Isaiah 18 - 19 - Legacy Standard Bible

Isaiah 18 - 19

A Message to Ethiopia

Alas, O land of whirring wings

Which lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,

Which sends envoys by the sea,

Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.

Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth,

To a people feared far and wide,

A powerful and oppressive nation

Whose land the rivers divide.

All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,

As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, you will see it,

And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

4 For thus Yahweh has told me,

“I will look from My dwelling place quietly

Like dazzling heat in the sunshine,

Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms

And the flower becomes a ripening grape,

Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives

And remove and cut away the spreading branches.

They will be left together for mountain birds of prey,

And for the beasts of the earth;

And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,

And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

At that time a gift of homage will be brought to Yahweh of hosts

From a people tall and smooth,

Even from a people feared far and wide,

A powerful and oppressive nation,

Whose land the rivers divide—

To the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts, even Mount Zion.

An Oracle Concerning Egypt

The oracle concerning Egypt.

Behold, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;

The idols of Egypt will shake at His presence,

And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;

And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor,

City against city and kingdom against kingdom.

Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied to destruction within them;

And I will confuse their counsel,

So that they will seek idols and ghosts of the dead

And to mediums and spiritists.

Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master,

And a strong king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

The waters from the sea will dry up,

And the river will be parched and dry.

The rivers will emit a stench,

The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;

The reeds and rushes will rot away.

The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile

And all the sown fields by the Nile

Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

And the fishermen will lament,

And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn,

And those who spread nets on the waters will languish.

Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax

And the weavers of white cloth will be ashamed.

And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed;

All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

The princes of Zoan are merely ignorant fools;

The counsel of Pharaoh’s wisest counselors has become senseless.

How can you men say to Pharaoh,

“I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old”?

Well then, where are your wise men?

Please let them tell you,

And let them understand what Yahweh of hosts

Has counseled against Egypt.

The princes of Zoan have acted as ignorant fools,

The princes of Memphis are deluded;

Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes

Have led Egypt astray.

Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;

They have led Egypt astray in all that it does,

As a drunken man strays into his vomit.

There will be no work for Egypt

Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

Yahweh Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

16 In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the counsel of Yahweh of hosts which He is counseling against them. 18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to Yahweh of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction. 19 In that day there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yahweh near its border. 20 And it will become a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them. 21 Thus Yahweh will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make a vow to Yahweh and pay it. 22 And Yahweh will smite Egypt, smiting but healing; so they will return to Yahweh, and He will be moved by their entreaty and will heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

Luke 11

The Lord’s Prayer

And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 And He said to them, “When you pray, say:

‘Father, hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins,

For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.’”

5 Then He said to them, “Which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot rise up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. 11 But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

A Kingdom Divided

14 And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. Now it happened that when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” 16 And others, testing Him, were seeking from Him a sign from heaven. 17 But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself falls. 18 But if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 19 And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason, they will be your judges. 20 But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. 22 But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. 23 He who is not with Me is against Me and he who does not gather with Me, scatters. 24 “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” 27 Now it happened that while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” 28 But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

The Sign of Jonah

29 Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 33 “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light, but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Therefore watch out that the light in you is not darkness. 36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.”

Woes to the Pharisees and Lawyers

37 Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have a meal with him. And He went in and reclined at the table. 38 But when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. 39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. 40 You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. 42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” 45 Now one of the scholars of the Law answered and said to Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.” 46 But He said, “Woe to you scholars of the Law as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them. 48 So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ 52 Woe to you, scholars of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” 53 And when He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, 54 plotting to catch Him in something He might say.

Psalm 45

Your Throne, O God, Is Forever

For the choir director. According to Shoshannim. Of the sons of Korah. A Maskil. A Song of Love.

My heart overflows with a good theme;

I address my verses to the King;

My tongue is the pen of a skillful scribe.

You are fairer than the sons of men;

Grace is poured upon Your lips;

Therefore God has blessed You forever.

Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One,

In Your splendor and Your majesty!

And in Your majesty ride on victoriously,

For the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;

Let Your right hand teach You awesome things.

Your arrows are sharp;

The peoples fall under You;

Your arrows are in the heart of the King’s enemies.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;

A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You

With the oil of joy above Your companions.

All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;

Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.

Kings’ daughters are among Your noble ladies;

At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear:

Forget your people and your father’s house;

Then the King will desire your beauty.

Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him.

The daughter of Tyre will come with a present;

The rich among the people will seek your favor.

The King’s daughter is all glorious within her chamber;

Her clothing is interwoven with gold.

She will be led to the King in embroidered work;

The virgins, her companions who follow her,

Will be brought to You.

They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing;

They will enter into the King’s palace.

In place of your fathers will be your sons;

You shall set them up as princes in all the earth.

I will cause Your name to be remembered from generation to every generation;

Therefore the peoples will give You thanks forever and ever.