Isaiah 24 - 25, Luke 14, Psalm 49 — Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh Will Empty the Earth

24Behold, Yahweh ^aempties the earth to destruction, eviscerates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants. ²And the people will be like the priest, the male slave like his master, the female slave like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the ^acreditor like the debtor. ³The earth will be completely emptied to destruction and completely plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴The ^aearth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the ^bexalted of the people of the earth languish. ⁵The earth is also ^apolluted ¹by its inhabitants, for they trespassed laws, violated statutes, ^bbroke the everlasting covenant. ⁶Therefore, a ^acurse devours the earth, and those who inhabit it are held guilty. Therefore, the ^binhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men remain.

⁷The ^anew wine mourns;The vine languishes;All the glad of heart sigh.⁸The ^ajoy of tambourines ceases;The rumbling of those exulting stops;The joy of the harp ceases.⁹They do not drink wine with song;^aStrong drink is ^bbitter to those who drink it.¹⁰The ^acity of chaos is broken down;^bEvery house is shut up so that none may enter.¹¹There is an ^aoutcry in the streets concerning the wine;^bAll gladness ¹turns to gloom.The joy of the earth is taken away into exile.¹²Desolation remains in the city,And the ^agate is struck down to ruins.¹³For ^athus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples,As the ¹shaking of an olive tree,As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.¹⁴^aThey lift up their voices, they shout for joy;They cry out from the ¹west concerning the majesty of Yahweh.¹⁵Therefore ^aglorify Yahweh in the ¹east,The ^bname of Yahweh, the God of Israel,In the ²^,^ccoastlands of the sea.¹⁶From the ^aends of the earth we hear songs, “^bGlory to the Righteous One,”But I say, “¹^,^cI waste away! ²I waste away! Woe is me!The ^dtreacherous deal treacherously,And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”¹⁷^aPanic and pit and pitfallAre upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.¹⁸Then it will be that he who flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit,And he who ¹climbs out of the pit will be caught in the pitfall;For the ^awindows ²above are opened, and the ^bfoundations of the earth quake.¹⁹^aThe earth is broken asunder;The earth is ^bsplit through;The earth is shaken violently.²⁰The earth ^areels to and fro like a drunkardAnd it totters like a ¹shack,For its ^btransgression is heavy upon it,And it will fall, ^cnever to rise again.²¹So it will be in that day,That Yahweh will ^apunish the host of heights on high,And the ^bkings of the earth on earth.²²They will be gathered togetherLike ^aprisoners in the ¹pit,And will be confined in prison;And after many days they will ^bbe punished.²³Then the ^amoon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed,For ^bYahweh of hosts will reign on ^cMount Zion and in Jerusalem,And His glory will be before His elders.

Yahweh Will Swallow Up Death

25O Yahweh, You are ^amy God;I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;For You have ^bworked wonders,^cCounsels formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.²For You have made a city into a ^aheap,A ^bfortified town into a ruin;A ^cpalace of strangers is a city no more,It will never be rebuilt.³Therefore a strong people will ^aglorify You;^bTowns of ruthless nations will fear You.⁴For You have been a ^astrong defense for the poor,A strong defense for the needy in his distress,A ^brefuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;For the breath of the ^cruthlessIs like a rain storm against a wall.⁵Like heat in a dry land, You subdue the ^arumbling of strangers;Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is ¹silenced.⁶^aAnd Yahweh of hosts will prepare a ¹lavish banquet for ^ball peoples on this mountain;A banquet of ²aged wine, ³choice pieces with marrow,And ⁴refined, aged wine.⁷And on this mountain He will swallow up the ¹^,^acovering which is over all peoples,Even the veil which is ²stretched over all nations.⁸He will ^aswallow up death for all time,And Lord Yahweh will ^bwipe tears away from all faces,And He will remove the ^creproach of His people from all the earth;For Yahweh has spoken.⁹And it will be said in that day,“Behold, ^athis is our God in whom we have ^bhoped that ^cHe would save us.This is Yahweh in whom we have hoped;^dLet us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”¹⁰For the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain,And ^aMoab will be trodden down in his placeAs straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.¹¹And he will ^aspread out his hands in the middle of itAs a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,But Yahweh will ^blay low his lofty pride together with the trickery of his hands.¹²The ^aunassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,Lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

14And it happened that when He went into the house of one of the ¹leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, ^athey were watching Him closely. ²And behold, in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³And Jesus answered and spoke to the ^ascholars of the Law and Pharisees, saying, “^bIs it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” ⁴But they were silent. And He took hold of him, healed him, and sent him away. ⁵And He said to them, “¹^,^aWhich one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” ⁶^aAnd they could make no reply to this.

Parable of the Wedding Feast

⁷And He was telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how ^athey were picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ^ado not recline at the place of honor, lest someone more highly regarded than you be invited by him, ⁹and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then ^ain shame you ¹proceed to occupy the last place. ¹⁰“But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, ^amove up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who recline at the table with you. ¹¹“^aFor everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³“But when you give a ¹reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed, since they ¹do not have the means to repay you; for it will be repaid to you at ^athe resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵But when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “^aBlessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

¹⁶And He said to him, “^aA man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many. ¹⁷“And at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a ¹piece of land and I need to go out and look at it. I ask you, consider me excused.’ ¹⁹“And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. I ask you, consider me excused.’ ²⁰“And another one said, ‘^aI have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ ²¹“And when the slave came back, he reported these things to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²²“And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³“And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the ¹fences, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

The Cost of Discipleship

²⁵Now many crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, ²⁶“^aIf anyone comes to Me, and does not ¹hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷“Whoever does not ^acarry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. ²⁸“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? ²⁹“Lest, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, ³⁰saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹“Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and ^aconsider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²“Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends ¹a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³“So then, none of you can be My disciple who ^adoes not give up all his own possessions.

³⁴“Therefore, salt is good, but ^aif even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? ³⁵“It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. ^aHe who has ears to hear, ¹let him hear.”

Why Should I Fear in Days of Evil?

For the choir director. Of the sons of Korah. A Psalm.

^aHear this, all peoples;Give ear, all ^binhabitants of the world,²Both ¹^,^alow and ²high,Rich and poor together.³My mouth will ^aspeak wisdom,And the meditation of my heart will be ^bdiscernment.⁴I will incline my ear to ^aa proverb;^bI will ¹express my ^criddle on the harp.⁵Why should I ^afear in days of evil,When the iniquity of my ¹supplanters surrounds me,⁶Even those who ^atrust in their wealthAnd boast in the abundance of their riches?⁷Truly, no man can ^aredeem his brother;He cannot give to God a ^bransom for him—⁸For ^athe redemption price for their soul is costly,And it ceases forever—⁹That he should ^alive on eternally,That he should not ^bsee ¹corruption.¹⁰For he sees that even ^awise men die;The ¹^,^bfool and the senseless alike perishAnd ^cleave their wealth to others.¹¹Their ¹^,^ainner thought is that their houses ^bare foreverAnd their dwelling places ²from generation to generation;They have ^ccalled their lands after their own names.¹²But ^aman in his honor will not endure;He is like the animals that ¹perish.¹³This is the ^away of those who are foolish,And of those after them who ^bare pleased ¹with their words. ² Selah.¹⁴As sheep they are appointed ^afor Sheol;Death will shepherd them;And the ^bupright shall have dominion over them in the morning,And their form shall be for Sheol ^cto consume,Far away from his habitation.¹⁵But God will ^aredeem my soul from the ¹power of Sheol,For ^bHe will receive me. Selah.¹⁶Do not be afraid ^awhen a man becomes rich,When the ¹glory of his house increases;¹⁷For when he dies he will not ^atake any of it;His ¹glory will not descend after him.¹⁸For while he lives he ^ablesses his soul—And men will praise you when you do well for yourself—¹⁹But his soul shall ^ago to the generation of his fathers;They will eternally not see ^blight.²⁰^aMan in his honor, but who does not understand,Is ^blike the animals that ¹perish.