Isaiah 18 - 19, Luke 11, Psalm 45 — Legacy Standard Bible

A Message to Ethiopia

18Alas, O land of whirring wingsWhich lies beyond the rivers of ¹^,^aEthiopia,²Which sends envoys by the sea,Even in ^apapyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.Go, swift messengers, to a nation ¹^,^btall and smooth,To a people ^cfeared ²far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nationWhose land the rivers divide.³^aAll you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, ^byou will see it,And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

⁴For thus Yahweh has told me, “I will look ¹from My ^adwelling place quietlyLike dazzling heat in the ²^,^bsunshine,Like a cloud of ^cdew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For ^abefore the harvest, as soon as the bud ¹blossomsAnd the flower becomes a ripening grape,Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knivesAnd remove and cut away the spreading branches.⁶They will be left together for mountain birds ^aof 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.⁷At that time a gift of homage will be brought to Yahweh of hosts¹From a ^apeople ²tall and smooth,Even from a people feared ³far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nation,Whose land the rivers divide—To the ^bplace of the name of Yahweh of hosts, even Mount Zion.

An Oracle Concerning Egypt

19The ¹^,^aoracle concerning ^bEgypt. Behold, Yahweh is ^criding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;The ^didols of Egypt will shake at His presence,And the ^eheart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;And they will ^aeach fight against his brother and each against his neighbor,City against city and kingdom against kingdom.³“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied to destruction within them;And I will confuse their counsel,So that ^athey will seek idols and ghosts of the deadAnd to ¹mediums and spiritists.⁴“Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a ^acruel master,And a ¹strong king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.⁵^aThe waters from the sea will dry up,And the river will be parched and dry.⁶The ^arivers will emit a stench,The ¹^,^bstreams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;^cThe reeds and rushes will rot away.⁷The bulrushes by the ^aNile, by the ¹edge of the NileAnd all the sown fields by the NileWill become dry, be driven away, and be no more.⁸And the ^afishermen will lament,And all those who cast a ¹line into the Nile will mourn,And those who spread nets on the waters will ²languish.⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flaxAnd the weavers of white ^acloth will be ashamed.¹⁰And ¹the ^apillars of Egypt will be crushed;All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.¹¹The princes of ¹^,^aZoan are merely ignorant fools;The counsel of Pharaoh’s wisest counselors has become ²senseless.How can you men say to Pharaoh,“I am a son of the ^bwise, a son of the kings of old”?¹²Well then, where are your wise men?Please let them tell you,And let them ¹understand what Yahweh of hostsHas ^acounseled against Egypt.¹³The princes of ¹Zoan have acted as ignorant fools,The princes of ^aMemphis are deluded;Those who are the ^bcornerstone of her tribes²Have led Egypt astray.¹⁴Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of ^adistortion;^bThey have led Egypt astray in all ¹that it does,As a ^cdrunken man ²strays into his vomit.¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt^aWhich its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

Yahweh Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in ^adread because of the ^bwaving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. ¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a ¹terror to Egypt; everyone ²to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the ^acounsel of Yahweh of hosts which He is counseling against them.

¹⁸In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and ^aswearing allegiance to Yahweh of hosts; one will be called the City of ¹Destruction.

¹⁹In that day there will be an ^aaltar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a ^bpillar to Yahweh near its border. ²⁰And 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 ^aSavior and a ¹^,^bChampion, and He will deliver them. ²¹Thus Yahweh will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. They will even worship with ^asacrifice and offering, and they will make a vow to Yahweh and pay it. ²²And Yahweh will smite Egypt, smiting but ^ahealing; so they will ^breturn to Yahweh, and He will be moved by their entreaty and will heal them.

²³In that day there will be a ^ahighway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will ^bworship with the Assyrians.

²⁴In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is ^aEgypt My people, and Assyria ^bthe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

The Lord’s Prayer

11And it happened that while ¹Jesus 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.” ²And He said to them, “^aWhen you pray, say: ‘¹Father, hallowed be Your name.Your kingdom come.

³‘Give us ^aeach day our ¹daily bread.⁴‘And forgive us our sins,For we ourselves also forgive everyone who ^ais indebted to us.And lead us not into temptation.’”

⁵Then 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, ⁶for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children ¹and 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 ^abecause of his ¹persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹“So I say to you, ¹^,^aask, and it will be given to you; ²seek, and you will find; ³knock, 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 ¹fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? ¹²“Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³“^aIf you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your ¹heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

A Kingdom Divided

¹⁴^aAnd 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. ¹⁵But some of them said, “He casts out demons ^aby ^bBeelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” ¹⁶And others, testing Him, ^awere seeking from Him ¹a sign from heaven. ¹⁷^aBut He knew their thoughts and said to them, “¹Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against ²itself falls. ¹⁸“But if ^aSatan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by ^bBeelzebul. ¹⁹“And if I by ^aBeelzebul 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 ^afinger of God, then ^bthe kingdom of God has come upon you. ²¹“When ¹a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are ²undisturbed. 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“^aHe who is not with Me is against Me and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

²⁴“^aWhen the unclean spirit goes out of ¹a 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.”

²⁷Now it happened that while ¹Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “^aBlessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” ²⁸But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are ^athose who hear the word of God and keep it.”

The Sign of Jonah

²⁹Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “^aThis generation is a wicked generation; it ^bseeks ¹a sign, and yet no ²sign will be given to it but the ³sign of Jonah. ³⁰“For just as ^aJonah became ¹a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹“The ^aQueen 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 ^athey repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

³³“^aNo 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“^aThe eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is ¹clear, your whole body also is full of light, but when it is ²bad, 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

³⁷Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have a meal with him. And He went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸But when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first ¹^,^aceremonially washed before the ²meal. ³⁹But ^athe Lord said to him, “Now ^byou Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but ¹inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. ⁴⁰“^aYou foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹“But ^agive that which is within as charity, and ¹then all things are ^bclean for you.

⁴²“^aBut woe to you Pharisees! For you ^bpay 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 ^alove the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴“^aWoe to you! For you are like ¹concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”

⁴⁵Now one of the ^ascholars of the Law answered and said to Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.” ⁴⁶But He said, “Woe to you ^ascholars of the Law as well! For ^byou weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ⁴⁷“^aWoe to you! For you build the ¹tombs 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 ^athe wisdom of God said, ‘^bI will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will ¹persecute, ⁵⁰so that the blood of all the prophets, shed ^asince the foundation of the world, may be ¹charged against this generation, ⁵¹from ^athe blood of Abel to ^bthe blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be ¹charged against this generation.’ ⁵²“Woe to you, ^ascholars of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; ^byou yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³And when He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, ⁵⁴^aplotting ^bto catch ¹Him in something He might say.

Your Throne, O God, Is Forever

For the choir director. According to ¹Shoshannim. Of the sons of Korah. A ²Maskil. A Song of Love.

My heart ³overflows with a good theme;I ⁴address my ⁵verses to the ⁶King;My tongue is the pen of ^aa skillful scribe.²You are fairer than the sons of men;^aGrace is poured ¹upon Your lips;Therefore God has ^bblessed You forever.³Gird ^aYour sword on Your thigh, O ¹^,^bMighty One,In Your splendor and Your majesty!⁴And in Your majesty ride on victoriously,For the cause of truth and ^ameekness and righteousness;Let Your ^bright hand teach You ¹awesome things.⁵Your ^aarrows are sharp;The ^bpeoples fall under You;Your arrows are ^cin the heart of the King’s enemies.⁶^aYour throne, O God, is forever and ever;A scepter of ^buprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.⁷You have ^aloved righteousness and hated wickedness;Therefore God, Your God, has ^banointed YouWith the oil of joy above Your companions.⁸All Your garments are fragrant with ^amyrrh and aloes and cassia;Out of ivory palaces ^bstringed instruments have made You glad.⁹Kings’ daughters are among ^aYour noble ladies;At Your ^bright hand stands the queen in ^cgold from Ophir.¹⁰Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear:^aForget your people and your father’s house;¹¹Then the King will desire your beauty.Because He is your ^aLord, ^bbow down to Him.¹²The daughter of ^aTyre will come with a present;The ^brich among the people will seek your favor.¹³The King’s daughter is all glorious within her chamber;Her clothing is ^ainterwoven with gold.¹⁴She will be ^aled to the King ^bin embroidered work;The ^cvirgins, her companions who follow her,Will be brought to You.¹⁵They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing;They will enter into the King’s palace.¹⁶In place of your fathers will be your sons;You shall set them up as princes in all the earth.¹⁷I will cause ^aYour name to be remembered from generation to every generation;Therefore the peoples ^bwill give You thanks forever and ever.