Isaiah 41 - 42, John 7-8:11, Psalms 69 - 70

Do Not Fear, for I Am with You

41“^aCoastlands, listen to Me ^bin silence,And let the peoples ^cgain new power;^dLet them come forward, then let them speak;^eLet us draw near together for judgment.²“^aWho has awakened one from the eastWhom He ^bcalls in righteousness to His ¹feet?He ^cgives up nations before himAnd ²has dominion over kings.He makes them like ^ddust with his sword,As the wind-driven ^echaff with his bow.³“He pursues them, passing on in peace,By a way he had not ¹come with his feet.⁴“^aWho has worked and done it,Calling forth the generations from the beginning?‘^bI, Yahweh, am the first; and with the last, ^cI am He.’”⁵The ^acoastlands have seen and are afraid;The ^bends of the earth tremble;They have drawn near and have come.⁶Each one helps his neighborAnd says to his brother, “Be strong!”⁷So the ^acraftsman strengthens the ^bsmelter,And he who smooths metal with the hammer strengthens him who beats the anvil,Saying of the soldering, “It is good”;And he strengthens it with nails,^cSo that it will not be shaken.⁸“But you, Israel, ^aMy servant,Jacob whom I have chosen,Seed of ^bAbraham My ^cfriend,⁹You whom I have ¹^,^astrongly taken hold of from the ends of the earth,And called from its ^bremotest partsAnd said to you, ‘You are ^cMy servant,I have ^dchosen you and not rejected you.¹⁰‘Do not ^afear, for I am with you;Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.I will make you mighty, surely ^bI will help you;Surely I will uphold you with My righteous ^cright hand.’¹¹“Behold, ^aall those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;^bThose who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.¹²“^aYou will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent.¹³“For I am Yahweh your God, ^awho ¹strongly takes hold of your right hand,Who says to you, ‘^bDo not fear, I will help you.’¹⁴“Do not fear, you ^aworm Jacob, you men of Israel;I will help you,” declares Yahweh, “¹and ^byour Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.¹⁵“Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;^aYou will thresh the ^bmountains and pulverize them,And will make the hills like chaff.¹⁶“You will ^awinnow them, and the wind will carry them away,And the storm will scatter them;But you will ^brejoice in Yahweh;You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.¹⁷“The ¹afflicted and needy are seeking ^awater, but there is none,And their tongue is parched with thirst;I, Yahweh, ^bwill answer them Myself,As the God of Israel I ^cwill not forsake them.¹⁸“I will open ^arivers on the bare heightsAnd springs in the midst of the valleys;I will make ^bthe wilderness a pool of waterAnd the dry land fountains of water.¹⁹“I will put the cedar in the wilderness,The acacia and the ^amyrtle and the ¹olive tree;I will place the ^bjuniper in the desertTogether with the box tree and the cypress,²⁰That ^athey may see and know,And establish and gain insight as well,That the ^bhand of Yahweh has done this,And the Holy One of Israel has created it.²¹“Bring near your case,” Yahweh says.“Bring forward your mighty arguments,”The ^aKing of Jacob says.²²^aLet them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place;As for the ^bformer events, declare what they were,That we may establish our heart on them and know their outcome.Or cause us to hear of what is coming;²³^aDeclare the things that are to come afterward,That we may know that you are gods;Indeed, ^bdo good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.²⁴Behold, ^ayou are nothing,And ^byour work is non-existent;He who chooses you is an ^cabomination.²⁵“I have awakened ^aone from the north, and he has come;From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;And he will come upon officials as upon ^bmortar,Even as the potter treads clay.”²⁶Who has ^adeclared this from the beginning, that we might know?Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?Surely there was ^bno one who declared;Surely there was no one who caused those words to be heard;Surely there was no one who heard your words.²⁷“^aFormerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a ^bmessenger of good news.’²⁸“But ^aI look, and there is no one,And there is no ^bcounselor ¹among themWho, if I ask, can ^crespond with a word.²⁹“Behold, all of them are ¹false;Their ^aworks are ^bnon-existent;Their molten images are ^cwind and utter formlessness.

Yahweh’s Chosen Servant

42“^aBehold, My ^bServant, whom I ¹uphold;My ^cchosen one in whom My ^dsoul is well-pleased.I have put My ^eSpirit upon Him;He will bring forth ^fjustice to the ²nations.²“He will not cry out or raise His voice,Nor make His voice heard in the street.³“A crushed reed He will not breakAnd a faintly burning wick He will not extinguish;He will bring forth ^ajustice in truth.⁴“He will not be ^afaint or crushedUntil He has established justice in the earth;And the ^bcoastlands will wait expectantly for His ¹law.”

⁵Thus says the God, Yahweh, Who ^acreated the heavens and ^bstretched them out,Who spread out the ^cearth and its ¹offspring,Who ^dgives breath to the people on itAnd spirit to those who walk in it,

⁶“I am Yahweh, I have ^acalled You in righteousness;I will also ^btake hold of You by the hand and ^cguard You,And I will give You as a ^dcovenant to the people,As a ^elight to the nations,⁷To ^aopen blind eyes,To ^bbring out prisoners from the dungeonAnd those who inhabit darkness from the prison.⁸“^aI am Yahweh, that is ^bMy name;I will not give My ^cglory to another,Nor My praise to ¹graven images.⁹“Behold, the ^aformer things have come to pass;Now I declare ^bnew things;Before they spring forth I cause you to hear them.”¹⁰Sing to Yahweh a ^anew song,Sing His praise from the ^bend of the earth!^cYou who go down to the sea, ^das well as its fullness.You ^ecoastlands, and those who inhabit them.¹¹Let the ^awilderness and its cities lift up their voices,The villages where ^bKedar inhabits.Let the inhabitants of ^cSela sing aloud,Let them shout for joy from the tops of the ^dmountains.¹²Let them ^agive glory to YahwehAnd declare His praise in the ^bcoastlands.¹³^aYahweh will go forth like a warrior;He will awaken His ^bzeal like a man of war.He will make a loud shout, indeed, He will raise a war cry.He will ^cprevail against His enemies.

Israel’s Blindness and Deafness

¹⁴“^aI have kept silent for a long time;I have kept still and restrained Myself.Now like a woman in labor I will groan;I will both gasp and pant.¹⁵“I will ^alay waste the mountains and hillsAnd dry up all their vegetation;I will ^bmake the rivers into coastlandsAnd dry up the pools of waters.¹⁶“I will ^alead the blind by a way they do not know,In paths they do not know I will guide them.I will ^bmake darkness into light before themAnd ^crugged places into plains.These are the things I will do,And I will ^dnot forsake them.”¹⁷They will be turned back and be ^autterly put to shame,Who trust in graven images,Who say to molten images,“You are our gods.”¹⁸^aHear, you deaf!And look, you blind, that you may see.¹⁹Who is blind but My ^aservant,Or so deaf as My ^bmessenger whom I send?Who is so blind as he that is ¹^,^cat peace with Me,Or so blind as the servant of Yahweh?²⁰^aYou have seen many things, but you do not keep them;Your ears are open, but none hears.²¹Yahweh was pleased for His righteousness’ sakeThat He make the law ^agreat and majestic.²²But this is a people plundered and pillaged as spoil;All of them are ^atrapped in ¹caves,Or are ^bhidden away in prisons;They have become a plunder with none to deliver them,And a spoil, with none to say, “Have them return!”²³Who among you will give ear to this?Who will give heed and hear hereafter?²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned,And in whose ways they ^awere not willing to walk,And whose law they did not ^bobey?²⁵So He poured out on him the heat of His angerAnd the ^afierceness of battle;And it set him aflame all around,Yet he did not know it;And it burned him, but he did not ^bset it upon his heart.

Jesus Teaches at the Feast of Booths

7And after these things Jesus ^awas walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because ^bthe Jews ^cwere seeking to kill Him. ²Now the feast of the Jews, ^athe Feast of Booths, was near. ³Therefore His ^abrothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your ^bdisciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴“For no one does anything in secret ¹when he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself publicly to the world.” ⁵For not even His ^abrothers were believing in Him. ⁶So Jesus *said to them, “^aMy time is not yet here, but your time is always here. ⁷“^aThe world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I bear witness about it, that ^bits deeds are evil. ⁸“Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not ¹yet going up to this feast because ^aMy time has not yet been fulfilled.” ⁹Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰But when His ^abrothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as in secret. ¹¹^aSo the Jews ^bwere seeking Him at the feast and saying, “Where is He?” ¹²And there was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; ^asome were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the crowd astray.” ¹³Yet no one was speaking openly about Him for ^afear of the Jews.

¹⁴But when it was now the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to ^ateach. ¹⁵^aThe Jews then were marveling, saying, “How has this man ^bbecome learned, not having been educated?” ¹⁶So Jesus answered them and said, “^aMy teaching is not Mine, but from Him who sent Me. ¹⁷“^aIf anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God or I speak from Myself. ¹⁸“He who speaks from himself ^aseeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

¹⁹“^aDid not Moses give you the Law? And yet none of you does the Law. Why do you ^bseek to kill Me?” ²⁰The crowd answered, “^aYou have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?” ²¹Jesus answered them, “I did ^aone work, and you all marvel. ²²“For this reason ^aMoses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from ^bthe fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. ²³“^aIf a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? ²⁴“Do not ^ajudge according to appearance, but ¹judge with righteous judgment.”

²⁵So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? ²⁶“And look, He is speaking openly, and they are saying nothing to Him. ^aDo the rulers truly know that this is the ¹Christ? ²⁷“However, ^awe know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.” ²⁸Then Jesus cried out in the temple, ^ateaching and saying, “^bYou both know Me and know where I am from; and ^cI have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. ²⁹“^aI know Him, because ^bI am from Him, and ^cHe sent Me.” ³⁰So they ^awere seeking to seize Him; ¹yet no man laid his hand on Him, because His ^bhour had not yet come. ³¹But ^amany of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, “^bWhen the ¹Christ comes, will He do more ²^,^csigns than this man did?”

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd ¹whispering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent ^aofficers to ^bseize Him. ³³Therefore Jesus said, “^aFor a little while longer I am with you, then ^bI go to Him who sent Me. ³⁴“^aYou will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.” ³⁵^aThe Jews then said to one another, “^bWhere does this man intend to go that we will not find Him? Is He intending to go to ^cthe Dispersion among ^dthe Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶“What is this statement that He said, ‘^aYou will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

³⁷Now on ^athe last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “¹^,^bIf anyone is thirsty, ²let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸“He who believes in Me, ^aas the Scripture said, ‘From ¹his innermost being will flow rivers of ^bliving water.’” ³⁹But this He spoke ^aof the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were going to receive; for ^bthe Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet ^cglorified.

Division of People over Jesus

⁴⁰Some of the crowd therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This truly is ^athe Prophet.” ⁴¹Others were saying, “This is the ¹Christ.” Still others were saying, “^aNo, for is the ²Christ going to come from Galilee? ⁴²“Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from ^athe seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ⁴³So ^aa division occurred in the crowd because of Him. ⁴⁴^aSome of them were wanting to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

⁴⁵The ^aofficers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” ⁴⁶The ^aofficers answered, “^bNever has a man spoken like this!” ⁴⁷The Pharisees then answered them, “^aHave you also been led astray? ⁴⁸“^aHave any of ^bthe rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? ⁴⁹“But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.” ⁵⁰^aNicodemus (he who came to Him before), being one of them, *said to them, ⁵¹“^aDoes our Law judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing?” ⁵²They answered him, “^aAre you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” ⁵³¹[Everyone went to his home.

An Adulteress Forgiven

8But Jesus went to ^athe Mount of Olives. ²Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and ^aHe sat down and began to teach them. ³The scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, ⁴they *said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. ⁵“Now in the Law ^aMoses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” ⁶They were saying this, ^atesting Him, ^bso that they might have evidence to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. ⁷But when they persisted in asking Him, ^aHe straightened up and said to them, “^bLet him who is without sin among you be the ^cfirst to throw a stone at her.” ⁸Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. ¹⁰^aStraightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” ¹¹She said, “No one, ¹Lord.” And Jesus said, “^aI do not condemn you, either. Go, and from now on ^bsin no more.”]

Save Me, O God

For the choir director. According to ¹Shoshannim. Of David.

Save me, O God,For the ^awaters have ²threatened my life.²I have sunk in deep ^aclay, and there is no foothold;I have come into deep waters, and a ¹^,^bflood overflows me.³I am ^aweary with my calling out; my throat is parched;My ^beyes fail while I wait for my God.⁴Those ^awho hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head;Those who would ¹destroy me ^bare powerful, being wrongfully my enemies;^cWhat I did not steal, I then have to restore.⁵O God, it is You who knows ^amy folly,And ¹^,^ball my guilt is not hidden from You.⁶May those who hope for You not ^abe ashamed through me, O Lord Yahweh of hosts;May those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel,⁷Because ^afor Your sake I have borne reproach;^bDishonor has covered my face.⁸I have become ^aestranged ¹from my brothersAnd a foreigner to my mother’s sons.⁹For ^azeal for Your house has consumed me,And ^bthe reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.¹⁰When I wept ^ain my soul with fasting,It became my reproach.¹¹When I made ^asackcloth my clothing,I became ^ba byword to them.¹²Those who ^adwell at the gate moan about me,And I am ^bthe drunkards’ songs.¹³But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Yahweh, ^aat an acceptable time;O God, in the ^babundance of Your lovingkindness,Answer me with the truth of Your salvation.¹⁴Deliver me from the ^amire and do not let me sink;May I be ^bdelivered from ¹my foes and from the ²^,^cdeep waters.¹⁵May the ¹^,^aflood of water not overflow meNor the deep swallow me up,Nor the ^bpit shut its mouth on me.¹⁶Answer me, O Yahweh, for ^aYour lovingkindness is good;^bAccording to the abundance of Your compassion, ^cturn to me,¹⁷And ^ado not hide Your face from Your slave,For I am ^bin distress; answer me quickly.¹⁸Oh draw near to my soul and ^aredeem it;^bRansom me because of my enemies!¹⁹You know my ^areproach and my shame and my dishonor;All my adversaries are ¹before You.²⁰Reproach has ^abroken my heart and I am so sick.And ^bI hoped for sympathy, but there was none,And for ^ccomforters, but I found none.²¹They also gave me ¹^,^agall ²for my foodAnd for my thirst they ^bgave me vinegar to drink.²²May ^atheir table before them become a snare;And ¹^,^bwhen they are in peace, may it become a trap.²³May their ^aeyes darken so that they cannot see,And make their ^bloins quake continually.²⁴^aPour out Your indignation on them,And may Your burning anger overtake them.²⁵May their ¹^,^acamp be desolate;May none dwell in their tents.²⁶For they have ^apersecuted him whom ^bYou Yourself have struck down,And they recount the pain of those whom ^cYou have ¹wounded.²⁷Add ^ainiquity to their iniquity,And ^bmay they not come into ^cYour righteousness.²⁸May they be ^ablotted out of the ^bbook of lifeAnd may they not be ¹^,^crecorded with the righteous.²⁹But I am ^aafflicted and in pain;¹May Your salvation, O God, ^bset me securely on high.³⁰I will ^apraise the name of God with songAnd ^bmagnify Him with ^cthanksgiving.³¹And this will ^aplease Yahweh better than an oxOr a young bull with horns and hoofs.³²The ^ahumble ¹see it and are glad;You who seek God, ^blet your heart ²revive.³³For ^aYahweh hears the needyAnd ^bdoes not despise His who are prisoners.³⁴Let ^aheaven and earth praise Him,The seas and ^beverything that moves in them.³⁵For God will ^asave Zion and ^bbuild the cities of Judah,That they may dwell there and ^cpossess it.³⁶The ^aseed of His slaves will inherit it,And those who love His name ^bwill dwell in it.

O Yahweh, Do Not Delay

For the choir director. Of David. To bring to remembrance.

^aO God, hasten to deliver me;O Yahweh, hasten to my help!²^aLet those be ashamed and humiliatedWho seek my ¹life;Let those be turned back and dishonoredWho delight in ²evil against me.³^aLet those ¹turn back because of their shameWho say, “Aha, aha!”⁴Let those be joyful and glad in YouAll who seek YouAnd let them say continually,“Let God be magnified,”Those who love Your salvation.⁵But ^aI am afflicted and needy;^bHasten to me, O God!You are my help and my protector;O Yahweh, do not delay.