471 " Come down and sit in the dust , O virgin daughter of Babylon ; Sit on the ground without a throne , O daughter of the Chaldeans ! For you shall no longer be called tender and delicate . 2 "Take the millstones and grind meal . Remove your veil , strip off the skirt , Uncover the leg , cross the rivers . 3 "Your nakedness will be uncovered , Your shame also will be exposed ; I will take vengeance and will not spare a man ." 4 Our Redeemer , the Lord of hosts is His name , The Holy One of Israel . 5 " Sit silently , and go into darkness , O daughter of the Chaldeans , For you will no longer be called The queen of kingdoms . 6 "I was angry with My people , I profaned My heritage And gave them into your hand . You did not show mercy to them, On the aged you made your yoke very heavy .
7 "Yet you said , 'I will be a queen forever e .' These things you did not consider e e Nor remember the outcome of them. 8 "Now , then, hear this , you sensual one , Who dwells securely , Who says in your heart , ' I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a widow , Nor know loss of children .' 9 "But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day : Loss of children and widowhood . They will come on you in full measure In spite of your many sorceries , In spite of the great power of your spells . 10 "You felt secure in your wickedness and said , ' No one sees me,' Your wisdom and your knowledge , they have deluded you; For you have said in your heart , ' I am, and there is no one besides me.' 11 "But evil will come on you Which you will not know how to charm away ; And disaster will fall on you For which you cannot e atone ; And destruction about which you do not know Will come on you suddenly . 12 "Stand fast now in your spells And in your many sorceries With which you have labored from your youth ; Perhaps you will be able to profit , Perhaps you may cause trembling . 13 "You are wearied with your many counsels ; Let now the astrologers e , Those who prophesy by the stars , Those who predict by the new moons , Stand up and save you from what will come upon you. 14 "Behold , they have become like stubble , Fire burns them; They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame ; There will be no coal to warm by Nor a fire to sit before ! 15 "So have those become to you with whom you have labored , Who have trafficked with you from your youth ; Each has wandered in his own way ; There is none to save you.
481 " Hear this , O house of Jacob , who are named e Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah , Who swear by the name of the Lord And invoke the God of Israel , But not in truth nor in righteousness . 2 "For they call themselves after the holy city And lean on the God of Israel ; The Lord of hosts is His name . 3 "I declared the former things long ago And they went forth from My mouth , and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted , and they came to pass . 4 "Because I know that you are obstinate , And your neck is an iron sinew And your forehead bronze , 5 Therefore I declared them to you long ago , Before they took place I proclaimed them to you, So that you would not say , 'My idol has done them, And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.' 6 "You have heard ; look at all this. And you, will you not declare it? I proclaim to you new things from this time , Even hidden things which you have not known . 7 "They are created now and not long ago ; And before today you have not heard them, So that you will not say , 'Behold , I knew them.' 8 "You have not heard , you have not known . Even from long ago your ear has not been open , Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously ; And you have been called a rebel from birth .
9 " For the sake of My name I delay My wrath , And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off . 10 "Behold , I have refined you, but not as silver ; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction . 11 " For My own sake , for My own sake , I will act ; For how can My name be profaned ? And My glory I will not give to another . 12 "Listen to Me, O Jacob , even Israel whom I called ; I am He, I am the first , I am also the last . 13 "Surely My hand founded the earth , And My right hand spread out the heavens ; When I call to them, they stand together . 14 " Assemble , all of you, and listen ! Who among them has declared these things ? The Lord loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon , And His arm will be against the Chaldeans . 15 "I, even I, have spoken ; indeed I have called him, I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful .
16 " Come near to Me, listen to this : From the first I have not spoken in secret , From the time it took place , I was there . And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit ." 17 Thus says the Lord , your Redeemer , the Holy One of Israel , "I am the Lord your God , who teaches you to profit , Who leads you in the way you should go . 18 "If only you had paid attention to My commandments ! Then your well-being would have been like a river , And your righteousness like the waves of the sea . 19 "Your descendants would have been like the sand , And your offspring e like its grains ; Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence ." 20 Go forth from Babylon ! Flee from the Chaldeans ! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting , proclaim this , Send it out to the end of the earth ; Say , " The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob ." 21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts . He made the water flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock and the water gushed forth. 22 " There is no peace for the wicked ," says the Lord .
491 Listen to Me, O islands , And pay attention , you peoples from afar . The Lord called Me from the womb ; From the body of My mother He named e Me. 2 He has made My mouth like a sharp sword , In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a select arrow , He has hidden Me in His quiver . 3 He said to Me, " You are My Servant , Israel , In Whom I will show My glory ." 4 But I said , "I have toiled in vain , I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity ; Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord , And My reward with My God ." 5 And now says the Lord , who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant , To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the Lord , And My God is My strength ), 6 He says , "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel ; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth ."
7 Thus says the Lord , the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One , To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation , To the Servant of rulers , " Kings will see and arise , Princes will also bow down , Because of the Lord who is faithful , the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You."
8 Thus says the Lord , "In a favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people , To restore the land , to make them inherit the desolate heritages ; 9 Saying to those who are bound , 'Go forth ,' To those who are in darkness , 'Show yourselves.' Along the roads they will feed , And their pasture will be on all bare heights . 10 "They will not hunger or thirst , Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down ; For He who has compassion on them will lead them And will guide them to springs of water . 11 "I will make all My mountains a road , And My highways will be raised up. 12 "Behold , these will come from afar ; And lo , these will come from the north and from the west , And these from the land of Sinim ."
13 Shout for joy , O heavens ! And rejoice , O earth ! Break forth into joyful shouting , O mountains ! For the Lord has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted . 14 But Zion said , "The Lord has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me." 15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb ? Even these may forget , but I will not forget you. 16 "Behold , I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. 17 "Your builders hurry ; Your destroyers and devastators Will depart from you.
18 " Lift up your eyes and look around ; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live ," declares the Lord , "You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride . 19 "For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land - Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants , And those who swallowed you will be far away. 20 "The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears , 'The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.' 21 "Then you will say in your heart , 'Who has begotten these for me, Since I have been bereaved of my children And am barren , an exile and a wanderer ? And who has reared these ? Behold , I was left alone ; From where did these come?' " 22 Thus says the Lord GOD , "Behold , I will lift up My hand to the nations And set up My standard to the peoples ; And they will bring your sons in their bosom , And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders . 23 " Kings will be your guardians , And their princesses your nurses . They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth And lick the dust of your feet ; And you will know that I am the Lord ; Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame .
24 " Can the prey be taken from the mighty man , Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued ?" 25 Surely , thus says the Lord , "Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued ; For I will contend with the one who contends with you, And I will save your sons . 26 "I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh , And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine ; And all flesh will know that I, the Lord , am your Savior And your Redeemer , the Mighty One of Jacob ."
41 Finally then , brethren , we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus , that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk ), that you excel still more . 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus . 3 For this is the will of God , your sanctification ; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality ; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor , 5 not in lustful passion , like the Gentiles who do not know God ; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things , just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity , but in sanctification . 8 So , he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
9 Now as to the love of the brethren , you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another ; 10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia . But we urge you, brethren , to excel still more , 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands , just as we commanded you, 12 so that you will behave properly toward outsiders e and not be in any need .
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed , brethren , about those who are asleep , so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope . 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again , even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus . 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord , that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord , will not precede those who have fallen asleep . 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout , with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God , and the dead in Christ will rise first . 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air , and so we shall always be with the Lord . 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words .
