Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Isaiah 1:1-11


The avision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem bin the days of cUzziah, dJotham, eAhaz, and fHezekiah, kings of Judah.

The Wickedness of Judah

gHear, O heavens, and give ear, O hearth;
for the Lord has spoken:
“Children1 ihave I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox jknows its owner,
and the donkey its master's crib,
but Israel does jnot know,
my people do not understand.”
Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
koffspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
they have ldespised mthe Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly nestranged.
Why will you still be ostruck down?
Why will you pcontinue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.
qFrom the sole of the foot even to the head,
there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores
and raw wounds;
they are rnot pressed out or bound up
or softened with oil.
sYour country lies desolate;
your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
foreigners devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
And tthe daughter of Zion is left
like a ubooth in a vineyard,
like a lodge in a cucumber field,
like a besieged city.
vIf the Lord of hosts
had not left us wa few survivors,
we should have been like xSodom,
and become like xGomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of yzSodom!
Give ear to the teaching2 of our God,
you people of zGomorrah!
11 a“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Isaiah 2:1-5 & Psalm 122


Isaiah 2:1-5

The Mountain of the Lord

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
lIt shall come to pass in the latter days
that mthe mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and nall the nations shall flow to it,
and omany peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For pout of Zion shall go the law,1
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
qand they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
rnation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in sthe light of the Lord.

Psalm 122

Let Us Go to the House of the Lord

A Song of mAscents. Of David.

122 I was glad when they said to me,
g“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
Our feet have been standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem!
Jerusalem—hbuilt as a city
that is ibound firmly together,
to which the tribes jgo up,
the tribes of the Lord,
as was kdecreed for1 Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
There lthrones for judgment were set,
the thrones of the house of David.
mPray for the peace of Jerusalem!
“May they be secure who love you!
Peace be within your nwalls
and security within your ntowers!”
For my brothers and companions' sake
I will say, o“Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will pseek your good.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Genesis 1-2


The Creation of the World

In the abeginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth wasbwithout form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, c“Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, d“Let there be an expanse1 in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made2 the expanse and eseparated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were fabove the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.3 And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And God said, g“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth,4and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, h“Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants5 yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for isigns and for jseasons,6 and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God kmade the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to lrule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds7 fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So mGod created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, n“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, o“Let us make man8 in our image, pafter our likeness. And qlet them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
rmale and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, s“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. tYou shall have them for food. 30 And uto every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 vAnd God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The Seventh Day, God Rests

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and wall the host of them. And xon the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

The Creation of Man and Woman

yThese are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
When no zbush of the field1 was yet in the land2 and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man ato work the ground, and a mist3 was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed the man of bdust from the ground and cbreathed into his dnostrils the breath of life, and ethe man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a fgarden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. gThe tree of life was in the midst of the garden, hand the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of iHavilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the jTigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man kand put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lyou shall not eat, for in the day that you eat4 of it you mshall surely die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; nI will make him a helper fit for5 him.” 19 oNow out of the ground the Lord God had formed6every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and pbrought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam7 there was not found a helper fit for him.21 So the Lord God caused a qdeep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made8 into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is rbone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was staken out of Man.”9
24 tTherefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.