Isaiah 14; Isaiah 15; Isaiah 16; Ephesians 5:1-16

1 The LORD will have compassion on Jacob, will again choose Israel, and will give them rest in their own land. Immigrants will join them, and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

2 The peoples will take them and will bring them to their own place. The house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the LORD's land, making captives of their captors and ruling their oppressors.

3 When the LORD has given you rest from pain and trouble and from the hard labor that you perform,

4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased! How the flood has receded!

5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of tyrants

6 that struck peoples in rage with ceaseless blows, that ruled nations with anger, with relentless aggression.

7 All the earth rests quietly, then it breaks into song.

8 Even the cypresses rejoice over you, the cedars of Lebanon: "Since you were laid low, no logger comes up against us!"

9 The underworld beneath becomes restless to greet your arrival. It awakens the ghosts, all the leaders of earth; it makes the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.

10 All of them speak and say to you: "Even you've become weak like we are! You are the same as us!"

11 Your majesty has been brought down to the underworld, along with the sound of your harps. Under you is a bed of maggots, and worms are your blanket.

12 How you've fallen from heaven, morning star, son of dawn! You are cut down to earth, helpless on your back!

13 You said to yourself, I will climb up to heaven; above God's stars, I will raise my throne. I'll sit on the mount of assembly, on the heights of Zaphon.

14 I'll go up to the cloud tops; I'll be like the Most High!

15 But down to the underworld you are brought, to the depths of the pit.

16 Those who see you will stare at you; they will examine you closely: "Is this the man who rattled the earth, who shook kingdoms,

17 who made the world a wasteland and tore down its cities, and wouldn't let his prisoners go home?"

18 All the kings of the nations lie down honored, all of them, each in his own tomb.

19 But you are cast away from your own grave like a rejected branch, covered by the dead and those pierced by the sword— who go down to the stony pit— like a trampled corpse.

20 You won't join them in burial, for you destroyed your own land; you killed your own people. Such evil offspring will never be mentioned again!

21 Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their father. Don't let them arise to take over the earth or fill the world with cities.

22 I will arise against them, says the LORD of heavenly forces. I will cut off Babylon's renown and remnant, offshoot and offspring.

23 I will make it the home of herons, a swampland. I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction, says the LORD of heavenly forces.

24 The LORD of heavenly forces has promised: As I intended, so it will be; and as I have planned, so it will happen:

25 I will break Assyria in my land; on my mountains I will trample it and remove its yoke from my people; his burden will be taken from their shoulders.

26 This is the plan that has been made for all the earth; this is the hand extended over all the nations.

27 The LORD of heavenly forces has created a plan; who can stop it? God's hand is extended; who will stop it?

28 This oracle came in the year of King Ahaz's death:

29 Don't rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken, because from the snake's root a viper will grow, and it will produce a winged creature.

30 The oldest offspring of the poor will graze; their needy will lie down secure. But he will starve your offspring to death, and murder all who remain.

31 Wail, gate! Cry out, city! Melt in terror, all you Philistines! Smoke is coming from the north; there is no straggler in its ranks.

32 What will one say to that nation's messengers? The LORD has founded Zion; the oppressed among God's people will find refuge there.

1 An oracle about Moab. Ar was devastated in a night; Moab is ruined! Kir was devastated in a night; Moab is ruined!

2 Dibon has gone up to the temple, to the shrines to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard cut off.

3 In its streets they wear mourning clothes; on its rooftops and in its plazas, everyone wails and falls down weeping.

4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; as far as Jahaz their voice is heard. The armed men of Moab shout, spirits trembling.

5 My heart cries out for Moab. Its fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. At the ascent of Luhith, each will go up with weeping. On the road to Horonaim, they will raise a piercing cry.

6 The waters of Nimrim are used up. Grass has withered; vegetation is dead; greenery is gone.

7 Therefore, they carry what they had stored up, all their provisions to the Valley of the Willows.

8 An outcry sounds within the borders of Moab, as far as Eglaim, a cry of distress, as far as Beer-elim, a cry of distress.

9 The waters of Dibon are full of blood. But I will bring still more upon Dibon: a lion for Moab's survivors, for the remaining few in the land.

1 Send lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela through the desert to the mountain of Daughter Zion.

2 The daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon are like orphaned birds pushed from the nest.

3 Consider carefully, act justly; at high noon provide your shade like night. Hide the outcasts; keep the fugitives hidden.

4 Let the outcasts of Moab live among you. Be a hiding place for them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, when destruction has ceased, when the trampler has vanished from the land,

5 a throne will be established based on goodness, and someone will sit faithfully on it in David's dwelling— a judge who seeks justice and timely righteousness.

6 We have heard of Moab's pride, his great pride, his outrageous pride and arrogance, his empty boasting.

7 Therefore, let Moab wail; let everyone wail for Moab. Let them moan, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

8 The fields of Heshbon languish. The vines of Sibmah, whose honored grapes overpowered masters of nations, had reached as far as Jazer and strayed to the desert. Their tendrils spread out and crossed the sea.

9 Therefore, I will weep with Jazer's weeping for the vines of Sibmah. I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. Cheers have fallen silent concerning your summer fruit and your grain harvest.

10 Joy and happiness have been harvested from the farmland, and in the vineyards no one sings, no one shouts. No treader crushes grapes in the wine vats; I have brought the cheers to an end.

11 Therefore, my heart plays sadly like a harp for Moab, my inner being for Kir-heres.

12 Even if Moab presents himself, and Moab wears himself out going to the shrine, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, he won't prevail.

13 This is the word that the LORD had spoken concerning Moab long ago.

14 But now the LORD has said: In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab, with all its great multitude, will dwindle. The small remnant will be few and feeble.

1 Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children.

2 Live your life with love, following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. He was a sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God.

3 Sexual immorality, and any kind of impurity or greed, shouldn't even be mentioned among you, which is right for holy persons.

4 Obscene language, silly talk, or vulgar jokes aren't acceptable for believers. Instead, there should be thanksgiving.

5 Because you know for sure that persons who are sexually immoral, impure, or greedy—which happens when things become gods—those persons won't inherit the kingdom of Christ and God.

6 Nobody should deceive you with stupid ideas. God's anger comes down on those who are disobedient because of this kind of thing.

7 So you shouldn't have anything to do with them.

8 You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light.

9 Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth.

10 Therefore, test everything to see what's pleasing to the Lord,

11 and don't participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them.

12 It's embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret.

13 But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light.

14 Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper!Get up from the dead,and Christ will shine on you.

15 So be careful to live your life wisely, not foolishly.

16 Take advantage of every opportunity because these are evil times.