Isaiah 59; Isaiah 60; Isaiah 61; 2 Thessalonians 3

1 Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.

2 But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear.

3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue uttereth iniquity.

4 There is none that calleth upon justice, neither is there any one that judgeth truly: but they trust in a mere nothing, and speak vanities: they have conceived labour, and brought forth iniquity.

5 They have broken the eggs of asps, and have woven the webs of spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs, shall die: and that which is brought out, shall be hatched into a basilisk.

6 Their webs shall not be for clothing, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are unprofitable works, and the work of iniquity is in their hands.

7 Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts: wasting and destruction are in their ways.

8 They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps: their paths are become crooked to them, every one that treadeth in them knoweth no peace.

9 Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice shall not overtake us. We looked for light, and behold darkness: brightness, and we have walked in the dark.

10 We have groped for the wall, and like the blind we have groped as if we had no eyes: we have stumbled at noonday as in darkness, we are in dark places, as dead men.

11 We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament as mournful doves. We have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation, and it is far from us.

12 For our iniquities are multiplied before thee, and our sins have testified against us: for our wicked doings are with us, and have known our iniquities:

13 In sinning and lying against the Lord: and we have turned away so that we went not after our God, but spoke calumny and transgression: we have conceived, and uttered from the heart, words of falsehood.

14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice hath stood far off: because truth hath fallen down in the street, and equity could not come in.

15 And truth hath been forgotten: and he that departed from evil, lay open to be a prey: and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his eyes, because there is no judgment.

16 And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood astonished, because there is none to oppose himself: and his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice supported him.

17 He put on justice as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head: he put on the garments of vengeance, and was clad with zeal as with a cloak.

18 As unto revenge, as it were to repay wrath to his adversaries, and a reward to his enemies: he will repay the like to the islands.

19 And they from the west, shall fear the name of the Lord: and they from the rising of the sun, his glory when he shall come as a violent stream, which the spirit of the Lord driveth on:

20 And there shall come a redeemer to Sion, and to them that return from iniquity in Jacob, saith the Lord.

21 This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: My spirit that is in thee, and my words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.

1 Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

2 For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

3 And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising.

4 Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side.

5 Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee.

6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord.

7 All the flocks of Cedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nabaioth shall minister to thee: they shall be offered upon my acceptable altar, and I will glorify the house of my majesty.

8 Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?

9 For, the islands wait for me, and the ships of the sea in the beginning: that I may bring thy sons from afar: their silver, and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

10 And the children of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister to thee: for in my wrath have I struck thee, and in my reconciliation have I had mercy upon thee.

11 And thy gates shall be open continually: they shall not be shut day nor night, that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to thee, and their kings may be brought.

12 For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee, shall perish: and the Gentiles shall be wasted with desolation.

13 The glory of Libanus shall come to thee, the fir tree, and the box tree, and the pine tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary: and I will glorify the place of my feet.

14 And the children of them that afflict thee, shall come bowing down to thee, and all that slandered thee shall worship the steps of thy feet, and shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Sion of the Holy One of Israel.

15 Because thou wast forsaken, and hated, and there was none that passed through thee, I will make thee to be an everlasting glory, a joy unto generation and generation:

16 And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and thou shalt be nursed with the breasts of kings: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

17 For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver: and for wood brass, and for stones iron: and I will make thy visitation peace, and thy overseers justice.

18 Iniquity shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction in thy borders, and salvation shall possess thy walls, and praise thy gates.

19 Thou shalt no more have the sun for thy light by day, neither shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and thy God for thy glory.

20 Thy sun shall go down no more, and thy moon shall not decrease: for the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

21 And thy people shall be all just, they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand to glorify me.

22 The least shall become a thousand, and a little one a most strong nation: I the Lord will suddenly do this thing in its time.

1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up.

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn:

3 To appoint to the mourners of Sion, and to give them a crown for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit of grief: and they shall be called in it the mighty ones of justice, the planting of the Lord to glorify him.

4 And they shall build the places that have been waste from of old, and shall raise up ancient ruins, and shall repair the desolate cities, that were destroyed for generation and generation.

5 And strangers shall stand and shall feed your flocks: and the sons of strangers shall be your husbandman, and the dressers of your vines.

6 But you shall be called the priests of the Lord: to you it shall be said: Ye ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and you shall pride yourselves in their glory.

7 For your double confusion and shame, they shall praise their part: therefore shall they receive double in their land, everlasting joy shall be unto them.

8 For I am the Lord that love judgment, and hate robbery in a holocaust: and I will make their work in truth, and I will make a perpetual covenant with them.

9 And they shall know their seed among the Gentiles, and their offspring in the midst of peoples: all that shall see them, shall know them, that these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.

10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation: and with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.

11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth her seed to shoot forth: so shall the Lord God make justice to spring forth, and praise before all the nations.

1 For the rest, brethren, pray for us that the word of God may run and may be glorified, even as among you:

2 And that we may be delivered from importunate and evil men: for all men have not faith.

3 But God is faithful, who will strengthen and keep you from evil.

4 And we have confidence concerning you in the Lord that the things which we command, you both do and will do.

5 And the Lord direct your hearts, in the charity of God and the patience of Christ.

6 And we charge you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the tradition which they have received of us.

7 For yourselves know how you ought to imitate us. For we were not disorderly among you.

8 Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nothing: but in labour and in toil we worked night and day, lest we should be chargeable to any of you.

9 Not as if we had not power: but that we might give ourselves a pattern unto you, to imitate us.

10 For also, when we were with you, this we declared to you: that, if any man will not work, neither let him eat.

11 For we have heard there are some among you who walk disorderly: working not at all, but curiously meddling.

12 Now we charge them that are such and beseech them by the Lord Jesus Christ that, working with silence, they would eat their own bread.

13 But you, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.

15 Yet do not esteem him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother.

16 Now the Lord of peace himself give you everlasting peace in every place. The Lord be with you all.

17 The salutation of Paul with my own hand: which is the sign in every epistle. So I write.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.