹⁹ Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.” ²⁰ But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.

²⁹ Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.

¹² Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites oppressed you and you cried out to Me, did I not save you from their hands? ¹³ But you have forsaken Me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. ¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”

²⁶ And they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound, and no one answered as they leaped around the altar they had made.

⁴⁰ Then Elijah ordered them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let a single one escape.” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered them there.

³⁸ One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

¹ Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.

²⁸ But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.

¹ King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

⁵ The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

¹⁴ So they cried out to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood! For You, O LORD, have done as You pleased.” ¹⁵ At this, they picked up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him.

²⁹ If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.

⁸ Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.

¹⁸ Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.

¹⁸ They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand. ¹⁹ And no one considers in his heart, no one has the knowledge or insight to say, “I burned half of it in the fire, and I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make something detestable with the rest of it? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” ²⁰ He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” ²¹ Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are My servant, O Israel. I have made you, and you are My servant; O Israel, I will never forget you.

⁷ You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.

⁸ But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!

²⁸ Because he considered and turned from all the transgressions he had committed, he will surely live; he will not die.

⁵ Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.

⁷ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.

¹⁷ Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food? But here I am, starving to death!

²⁰ Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

¹⁴ So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

⁷ Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.

²⁶ “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.

⁷ You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. ⁸ You found his heart faithful before You, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites and Hittites, of the Amorites and Perizzites, of the Jebusites and Girgashites—to give it to his descendants. You have kept Your promise, because You are righteous. ⁹ You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt; You heard their cry at the Red Sea. ¹⁰ You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the people of his land, for You knew they had acted with arrogance against our fathers. You made a name for Yourself that endures to this day. ¹¹ You divided the sea before them, and they crossed through it on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging waters. ¹² You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they should travel. ¹³ You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. ¹⁴ You revealed to them Your holy Sabbath and gave them commandments and statutes and laws through Your servant Moses. ¹⁵ In their hunger You gave them bread from heaven; in their thirst You brought them water from the rock. You told them to go in and possess the land which You had sworn to give them. ¹⁶ But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments. ¹⁷ They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them. ¹⁸ Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies, ¹⁹ You in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud never turned away from guiding them on their path; and by the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way they should go. ²⁰ You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. ²² You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner of the land. So they took the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and of Og king of Bashan. ²³ You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven and brought them to the land You had told their fathers to enter and possess. ²⁴ So their descendants went in and possessed the land; You subdued before them the Canaanites dwelling in the land. You delivered into their hands the kings and peoples of the land, to do with them as they wished. ²⁵ They captured fortified cities and fertile land and took houses full of all goods, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled; they grew fat and delighted in Your great goodness. ²⁶ But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies. ²⁷ So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies. ²⁸ But as soon as they had rest, they again did evil in Your sight. So You abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, who had dominion over them. When they cried out to You again, You heard from heaven, and You delivered them many times in Your compassion. ²⁹ You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly shrugged their shoulders; they stiffened their necks and would not obey. ³⁰ You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit admonished them through Your prophets. Yet they would not listen, so You gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. ³¹ But in Your great compassion, You did not put an end to them; nor did You forsake them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God. ³² So now, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God who keeps His gracious covenant, do not view lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, and upon our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors and all Your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. ³³ You are just in all that has befallen us, because You have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly. ³⁴ Our kings and leaders and priests and fathers did not obey Your law or listen to Your commandments and warnings that You gave them. ³⁵ For even while they were in their kingdom, with the abundant goodness that You had given them, and in the spacious and fertile land that You had set before them, they would not serve You or turn from their wicked ways. ³⁶ So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and goodness—here we are as slaves! ³⁷ Its abundant harvest goes to the kings You have set over us because of our sins. And they rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress.

¹ A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; listen to the words of my mouth. ² I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the beginning, ³ that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us. ⁴ We will not hide them from their children, but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He has performed. ⁵ For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, ⁶ that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children ⁷ that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments. ⁸ Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God. ⁹ The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle. ¹⁰ They failed to keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law. ¹¹ They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them. ¹² He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. ¹³ He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall. ¹⁴ He led them with a cloud by day and with a light of fire all night. ¹⁵ He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas. ¹⁶ He brought streams from the stone and made water flow down like rivers. ¹⁷ But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. ¹⁸ They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved. ¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness? ²⁰ When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?” ²¹ Therefore the LORD heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel, ²² because they did not believe God or rely on His salvation. ²³ Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens. ²⁴ He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven. ²⁵ Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. ²⁶ He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might. ²⁷ He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea. ²⁸ He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings. ²⁹ So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them what they craved. ³⁰ Yet before they had filled their desire, with the food still in their mouths, ³¹ God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel. ³² In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe. ³³ So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror. ³⁴ When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God. ³⁵ And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. ³⁶ But they deceived Him with their mouths, and lied to Him with their tongues. ³⁷ Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant. ³⁸ And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath. ³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return. ⁴⁰ How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! ⁴¹ Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel. ⁴² They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the adversary, ⁴³ when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan. ⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink. ⁴⁵ He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. ⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust. ⁴⁷ He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet. ⁴⁸ He abandoned their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning. ⁴⁹ He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity—a band of destroying angels. ⁵⁰ He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague. ⁵¹ He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham. ⁵² He led out His people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness. ⁵³ He led them safely, so they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies. ⁵⁴ He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired. ⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. ⁵⁶ But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees. ⁵⁷ They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow. ⁵⁸ They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols. ⁵⁹ On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely. ⁶⁰ He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men. ⁶¹ He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary. ⁶² He surrendered His people to the sword because He was enraged by His heritage. ⁶³ Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs. ⁶⁴ His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament. ⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine. ⁶⁶ He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame. ⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph and refused the tribe of Ephraim. ⁶⁸ But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved. ⁶⁹ He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever. ⁷⁰ He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds; ⁷¹ from tending the ewes He brought him to be shepherd of His people Jacob, of Israel His inheritance. ⁷² So David shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the nations. ² Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wonders. ³ Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. ⁴ Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always. ⁵ Remember the wonders He has done, His marvels, and the judgments He has pronounced, ⁶ O offspring of His servant Abraham, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones. ⁷ He is the LORD our God; His judgments carry throughout the earth. ⁸ He remembers His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations— ⁹ the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac. ¹⁰ He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ¹¹ “I will give you the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.” ¹² When they were few in number, few indeed, and strangers in the land, ¹³ they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. ¹⁴ He let no man oppress them; He rebuked kings on their behalf: ¹⁵ “Do not touch My anointed ones! Do no harm to My prophets!” ¹⁶ He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food. ¹⁷ He sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave. ¹⁸ They bruised his feet with shackles and placed his neck in irons, ¹⁹ until his prediction came true and the word of the LORD proved him right. ²⁰ The king sent and released him; the ruler of peoples set him free. ²¹ He made him master of his household, ruler over all his substance, ²² to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom. ²³ Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham. ²⁴ And the LORD made His people very fruitful, more numerous than their foes, ²⁵ whose hearts He turned to hate His people, to conspire against His servants. ²⁶ He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen. ²⁷ They performed His miraculous signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. ²⁸ He sent darkness, and it became dark—yet they defied His words. ²⁹ He turned their waters to blood and caused their fish to die. ³⁰ Their land teemed with frogs, even in their royal chambers. ³¹ He spoke, and insects swarmed—gnats throughout their country. ³² He gave them hail for rain, with lightning throughout their land. ³³ He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country. ³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came—young locusts without number. ³⁵ They devoured every plant in their land and consumed the produce of their soil. ³⁶ Then He struck all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigor. ³⁷ He brought Israel out with silver and gold, and none among His tribes stumbled. ³⁸ Egypt was glad when they departed, for the dread of Israel had fallen on them. ³⁹ He spread a cloud as a covering and a fire to light up the night. ⁴⁰ They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. ⁴¹ He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert. ⁴² For He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant. ⁴³ He brought forth His people with rejoicing, His chosen with shouts of joy. ⁴⁴ He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor, ⁴⁵ that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah!

⁴ He has caused His wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate.

⁹ Behold, the former things have happened, and now I declare new things. Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

⁵ I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me, ⁶ so that all may know, from where the sun rises to where it sets, that there is none but Me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.

¹⁴ This is what the LORD says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, along with the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you; they will come over in chains and bow down to you. They will confess to you: ‘God is indeed with you, and there is no other; there is no other God.’”

¹⁸ For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.

²¹ Speak up and present your case—yes, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, the LORD? There is no other God but Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is none but Me. ²² Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

⁵ To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal? To whom will you compare Me, that we should be alike?

¹⁷ For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

⁷ So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’ ⁸ Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ Then they will dwell once more in their own land.”

⁶ We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, and fathers, and to all the people of the land. ⁷ To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You. ⁸ O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him ¹⁰ and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us through His servants the prophets. ¹¹ All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You. ¹² You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. ¹³ Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth. ¹⁴ Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the LORD our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice. ¹⁵ Now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and who made for Yourself a name renowned to this day, we have sinned; we have acted wickedly.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

² I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.

²² Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall. ²³ The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility. ²⁴ Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, ²⁵ by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb. ²⁶ The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of the ancient mountains and the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

¹⁷ I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth. ¹⁸ Edom will become a possession, as will Seir, his enemy; but Israel will perform with valor. ¹⁹ A ruler will come from Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.” ²⁰ Then Balaam saw Amalek and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Amalek was first among the nations, but his end is destruction.” ²¹ Next he saw the Kenites and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Your dwelling place is secure, and your nest is set in a cliff. ²² Yet Kain will be destroyed when Asshur takes you captive.” ²³ Once more Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Ah, who can live unless God has ordained it? ²⁴ Ships will come from the coasts of Cyprus; they will subdue Asshur and Eber, but they too will perish forever.”

²⁴ For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. ²⁵ After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form—doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger— ²⁶ I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. ²⁸ And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹ But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.

¹⁵ If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: ¹⁶ You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. ¹⁷ Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed. ¹⁸ The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. ¹⁹ You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ²⁰ The LORD will send curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him. ²¹ The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess. ²² The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish. ²³ The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. ²⁴ The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. ²⁵ The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away. ²⁷ The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured. ²⁸ The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind, ²⁹ and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you. ³⁰ You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand. ³³ A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed. ³⁴ You will be driven mad by the sights you see. ³⁵ The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. ³⁶ The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you. ³⁸ You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it. ³⁹ You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰ You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off. ⁴¹ You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. ⁴² Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land. ⁴³ The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. ⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you. ⁴⁶ These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever. ⁴⁷ Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance, ⁴⁸ you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young. ⁵¹ They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish. ⁵² They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you. ⁵³ Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you. ⁵⁴ The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, ⁵⁵ refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. ⁵⁶ The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter ⁵⁷ the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates. ⁵⁸ If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— ⁵⁹ He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. ⁶⁰ He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ The LORD will also bring upon you every sickness and plague not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. ⁶² You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. ⁶³ Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. ⁶⁴ Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul. ⁶⁶ So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see. ⁶⁸ The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

¹¹ The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.

⁶ The LORD does all that pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and in all their depths.

²¹ Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail.

³⁰ There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.

²² “Let them come and tell us what will happen. Tell the former things, so that we may reflect on them and know the outcome. Or announce to us what is coming. ²³ Tell us the things that are to come, so that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do something good or evil, that we may look on together in dismay.

⁷ Who then is like Me? Let him say so! Let him declare his case before Me, since I established an ancient people. Let him foretell the things to come, and what is to take place.

²¹ Speak up and present your case—yes, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, the LORD? There is no other God but Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is none but Me.

¹¹ I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it.

³⁵ All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

²³ Everyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from among his people.’

²⁷ In fact, this is the very city where Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed. ²⁸ They carried out what Your hand and will had decided beforehand would happen.

³⁹ But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God.”

¹⁸ that have been known for ages.’

³³ O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways! ³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”

⁹ And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ. ¹¹ In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

¹⁷ So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.

¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

² “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.

¹³ But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.

¹⁰ Even the wrath of man shall praise You; with the survivors of wrath You will clothe Yourself.

²⁴ Your testimonies are indeed my delight; they are my counselors.

² Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. ³ I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph. ⁴ Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

²⁴ The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand. ²⁵ I will break Assyria in My land; I will trample him on My mountain. His yoke will be taken off My people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” ²⁶ This is the plan devised for the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations. ²⁷ The LORD of Hosts has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is outstretched, so who can turn it back?

⁷ When he sees chariots with teams of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, fully alert.” ⁸ Then the lookout shouted: “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; night after night I stay at my post. ⁹ Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

¹⁵ What can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this. I will walk slowly all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

² Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.

²⁵ I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay.

²⁸ who says of Cyrus, ‘My shepherd will fulfill all that I desire,’ who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundation be laid.’”

¹³ I will raise up Cyrus in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild My city and set My exiles free, but not for payment or reward, says the LORD of Hosts.”

¹⁴ Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD’s chosen ally will carry out His desire against Babylon, and His arm will be against the Chaldeans. ¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I have brought him, and he will succeed in his mission.

²⁹ Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

⁴⁵ Therefore hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

²⁰ “You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin. ²¹ With you I shatter the horse and rider; with you I shatter the chariot and driver. ²² With you I shatter man and woman; with you I shatter the old man and the youth; with you I shatter the young man and the maiden. ²³ With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock; with you I shatter the farmer and his oxen; with you I shatter the governors and officials. ²⁴ Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD. ²⁵ “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who devastate the whole earth, declares the LORD. I will stretch out My hand against you; I will roll you over the cliffs and turn you into a charred mountain. ²⁶ No one shall retrieve from you a cornerstone or a foundation stone, because you will become desolate forever,” declares the LORD. ²⁷ “Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts. ²⁸ Prepare the nations for battle against her—the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the lands they rule. ²⁹ The earth quakes and writhes because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

⁴ On the mountains of Israel you will fall—you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to every kind of ravenous bird and wild beast.

²⁸ They carried out what Your hand and will had decided beforehand would happen.

¹¹ In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

¹¹ according to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all inhabitants of the world,

⁵ The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.

¹⁵⁰ Those who follow after wickedness draw near; they are far from Your law.

¹⁵⁵ Salvation is far from the wicked because they do not seek Your statutes.

²² “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge? ²³ If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you.

¹ Does not wisdom call out, and understanding raise her voice? ² On the heights overlooking the road, at the crossroads she takes her stand. ³ Beside the gates to the city, at the entrances she cries out: ⁴ “To you, O men, I call out, and my cry is to the sons of men. ⁵ O simple ones, learn to be shrewd; O fools, gain understanding.

²³ Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I say.

³ “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.

⁴ For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.

⁵ This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me, and followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?

¹¹ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing. ¹² They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.

¹³ “Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ ¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts? ¹⁵ So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

⁵¹ You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

⁷ Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion! When the LORD restores His captive people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad!

¹ For the choirmaster. Of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.

⁵ God is within her; she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.

² Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

¹⁶ So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.

⁷ everyone called by My name and created for My glory, whom I have indeed formed and made.”

²³ Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O depths of the earth. Break forth in song, O mountains, you forests and all your trees. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and revealed His glory in Israel.

⁵ My righteousness draws near, My salvation is on the way, and My arms will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look for Me and wait in hope for My arm.

²¹ Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever; they are the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, so that I may be glorified.

³ to console the mourners in Zion—to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.

¹¹ For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden enables seed to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

¹¹ Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the ends of the earth, “Say to Daughter Zion: See, your Savior comes! Look, His reward is with Him, and His recompense goes before Him.”

⁹ So this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I do for it. They will tremble in awe because of all the goodness and prosperity that I will provide for it.

¹⁷ Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

³ For the vision awaits an appointed time; it testifies of the end and does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it, since it will surely come and will not delay.

⁸ Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the LORD.

¹⁰ All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine; and in them I have been glorified.

¹⁷ For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

²¹ But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets. ²² And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. ²⁶ He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

³ Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes. ⁵ For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.” ⁶ But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ or, ‘Who will descend into the Abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved. ¹¹ It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, ¹³ for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ¹⁴ How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? ¹⁵ And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

¹⁰ on the day He comes to be glorified in His saints and regarded with wonder by all who have believed, including you who have believed our testimony.

¹² so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

³⁷ For, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.

⁶ For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”