Isaiah 32; Isaiah 33; Colossians 1

1 See here: A king rules to promote righteousness; rulers govern to promote justice,

2 each like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from a storm, like streams of water in a wasteland, like the shade of a massive cliff in a worn-out land.

3 Then the eyes of those who can see will no longer be blind, the ears of those who can hear will listen,

4 the minds of the rash will know and comprehend, and the tongues of those who stammer will speak fluently and plainly.

5 Then a fool will no longer be called honorable, nor a villain considered respectable.

6 Fools speak folly; their minds devise wickedness, acting irreverently, speaking falsely of the LORD, leaving the hungry empty, and depriving the thirsty of drink.

7 As for the villain, his villainies are evil. He plans schemes to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speak justly.

8 But an honorable person plans honorable things and stands up for what is honorable.

9 Women of leisure, stand up! Hear my voice! Carefree daughters, listen to my word!

10 In a little over a year, the carefree will shudder, because the grape harvest will fail; the vintage won't arrive.

11 Tremble, all of you who are at ease; shudder, all of you who are secure! Strip yourselves, bare your skin, and tie mourning clothes around your waist,

12 beating your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

13 for my people's soil growing barbs and thorns, for all the joyous houses in the jubilant town.

14 The palace will be deserted, the crowded city abandoned. Stronghold and watchtower will become empty fields forever, suited for the pleasure of wild donkeys, and a pasture for flocks—

15 until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the desert turns into farmland, and the farmland is considered a forest.

16 Then justice will reside in wild lands, and righteousness will abide in farmlands.

17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace, and the outcome of righteousness, calm and security forever.

18 Then my people will live in a peaceful dwelling, in secure homes, in carefree resting places.

19 Even if the forest falls and the humbled city is laid low,

20 those who sow beside any stream will be happy, sending out ox and donkey to graze.

1 Doom to the destroyer left undestroyed, you traitor whom none have betrayed: when you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have stopped betraying, they will betray you.

2 LORD, show us favor; we hope in you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in times of distress.

3 At the noise, peoples fled; on account of your roar, nations scattered.

4 They gathered spoil like insects; they rushed upon it like a swarm of locusts.

5 The LORD is exalted; he lives on high, filling Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 He will provide security during a lifetime: a source of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge— fear of the LORD will be Zion's treasure.

7 But then those in Ariel cried out in the streets; messengers of peace wept bitterly.

8 The highways were deserted; travelers left the road. The covenant was broken; solemn pledges were rejected; no one cared for humanity.

9 The land mourned; it wasted away; Lebanon was ashamed; it withered. Sharon became like the desert, and Bashan and Carmel were dropping their leaves.

10 Now I will arise, says the LORD. Now I will exalt myself; now I will stand tall.

11 You conceive straw, give birth to stubble; your breath is a fire that devours you.

12 Peoples will be burned to lime, thorns cut up and set ablaze.

13 You who are far away, hear what I have done; and you who are near, know my strength!

14 Sinners became terrified in Zion; trembling seized the godless: "Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with the everlasting blaze?"

15 The one who walks righteously and speaks truthfully, who rejects profit from extortion, who waves away a bribe instead of grabbing it, who won't listen to bloody plots, and who won't contemplate doing something evil.

16 He will live on the heights; fortresses in the cliffs will be his refuge. His food will be provided, his water guaranteed.

17 When you gaze upon a king in his glamour and look at the surrounding land,

18 in dismay you will think: Where is the one who counts? Where is the one who weighs? Where is the one who counts towers?

19 You will no longer see the defiant people, the people of speech too obscure to understand, who stammer in an incomprehensible language.

20 Gaze upon Zion, our festival town. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a carefree dwelling, a tent that is not packed up, whose stakes are never pulled up, whose ropes won't snap.

21 The LORD's majesty will be there for us: as a place of rivers, broad streams where no boat will go, no majestic ship will cross.

22 The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our leader; the LORD is our king— he will deliver us.

23 Your ropes are loosened; they can't hold the mast firmly; they can't spread the sail. Then abundant spoil will be divided; even the lame will seize spoil.

24 And no inhabitant will say, "I'm sick." The people living there will be forgiven their sin.

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and Timothy our brother.

2 To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae.

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father.We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.

4 We've done this since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all God's people.

5 You have this faith and love because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You previously heard about this hope through the true message, the good news,

6 which has come to you. This message has been bearing fruit and growing among you since the day you heard and truly understood God's grace, in the same way that it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world.

7 You learned it from Epaphras, who is the fellow slave we love and Christ's faithful minister for your sake.

8 He informed us of your love in the Spirit.

9 Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we haven't stopped praying for you and asking for you to be filled with the knowledge of God's will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

10 We're praying this so that you can live lives that are worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way: by producing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God;

11 by being strengthened through his glorious might so that you endure everything and have patience;

12 and by giving thanks with joy to the Father. He made it so you could take part in the inheritance, in light granted to God's holy people.

13 He rescued us from the control of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

14 He set us free through the Son and forgave our sins.

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the one who is first over all creation,

16 Because all things were created by him: both in the heavens and on the earth, the things that are visible and the things that are invisible. Whether they are thrones or powers, or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

17 He existed before all things, and all things are held together in him.

18 He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the one who is firstborn from among the dead so that he might occupy the first place in everything.

19 Because all the fullness of God was pleased to live in him,

20 and he reconciled all things to himself through him— whether things on earth or in the heavens. He brought peace through the blood of his cross.

21 Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies with him in your minds, which was shown by your evil actions.

22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death, to present you before God as a people who are holy, faultless, and without blame.

23 But you need to remain well established and rooted in faith and not shift away from the hope given in the good news that you heard. This message has been preached throughout all creation under heaven. And I, Paul, became a servant of this good news.

24 Now I'm happy to be suffering for you. I'm completing what is missing from Christ's sufferings with my own body. I'm doing this for the sake of his body, which is the church.

25 I became a servant of the church by God's commission, which was given to me for you, in order to complete God's word.

26 I'm completing it with a secret plan that has been hidden for ages and generations but which has now been revealed to his holy people.

27 God wanted to make the glorious riches of this secret plan known among the Gentiles, which is Christ living in you, the hope of glory.

28 This is what we preach as we warn and teach every person with all wisdom so that we might present each one mature in Christ.

29 I work hard and struggle for this goal with his energy, which works in me powerfully.