Isaiah 2 - 3, Luke 3, Psalm 36 — Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh Will Judge the Nations

2The word which ^aIsaiah the son of Amoz beheld concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²Now it will be that^aIn the last daysThe ^bmountain of the house of YahwehWill be established ¹as the head of the mountains,And will be lifted up above the hills;And ^call the nations will stream to it.³And many peoples will come and say,“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh,To the house of the God of Jacob,That He may instruct us ¹from His waysAnd that we may walk in His paths.”For ^afrom Zion the ²law will go forthAnd the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.⁴And He will judge between the nations,And will ¹render decisions for many peoples;And ^athey will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.^bNation will not lift up sword against nation,And never again will they learn war.

Yahweh Will Have a Day of Reckoning

⁵Come, ^ahouse of Jacob, and let us walk in the ^blight of Yahweh.⁶For You have ^aabandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,Because they are filled with influences from the east,And they are soothsayers ^blike the Philistines,And they ^cstrike bargains with the children of foreigners.⁷Their land has also been filled with silver and gold,And there is no end to their treasures;Their land has also been filled with ^ahorses,And there is no end to their chariots.⁸Their land has also been ^afilled with idols;They worship the ^bwork of their hands,That which their fingers have made.⁹So ^athe common man has been bowed down,And the man of importance has been made low,But ^bdo not forgive them.¹⁰^aEnter the rock and hide in the dust^bFrom the dread of Yahweh and from the splendor of His majesty.¹¹The ¹^,^alofty look of ²man will be made low,And the ³^,^bmen made high will be bowed down,And Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.¹²For Yahweh of hosts will have a day of reckoningAgainst ^aeveryone who is proud and highAnd against everyone who is lifted up,That he may be made low.¹³And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,Against all the ^aoaks of Bashan,¹⁴Against all the ^ahigh mountains,Against all the hills that are lifted up,¹⁵Against every ^alofty tower,Against every fortified wall,¹⁶Against all the ^aships of TarshishAnd against all the desirable craft.¹⁷The loftiness of ¹man will be bowed down,And the ²men who are high will be made low;And Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day,¹⁸But the ^aidols will completely vanish.¹⁹Men will ^ago into caves of the rocksAnd into holes of the ¹groundBefore the dread of YahwehAnd the splendor of His majesty,When He arises ^bto make the earth tremble.²⁰In that day men will ^acast away to the moles and the ^bbatsTheir idols of silver and their idols of gold,Which they made for themselves to worship,²¹In order to ^ago into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffsBefore the dread of Yahweh and the splendor of His majesty,When He arises to make the earth tremble.²²¹^,^aStop regarding ²man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;For ³^,^bwhy should he be esteemed?

Yahweh Will Judge Judah’s Leaders

3For behold, the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, ^ais going to remove from Jerusalem and JudahBoth ¹supply and support, the whole ²supply of breadAnd the whole ³supply of water,²^aThe mighty man and the man of war,The judge and the prophet,The diviner and the elder,³The commander of fifty and the ¹highly respected man,The counselor and the wise craftsman,And the experienced enchanter.⁴And I will make ^ayoung men their princes,And ¹capricious children will rule over them,⁵And the people will be ^aoppressed,Each one by another, and each one by his ^bneighbor;The youth will overwhelm the elderAnd the dishonorable, the honorable.⁶When a man ^agrasps his brother in his father’s house, saying,“You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,And these ruins will be under your hand,”⁷He will ¹protest on that day, saying,“I will not be your ²^,^ahealer,For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”⁸For ^aJerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,Because their ^btongue and their deeds are against Yahweh,To ^crebel against ¹His glorious presence.⁹¹The expression of their faces answers against them,And they declare their sin like ^aSodom;They do not even conceal it.Woe to their soul!For they have ^bdealt out evil on themselves.¹⁰Say to the ^arighteous that it will go well with them,For they will eat the fruit of their deeds.¹¹Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,For ¹^,^awhat he has dealt out will be done to him.¹²O My people! Their taskmasters ¹are ^ainfants,And women rule over them.O My people! ^bThose who guide you lead you astrayAnd swallow up the way of your paths.¹³^aYahweh takes His stand to contend,And stands to judge the peoples.¹⁴Yahweh ^aenters into judgment with the elders of His people and His princes,“It is you who have ^bconsumed the vineyard;The ^cplunder robbed of the afflicted is in your houses.¹⁵“What do you mean by ^acrushing My peopleAnd grinding the face of the afflicted?”Declares Lord Yahweh of hosts.

Yahweh Will Judge Zion’s Daughters

¹⁶Moreover, Yahweh said, “Because the ^adaughters of Zion are haughty And walk with outstretched necks and seductive eyes,And go along with mincing stepsAnd tinkle the bangles on their feet,

¹⁷Therefore the Lord will smite the skull of the daughters of Zion with scabs,And Yahweh will make their foreheads bare.”

¹⁸In that day the Lord will remove the beauty of their anklets, headbands, ^acrescent ornaments, ¹⁹dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, ²⁰^aheaddresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, enchanted charms, ²¹¹finger rings, ^anose rings, ²²festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses, ²³hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans, and shawls.

²⁴Now it will be that instead of ¹sweet ^aperfume there will be the smell of rot;Instead of a belt, a rope;Instead of ^bwell-set hair, a ^cplucked-out scalp;Instead of fine clothes, a ^ddonning of sackcloth;And branding instead of beauty.²⁵Your men will ^afall by the swordAnd your ¹mighty ones in battle.²⁶And her ¹^,^agates will lament and mourn,And deserted she will ^bsit on the ground.

The Preaching of John the Baptist

3Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when ^aPontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and ^bHerod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of ^aAnnas and ^bCaiaphas, ^cthe word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. ³And he came into all ^athe district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “^aThe voice of one crying in the wilderness,‘Make ready the way of the ¹Lord,Make His paths straight.

⁵‘^aEvery ravine will be filled,And every mountain and hill will be ¹brought low;The crooked will be straight,And the rough roads smooth.⁶^aAnd all ¹flesh will ^bsee the salvation of God.’”

⁷So he was saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “^aYou brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸“Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and ^ado not begin to say ¹to yourselves, ‘^bWe have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. ⁹“But indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, ^aevery tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰And the crowds were questioning him, saying, “^aThen what should we do?” ¹¹And he would answer and say to them, “The man who has two ¹tunics is to ^ashare with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.” ¹²And ^atax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” ¹³And he said to them, “¹Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.” ¹⁴And soldiers were also questioning him, saying, “What should we also do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or ^aextort anyone, and ^bbe content with your wages.”

¹⁵Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were reasoning in their hearts about John, ^aas to whether he was the ¹Christ, ¹⁶^aJohn answered, saying to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the strap of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷“His ^awinnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but He will burn up the chaff with ^bunquenchable fire.”

¹⁸So with many other exhortations he proclaimed the gospel to the people. ¹⁹But when ^aHerod the tetrarch was reproved by him because of ^bHerodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things which ^cHerod had done, ²⁰Herod also added this to them all: ^ahe locked John up in prison.

The Baptism of Jesus

²¹^aNow it happened that when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was ^bpraying, heaven was opened, ²²and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “^aYou are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

The Genealogy of Jesus

²³^aWhen He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, ¹as was supposed, the son of ^bJoseph, ²the son of ³Eli,

²⁴the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, ²⁵the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of ¹Hesli, the son of Naggai, ²⁶the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, ²⁷the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, ^athe son of Zerubbabel, the son of ¹Shealtiel, the son of Neri, ²⁸the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, ²⁹the son of ¹Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, ³⁰the son of Simeon, the son of ¹Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, ³¹the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, ³²^athe son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of ¹Salmon, the son of ²Nahshon, ³³the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of ¹Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, ³⁴the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, ^athe son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, ³⁵the son of Serug, the son of ¹Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of ²Heber, the son of Shelah, ³⁶the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, ^athe son of Noah, the son of Lamech, ³⁷the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, ³⁸the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

In Your Light We See Light

For the choir director. Of the servant of Yahweh, of David.

¹Transgression declares to the ²ungodly within ³his heart;There is ^ano dread of God before his eyes.²For it ^aflatters him in his eyesFor one to discover his iniquity and hate it.³The ^awords of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;He has ^bceased to consider to do good.⁴He ^adevises wickedness upon his bed;He sets himself on a ^bpath that is not good;He ^cdoes not despise evil.⁵Your ^alovingkindness, O Yahweh, is in the heavens,Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.⁶Your ^arighteousness is like the ¹mountains of God;Your ^bjudgments are like a great deep.O Yahweh, You ^csave man and beast.⁷How ^aprecious is Your lovingkindness, O God!And the sons of men ^btake refuge in the shadow of Your wings.⁸They ¹are ^asatisfied from the ²richness of Your house;And You give them to drink of the ^briver of Your delights.⁹For with You is the ^afountain of life;In Your light we see light.¹⁰Continue Your lovingkindness to ^athose who know You,And Your ^brighteousness to the upright in heart.¹¹Let not the foot of ¹pride come upon me,And let not the hand of the ²ungodly drive me away.¹²There the workers of wickedness have fallen;They have been thrust down and ^acannot rise.