Day 274 of 365

Isa 55:1–57:21

55:1 "Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

55:2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

55:3 Turn your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

55:4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.

55:5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know; and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you."

55:6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call you on him while he is near:

55:7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," says the Lord.

55:9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

55:10 For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn't return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

55:11 so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do.

55:12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.

55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

56:1 Thus says the Lord, "Keep justice, and do righteousness; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

56:2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil."

56:3 Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, "The Lord will surely separate me from his people"; neither let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree."

56:4 For thus says the Lord, "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:

56:5 to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

56:6 Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;

56:7 even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."

56:8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, "Yet will I gather others to him, besides his own who are gathered."

56:9 All you animals of the field, come to devour, all you animals in the forest.

56:10 His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can't bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

56:11 Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

56:12 "Come," say they, "I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, great beyond measure."

57:1 The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil.

57:2 He enters into peace; they rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness.

57:3 "But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the prostitute.

57:4 Against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and stick out your tongue? Aren't you children of disobedience, a seed of falsehood,

57:5 you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

57:6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they are your lot; you have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?

57:7 On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed; there also you went up to offer sacrifice.

57:8 Behind the doors and the posts you have set up your memorial: for you have uncovered to someone besides me, and have gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them: you loved their bed where you saw it.

57:9 You went to the king with oil, and increased your perfumes, and sent your ambassadors far off, and debased yourself even to Sheol.

57:10 You were wearied with the length of your way; yet you did not say, 'It is in vain.' You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren't faint.

57:11 "Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven't I held my peace even of long time, and you do not fear me?

57:12 I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they shall not profit you.

57:13 When you cry, let those who you have gathered deliver you; but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain."

57:14 He will say, "Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people."

57:15 For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

57:16 For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls who I have made.

57:17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and struck him; I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

57:18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

57:19 I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near," says the Lord; "and I will heal them."

57:20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.

57:21 "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

1 Cor 15:29–58

29 Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?

30 Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?

31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

32 If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

33 Do not be deceived! "Evil companionships corrupt good morals."

34 Wake up righteously, and do not sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

35 But someone will say, "How are the dead raised?" and, "With what kind of body do they come?"

36 You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.

37 That which you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.

38 But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.

39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.

40 There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.

41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.

43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.

45 So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

46 However that which is spiritual is not first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.

47 The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is from heaven.

48 As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

49 As we have borne the image of those made of dust, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

50 Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

55 "Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?"

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Job 18:9–21

9 A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him.

10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him in the way.

11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall chase him at his heels.

12 His strength shall be famished. Calamity shall be ready at his side.

13 The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members.

14 He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts. He shall be brought to the king of terrors.

15 There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.

16 His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off.

17 His memory shall perish from the earth. He shall have no name in the street.

18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

19 He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he sojourned.

20 Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn't know God."