ISAIAH 1

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  1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The Wickedness of Judah2

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;

for the Lord has spoken:

“Children have I reared and brought up,

but they have rebelled against me. 3

The ox knows its owner,

and the donkey its master’s crib,

but Israel does not know,

my people do not understand.”
4

Ah, sinful nation,

a people laden with iniquity,

offspring of evildoers,

children who deal corruptly!

They have forsaken the Lord,

they have despised the Holy One of Israel,

they are utterly estranged.
5

Why will you still be struck down?

Why will you continue to rebel?

The whole head is sick,

and the whole heart faint. 6

From the sole of the foot even to the head,

there is no soundness in it,

but bruises and sores

and raw wounds;

they are not pressed out or bound up

or softened with oil.
7

Your country lies desolate;

your cities are burned with fire;

in your very presence

foreigners devour your land;

it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. 8

And the daughter of Zion is left

like a booth in a vineyard,

like a lodge in a cucumber field,

like a besieged city.
9

If the Lord of hosts

had not left us a few survivors,

we should have been like Sodom,

and become like Gomorrah.
10

Hear the word of the Lord,

you rulers of Sodom!

Give ear to the teaching of our God,

you people of Gomorrah! 11

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?

says the Lord;

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of well-fed beasts;

I do not delight in the blood of bulls,

or of lambs, or of goats.
12

“When you come to appear before me,

who has required of you

this trampling of my courts? 13

Bring no more vain offerings;

incense is an abomination to me.

New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—

I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14

Your new moons and your appointed feasts

my soul hates;

they have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them. 15

When you spread out your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers,

I will not listen;

your hands are full of blood. 16

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

cease to do evil, 17

learn to do good;

seek justice,

correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow’s cause.
18

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool. 19

If you are willing and obedient,

you shall eat the good of the land; 20

but if you refuse and rebel,

you shall be eaten by the sword;

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” The Unfaithful City21

How the faithful city

has become a whore,

she who was full of justice!

Righteousness lodged in her,

but now murderers. 22

Your silver has become dross,

your best wine mixed with water. 23

Your princes are rebels

and companions of thieves.

Everyone loves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

They do not bring justice to the fatherless,

and the widow’s cause does not come to them.
24

Therefore the Lord declares,

the Lord of hosts,

the Mighty One of Israel:

“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies

and avenge myself on my foes. 25

I will turn my hand against you

and will smelt away your dross as with lye

and remove all your alloy. 26

And I will restore your judges as at the first,

and your counselors as at the beginning.

Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness,

the faithful city.”
27

Zion shall be redeemed by justice,

and those in her who repent, by righteousness. 28

But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,

and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. 29

For they shall be ashamed of the oaks

that you desired;

and you shall blush for the gardens

that you have chosen. 30

For you shall be like an oak

whose leaf withers,

and like a garden without water. 31

And the strong shall become tinder,

and his work a spark,

and both of them shall burn together,

with none to quench them.

ISAIAH 2

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The Mountain of the Lord  2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2

It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it, 3

and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore.
5

O house of Jacob,

come, let us walk

in the light of the Lord. The Day of the Lord6

For you have rejected your people,

the house of Jacob,

because they are full of things from the east

and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,

and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. 7

Their land is filled with silver and gold,

and there is no end to their treasures;

their land is filled with horses,

and there is no end to their chariots. 8

Their land is filled with idols;

they bow down to the work of their hands,

to what their own fingers have made. 9

So man is humbled,

and each one is brought low—

do not forgive them! 10

Enter into the rock

and hide in the dust

from before the terror of the Lord,

and from the splendor of his majesty. 11

The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,

and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,

and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
12

For the Lord of hosts has a day

against all that is proud and lofty,

against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low; 13

against all the cedars of Lebanon,

lofty and lifted up;

and against all the oaks of Bashan; 14

against all the lofty mountains,

and against all the uplifted hills; 15

against every high tower,

and against every fortified wall; 16

against all the ships of Tarshish,

and against all the beautiful craft. 17

And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,

and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,

and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. 18

And the idols shall utterly pass away. 19

And people shall enter the caves of the rocks

and the holes of the ground,

from before the terror of the Lord,

and from the splendor of his majesty,

when he rises to terrify the earth.
20

In that day mankind will cast away

their idols of silver and their idols of gold,

which they made for themselves to worship,

to the moles and to the bats, 21

to enter the caverns of the rocks

and the clefts of the cliffs,

from before the terror of the Lord,

and from the splendor of his majesty,

when he rises to terrify the earth. 22

Stop regarding man

in whose nostrils is breath,

for of what account is he?

PROVERBS 5

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Warning Against Adultery5:1

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;

incline your ear to my understanding, 2

that you may keep discretion,

and your lips may guard knowledge. 3

For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,

and her speech is smoother than oil, 4

but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword. 5

Her feet go down to death;

her steps follow the path to Sheol; 6

she does not ponder the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7

And now, O sons, listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8

Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house, 9

lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless, 10

lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, 11

and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed, 12

and you say, “How I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof! 13

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors. 14

I am at the brink of utter ruin

in the assembled congregation.”
15

Drink water from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well. 16

Should your springs be scattered abroad,

streams of water in the streets? 17

Let them be for yourself alone,

and not for strangers with you. 18

Let your fountain be blessed,

and rejoice in the wife of your youth, 19

a lovely deer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicated always in her love. 20

Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman

and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? 21

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,

and he ponders all his paths. 22

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,

and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. 23

He dies for lack of discipline,

and because of his great folly he is led astray.

2 TIMOTHY 4

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Preach the Word  4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
    6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. Personal Instructions9 Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Final Greetings19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. 21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.
    22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.