Isaiah 26; Isaiah 27; Philippians 2

1 In that day shall this canticle be sung in the land of Juda. Sion the city of our strength a saviour, a wall and a bulwark shall be set therein.

2 Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in.

3 The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace: peace, because we have hoped in thee.

4 You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever.

5 For he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust.

6 The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.

7 The way of the just is right, the path of the just is right to walk in.

8 And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul.

9 My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to thee. When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn justice.

10 Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he hath done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord.

11 Lord, let thy hand be exalted, and let them not see: let the envious people see, and be confounded: and let fire devour thy enemies.

12 Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works for us.

13 O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, only in thee let us remember thy name.

14 Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast visited and destroyed them, and hast destroyed all their memory.

15 Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far off.

16 Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them.

17 As a woman with child, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs: so are we become in thy presence, O Lord.

18 We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.

19 Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin.

20 Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until the indignation pass away.

21 For behold the Lord will come out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more.

1 In that day the Lord with his hard, and great, and strong sword shall visit leviathan the bar serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall slay the whale that is in the sea.

2 In that day there shall be singing to the vineyard of pure wine.

3 I am the Lord that keep it, I will suddenly give it drink: lest any hurt come to it, I keep it night and day.

4 There is no indignation in me: who shall make me a thorn and a brier in battle: shall I march against it, shall, I set it on fire together?

5 Or rather shall it take hold of my strength, shall it make peace with me, shall it make peace with me?

6 When they shall rush in unto Jacob, Israel shall blossom and bud, and they shall fill the face of the world with seed.

7 Hath he struck him according to the stroke of him that struck him? or is he slain, as he killed them that were slain by him?

8 In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it. He hath meditated with his severe spirit in the day of heat.

9 Therefore upon this shall the iniquity of the house of Jacob be forgiven: and this is all the fruit, that the sin thereof should be taken away, when he shall have made all the stones of the altar, as burnt stones broken in pieces, the groves and temples shall not stand.

10 For the strong city shall be desolate, the beautiful city shall be forsaken, and shall be left as a wilderness: there the calf shall feed, and there shall he lie down, and shall consume its branches.

11 Its harvest shall be destroyed with drought, women shall come and teach it: for it is not a wise people, therefore he that made it, shall not have mercy on it: and he that formed it, shall not spare it.

12 And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord will strike from the channel of the river even to the torrent of Egypt, and you shall be gathered together one by one, O ye children of Israel.

13 And it shall come to pass, that in that day a noise shall be made with a great trumpet, and they that were lost, shall come from the land of the Assyrians, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall adore the Lord in the holy mount in Jerusalem.

1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of charity, if any society of the spirit, if any bowels of commiseration:

2 Fulfil ye my joy, that you be of one mind, having the same charity, being of one accord, agreeing in sentiment.

3 Let nothing be done through contention: neither by vain glory. But in humility, let each esteem others better than themselves:

4 Each one not considering the things that are his own, but those that are other men’s.

5 For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.

8 He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.

9 For which cause, God also hath exalted him and hath given him a name which is above all names:

10 That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth:

11 And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.

12 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but much more now in my absence) with fear and trembling work out your salvation.

13 For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will.

14 And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations:

15 That you may be blameless and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation: among whom you shine as lights in the world.

16 Holding forth the word of life to my glory in the day of Christ: because I have not run in vain, nor laboured in vain.

17 Yea, and if I be made a victim upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and congratulate with you all.

18 And for the selfsame thing, do you also rejoice and congratulate with me.

19 And I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy unto you shortly, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know the things concerning you.

20 For I have no man so of the same mind, who with sincere affection is solicitous for you.

21 For all seek the things that are their own not the things that are Jesus Christ’s.

22 Now know ye the proof of him: that as a son with the father, so hath he served with me in the gospel.

23 Him therefore I hope to send unto you immediately: so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

24 And I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall come to you shortly.

25 But I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow labourer and fellow soldier, but your apostle: and he that hath ministered to my wants.

26 For indeed he longed after you all: and was sad, for that you had heard that he was sick.

27 For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him. And not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

28 Therefore, I sent him the more speedily: that seeing him again, you may rejoice, and I may be without sorrow.

29 Receive him therefore with all joy in the Lord: and treat with honour such as he is.

30 Because for the work of Christ he came to the point of death: delivering his life, that he might fulfil that which on your part was wanting towards my service.