Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, December 4th, 2024
the First Week of Advent
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Read the Bible

New Revised Standard

Isaiah 48

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God the Creator and Redeemer

1 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
    who are called by the name of Israel,
    and who came forth from the loins[a] of Judah;
who swear by the name of the Lord,
    and invoke the God of Israel,
    but not in truth or right.
2 For they call themselves after the holy city,
    and lean on the God of Israel;
    the Lord of hosts is his name.

3 The former things I declared long ago,
    they went out from my mouth and I made them known;
    then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.
4 Because I know that you are obstinate,
    and your neck is an iron sinew
    and your forehead brass,
5 I declared them to you from long ago,
    before they came to pass I announced them to you,
so that you would not say, "My idol did them,
    my carved image and my cast image commanded them."

6 You have heard; now see all this;
    and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I make you hear new things,
    hidden things that you have not known.
7 They are created now, not long ago;
    before today you have never heard of them,
    so that you could not say, "I already knew them."
8 You have never heard, you have never known,
    from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
    and that from birth you were called a rebel.

9 For my name's sake I defer my anger,
    for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
    so that I may not cut you off.
10 See, I have refined you, but not like[b] silver;
    I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
    for why should my name[c] be profaned?
    My glory I will not give to another.

12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called:
I am He; I am the first,
    and I am the last.
13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
    they stand at attention.

14 Assemble, all of you, and hear!
    Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
    he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken and called him,
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16 Draw near to me, hear this!
    From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been 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 for your own good,
    who leads you in the way you should go.
18 O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    Then your prosperity would have been like a river,
    and your success like the waves of the sea;
19 your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.

20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
    declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it forth 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 water flow for them from the rock;
    he split open the rock and the water gushed out.

22 "There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked."

 
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