Isaiah 56; Isaiah 57; Isaiah 58; 2 Thessalonians 2

1 Thus saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my justice to be revealed.

2 Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man that shall lay hold on this: that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, that keepeth his hands from doing any evil.

3 And let not the son of the stranger, that adhereth to the Lord, speak, saying: The Lord will divide and separate me from his people. And let not the eunuch say: Behold I am a dry tree.

4 For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs, They that shall keep my sabbaths, and shall choose the things that please me, and shall hold fast my covenant:

5 I will give to them in my house, and within my walls, a place, and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name which shall never perish.

6 And the children of the stranger that adhere to the Lord, to worship him, and to love his name, to be his servants: every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and that holdeth fast my covenant:

7 I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make them joyful in my house of prayer: their holocausts, and their victims shall please me upon my altar: for my house shall be called the house of prayer, for all nations.

8 The Lord God, who gathereth the scattered of Israel, saith: I will still gather unto him his congregation.

9 All ye beasts of the field come to devour, all ye beasts of the forest.

10 His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams.

11 And most impudent dogs, they never had enough: the shepherds themselves knew no understanding: all have turned aside into their own way, every one after his own gain, from the first even to the last.

12 Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness: and it shall be as to day, so also to morrow, and much more.

1 The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and men of mercy are taken away, because there is none that understandeth; for the just man is taken away from before the face of evil.

2 Let peace come, let him rest in his bed that hath walked in his uprightness.

3 But draw near hither, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer, and of the harlot.

4 Upon whom have you jested? upon whom have you opened your mouth wide, and put out your tongue? are not you wicked children, a false seed,

5 Who seek your comfort in idols under every green tree, sacrificing children in the torrents, under the high rocks?

6 In the parts of the torrent is thy portion, this is thy lot: and thou hast poured out libations to them, thou hast offered sacrifice. Shall I not be angry at these things?

7 Upon a high and lofty mountain thou hast laid thy bed, and hast gone up thither to offer victims.

8 And behind the door, and behind the post thou hast set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself near me, and hast received an adulterer: thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made a covenant with them: thou hast loved their bed with open hand.

9 And thou hast adorned thyself for the king with ointment, and hast multiplied thy perfumes. Thou hast sent thy messengers far off, and wast debased even to hell.

10 Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy ways: yet thou saidst not: I will rest: thou has found life of thy hand, therefore thou hast not asked.

11 For whom hast thou been solicitous and afraid, that thou hast lied, and hast not been mindful of me, nor thought on me in thy heart? for I am silent, and as one that seeth not, and thou hast forgotten me.

12 I will declare thy justice, and thy works shall not profit thee.

13 When thou shalt cry, let thy companies deliver thee, but the wind shall carry them all off, a breeze shall take them away, but he that putteth his trust in me, shall inherit the land, and shall possess my holy mount.

14 And I will say: Make a way: give free passage, turn out of the path, take away the stumblingblocks out of the way of my people.

15 For thus saith the High and the Eminent that inhabiteth eternity: and his name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, and with a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be angry unto the end: because the spirit shall go forth from my face, and breathings I will make.

17 For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and I struck him: I hid my face from thee, and was angry: and he went away wandering in his own heart.

18 I saw his ways, and I healed him, and brought him back, and restored comforts to him, and to them that mourn for him.

19 I created the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, said the Lord, and I healed him.

20 But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest, and the waves thereof cast up dirt and mire.

21 There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God.

1 Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.

2 For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God.

3 Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.

4 Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.

5 Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken go free, and break asunder every burden.

7 Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.

8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.

9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not.

10 When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.

11 And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail.

12 And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundation of generation and generation: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest.

13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is not found, to speak a word:

14 Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

1 And we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and of our gathering together unto him:

2 That you be not easily moved from your sense nor be terrified, neither by spirit nor by word nor by epistle. as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand.

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition

4 Who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God.

5 Remember you not that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

6 And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time.

7 For the mystery of iniquity already worketh: only that he who now holdeth do hold, until he be taken out of the way.

8 And then that wicked one shall be revealed: whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: him

9 Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power and signs and lying wonders:

10 And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish: because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11 (2:10) Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying:

12 (2-11) That all may be judged who have not believed the truth but have consented to iniquity.

13 (2-12) But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of God, for that God hath chosen you firstfruits unto salvation, in sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth:

14 (2-13) Whereunto also he hath called you by our gospel, unto the purchasing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15 (2-14) Therefore, brethren, stand fast: and hold the traditions, which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle.

16 (2-15) Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God and our Father, who hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope in grace,

17 (2-16) Exhort your hearts and confirm you in every good work and word.