Day 264 of 365

Isa 30:1–31:9

30:1 "Woe to the rebellious children," says the Lord, "who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,

30:2 who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!

30:3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

30:4 For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.

30:5 They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach."

30:6 The oracle of the animals of the Negev. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.

30:7 For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still.

30:8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.

30:9 For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord;

30:10 who tell the seers, "Do not see!" and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.

30:11 Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."

30:12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it;

30:13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.

30:14 He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won't be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."

30:15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, "You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence." You refused,

30:16 but you said, "No, for we will flee on horses;" therefore you will flee; and, "We will ride on the swift;" therefore those who pursue you will be swift.

30:17 One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

30:18 Therefore the Lord will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.

30:19 For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.

30:20 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore, but your eyes will see your teachers;

30:21 and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."

30:22 You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, "Go away!"

30:23 He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.

30:24 The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

30:25 There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

30:26 Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.

30:27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.

30:28 His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.

30:29 You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the Lord's mountain, to Israel's Rock.

30:30 The Lord will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.

30:31 For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod.

30:32 Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which the Lord will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.

30:33 For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. The Lord's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, and they do not seek the Lord!

31:2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.

31:3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

31:4 For thus says the Lord to me, "As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.

31:5 As birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it."

31:6 Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.

31:7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold-sin which your own hands have made for you.

31:8 "The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor.

31:9 His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner," says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

1 Cor 7:32–8:13

7:32 But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

7:33 but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

7:34 There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world-how she may please her husband.

7:35 This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.

7:36 But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He does not sin. Let them marry.

7:37 But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own heart, to keep his own virgin, does well.

7:38 So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage does better.

7:39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord.

7:40 But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God's Spirit.

8:1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

8:2 But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

8:3 But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.

8:4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one.

8:5 For though there are things that are called "gods," whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many "gods" and many "lords;"

8:6 yet to us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.

8:7 However, that knowledge is not in all men. But some, being so accustomed to idols until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8:8 But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we do not eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.

8:9 But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.

8:10 For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol's temple, won't his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

8:11 And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whom the Christ died.

8:12 Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

8:13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore, that I do not cause my brother to stumble.

Job 15:1–19

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

2 "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?

4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.

7 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

9 What do you know, that we do not know? What do you understand, which is not in us?

10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.

11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?

12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

13 That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

17 "I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:

18 (Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):