Isaiah 52-57
1 Awake, awake, O Zion; put on your strength, O Zion, and put on your glory, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer continue to pass through you. 2 Shake off the dust and rise up. Sit down, O Jerusalem; put off the band from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. 3 For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” 4 Thus says the Lord: “My people went down to Egypt in former times to sojourn there, and they were taken to the Assyrians by force.” 5 So now, why are you here? The Lord says this: “Because My people were taken for nothing, marvel and lament.” The Lord says this: “Because of you, My name is blasphemed continually among the Gentiles. 6 Therefore My people shall know My name in that day, for I am He who speaks. 7 I am present like springtime in the mountains, like the feet of one who announces a good report of peace, like one who preaches good things, for I will cause Your salvation to be heard, saying, ‘O Zion, your God reigns.’ ” 8 For the voice of those who guard you is raised upward, and with their voice they shall be glad together; for their eyes shall be on watch together when the Lord has mercy on Zion. 9 Break forth in gladness together, O desert places of Jerusalem, for the Lord had mercy on her, and has delivered Jerusalem. 10 The Lord will reveal His holy arm before all the Gentiles, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. 11 Depart, depart, go out from there, and do not touch an unclean thing. Separate yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord, 12 because you shall not go forth with tumult, nor will you go by flight. For the Lord will go before you, and the Lord God of Israel shall gather you.
13 Behold, My Servant shall have wisdom, and He shall be exalted and glorified exceedingly. 14 Just as many shall be astonished at You, so Your form and glory shall be dishonored by men. 15 Thus many nations shall marvel at Him, and kings shall shut their mouth, because they to whom no report was brought concerning Him shall see; and they who did not hear shall understand.
1 O Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? 2 We proclaimed His presence as a Child, as a Root in a thirsty land. He had no form or glory, and we saw Him; and He had no form or beauty. 3 But in comparison to all men, His form was lacking in honor. He was a man in suffering and knew how to bear sickness. His face was turned away, and He was dishonored and not esteemed. 4 He bears our sins and suffers for us, yet we considered Him to be in pain, suffering, and ill-treatment. 5 But He was wounded because of our lawlessness, and became sick because of our sins. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruise we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Man has gone astray in his way, and the Lord delivered Him over for our sins. 7 Although He was ill-treated, He opened not His mouth. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before his shearers, so He opens not His mouth. 8 In His humiliation His judgment was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth, and because of the lawlessness of My people He was led to death. 9 I will appoint evil men for His burial and rich men for His death, because He committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in His mouth. 10 The Lord wishes to cleanse Him of His wound, and if You give an offering for sin, Your soul shall see a long-lived seed. 11 The Lord wishes to take away the pain of His soul, to show Him light, to form Him with understanding, and to pronounce righteous the Righteous One who serves many well; and He shall bear their sins. 12 Therefore He shall inherit many, and will divide the spoil with the strong, because His soul was delivered over to death. He was considered among the lawless, and He bore the sins of many, and was delivered over because of their sins.
1 “Be glad, O barren woman who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in travail, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. 2 “Enlarge the place of your tent and courtyard; set it up; do not avoid it; lengthen your ropes and strengthen your pegs. 3 Spread out further to the right and the left, and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles. You shall cause the desolate cities to be inhabited. 4 Fear not that you were shamed, neither be confounded and disgraced; for you will forget your former shame and will not remember the disgrace of your widowhood. 5 For it is the Lord who is your Maker; the Lord of hosts is His name. He is your Deliverer, and He shall be called the God of Israel by all the earth. 6 The Lord has not called you like a woman forsaken and fainthearted, nor like a wife hated from her youth,” says your God. 7 “I forsook you for a short while, but with great compassion I will have mercy on you. 8 In a little anger I turned away My face from you, but in everlasting compassion I will have mercy on you,” says the Lord who delivered you. 9 “This little anger is to Me as it was at the time of Noah’s Flood, when I swore to him regarding the earth, that I would no longer be angry with it, neither would I again threaten to remove its mountains nor move its hills. 10 So neither shall My compassion fail you, nor shall your covenant of peace be removed; for the Lord who is merciful to you has spoken.
11 “Servile and unstable, you were not comforted. Behold, I am preparing you carbuncle for your stone and sapphire for your foundations, 12 and I will make your battlements jasper and your gates crystal stones, and the enclosing wall of your temple choice stones. 13 I will cause all your children to be taught by God, and your children to be in great peace. 14 You shall be built in righteousness. Keep away from wrongdoing, and you will not be afraid, and trembling shall not come near you. 15 Behold, resident aliens shall come to you because of Me, and they shall flee to you. 16 Behold, I created you, not as a metalworker who blows coals in the fire and brings out a vessel fit for work; and I created you, not for ruin so as to destroy you. 17 I will not prosper any instrument of destruction used against you, and every voice raised against you in judgment, you shall overcome them all; and your adversaries shall be judged guilty. This is the inheritance for those who serve the Lord, and you shall be my righteous ones,” says the Lord.
1 “You who are thirsty, go to the water, and all who have no money, go and buy wine and fat, and eat and drink without money and price. 2 Why do you value at the price of money, and give your toil for what does not satisfy? Listen to Me and eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things. 3 Incline your ears and follow my ways. Listen to Me, and your soul shall live in good things; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the holy and faithful things of David. 4 Behold, I made him a witness among the Gentiles, a ruler and commander to the Gentiles. 5 The Gentiles, which did not know you, shall call upon you, and the peoples who did not understand you shall take refuge in you, because of your God, the Holy One of Israel; for He glorified you.”
6 Seek God, and when you find Him, call upon Him when He draws near to you. 7 Let the ungodly man abandon his ways, and the lawless man his counsels; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; for He shall forgive your sins abundantly. 8 “For My counsels are not as your counsels, neither are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “But as heaven is distant from earth, so is My way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My mind. 10 For as rain comes down, or snow from heaven, and does not return until it saturates the earth, and it brings forth and produces, and gives seed to the sower and bread for food, 11 so shall My word be, whatever proceeds from My mouth. It shall not return until it accomplishes whatever I willed, and I shall prosper your ways and My commandments. 12 For you shall go forth with gladness and shall be taught with joy, for the mountains and hills shall exult to receive you with joy; and all the trees of the field shall applaud with their branches. 13 Instead of the broom-tree shall come up the cypress, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and the Lord shall be for a name and for an everlasting sign, and He shall not fail.”
1 The Lord says this: “Guard judgment and do righteousness, for My salvation draws near, and My mercy shall be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man who does these things, and the man who lays hold on them; and who keeps the Sabbaths, so as not to profane them, and keeps his hand free from wrongdoing.” 3 Let not the foreigner who is devoted to the Lord say, “The Lord therefore will separate me from His people,” and let not the eunuch say, “I am a withered tree.” 4 The Lord says this to the eunuchs: “As many as keep My Sabbaths, and choose the things I will, and lay hold of My covenant, 5 I will give them a notable place in My house and within My wall, a place better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an eternal name, and it shall not fail. 6 I will also give an eternal name to the foreigners who devote themselves to the Lord, to serve Him and to love His name, to be His male and female servants, and to all who keep My Sabbaths so as not to profane them, and who hold fast to My covenant. 7 I will lead them to My holy mountain and gladden them in My house of prayer. Their whole burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon My altar, for My house shall be called House of Prayer for All Nations,” 8 says the Lord who gathers the dispersed of Israel; “for I will gather together a congregation to Him.”
9 All you wild animals of the fields and all you wild animals of the thicket, come and eat. 10 See, all are blinded; they do not know how to be discerning; all are dumb dogs unable to bark; dozing on a bed, loving to sleep. 11 They are shameless dogs in their soul and do not know satisfaction. They are evil and have no understanding. All follow their own ways, each according to his own will.
1 See how the righteous man perishes, and no one takes it to heart. Righteous men are taken away, and no one notices it; and the righteous man is taken away from the presence of wrongdoing. 2 His burial shall be in peace, for he was taken from the midst of it. 3 “But come here, you lawless sons, a seed of adulterers and of a prostitute. 4 In whom did you delight? And against whom did you open your mouth? Against whom did you loosen your tongue? Are you not the children of destruction, a lawless seed? 5 You are those who call upon their idols under leafy trees and slay their children in the midst of the rocks. 6 That is your portion, this is your lot, for you poured out drink offerings to them, and to them you offered up sacrifices; therefore, shall I not be angry for these things? 7 On a high and lofty mountain, there was your bed, and there you carried up your sacrifices. 8 Also behind the posts of your door, you put your memorials. You supposed if you departed from Me, it would be a better thing. You loved those who slept with you, 9 and multiplied your fornication with them. You increased their number far away from you, and sent ambassadors beyond your borders. You turned aside and humbled yourselves, even to Hades. 10 You grew weary with many ways, but you did not say, ‘I will cease strengthening myself,’ for you practiced these things; therefore, you did not supplicate Me. 11 Whom did you respect and fear, so as to lie to Me, and not remember Me, nor take Me into your heart and mind? So when I see you, I disregard you, for you do not fear Me. 12 And I will declare My righteousness, and your evils, which will not profit you. 13 When you cry out, let them deliver you in your tribulation, for wind and storm will take them and carry them all away. But those who hold fast to Me shall possess the land and inherit My holy mountain. 14 They shall say, ‘Cleanse the ways before His face, and take away the obstacles from the way of My people.’ ”
15 The Lord, the Most High who dwells on high forever, the Holy One among His saints, whose name is the Lord Most High, who rests among His saints, and who gives patience to the fainthearted and life to the broken-hearted, says this: 16 “I will not punish you forever, nor will I always be angry with you, for My Spirit shall go forth from Me, and I made every breath. 17 Because of sin for a time I grieved him, and struck him, and turned away My face from him; and he was grieved, and he went on sorrowful in his ways. 18 I saw his ways, and healed him; and I comforted him, and gave him true comfort. 19 There is peace upon peace to those far off and those near; and the Lord says, ‘I will heal them.’ 20 But wrongdoers shall be tossed here and there by waves, and be unable to rest. 21 There is no joy to the ungodly,” says the Lord God.
Psalm 106:1–14
1 Alleluia.
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
For His mercy endures forever.
2 Let those redeemed by the Lord say so,
Whom He redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
3 He gathered them from the countries,
From the east and the west and the north and the south.
4 They were led astray in the desert, in a place without water;
They did not find a road to an inhabited city;
5 While hungering and thirsting,
Their soul fainted in them;
6 And they cried out to the Lord in their affliction,
And He delivered them from their distresses;
7 And He led them in a straight path,
So they might go to a city of habitation.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His mercies
And His wonders to the sons of men;
9 For He fed the empty soul
And filled the hungry soul with good things,
10 Those sitting in the darkness and shadow of death,
Bound in poverty and fetters;
11 For they rebelled against the teachings of God
And provoked the counsel of the Most High;
12 Thus their heart was humbled by troubles;
They were weak, and there was no one to help them;
13 Then they cried out to the Lord in their afflictions,
And He saved them from their distresses;
14 And He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains to pieces.
Proverbs 23:19–23
19 Hear, my son, and become wise,
And direct aright the thoughts of your heart.
20 Do not be a wine-bibber,
Neither provide contributions of meats or goods at drinking parties.
21 For every drunkard and fornicator shall become impoverished,
And every sluggard shall clothe himself with tattered and ragged garments.
22 Hear, my son, your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother because she has grown old.
23 A righteous father rears his child well,
And his soul rejoices in a wise son.
Hebrews 5
1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.
3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.
4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
A Priest Forever
5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:
“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.”
6 As He also says in another place:
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek”;
7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,
8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”
11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Spiritual Immaturity
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Dear Father: your love of God’s word is contagious – thank you. My wife and I noticed substantive differences in today’s Isaiah reading from the Septuagint as compared to Western English Bibles. We’re wondering if you have reason to believe that the Book of Isaiah was more heavily edited in the creation of the Masoretic (Western) text than other parts of the Old Testament and, if so, why? It’s possible that we are just more familiar with well-known passages from Isaiah in the Masoretic/Western texts and that’s what’s jumping out at us. Thanks again
I am not a biblical scholar. Though I do think you are correct in the recognition that we tend to be more familiar with the Masoretic text from the common English translations of the Old Testament. The Masoretic text was completed around the 10th century AD. The Septuagint was finished around 200-150 BC. For much of the Old Testament, though the wording is sometimes a bit different in the Septuagint when compared the the Masoretic text, there is not much interpretive difference. The Apostles and Jesus were familiar with the Septuagint since the Masoretic text did not even exist. The earlier Hebrew text may not have existed either at this time. By the late first century BC the Septuagint had virtually replaced the Hebrew text since most people spoke and read Greek as their primary language. And as we can see from St Paul’s and others quotations of the Old Testament, they felt comfortable with the Greek Septuagint. I would still stay, however, the for the majority of the Old Testament, the Masoretic and Septuagint, pose little difference in interpretation. There are a few places where they do so it is good to know the background of these texts.
Praying for your and citizens of SE U.S. : safety from the storm approaching. May God’s long arm protect you all.
We are praying for everyone. For us in Broward and Palm Beach County, it was very minor though we did lose power for about 8 hours. Thank you for your prayers.