Isaiah 30 - 31, Luke 17, Psalms 53 - 54

Alliance with Egypt Condemned

30“Woe to the ^arebellious children,” declares Yahweh,“Who ^bexecute counsel, but not Mine,And ¹^,^cmake an alliance, but not of My Spirit,In order to add sin to sin,²Who ^ago down to Egypt—But did not ^bask ¹Me—^cTo find strength in the strong defense of PharaohAnd to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!³“Therefore the strong defense of Pharaoh will be ^ayour shameAnd the refuge in the shadow of Egypt, your dishonor.⁴“For ^atheir princes are at ZoanAnd their messengers reach Hanes.⁵“Everyone will be ^aashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,Who are ^bnot for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”

⁶The ¹oracle concerning the ^abeasts of the ^bNegev. Through a land of ^cdistress and anguish,From ²where come lioness and lion, viper and ^dflying fiery serpent,They ^ecarry their wealth on the ³backs of young donkeysAnd their treasures on ^fcamels’ humps,To a people who cannot profit them;

⁷Even Egypt, whose ^ahelp is vain and empty.Therefore, I have called ¹her“²^,^bRahab who has ceased.”⁸Now go, ^awrite it on a tablet before themAnd inscribe it on a scroll,That it may be in the time to come¹As a witness forever.⁹For this is a ^arebellious people, ^bfalse sons,Sons who are not willing to ^clistenTo the law of Yahweh,¹⁰Who say to the ^aseers, “You must not see,”And to those who have visions, “You must not ^bbehold visions for us of what is right,^cSpeak to us ¹pleasant words,Behold visions of illusions.¹¹“Get out of the way, ^aturn aside from the path,¹^,^bCease speaking before us about the Holy One of Israel.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “^aSince you have rejected this wordAnd have put your trust in ^boppression and deviousness and have relied on them,

¹³Therefore this ^ainiquity will be to youLike a ^bbreach about to fall,A bulge in a high wall,Whose breaking comes ^csuddenly in an instant,¹⁴Whose breaking is like the breaking of a ^apotter’s jar,¹So ruthlessly shatteredThat a potsherd will not be found among its piecesTo ²take fire from a hearthOr to scoop water from a cistern.”

¹⁵For thus Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In ¹repentance and ^arest you will be saved,In ^bquietness and trust is your might.”But you were not willing,

¹⁶And you said, “No, for we will flee on ^ahorses,”Therefore you shall flee!“And we will ride on swift horses,”Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.¹⁷^aOne thousand will flee at the threat of one man;You will flee at the threat of five,Until you are left as a ¹flag on a mountain topAnd as a ²standard on a hill.

Yahweh Is Gracious and Just

¹⁸Therefore Yahweh ^awaits with longing to be gracious to you,And therefore He is on ^bhigh to have compassion on you.For Yahweh is a ^cGod of justice;How blessed are all those who ^dwait for Him.

¹⁹¹O people in Zion, ^ainhabitant in Jerusalem, you will ^bweep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will ^canswer you. ²⁰The Lord has given you ^abread of distress and water of oppression; He, your Teacher will no longer ^bhide Himself, but your eyes will see your Teacher. ²¹And your ears will hear a word behind you, “¹This is the ^away, walk in it,” whenever you ^bturn to the right or to the left. ²²And you will defile your graven ^aimages overlaid with your silver, and your molten ^bimages plated with your gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing and say to ¹them, “^cBe gone!”

²³Then He will ^agive you rain for ¹the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the produce of the ground, and it will be ²rich and fat; on that day ^byour livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. ²⁴Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which ¹has been ^awinnowed with shovel and fork. ²⁵And it will be that on every lofty mountain and on ^aevery lifted up hill there will be ¹streams running with water on the day of the great ^bslaughter, when the towers fall. ²⁶^aAnd the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day ^bYahweh binds up the ^cfracture of His people and ^dheals the bruise ¹He has inflicted.

²⁷Behold, ^athe name of Yahweh comes from afar;^bBurning is His anger and heavy is His ¹smoke;His lips are filled with ^cindignationAnd His tongue is like a ^dconsuming fire;²⁸His ^abreath is like an overflowing torrent,Which ^breaches to the neck,To ^cshake the nations back and forth in a ¹sieve of worthlessness,And to put in the jaws of the peoples ^dthe bridle which staggers one to ruin.²⁹You will have ¹songs as in the night when you set yourself apart as holy for the festival,And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute,To go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel.³⁰And Yahweh will cause ¹His splendid voice to be heard,And the ²descending of His arm to be seen in raging anger,And in the flame of a consuming fireIn cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.³¹For ^aat the voice of Yahweh ^bAssyria will be dismayed,When He strikes with the ^crod.³²And every ¹blow of the ²^,^aappointed staff,Which Yahweh will cause to rest upon him,Will be with the music of ^btambourines and lyres;And in battles, ^cwaving weapons He will fight them.³³For ¹^,^aTopheth has long been ready,Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.He has made it deep and large,²A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;The ^bbreath of Yahweh, like a torrent of ^cbrimstone, sets it afire.

Woe to Those Who Go down to Egypt

31Woe to those who go down to ^aEgypt for helpAnd ^brely on horses,And trust in chariots because they are manyAnd in horsemen because they are very mighty,But they do not have ^cregard for the ^dHoly One of Israel, nor seek Yahweh!²Yet He also is ^awise and will ^bbring about an evil demiseAnd does ^cnot turn His words aside,But will arise against the house of ^devildoersAnd against the help of the ^eworkers of iniquity.³Now the Egyptians are ^amen and not God,And their ^bhorses are flesh and not spirit;So Yahweh will ^cstretch out His hand,And ^dhe who helps will stumble,And he who is helped will fall,And all of them will come to an end together.

⁴For thus says Yahweh to me, “As the ^alion or the young lion growls over its prey,Against which a multitude of shepherds is called out,And it will not be dismayed at their voice nor afflicted at their noise,So will Yahweh of hosts come down to wage ^bwar on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

⁵Like ¹flying ^abirds so Yahweh of hosts will defend Jerusalem.He will ^bdefend and deliver it;He will pass over and provide a way of escape.

⁶^aReturn to Him against whom ¹you have ^bdeeply rebelled, O sons of Israel. ⁷For in that day every man will ^areject his silver idols and his gold idols, which your ^bhands have made for you as ^ca sin.

⁸And the ^aAssyrian will fall by a sword not of man,And a ^bsword not of man will devour him.So he will ¹^,^cflee from the sword,And his choice men will become ^dforced laborers.⁹“His ^arock will pass away because of terror,And his princes will be dismayed at the ^bstandard,”Declares Yahweh, whose ^cfire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Do All Which Jesus Commands

17Now He said to His disciples, “^aIt is ¹inevitable that ²stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come! ²“^aIt ¹would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³“¹Be on your guard! ^aIf your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴“And if he sins against you ^aseven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ ¹forgive him.”

⁵^aAnd the apostles said to ^bthe Lord, “Increase our faith!” ⁶And ^athe Lord said, “If you have faith like ^ba mustard seed, you would say to this ^cmulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would ¹obey you.

⁷“But which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and ¹sit down to eat’? ⁸“But will he not say to him, ‘^aPrepare something for me to eat, and, ¹clothing yourself properly, serve me while I eat and drink; and ²afterward you ³may eat and drink’? ⁹“Is he grateful to the slave because he did the things which were commanded? ¹⁰“In this way, you also, when you do all the things which are commanded of you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”

Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers

¹¹And it happened that while He was ^aon the way to Jerusalem, ^bHe was passing through Samaria and Galilee. ¹²And as He entered a village, ten leprous men who ^astood at a distance met Him. ¹³And they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, ^aMaster, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴When He saw them, He said to them, “^aGo and show yourselves to the priests.” And it happened that as they were going, they were cleansed. ¹⁵Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, ^aglorifying God with a loud voice, ¹⁶and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a ^aSamaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? ¹⁸“¹Was there no one found who turned back to ^agive glory to God, except this foreigner?” ¹⁹And He said to him, “Stand up and go; ^ayour faith has ¹saved you.”

²⁰Now having been questioned by the Pharisees ^aas to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with ¹^,^bsigns to be observed, ²¹nor will ^athey say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘There!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

The Coming of the Son of Man

²²And He said to the disciples, “^aThe days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. ²³“^aAnd they will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them. ²⁴“^aFor just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part ¹of the sky, shines to the other part ²of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. ²⁵“^aBut first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. ²⁶“^aAnd just as it was ^bin the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸“¹It was the same as in ^athe days of Lot—they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; ²⁹but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and ¹brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰“It will be ¹just the same on the day that the Son of Man ^ais revealed. ³¹“On that day, the one who is ^aon the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out, and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. ³²“^aRemember Lot’s wife. ³³“^aWhoever seeks to keep his ¹life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. ³⁴“I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. ³⁵“^aThere will be two women grinding grain at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. ³⁶¹[“^aTwo men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.”] ³⁷And answering they *said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “^aWhere the body is, there also the ¹vultures will be gathered.”

There Is No One Who Does Good

For the choir director. According to ¹Mahalath. A ²Maskil of David.

^aThe wicked fool says in his heart, “There is no God,”They act corruptly, and commit abominable injustice;^bThere is no one who does good.²God looks down from heaven upon the sons of menTo see if there is ^aanyone who has insight,Anyone who ^bseeks after God.³^aEvery one of them has turned back; together they have become ¹worthless;There is no one who does good, not even one.⁴Do the workers of iniquity ^anot know,Who eat up my people as they eat breadAnd do not call upon God?⁵There they were in great dread ^awhere no dread had been;For God ^bscattered the bones of ¹him who encamped against you;You ^cput them to shame, because ^dGod had rejected them.⁶Oh, that ^athe salvation of Israel ¹would come out of Zion!When God ²restores His captive people,³May Jacob rejoice, may Israel be glad.

God Is My Helper

For the choir director. With stringed instruments. A ¹Maskil of David. ²When the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Is not David hiding himself among us?”

O God, save me by ^aYour name,And render justice to me by ^bYour might.²^aO God, hear my prayer;^bGive ear to the words of my mouth.³For strangers have ^arisen against meAnd ^bruthless men have ^csought my ¹life;They have ^dnot set God before them. ² Selah.⁴Behold, ^aGod is my helper;The Lord is among those who ^bsustain my soul.⁵He will ^areturn the evil to my foes;^bDestroy them ^cin Your truth.⁶^aWith a freewill offering I will sacrifice to You;I will give ^bthanks to Your name, O Yahweh, for it is good.⁷For ¹He has ^adelivered me from all ²distress,And my eye has ^blooked in triumph upon my enemies.