Isaiah 9; Isaiah 10; Ephesians 3

1 At the first time the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephtali was lightly touched: and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded.

2 The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.

3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast not increased the joy. They shall rejoice before thee, as they that rejoice in the harvest, as conquerors rejoice after taking a prey, when they divide the spoils.

4 For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the sceptre of their oppressor thou hast overcome, as in the day of Madian.

5 For every violent taking of spoils, with tumult, and garment mingled with blood, shall be burnt, and be fuel for the fire.

6 For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.

7 His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.

9 And all the people of Ephraim shall know, and the inhabitants of Samaria that say in the pride and haughtiness of their heart:

10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with square stones: they have cut down the sycamores, but we will change them for cedars.

11 And the Lord shall set up the enemies of Rasin over him, and shall bring on his enemies in a crowd:

12 The Syrians from the east, and, the Philistines from the west: and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

13 And the people are not returned to him who hath struck them, and have not sought after the Lord of hosts.

14 And the Lord shall destroy out of Israel the head and the tail, him that bendeth down, and him that holdeth back, in one day.

15 The aged and honourable, he is the head: and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

16 And they that call this people blessed, shall cause them to err: and they that are called blessed, shall be thrown down, headlong.

17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men: neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless, and widows: for every one is a hypocrite and wicked, and every mouth hath spoken folly. For all this his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

18 For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke ascending on high.

19 By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is troubled, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

20 And he shall turn to the right hand, and shall be hungry: and shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be filled: every one shall eat the flesh of his own arm: Manasses Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses, and they together shall be against Juda.

21 After all these things his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

1 Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they write, write injustice:

2 To oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people: that widows might be their prey, and that they might rob the fatherless.

3 What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which cometh from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

4 That you be not bowed down under the bond, and fall with the slain? In all these things his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

5 Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.

6 I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will give him a charge against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

7 But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so: but his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.

8 For he shall say:

9 Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as Charcamis: and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.

11 Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

12 And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his works in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.

13 For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I have done it, and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have taken the spoils of the princes, and as a mighty man hath pulled down them that sat on high.

14 And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise.

15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.

16 Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory shall be kindled a burning, as it were the burning of a fire.

17 And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the Holy One thereof as a flame: and his thorns and his briers shall be set on fire, and shall be devoured in one day.

18 And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful hill, shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh, and he shall run away through fear.

19 And they that remain of the trees of his forest shall be so few, that they shall easily be numbered, and a child shall write them down.

20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21 The remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty God.

22 For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted, the consumption abridged shall overflow with justice.

23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an abridgment in the midst of all the land.

24 Therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: O my people that dwellest in Sion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall strike thee with his rod, and he shall lift up his staff over thee in the way of Egypt.

25 For yet a little and a very little while, and my indignation shall cease, and my wrath shall be upon their wickedness.

26 And the Lord of hosts shall raise up a scourge against him, according to the slaughter of Madian in the rock of Oreb, and his rod over the sea, and he shall lift it up in the way of Egypt.

27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall putrefy at the presence of the oil.

28 He shall come into Aiath, he shall pass into Magron: at Machmas he shall lay up his carriages.

29 They have passed in haste, Gaba is our lodging: Rama was astonished, Gabaath of Saul fled away.

30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim, attend, O Laisa, poor Anathoth.

31 Medemena is removed: ye inhabitants of Gabim, take courage.

32 It is yet day enough, to remain in Nobe: he shall shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Sion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33 Behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall break the earthen vessel with terror, and the tall of stature shall be cut down, and the lofty shall be humbled.

34 And the thickets of the forest shall be cut down with iron, and Libanus with its high ones shall fall.

1 For this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles:

2 If yet you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me towards you:

3 How that, according to revelation, the mystery has been made known to me, as I have written above in a few words:

4 As you reading, may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ,

5 Which in other generations was not known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit:

6 That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body: and copartners of his promise in Christ Jesus, by the gospel

7 Of which I am made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God, which is given to me according to the operation of his power.

8 To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ:

9 And to enlighten all men, that they may see what is the dispensation of the mystery which hath been hidden from eternity in God who created all things:

10 That the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places through the church,

11 According to the eternal purpose which he made in Christ Jesus our Lord:

12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

13 Wherefore I pray you not to faint at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

14 For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

15 Of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named:

16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit with might unto the inward man:

17 That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts: that, being rooted and founded in charity,

18 You may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

19 To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge: that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand, according to the power that worketh in us:

21 To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, unto all generations, world without end. Amen.