Thursday, 17 October

1.   Thus says the LORD: "Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away. 2.   Why, when I came, was there no man? Why , when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink because there is no water, And die of thirst. 3.   I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering." 4.   "The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned. 5.   The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away. 6.   I gave My back to those who struck Me , And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. 7.   "For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. 8.   He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. 9.   Surely the Lord GOD will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; The moth will eat them up. 10.   "Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness And has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD And rely upon his God. 11.   Look, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled––This you shall have from My hand: You shall lie down in torment.

1.   "Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. 2.   Look to Abraham your father, And to Sarah who bore you; For I called him alone, And blessed him and increased him." 3.   For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness will be found in it, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody. 4.   "Listen to Me, My people; And give ear to Me, O My nation: For law will proceed from Me, And I will make My justice rest As a light of the peoples. 5.   My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait upon Me, And on My arm they will trust. 6.   Lift up your eyes to the heavens, And look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished. 7.   "Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults. 8.   For the moth will eat them up like a garment, And the worm will eat them like wool; But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation from generation to generation." 9.   Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the ancient days, In the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart, And wounded the serpent? 10.   Are You not the One who dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; That made the depths of the sea a road For the redeemed to cross over? 11.   So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 12.   "I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid Of a man who will die, And of the son of a man who will be made like grass? 13.   And you forget the LORD your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens And laid the foundations of the earth; You have feared continually every day Because of the fury of the oppressor, When he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor? 14.   The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed, That he should not die in the pit, And that his bread should not fail. 15.   But I am the LORD your God, Who divided the sea whose waves roared––The LORD of hosts is His name. 16.   And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’" 17.   Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, You who have drunk at the hand of the LORD The cup of His fury; You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, And drained it out. 18.   There is no one to guide her Among all the sons she has brought forth; Nor is there any who takes her by the hand Among all the sons she has brought up. 19.   These two things have come to you; Who will be sorry for you? ––Desolation and destruction, famine and sword––By whom will I comfort you? 20.   Your sons have fainted, They lie at the head of all the streets, Like an antelope in a net; They are full of the fury of the LORD, The rebuke of your God. 21.   Therefore please hear this, you afflicted, And drunk but not with wine. 22.   Thus says your Lord, The LORD and your God, Who pleads the cause of His people: "See, I have taken out of your hand The cup of trembling, The dregs of the cup of My fury; You shall no longer drink it. 23.   But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, Who have said to you, ‘Lie down, that we may walk over you.’ And you have laid your body like the ground, And as the street, for those who walk over."

1.   Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you. 2.   Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion! 3.   For thus says the LORD: "You have sold yourselves for nothing, And you shall be redeemed without money." 4.   For thus says the Lord GOD: "My people went down at first Into Egypt to dwell there; Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 5.   Now therefore, what have I here," says the LORD, "That My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them Make them wail," says the LORD, "And My name is blasphemed continually every day. 6.   Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day That I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.’" 7.   How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things , Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!" 8.   Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, With their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye When the LORD brings back Zion. 9.   Break forth into joy, sing together, You waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. 10.   The LORD has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God. 11.   Depart! Depart! Go out from there, Touch no unclean thing ; Go out from the midst of her, Be clean, You who bear the vessels of the LORD. 12.   For you shall not go out with haste, Nor go by flight; For the LORD will go before you, And the God of Israel will be your rear guard. 13.   Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. 14.   Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men; 15.   So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider.

1.   Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2.   You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3.   You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4.   Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5.   Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"? 6.   But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." 7.   Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8.   Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double–minded. 9.   Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10.   Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. 11.   Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12.   There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? 13.   Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; 14.   whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15.   Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." 16.   But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17.   Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it , to him it is sin.