ISAIAH 25

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God Will Swallow Up Death Forever25:1

O Lord, you are my God;

I will exalt you; I will praise your name,

for you have done wonderful things,

plans formed of old, faithful and sure. 2

For you have made the city a heap,

the fortified city a ruin;

the foreigners’ palace is a city no more;

it will never be rebuilt. 3

Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;

cities of ruthless nations will fear you. 4

For you have been a stronghold to the poor,

a stronghold to the needy in his distress,

a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;

for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, 5

like heat in a dry place.

You subdue the noise of the foreigners;

as heat by the shade of a cloud,

so the song of the ruthless is put down.
6

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7

And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

the veil that is spread over all nations. 8

He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the Lord has spoken. 9

It will be said on that day,

“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.

This is the Lord; we have waited for him;

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” 10

For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain,

and Moab shall be trampled down in his place,

as straw is trampled down in a dunghill. 11

And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it

as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,

but the Lord will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands. 12

And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down,

lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

ISAIAH 26

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You Keep Him in Perfect Peace  26:1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

he sets up salvation

as walls and bulwarks. 2

Open the gates,

that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. 3

You keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you. 4

Trust in the Lord forever,

for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. 5

For he has humbled

the inhabitants of the height,

the lofty city.

He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,

casts it to the dust. 6

The foot tramples it,

the feet of the poor,

the steps of the needy.”
7

The path of the righteous is level;

you make level the way of the righteous. 8

In the path of your judgments,

O Lord, we wait for you;

your name and remembrance

are the desire of our soul. 9

My 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. 10

If favor is shown to the wicked,

he does not learn righteousness;

in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly

and does not see the majesty of the Lord. 11

O 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. 12

O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,

for you have indeed done for us all our works. 13

O Lord our God,

other lords besides you have ruled over us,

but your name alone we bring to remembrance. 14

They are dead, they will not live;

they are shades, they will not arise;

to that end you have visited them with destruction

and wiped out all remembrance of them. 15

But you have increased the nation, O Lord,

you have increased the nation; you are glorified;

you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
16

O Lord, in distress they sought you;

they poured out a whispered prayer

when your discipline was upon them. 17

Like a pregnant woman

who writhes and cries out in her pangs

when she is near to giving birth,

so were we because of you, O Lord; 18

we 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. 19

Your 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.
20

Come, my people, enter your chambers,

and shut your doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

until the fury has passed by. 21

For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place

to 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.

PROVERBS 17

« Proverbs 16 | Proverbs 17 | Proverbs 18 »

17:1

Better is a dry morsel with quiet

than a house full of feasting with strife. 2

A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully

and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers. 3

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,

and the Lord tests hearts. 4

An evildoer listens to wicked lips,

and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. 5

Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker;

he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished. 6

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged,

and the glory of children is their fathers. 7

Fine speech is not becoming to a fool;

still less is false speech to a prince. 8

A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it;

wherever he turns he prospers. 9

Whoever covers an offense seeks love,

but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. 10

A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding

than a hundred blows into a fool. 11

An evil man seeks only rebellion,

and a cruel messenger will be sent against him. 12

Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs

rather than a fool in his folly. 13

If anyone returns evil for good,

evil will not depart from his house. 14

The beginning of strife is like letting out water,

so quit before the quarrel breaks out. 15

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous

are both alike an abomination to the Lord. 16

Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom

when he has no sense? 17

A friend loves at all times,

and a brother is born for adversity. 18

One who lacks sense gives a pledge

and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor. 19

Whoever loves transgression loves strife;

he who makes his door high seeks destruction. 20

A man of crooked heart does not discover good,

and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity. 21

He who sires a fool gets himself sorrow,

and the father of a fool has no joy. 22

A joyful heart is good medicine,

but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. 23

The wicked accepts a bribe in secret

to pervert the ways of justice. 24

The discerning sets his face toward wisdom,

but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth. 25

A foolish son is a grief to his father

and bitterness to her who bore him. 26

To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good,

nor to strike the noble for their uprightness. 27

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,

and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. 28

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;

when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

HEBREWS 3

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Jesus Greater Than Moses  3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. A Rest for the People of God7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice, 8

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9

where your fathers put me to the test

and saw my works for forty years. 10

Therefore I was provoked with that generation,

and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;

they have not known my ways.’ 11

As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.