Day 276 of 365

Isa 61:1–63:19

61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;

61:2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

61:3 to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

61:4 They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

61:5 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

61:6 But you shall be named the priests of the Lord; men will call you the ministers of our God: you will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their glory.

61:7 Instead of your shame you shall have double; and instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be to them.

61:8 "For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

61:9 Their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord has blessed."

61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

61:11 For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

62:1 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.

62:2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

62:3 You shall also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

62:4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.

62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

62:6 I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: you who call on the Lord, take no rest,

62:7 and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

62:8 The Lord has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, "Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored:

62:9 but those who have garnered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; and those who have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary."

62:10 Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Cast up, cast up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.

62:11 Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.'"

62:12 They shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and you shall be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.

63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save."

63:2 Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?

63:3 "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.

63:4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come.

63:5 I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me.

63:6 I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."

63:7 I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

63:8 For he said, "Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely:" so he was their Savior.

63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

63:10 But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought against them.

63:11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put his holy Spirit in their midst?

63:12 who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name?

63:13 who led them through the depths, as a horse in the wilderness, so that they did not stumble?

63:14 As the livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused them to rest; so you led your people, to make yourself a glorious name.

63:15 Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.

63:16 For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.

63:17 O Lord, why do you make us to stray from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance.

63:18 Your holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.

63:19 We have become as they over whom you never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name.

2 Cor 1:1–24

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;

4 who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.

6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.

7 Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.

8 For we do not desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.

9 Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,

10 who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;

11 you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift bestowed on us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf.

12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

13 For we write no other things to you, than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will acknowledge to the end;

14 as also you acknowledged us in part, that we are your boasting, even as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

15 In this confidence, I was determined to come first to you, that you might have a second benefit;

16 and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and to be sent forward by you on my journey to Judea.

17 When I therefore was thus determined, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the "Yes, yes" and the "No, no?"

18 But as God is faithful, our word toward you is not "Yes and no."

19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not "Yes and no," but in him is "Yes."

20 For however many are the promises of God, in him they are "Yes." Therefore also through him they are "Amen," to the glory of God through us.

21 Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God;

22 who also sealed us, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.

23 But I call God for a witness to my soul, that I did not come to Corinth to spare you.

24 Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy. For you stand firm in faith.

Job 19:1–13

1 Then Job answered,

2 "How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?

3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren't ashamed that you attack me.

4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach;

6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

7 "Behold, I cry out 'Injustice!' but there is no justice.

8 He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.

11 He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.

13 "He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.