Day 268 of 365

Isa 40:1–41:29

40:1 "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.

40:2 "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."

40:3 The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.

40:4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.

40:5 The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it."

40:6 The voice of one saying, "Cry!" One said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades, because the Lord's breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.

40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever."

40:9 You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God!"

40:10 Behold, the Lord God will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

40:11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.

40:12 Who has measured the waters of the sea in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

40:13 Who has known the mind of the Lord, or has taught him as his counselor?

40:14 Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

40:15 Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

40:16 Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.

40:17 All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

40:18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?

40:19 A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.

40:20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved.

40:21 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?

40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;

40:23 who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless.

40:24 They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

40:25 "To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.

40:27 Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"

40:28 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

40:29 He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.

40:30 Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;

40:31 But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

41:1 "Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let's meet together for judgment.

41:2 Who has raised up one from the east? Whom he called to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.

41:3 He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.

41:4 Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he."

41:5 The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come.

41:6 Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, "Be strong!"

41:7 So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

41:8 "But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,

41:9 You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;'

41:10 Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

41:11 Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.

41:12 You will seek them, and won't find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.

41:13 For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, 'Do not be afraid. I will help you.'

41:14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you," says the Lord, "and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

41:15 Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.

41:16 You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in the Lord. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

41:17 The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

41:18 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

41:19 I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;

41:20 that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

41:21 Produce your cause," says the Lord. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob.

41:22 "Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

41:23 Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.

41:24 Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.

41:25 "I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.

41:26 Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, 'He is right?' Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.

41:27 I am the first to say to Zion, 'Behold, look at them;' and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.

41:28 When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.

41:29 Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.

1 Cor 11:1–34

1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

2 Now I praise you, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.

3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.

5 But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved.

6 For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.

7 For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.

8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man;

9 for neither was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.

10 For this cause the woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.

11 Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord.

12 For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God.

13 Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?

14 Doesn't even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

16 But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God's churches.

17 But in giving you this command, I do not praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.

18 For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.

19 For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.

20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat.

21 For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.

22 What, do you not have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God's church, and put them to shame who do not have? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you.

23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me."

25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me."

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord's cup in a manner unworthy will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.

29 For he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not discern the body.

30 For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

31 For if we discerned ourselves, we would not be judged.

32 But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

33 Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait one for another.

34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.

Ps 114:1–115:18

114:1 When Israel went forth out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language;

114:2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

114:3 The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.

114:4 The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.

114:5 What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?

114:6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs?

114:7 Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

114:8 who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.

115:1 Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth's sake.

115:2 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God, now?"

115:3 But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.

115:4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

115:5 They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see.

115:6 They have ears, but they do not hear. They have noses, but they do not smell.

115:7 They have hands, but they do not feel. They have feet, but they do not walk, neither do they speak through their throat.

115:8 Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.

115:9 Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

115:10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

115:11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

115:12 The Lord remembers us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.

115:13 He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great.

115:14 May the Lord increase you more and more, you and your children.

115:15 Blessed are you by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

115:16 The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; but the earth has he given to the children of men.

115:17 The dead do not praise Yah, neither any who go down into silence;

115:18 But we will bless Yah, from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!