Isaiah 47; Isaiah 48; Isaiah 49; 1 Thessalonians 4

1 The Lord says, "City of Babylon, go down and sit in the dirt. People of Babylon, sit on the ground. You are no longer the ruler. You will no longer be called tender or beautiful.

2 You must use large stones to grind grain into flour. Remove your veil and your nice skirts. Uncover your legs and cross the rivers.

3 People will see your nakedness; they will see your shame. I will punish you; I will punish every one of you."

4 Our Savior is named the Lord All-Powerful; he is the Holy One of Israel.

5 "Babylon, sit in darkness and say nothing. You will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.

6 I was angry with my people, so I rejected those who belonged to me. I gave them to you, but you showed them no mercy. You even made the old people work very hard.

7 You said, 'I will live forever as the queen.' But you did not think about these things or consider what would happen.

8 "Now, listen, you lover of pleasure. You think you are safe. You tell yourself, 'I am the only important person. I will never be a widow or lose my children.'

9 Two things will happen to you suddenly, in a single day. You will lose your children and your husband. These things will truly happen to you, in spite of all your magic, in spite of your powerful tricks.

10 You do evil things, but you feel safe and say, 'No one sees what I do.' Your wisdom and knowledge have fooled you. You say to yourself, 'I am God, and no one is equal to me.'

11 But troubles will come to you, and you will not know how to stop them. Disaster will fall on you, and you will not be able to keep it away. You will be destroyed quickly; you will not even see it coming.

12 "Keep on using your tricks and doing all your magic that you have used since you were young. Maybe they will help you; maybe you will be able to scare someone.

13 You are tired of the advice you have received. So let those who study the sky -- those who tell the future by looking at the stars and the new moons -- let them save you from what is about to happen to you.

14 But they are like straw; fire will quickly burn them up. They cannot save themselves from the power of the fire. They are not like coals that give warmth nor like a fire that you may sit beside.

15 You have worked with these people, and they have been with you since you were young, but they will not be able to help you. Everyone will go his own way, and there will be no one left to save you."

1 The Lord says, "Family of Jacob, listen to me. You are called Israel, and you come from the family of Judah. and praise the God of Israel, but you are not honest or sincere.

2 You call yourselves people of the holy city, and you depend on the God of Israel, who is named the Lord All-Powerful.

3 Long ago I told you what would happen. I said these things and made them known; suddenly I acted, and these things happened.

4 I knew you were stubborn; your neck was like an iron muscle, and your head was like bronze.

5 So a long time ago I told you about these things; I told you about them before they happened so you couldn't say, 'My idols did this, and my wooden and metal statues made these things happen.'

6 "You heard and saw everything that happened, so you should tell this news to others. Now I will tell you about new things, hidden things that you don't know yet.

7 These things are happening now, not long ago; you have not heard about them before today. So you cannot say, 'We already knew about that.'

8 But you have not heard me; you have not understood. Even long ago you did not listen to me. I knew you would surely turn against me; you have fought against me since you were born.

9 But for my own sake I will be patient. People will praise me for not becoming angry and destroying you.

10 I have made you pure, but not by fire, as silver is made pure. I have purified you by giving you troubles.

11 I do this for myself, for my own sake. I will not let people speak evil against me, and I will not let some god take my glory.

12 "People of Jacob, listen to me. People of Israel, I have called you to be my people. I am God; I am the beginning and the end.

13 I made the earth with my own hands. With my right hand I spread out the skies. When I call them, they come together before me."

14 All of you, come together and listen. None of the gods said these things would happen. to attack the Babylonians; he will carry out his wishes against Babylon.

15 "I have spoken; I have called him. I have brought him, and I will make him successful.

16 Come to me and listen to this. From the beginning I have spoken openly. From the time it began, I was there." Now, the Lord God has sent me with his Spirit.

17 This is what the Lord, who saves you, the Holy One of Israel, says: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to do what is good, who leads you in the way you should go.

18 If you had obeyed me, you would have had peace like a full-flowing river. Good things would have flowed to you like the waves of the sea.

19 You would have had many children, as many as the grains of sand. They would never have died out nor been destroyed."

20 My people, leave Babylon! Tell this news with shouts of joy to the people; spread it everywhere on earth. Say, "The Lord has saved his servants, the people of Jacob."

21 They did not become thirsty when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow from a rock for them. He split the rock, and water flowed out.

22 "There is no peace for evil people," says the Lord.

1 All of you people in faraway places, listen to me. Listen, all you nations far away. Before I was born, the Lord called me to serve him. The Lord named me while I was still in my mother's body.

2 He made my tongue like a sharp sword. He hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me like a sharp arrow. He hid me in the holder for his arrows.

3 He told me, "Israel, you are my servant. I will show my glory through you."

4 But I said, "I have worked hard for nothing; I have used all my power, but I did nothing useful. But the Lord will decide what my work is worth; God will decide my reward."

5 The Lord made me in the body of my mother to be his servant, to lead the people of Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him. The Lord will honor me, and I will get my strength from my God.

6 Now he told me, "You are an important servant to me to bring back the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the people of Israel who are left alive. But, more importantly, I will make you a light for all nations to show people all over the world the way to be saved."

7 The Lord who saves you is the Holy One of Israel. He speaks to the one who is hated by the people, to the servant of rulers. This is what he says: "Kings will see you and stand to honor you; great leaders will bow down before you, because the Lord can be trusted. He is the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

8 This is what the Lord says: "At the right time I will hear your prayers. On the day of salvation I will help you. I will protect you, and you will be the sign of my agreement with the people. You will bring back the people to the land and give the land that is now ruined back to its owners.

9 You will tell the prisoners, 'Come out of your prison.' You will tell those in darkness, 'Come into the light.' The people will eat beside the roads, and they will find food even on bare hills.

10 They will not be hungry or thirsty. Neither the hot sun nor the desert wind will hurt them. and guide them by springs of water.

11 I will make my mountains into roads, and the roads will be raised up.

12 Look, people are coming to me from far away, from the north and from the west, from Aswan in southern Egypt."

13 Heavens and earth, be happy. Mountains, shout with joy, because the Lord comforts his people and will have pity on those who suffer.

14 But Jerusalem said, "The Lord has left me; the Lord has forgotten me."

15 The Lord answers, "Can a woman forget the baby she nurses? Can she feel no kindness for the child to which she gave birth? Even if she could forget her children, I will not forget you.

16 See, I have written your name on my hand. Jerusalem, I always think about your walls.

17 Your children will soon return to you, and the people who defeated you and destroyed you will leave.

18 Look up and look around you. All your children are gathering to return to you." The Lord says, "As surely as I live, your children will be like jewels that a bride wears proudly.

19 "You were destroyed and defeated, and your land was made useless. But now you will have more people than the land can hold, and those people who destroyed you will be far away.

20 Children were born to you while you were sad, but they will say to you, 'This place is too small for us. Give us a bigger place to live.'

21 Then you will say to yourself, 'Who gave me all these children? I was sad and lonely, defeated and separated from my people. So who reared these children? I was left all alone. Where did all these children come from?'"

22 This is what the Lord God says: "See, I will lift my hand to signal the nations; I will raise my banner for all the people to see. Then they will bring your sons back to you in their arms, and they will carry your daughters on their shoulders.

23 Kings will teach your children, and daughters of kings will take care of them. They will bow down before you and kiss the dirt at your feet. Then you will know I am the Lord. Anyone who trusts in me will not be disappointed."

24 Can the wealth a soldier wins in war be taken away from him? Can a prisoner be freed from a powerful soldier?

25 This is what the Lord says: "The prisoners will be taken from the strong soldiers. What the soldiers have taken will be saved. I will fight your enemies, and I will save your children.

26 I will force those who trouble you to eat their own flesh. Their own blood will be the wine that makes them drunk. Then everyone will know I, the Lord, am the One who saves you; I am the Powerful One of Jacob who saves you."

1 Brothers and sisters, we taught you how to live in a way that will please God, and you are living that way. Now we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live that way even more.

2 You know what we told you to do by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

3 God wants you to be holy and to stay away from sexual sins.

4 He wants each of you to learn to control your own bodyn in a way that is holy and honorable.

5 Don't use your body for sexual sin like the people who do not know God.

6 Also, do not wrong or cheat another Christian in this way. The Lord will punish people who do those things as we have already told you and warned you.

7 God called us to be holy and does not want us to live in sin.

8 So the person who refuses to obey this teaching is disobeying God, not simply a human teaching. And God is the One who gives us his Holy Spirit.

9 We do not need to write you about having love for your Christian family, because God has already taught you to love each other.

10 And truly you do love the Christians in all of Macedonia. Brothers and sisters, now we encourage you to love them even more.

11 Do all you can to live a peaceful life. Take care of your own business, and do your own work as we have already told you.

12 If you do, then people who are not believers will respect you, and you will not have to depend on others for what you need.

13 Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about those Christians who have died so you will not be sad, as others who have no hope.

14 We believe that Jesus died and that he rose again. So, because of him, God will raise with Jesus those who have died.

15 What we tell you now is the Lord's own message. We who are living when the Lord comes again will not go before those who have already died.

16 The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And those who have died believing in Christ will rise first.

17 After that, we who are still alive will be gathered up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever.

18 So encourage each other with these words.