Isaiah 14
1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel to take rest in their land. The sojourner will be added to them, and they will be added to the house of Jacob.†
2 Then the Gentiles will take them and bring them to their place. They will inherit them, and they will multiply in God’s land as male and female servants. Those who captured them shall be captives to them, and those who ruled over them shall be ruled by them.
3 Then it shall come to pass in that day that God will give you rest from your sorrow and anger and your hard slavery in which you served them.
4 You shall take up this lamentation against the king of Babylon, and will say in that day, “How the exacter has ceased, and the compeller ceased!†
5 God broke the yoke of sinners in pieces, the yoke of the rulers, and
6 in His anger He struck a nation with an incurable wound; and striking a nation with a plague of anger, which did not spare them,
7 He rested in confidence. All the earth cries aloud with gladness.
8 Indeed, the trees of Lebanon rejoice against you and the cedar of Lebanon, saying, ‘From the time you fell asleep, no one has come up to cut us down.’
9 Hades from below was embittered to meet you. All the mighty who ruled over the earth rose up to meet you. Those who raised from their thrones all the kings of the nations,
10 all shall answer and say to you, ‘You also were conquered, even as we, and are numbered among us.
11 Your glory and great gladness have come down to Hades. They will spread decay under you, and the worm will be your covering.’
12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who rose up in the morning! He who sends for all the nations is crushed to the earth.†
13 For you said in your mind, ‘I will ascend into heaven; I will place my throne above the stars of heaven. I will sit on a lofty mountain, on the lofty mountains toward the north.
14 I will ascend above the clouds; I will be like the Most High.’
15 But now you shall descend to Hades, to the foundations of the earth.
16 Those who see you will marvel at you, and they will say, ‘This is the man who greatly upset the earth, who shook kingdoms,
17 and who made all the inhabited world a desert. He destroyed its cities, and did not set free those in captivity.’
18 All the kings of the nations sleep in honor, every man in his house.
19 But you shall be cast forth on the mountains like a loathsome dead person, with many dead pierced with swords who go down into Hades; and as a garment defiled in blood, you will not be clean.
20 So you will not be clean, because you destroyed My land and killed My people. You, an evil seed, will not endure forever.
21 Prepare your children for slaughter for the sins of their father, that they may not arise and inherit the earth, and fill it with wars.”
22 “For I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will destroy their name, their remnant and their seed”—so says the Lord—
23 “and I will make Babylon a desert, that hedgehogs may dwell there; and it shall come to nothing; and I will make it a pit of clay for destruction.”
24 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “As I said, so it shall come to pass. As I purposed, so it shall remain—
25 to destroy the Assyrians in My land and on My mountains. They shall be for trampling underfoot, and their yoke shall be taken away; and their renown shall be removed from their shoulders.”
26 This is the purpose the Lord purposed upon all the inhabited world. His hand is lifted up over all the nations of the inhabited earth.
27 For who will reject what the holy God purposed? Who will turn away His uplifted hand?
28 In the year King Ahaz died, this word came:
29 “Do not be glad, all you foreigners, for the yoke of him who struck you is broken to pieces. For from the seed of serpents shall come forth the young asps, and their offspring shall be flying serpents.
30 The poor will be fed by him, and poor men will rest in peace, but he shall destroy your seed with hunger, and he will destroy your remnant.
31 Wail, gates of the cities, cry out, troubled cities, even all the foreigners, for smoke is coming from the north, and you will be no more!”
32 What will the kings of the nations answer? For the Lord founded Zion, and the humble of His people shall be saved.†
Psalms 69
1 For the End; by David; in remembrance, †
2 that the Lord may save me. O God, make haste to help me.
3 May those who seek my soul be dishonored and shamed; May those who plot evils against me be turned back and disgraced;
4 May those be turned back immediately Who shame me, saying, “Well done! Well done!”
5 May all who seek You greatly rejoice and be glad in You, And let those who love Your salvation always say, “Let God be magnified.”
6 But I am poor and needy; O God, help me. You are my helper and deliverer, O Lord; do not delay.
Proverbs of Solomon 14
16 A wise man fears and turns away from evil, But a man without discernment persuades himself to mingle with a lawless man.
17 A quick-tempered man acts with recklessness, But a man with discernment bears many things.†
18 Men without discernment will share in evil, But the astute will take hold of perception.†
19 Evil men will slip and fall in the presence of good men, And the ungodly shall serve at the gate of the righteous.
20 Friends will hate poor friends, But the friends of the rich are many.
2 Corinthians 10
Spiritual Warfare
1 Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.†
2 But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.†
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,†
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Paul’s Authority in Christ
7 Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s.†
8 For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed—
9 lest I seem to terrify you by letters.
10 “For his letters,” they say, “ are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”
11 Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present.
The Sphere of Labor
12 For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.†
13 We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us—a sphere which especially includes you.
14 For we are not overextending ourselves (as though our authority did not extend to you), for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ;
15 not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere,
16 to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s sphere of accomplishment.
17 But “he who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”
18 For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.