Isaiah 29Isaiah 30Hebrews 11.17-40Isaiah 29
1
Ho! Ariel, Ariel, the town against which David made war put year to year, let the feasts come round:
2
And I will send trouble on Ariel, and there will be weeping and cries of grief and she will be to me as Ariel.
3
And I will make war on you like David, and you will be shut in by earthworks, and I will make towers round you.
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And you will be made low, and your voice will come out of the earth, and your words will be low out of the dust and your voice will come out of the earth like that of a spirit, making bird-like noises out of the dust.
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And the army of your attackers will be like small dust, and all the cruel ones like dry stems gone before the wind suddenly it will come about.
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The Lord of armies will come in with thunder and earth-shaking and great noise, with rushing wind and storm, and the flame of burning fire.
7
And all the nations making war on Ariel, and all those who are fighting against her and shutting her in with their towers, will be like a dream, like a vision of the night.
8
And it will be like a man desiring food, and dreaming that he is feasting but when he is awake there is nothing in his mouth: or like a man in need of water, dreaming that he is drinking but when he is awake he is feeble and his soul is full of desire: so will all the nations be which make war on Mount Zion.
9
Be surprised and full of wonder let your eyes be covered and be blind: be overcome, but not with wine go with uncertain steps, but not because of strong drink.
10
For the Lord has sent on you a spirit of deep sleep and by him your eyes, the prophets, are shut, and your heads, the seers, are covered.
11
And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book which is shut, which men give to one who has knowledge of writing, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I am not able to, for the book is shut:
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And they give it to one without learning, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I have no knowledge of writing.
13
And the Lord said, because this people come near to me with their mouths, and give honour to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is false, a rule given them by the teaching of men
14
For this cause I will again do a strange thing among this people, a thing to be wondered at: and the wisdom of their wise men will come to nothing, and the sense of their guides will no longer be seen.
15
Cursed are those who go deep to keep their designs secret from the Lord, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, Who sees us? and who has knowledge of our acts?
16
You are turning things upside down! Is the wet earth the same to you as the one who is forming it? will the thing made say of him who made it, He made me not: or the thing formed say of him who gave it form, He has no knowledge?
17
In a very short time Lebanon will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will seem like a wood.
18
And in that day those whose ears are stopped will be hearing the words of the book and the eyes of the blind will see through the mist and the dark.
19
And the poor will have their joy in the Lord increased, and those in need will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.
20
For the cruel one has come to nothing and those who make sport of the Lord are gone and those who are watching to do evil are cut off:
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Who give help to a man in a wrong cause, and who put a net for the feet of him who gives decisions in the public place, taking away a man's right without cause.
22
For this reason the Lord, the saviour of Abraham, says about the family of Jacob, Jacob will not now be put to shame, or his face be clouded with fear.
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But when they, the children of Jacob, see the work of my hands among them, they will give honour to my name yes, they will give honour to the Holy One of Jacob, and go in fear of the God of Israel.
24
Those whose hearts were turned away from him will get knowledge, and those who made an outcry against him will give attention to his teaching.
Isaiah 30
1
Ho! uncontrolled children, says the Lord, who give effect to a purpose which is not mine, and who make an agreement, but not by my spirit, increasing their sin:
2
Who make a move to go down into Egypt, without authority from me who are looking to the strength of Pharaoh for help, and whose hope is in the shade of Egypt.
3
And the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and your hope in the shade of Egypt will come to nothing.
4
For his chiefs are at Zoan, and his representatives have come to Hanes.
5
For they have all come with offerings to a people of no use to them, in whom is no help or profit, but only shame and a bad name.
6
The word about the Beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and grief, the land of the she-lion and the voice of the lion, of the snake and the burning winged snake, they take their wealth on the backs of young asses, and their stores on camels, to a people in whom is no profit.
7
For there is no use or purpose in the help of Egypt: so I have said about her, She is Rahab, who has come to an end.
8
Now go, put it in writing before them on a board, and make a record of it in a book, so that it may be for the future, a witness for all time to come.
9
For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord:
10
Who say to the seers, See not and to the prophets, Do not give us word of what is true, but say false things to give us pleasure:
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Get out of the good way, turning from the right road do not keep the Holy One of Israel before our minds.
12
For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them:
13
This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall, causing its fall suddenly and in a minute.
14
And he will let it be broken as a potter's vessel is broken: it will be smashed to bits without mercy so that there will not be a bit in which one may take fire from the fireplace, or water from the spring.
15
For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, said, In quiet and rest is your salvation: peace and hope are your strength: but you would not have it so.
16
Saying, No, for we will go in flight on horses so you will certainly go in flight: and, We will go on the backs of quick-running beasts so those who go after you will be quick-footed.
17
A thousand will go in fear before one even before five you will go in flight: till you are like a pillar by itself on the top of a mountain, and like a flag on a hill.
18
For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he may be kind to you and he will be lifted up, so that he may have mercy on you for the Lord is a God of righteousness: there is a blessing on all whose hope is in him.
19
O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping will be ended he will certainly have mercy on you at the sound of your cry when it comes to his ear, he will give you an answer.
20
And though the Lord will give you the bread of trouble and the water of grief, you will no longer put your teacher on one side, but you will see your teacher:
21
And at your back, when you are turning to the right hand or to the left, a voice will be sounding in your ears, saying, This is the way in which you are to go.
22
And you will make unclean what is covering your pictured images of silver, and the plating of your images of gold: you will send them away as an unclean thing, saying, Be gone!
23
And he will give rain for your seed, so that you may put it in the earth and you will have bread from the produce of the earth, good and more than enough for your needs: in that day the cattle will get their food in wide grass-lands.
24
And the oxen and the young asses which are used for ploughing, will have salted grain which has been made free from the waste with fork and basket.
25
And there will be rivers and streams of water on every tall mountain and on every high hill, in the day when great numbers are put to the sword, when the towers come down.
26
And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times greater, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord puts oil on the wounds of his people, and makes them well from the blows they have undergone.
27
See, the name of the Lord is coming from far, burning with his wrath, with thick smoke going up: his lips are full of passion, and his tongue is like a burning fire:
28
And his breath is as an overflowing stream, coming up even to the neck, shaking the nations for their destruction, like the shaking of grain in a basket: and he will put a cord in the mouths of the people, turning them out of their way.
29
You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept and you will be glad in heart, as when they go with music of the pipe to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel.
30
And the Lord will send out the sound of his great voice, and they will see his arm stretched out, with the heat of his wrath, and the flame of a burning fire with a cloud-burst, and storm, and a rain of ice.
31
For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be broken, and the Lord's rod will be lifted up against him.
32
And every blow of the rod of his punishment, which the Lord will send on him, will be with the sound of music: and with the waving of his sword the Lord will make war against him.
33
For a place of fire has long been ready yes, it has been made ready for the king he has made it deep and wide: it is massed with fire and much wood the breath of the Lord, like a stream of fire, puts a light to it.
Hebrews 11
17-40
17
By faith Abraham made an offering of Isaac, when he was tested: and he with whom the agreement had been made gave up as an offering the only son of his body,
18
Of whom it had been said, From Isaac will your seed take their name:
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Judging that God was able to give life even to the dead and because of this he did get him back as if from death.
20
By faith Isaac, blessing Jacob and Esau, gave news of things to come.
21
By faith Jacob gave a blessing to the two sons of Joseph, when he was near to death and gave God worship, supported by his stick.
22
By faith Joseph, when his end was near, said that the children of Israel would go out of Egypt and gave orders about his bones.
23
By faith Moses was kept secretly by his father and mother for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a fair child and they had no fear of the king's orders.
24
By faith Moses, when he became a man, had no desire to be named the son of Pharaoh's daughter
25
Feeling that it was better to undergo pain with the people of God, than for a short time to have a taste of the pleasures of sin
26
Judging a part in the shame of Christ to be better than all the wealth of Egypt for he was looking forward to his reward.
27
By faith he went out of Egypt, not being turned from his purpose by fear of the wrath of the king for he kept on his way, as seeing him who is unseen.
28
By faith he kept the Passover, and put the sign of the blood on the houses, so that the angel of destruction might not put their oldest sons to death.
29
By faith they went through the Red Sea as if it had been dry land, though the Egyptians were overcome by the water when they made an attempt to do the same.
30
By faith the walls of Jericho came down, after they had been circled for seven days.
31
By faith Rahab, the loose woman, was not put to death with those who had gone against God's orders, because she had taken into her house in peace those sent to see the land.
32
What more am I to say? For there would not be time to give the stories of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets:
33
Who through faith overcame kingdoms, did righteousness, got their reward, kept the mouths of lions shut,
34
Put out the power of fire, got safely away from the edge of the sword, were made strong when they had been feeble, became full of power in war, and put to flight the armies of the nations.
35
Women had their dead given back to them living others let themselves be cruelly attacked, having no desire to go free, so that they might have a better life to come
36
And others were tested by being laughed at or by blows, and even with chains and prisons:
37
They were stoned, they were cut up with knives, they were tested, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins and in goatskins being poor and in pain and cruelly attacked,
38
Wandering in waste places and in mountains and in holes in the rocks for whom the world was not good enough.
39
And not one of these got the good things of the agreement, though they all had a good record through faith,
40
Because God had kept some better thing for us, so that it was not possible for them to become complete without us.
