Day 254 of 365

Isa 1:1–3:25

1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

1:2 Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

1:3 The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib; but Israel doesn't know, my people do not consider.

1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.

1:5 Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

1:6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven't been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.

1:7 Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

1:8 The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.

1:9 Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.

1:10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

1:11 "What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?," says the Lord. "I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

1:12 When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

1:13 Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can't bear with evil assemblies.

1:14 My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.

1:15 When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

1:16 Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

1:17 Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow."

1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

1:20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it."

1:21 How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

1:22 Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.

1:23 Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

1:24 Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, says: "Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, and avenge myself of my enemies;

1:25 and I will turn my hand on you, thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin.

1:26 I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called 'The city of righteousness, a faithful town.'

1:27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.

1:28 But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

1:29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.

1:30 For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

1:31 The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them."

2:1 This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2:2 It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.

2:3 Many peoples shall go and say, "Come, let's go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

2:4 He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

2:5 House of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

2:6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, with those who practice divination like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.

2:7 Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.

2:8 Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

2:9 Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore do not forgive them.

2:10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.

2:11 The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the haughtiness of men will be bowed down, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

2:12 For there will be a day of the Lord of hosts for all that is proud and haughty, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:

2:13 For all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, for all the oaks of Bashan,

2:14 For all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up,

2:15 For every lofty tower, for every fortified wall,

2:16 For all the ships of Tarshish, and for all pleasant imagery.

2:17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

2:18 The idols shall utterly pass away.

2:19 Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.

2:20 In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

2:21 To go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.

2:22 Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?

3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water;

3:2 the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder,

3:3 the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter.

3:4 I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them.

3:5 The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable.

3:6 Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, "You have clothing, you be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand."

3:7 In that day he will cry out, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. You shall not make me ruler of the people.

3:8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

3:9 The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.

3:10 Tell the righteous "Good!" For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

3:11 Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.

3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.

3:13 The Lord stands up to contend, and stands to judge the peoples.

3:14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and their leaders: "It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The spoil of the poor is in your houses.

3:15 What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?" says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

3:16 Moreover the Lord said, "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet;

3:17 therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and the Lord will make their scalps bald."

3:18 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces,

3:19 the earrings, the bracelets, the veils,

3:20 the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the perfume bottles, the charms,

3:21 the signet rings, the nose rings,

3:22 the fine robes, the capes, the cloaks, the purses,

3:23 the hand mirrors, the fine linen garments, the tiaras, and the shawls.

3:24 It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well set hair, baldness; instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.

3:25–26 Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. Her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit on the ground.

Rom 14:15–15:11

14:15 Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.

14:16 Then do not let your good be slandered,

14:17 for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

14:18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

14:19 So then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up.

14:20 Do not overthrow God's work for food's sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.

14:21 It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles.

14:22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not judge himself in that which he approves.

14:23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it is not of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.

15:1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

15:2 Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.

15:3 For even Christ did not please himself. But, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me."

15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through patience and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

15:5 Now the God of patience and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus,

15:6 that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15:7 Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God.

15:8 Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,

15:9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name."

15:10 Again he says, "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people."

15:11 Again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him."

16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you according to my Good News and the proclaiming of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret through long ages,

16:26 but now is revealed, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known for obedience of faith to all the nations;

16:27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

Job 12:1–17

1 Then Job answered,

2 "No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?

4 I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.

5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

6 The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.

7 "But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.

8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.

9 Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of the Lord has done this,

10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

11 Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

12 With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.

13 "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

16 With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

17 He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.