Book | Chapter | Verse | Text |
Isaiah |
51 |
1 |
"Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance--all who seek the LORD! Consider the quarry from which you were mined, the rock from which you were cut! |
Isaiah |
51 |
2 |
Yes, think about your ancestors Abraham and Sarah, from whom you came. Abraham was alone when I called him. But when I blessed him, he became a great nation." |
Isaiah |
51 |
3 |
The LORD will comfort Israel again and make her deserts blossom. Her barren wilderness will become as beautiful as Eden--the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found there. Lovely songs of thanksgiving will fill the air. |
Isaiah |
51 |
4 |
"Listen to me, my people. Hear me, Israel, for my law will be proclaimed, and my justice will become a light to the nations. |
Isaiah |
51 |
5 |
My mercy and justice are coming soon. Your salvation is on the way. I will rule the nations. They will wait for me and long for my power. |
Isaiah |
51 |
6 |
Look up to the skies above, and gaze down on the earth beneath. For the skies will disappear like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing. The people of the earth will die like flies, but my salvation lasts forever. My righteous rule will never end! |
Isaiah |
51 |
7 |
"Listen to me, you who know right from wrong and cherish my law in your hearts. Do not be afraid of people's scorn or their slanderous talk. |
Isaiah |
51 |
8 |
For the moth will destroy them as it destroys clothing. The worm will eat away at them as it eats wool. But my righteousness will last forever. My salvation will continue from generation to generation." |
Isaiah |
51 |
9 |
Wake up, LORD! Robe yourself with strength! Rouse yourself as in the days of old when you slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile. |
Isaiah |
51 |
10 |
Are you not the same today, the one who dried up the sea, making a path of escape when you saved your people? |
Isaiah |
51 |
11 |
Those who have been ransomed by the LORD will return to Jerusalem, singing songs of everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be overcome with joy and gladness. |
Isaiah |
51 |
12 |
"I, even I, am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear? |
Isaiah |
51 |
13 |
Yet you have forgotten the LORD, your Creator, the one who put the stars in the sky and established the earth. Will you remain in constant dread of human oppression? Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies from morning till night? |
Isaiah |
51 |
14 |
Soon all you captives will be released! Imprisonment, starvation, and death will not be your fate! |
Isaiah |
51 |
15 |
For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar. My name is the LORD Almighty. |
Isaiah |
51 |
16 |
And I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safely within my hand. I set all the stars in space and established the earth. I am the one who says to Israel, `You are mine!'" |
Isaiah |
51 |
17 |
Wake up, wake up, O Jerusalem! You have drunk enough from the cup of the LORD's fury. You have drunk the cup of terror, tipping out its last drops. |
Isaiah |
51 |
18 |
Not one of your children is left alive to help you or tell you what to do. |
Isaiah |
51 |
19 |
These two things have been your lot: desolation and destruction, famine and war. And who is left to sympathize? Who is left to comfort you? |
Isaiah |
51 |
20 |
For your children have fainted and lie in the streets, helpless as antelopes caught in a net. The LORD has poured out his fury; God has rebuked them. |
Isaiah |
51 |
21 |
But now listen to this, you afflicted ones, who sit in a drunken stupor, though not from drinking wine. |
Isaiah |
51 |
22 |
This is what the Sovereign LORD, your God and Defender, says: "See, I am taking the terrible cup from your hands. You will drink no more of my fury. It is gone at last! |
Isaiah |
51 |
23 |
But I will put that cup into the hands of those who tormented you. I will give it to those who trampled you into the dust and walked on your backs." |
Jeremiah |
50 |
1 |
The LORD gave Jeremiah the prophet this message concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
2 |
This is what the LORD says: "Tell the whole world, and keep nothing back! Raise a signal flag so everyone will know that Babylon will fall! Her images and idols will be shattered. Her gods Bel and Marduk will be utterly disgraced. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
3 |
For a nation will attack her from the north and bring such destruction that no one will live in her again. Everything will be gone; both people and animals will flee. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
4 |
"Then the people of Israel and Judah will join together," says the LORD, "weeping and seeking the LORD their God. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
5 |
They will ask the way to Jerusalem and will start back home again. They will bind themselves to the LORD with an eternal covenant that will never again be broken. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
6 |
"My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray and turned them loose in the mountains. They have lost their way and cannot remember how to get back to the fold. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
7 |
All who found them devoured them. Their enemies said, `We are allowed to attack them freely, for they have sinned against the LORD, their place of rest, the hope of their ancestors.' |
Jeremiah |
50 |
8 |
"But now, flee from Babylon! Leave the land of the Babylonians. Lead my people home again. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
9 |
For look, I am raising up an army of great nations from the north. I will bring them against Babylon to attack her, and she will be captured. The enemies' arrows will go straight to the mark; they will not miss! |
Jeremiah |
50 |
10 |
Babylonia will be plundered until the attackers are glutted with plunder," says the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
11 |
"You rejoice and are glad, you plunderers of my chosen people. You frisk about like a calf in a meadow and neigh like a stallion. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
12 |
But your homeland will be overwhelmed with shame and disgrace. You will become the least of nations--a wilderness, a dry and desolate land. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
13 |
Because of the LORD's anger, Babylon will become a deserted wasteland. All who pass by will be horrified and will gasp at the destruction they see there. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
14 |
"Yes, prepare to attack Babylon, all you nations round about. Let your archers shoot at her. Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
15 |
Shout against her from every side. Look! She surrenders! Her walls have fallen. The LORD has taken vengeance, so do not spare her. Do to her as she has done to others! |
Jeremiah |
50 |
16 |
Lead from Babylon all those who plant crops; send all the harvesters away. Let the captives escape the sword of the enemy and rush back to their own lands. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
17 |
"The Israelites are like sheep that have been scattered by lions. First the king of Assyria ate them up. Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon cracked their bones." |
Jeremiah |
50 |
18 |
Therefore, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Now I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
19 |
And I will bring Israel home again to her own land, to feed in the fields of Carmel and Bashan, and to be satisfied once more on the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
20 |
In those days," says the LORD, "no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah, for I will forgive the remnant I preserve. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
21 |
"Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim and against the people of Pekod. Yes, march against Babylon, the land of rebels, a land that I will judge! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them, as I have commanded you," says the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
22 |
"Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
23 |
Babylon, the mightiest hammer in all the earth, lies broken and shattered. Babylon is desolate among the nations! |
Jeremiah |
50 |
24 |
Listen, Babylon, for I have set a trap for you. You are caught, for you have fought against the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
25 |
"The LORD has opened his armory and brought out weapons to vent his fury against his enemies. The terror that falls upon the Babylonians will be the work of the Sovereign LORD Almighty. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
26 |
Yes, come against her from distant lands. Break open her granaries. Crush her walls and houses into heaps of rubble. Destroy her completely, and leave nothing! |
Jeremiah |
50 |
27 |
Even destroy her cattle--it will be terrible for them, too! Slaughter them all! For the time has come for Babylon to be devastated. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
28 |
Listen to the people who have escaped from Babylon, as they declare in Jerusalem how the LORD our God has taken vengeance against those who destroyed his Temple. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
29 |
"Send out a call for archers to come to Babylon. Surround the city so none can escape. Do to her as she has done to others, for she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
30 |
Her young men will fall in the streets and die. Her warriors will all be killed," says the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
31 |
"See, I am your enemy, O proud people," says the Lord, the LORD Almighty. "Your day of reckoning has arrived. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
32 |
O land of pride, you will stumble and fall, and no one will raise you up. For I will light a fire in the cities of Babylon that will burn everything around them." |
Jeremiah |
50 |
33 |
And now the LORD Almighty says this: "The people of Israel and Judah have been wronged. Their captors hold them and refuse to let them go. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
34 |
But the one who redeems them is strong. His name is the LORD Almighty. He will defend them and give them rest again in Israel. But the people of Babylon--there will be no rest for them! |
Jeremiah |
50 |
35 |
"The sword of destruction will strike the Babylonians," says the LORD. "It will strike the people of Babylon--her princes and wise men, too. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
36 |
And when it strikes her wise counselors, they will become fools! When it strikes her mightiest warriors, panic will seize them! |
Jeremiah |
50 |
37 |
When it strikes her horses and chariots, her allies from other lands will become as weak as women. When it strikes her treasures, they all will be plundered. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
38 |
It will even strike her water supply, causing it to dry up. And why? Because the whole land is filled with idols, and the people are madly in love with them. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
39 |
"Soon this city of Babylon will be inhabited by ostriches and jackals. It will be a home for the wild animals of the desert. Never again will people live there; it will lie desolate forever. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
40 |
I will destroy it just as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns," says the LORD. "No one will live there anymore. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
41 |
"Look! A great army is marching from the north! A great nation and many kings are rising against you from far-off lands. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
42 |
They are fully armed for slaughter. They are cruel and show no mercy. As they ride forward, the noise of their army is like a roaring sea. They are marching in battle formation to destroy you, Babylon. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
43 |
The king of Babylon has received reports about the enemy, and he is weak with fright. Fear and pain have gripped him, like that of a woman about to give birth. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
44 |
"I will come like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan, leaping on the sheep in the pasture. I will chase Babylon from its land, and I will appoint the leader of my choice. For who is like me, and who can challenge me? What ruler can oppose my will?" |
Jeremiah |
50 |
45 |
Listen to the LORD's plans against Babylon and the land of the Babylonians. Even little children will be dragged off, and their homes will be empty. |
Jeremiah |
50 |
46 |
The earth will shake with the noise of Babylon's fall, and her cry of despair will be heard around the world. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
1 |
This is what the LORD says: "I will stir up a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Babylonia. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
2 |
Foreigners will come and winnow her, blowing her away as chaff. They will come from every side to rise against her in her day of trouble. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
3 |
Don't let the archers put on their armor or draw their bows. No one will be spared! Young and old alike will be completely destroyed. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
4 |
They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians, slashed to death in her streets. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
5 |
For the LORD Almighty has not forsaken Israel and Judah. He is still their God, even though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel." |
Jeremiah |
51 |
6 |
Flee from Babylon! Save yourselves! Don't get trapped in her punishment! It is the LORD's time for vengeance; he will fully repay her. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
7 |
Babylon has been like a golden cup in the LORD's hands, a cup from which he made the whole earth drink and go mad. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
8 |
But now suddenly, Babylon, too, has fallen. Weep for her, and give her medicine. Perhaps she can yet be healed. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
9 |
We would have helped her if we could, but nothing can save her now. Let her go; abandon her. Return now to your own land, for her judgment will be so great it cannot be measured. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
10 |
The LORD has vindicated us. Come, let us announce in Jerusalem everything the LORD our God has done. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
11 |
Sharpen the arrows! Lift up the shields! For the LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes to march against Babylon and destroy her. This is his vengeance against those who desecrated his Temple. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
12 |
Raise the battle flag against Babylon! Reinforce the guard and station the watchmen. Prepare an ambush, for the LORD will fulfill all his plans against Babylon. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
13 |
You are a city rich with water, a great center of commerce, but your end has come. The thread of your life is cut. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
14 |
The LORD Almighty has taken this vow and has sworn to it by his own name: "Your cities will be filled with enemies, like fields filled with locusts, and they will lift their shouts of triumph over you." |
Jeremiah |
51 |
15 |
He made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. He has stretched out the heavens by his understanding. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
16 |
When he speaks, there is thunder in the heavens. He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
17 |
Compared to him, all people are foolish and have no knowledge at all! They make idols, but the idols will disgrace their makers, for they are frauds. They have no life or power in them. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
18 |
Idols are worthless; they are lies! The time is coming when they will all be destroyed. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
19 |
But the God of Israel is no idol! He is the Creator of everything that exists, including his people, his own special possession. The LORD Almighty is his name! |
Jeremiah |
51 |
20 |
"You are my battle-ax and sword," says the LORD. "With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
21 |
With you I will shatter armies, destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
22 |
With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and maidens. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
23 |
With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and rulers. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
24 |
"As you watch, I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem," says the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
25 |
"Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy," says the LORD. "I will raise my fist against you, to roll you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of rubble. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
26 |
You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out," says the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
27 |
Signal many nations to mobilize for war against Babylon. Sound the battle cry! Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a leader, and bring a multitude of horses! |
Jeremiah |
51 |
28 |
Bring against her the armies of the kings of the Medes and their generals, and the armies of all the countries they rule. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
29 |
Babylon trembles and writhes in pain, for everything the LORD has planned against her stands unchanged. Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
30 |
Her mightiest warriors no longer fight. They stay in their barracks. Their courage is gone. They have become as fearful as women. The invaders have burned the houses and broken down the city gates. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
31 |
Messengers from every side come running to the king to tell him all is lost! |
Jeremiah |
51 |
32 |
All the escape routes are blocked. The fortifications are burning, and the army is in panic. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
33 |
For the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor, about to be trampled. In just a little while her harvest will begin." |
Jeremiah |
51 |
34 |
"King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has eaten and crushed us and emptied out our strength. He has swallowed us like a great monster and filled his belly with our riches. He has thrown us out of our own country. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
35 |
May Babylon be repaid for all the violence she did to us," say the people of Jerusalem. "May the people of Babylonia be paid in full for all the blood they spilled," says Jerusalem. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
36 |
The LORD says to Jerusalem, "I will be your lawyer to plead your case, and I will avenge you. I will dry up her river, her water supply, |
Jeremiah |
51 |
37 |
and Babylon will become a heap of rubble, haunted by jackals. It will be an object of horror and contempt, without a single person living there. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
38 |
"In their drunken feasts, the people of Babylon roar like lions. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
39 |
And while they lie inflamed with all their wine, I will prepare a different kind of feast for them. I will make them drink until they fall asleep, never again to waken," says the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
40 |
"I will bring them like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats to be sacrificed. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
41 |
"How Babylon is fallen--great Babylon, praised throughout the earth! The world can scarcely believe its eyes at her fall! |
Jeremiah |
51 |
42 |
The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its waves. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
43 |
Her cities now lie in ruins; she is a dry wilderness where no one lives or even passes by. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
44 |
And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon, and pull from his mouth what he has taken. The nations will no longer come and worship him. The wall of Babylon has fallen. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
45 |
"Listen, my people, flee from Babylon. Save yourselves! Run from the LORD's fierce anger. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
46 |
But do not panic when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces. For rumors will keep coming year by year. Then there will be a time of violence as the leaders fight against each other. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
47 |
For the time is surely coming when I will punish this great city and all her idols. Her whole land will be disgraced, and her dead will lie in the streets. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
48 |
The heavens and earth will rejoice, for out of the north will come destroying armies against Babylon," says the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
49 |
"Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel and others throughout the world, so must her people be killed. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
50 |
Go, you who escaped the sword! Do not stand and watch--flee while you can! Remember the LORD, even though you are in a far-off land, and think about your home in Jerusalem." |
Jeremiah |
51 |
51 |
"We are ashamed," the people say. "We are insulted and disgraced because the LORD's Temple has been defiled by foreigners." |
Jeremiah |
51 |
52 |
"Yes," says the LORD, "but the time is coming when Babylon's idols will be destroyed. The groans of her wounded people will be heard throughout the land. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
53 |
Though Babylon reaches as high as the heavens, and though she increases her strength immeasurably, I will send enemies to plunder her," says the LORD. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
54 |
Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
55 |
For the LORD is destroying Babylon. He will silence her. Waves of enemies pound against her; the noise of battle rings through the city. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
56 |
Destroying armies come against Babylon. Her mighty men are captured, and their weapons break in their hands. For the LORD is a God who gives just punishment, and he is giving Babylon all she deserves. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
57 |
"I will make drunk her officials, wise men, rulers, captains, and warriors," says the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty. "They will fall asleep and never wake up again!" |
Jeremiah |
51 |
58 |
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "The wide walls of Babylon will be leveled to the ground, and her high gates will be burned. The builders from many lands have worked in vain, for their work will be destroyed by fire!" |
Jeremiah |
51 |
59 |
The prophet Jeremiah gave this message to Zedekiah's staff officer, Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. This was during the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
60 |
Jeremiah had recorded on a scroll all the terrible disasters that would soon come upon Babylon. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
61 |
He said to Seraiah, "When you get to Babylon, read aloud everything on this scroll. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
62 |
Then say, `LORD, you have said that you will destroy Babylon so that neither people nor animals will remain here. She will lie empty and abandoned forever.' |
Jeremiah |
51 |
63 |
Then, when you have finished reading the scroll, tie it to a stone, and throw it into the Euphrates River. |
Jeremiah |
51 |
64 |
Then say, `In this same way Babylon and her people will sink, never again to rise, because of the disasters I will bring upon her.'" This is the end of Jeremiah's messages. |
Psalms |
51 |
1 |
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. |
Psalms |
51 |
2 |
Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. |
Psalms |
51 |
3 |
For I recognize my shameful deeds--they haunt me day and night. |
Psalms |
51 |
4 |
Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. |
Psalms |
51 |
5 |
For I was born a sinner--yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. |
Psalms |
51 |
6 |
But you desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being. |
Psalms |
51 |
7 |
Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. |
Psalms |
51 |
8 |
Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me--now let me rejoice. |
Psalms |
51 |
9 |
Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. |
Psalms |
51 |
10 |
Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. |
Psalms |
51 |
11 |
Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. |
Psalms |
51 |
12 |
Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. |
Psalms |
51 |
13 |
Then I will teach your ways to sinners, and they will return to you. |
Psalms |
51 |
14 |
Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. |
Psalms |
51 |
15 |
Unseal my lips, O Lord, that I may praise you. |
Psalms |
51 |
16 |
You would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. |
Psalms |
51 |
17 |
The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise. |
Psalms |
51 |
18 |
Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. |
Psalms |
51 |
19 |
Then you will be pleased with worthy sacrifices and with our whole burnt offerings; and bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar. |