Bible Reading Plan

¹ Bel crouches; Nebo cowers.^(a)
Their idols are consigned to beasts and cattle.
The images you carry are loaded,
as a burden for the weary animal.
² The gods cower; they crouch together;
they are not able to rescue the burden,
but they themselves go into captivity.^(b)

³ "Listen to Me, house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been sustained from the womb,
carried along since birth.
⁴ I will be the same until your old age,^(c)
and I will bear you up when you turn gray.
I have made you, and I will carry you;
I will bear and save you.

⁵ "Who will you compare Me or make Me equal to?
Who will you measure Me with,
so that we should be like each other?^(d)
6 Those who pour out their bags of gold
and weigh out silver on scales—
they hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god.
Then they kneel and bow down to it.^(e)
7 They lift it to their shoulder and bear it along;^(f)
they set it in its place, and there it stands;
it does not budge from its place.^(g)
They cry out to it but it doesn't answer;
it saves no one from his trouble.

⁸ "Remember this and be brave;^[a]
take it to heart, you transgressors!
⁹ Remember what happened long ago,^(h)
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and no one is like Me.
¹⁰ I declare the end from the beginning,
and from long ago what is not yet done,
saying: My plan will take place,
and I will do all My will.^(i)
11 I call a bird of prey^[b] from the east,^(j)
a man for My purpose from a far country.
Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about.^(k)
I have planned it; I will also do it.
¹² Listen to me, you hardhearted,
far removed from justice:
¹³ I am bringing My justice near;^(l)
it is not far away,
and My salvation will not delay.
I will put salvation in Zion,
My splendor in Israel.

¹ "Go down and sit in the dust,^(a)
Virgin Daughter Babylon.^(b)
Sit on the ground without a throne,
Daughter Chaldea!
For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.
² Take millstones and grind meal;^(c)
remove your veil,
strip off your skirt, bare your thigh,
wade through the streams.
³ Your nakedness will be uncovered,
and your shame will be exposed.^(d)
I will take vengeance;
I will spare no one.^[a]
4 The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer;^(e)
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.

⁵ "Daughter Chaldea,
sit in silence^(f) and go into darkness.
For you will no longer be called mistress of kingdoms.
⁶ I was angry with My people;
I profaned My possession,
and I placed them under your control.
You showed them no mercy;
you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.
⁷ You said, ‘I will be the mistress forever.'
You did not take these things to heart
or think about their outcome.

⁸ "So now hear this, lover of luxury,
who sits securely,^(g)
who says to herself,
‘I exist, and there is no one else.
I will never be a widow
or know the loss of children.'^(h)
9 These two things will happen to you
suddenly, in one day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will happen to you in their entirety,
in spite of your many sorceries⁽ⁱ⁾
and the potency of your spells.
¹⁰ You were secure in your wickedness;
you said, ‘No one sees me.'^(j)
Your wisdom and knowledge
led you astray.
You said to yourself,
‘I exist, and there is no one else.'
¹¹ But disaster will happen to you;
you will not know how to avert it.
And it will fall on you,
but you will be unable to ward it off.^[b]
Devastation will happen to you suddenly
and unexpectedly.^(k)
12 So take your stand with your spells
and your many sorceries,
which you have wearied yourself with from your youth.
Perhaps you will be able to succeed;
perhaps you will inspire terror!
¹³ You are worn out with your many consultations.
So let them stand and save you—
the astrologers,^[c] who observe the stars,^(l)
who predict monthly
what will happen to you.
¹⁴ Look, they are like stubble;^(m)
fire burns them up.⁽ⁿ⁾
They cannot deliver themselves
from the power^[d] of the flame.
This is not a coal for warming themselves,
or a fire to sit beside!
¹⁵ This is what they are to you—
those who have wearied you
and have traded with you from your youth—
each wanders on his own way;
no one can save you.

¹ "Listen to this, house of Jacob—
those who are called by the name Israel
and have descended from^[a] Judah,^(a)
who swear by the name of Yahweh^(b)
and declare the God of Israel,
but not in truth or righteousness.
² For they are named after the Holy City,
and lean on the God of Israel;^(c)
His name is Yahweh of Hosts.
³ I declared the past events long ago;
they came out of My mouth; I proclaimed them.
Suddenly I acted, and they occurred.
⁴ Because I know that you are stubborn,
and your neck is iron^[b]
and your forehead bronze,^(d)
5 therefore I declared to you long ago.
I announced it to you before it occurred,
so you could not claim, ‘My idol caused them;
my carved image and cast idol control them.'^(e)
6 You have heard it. Observe it all.
Will you not acknowledge it?
From now on I will announce new things to you,
hidden things that you have not known.^(f)
7 They have been created now, and not long ago;
you have not heard of them before today,
so you could not claim, ‘I already knew them!'
⁸ You have never heard; you have never known;
For a long time your ears have not been open.
For I knew that you were very treacherous,
and were known as a rebel from birth.^(g)
9 I will delay My anger for the honor of My name,
and I will restrain Myself for your benefit and for My praise,
so that you will not be destroyed.
¹⁰ Look, I have refined you,^(h) but not as silver;
I have tested^[c] you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹ I will act for My own sake, indeed, My own,⁽ⁱ⁾
for how can I^[d] be defiled?
I will not give My glory to another.^(j)

¹² "Listen to Me, Jacob,
and Israel, the one called by Me:
I am He; I am the first,
I am also the last.^(k)
13 My own hand founded the earth,
and My right hand spread out the heavens;^(l)
when I summoned them,
they stood up together.
¹⁴ All of you, assemble and listen!
Who among the idols^[e] has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;^[f]
he will accomplish His will against Babylon,^(m)
and His arm will be against the Chaldeans.
¹⁵ I—I have spoken;
yes, I have called him;⁽ⁿ⁾
I have brought him,
and he will succeed in his mission.^(o)
16 Approach Me and listen to this.
From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;^(p)
from the time anything existed, I was there."
And now the Lord God
has sent me and His Spirit.^(q)

I am Yahweh your God,
who teaches you for your benefit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If only you had paid attention to My commands.
Then your peace would have been like a river,^(t)
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.^(u)
19 Your descendants would have been as countless as the sand,^(v)
and the offspring of your body like its grains;
their name would not be cut off
or eliminated from My presence.

²⁰ Leave Babylon,
flee from the Chaldeans!
Declare with a shout of joy,
proclaim this,
let it go out to the end of the earth;
announce,
"The Lord has redeemed His servant^(w) Jacob!"
²¹ They did not thirst
when He led them through the deserts;
He made water flow for them from the rock;^(x)
He split the rock, and water gushed out.
²² "There is no peace for the wicked," says the Lord .^(y)

¹ Coastlands,^[a] listen to me;
distant peoples, pay attention.
The Lord called^(a) me before I was born.
He named me while I was in my mother's womb.^(b)
2 He made my words like a sharp sword;^(c)
He hid me in the shadow of His hand.^(d)
He made me like a sharpened arrow;
He hid me in His quiver.
³ He said to me, "You are My Servant, Israel;^(e)
I will be glorified in him."
⁴ But I myself said: I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and futility;
yet my vindication is with the Lord ,
and my reward is 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 not enough for you to be My Servant
raising up the tribes of Jacob
and restoring the protected ones of Israel.
I will also make you a light for the nations,^(f)
to be My salvation to the ends of the earth."^(g)
7 This is what the Lord ,
the Redeemer^(h) of Israel, his Holy One, says
to one who is despised,
to one abhorred by people,^[b](i)
to a servant of rulers:
"Kings will see and stand up,
and princes^[c] will bow down,
because of the Lord , who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel^(j)—and He has chosen you."^(k)

I will answer you in a time of favor,
and I will help you in the day of salvation.^(l)
I will keep you, and I will appoint you
to be a covenant for the people,^(m)
to restore the land,
to make them possess the desolate inheritances,
⁹ saying to the prisoners: Come out,⁽ⁿ⁾
and to those who are in darkness: Show yourselves.
They will feed along the pathways,
and their pastures will be on all the barren heights.^(o)
10 They will not hunger or thirst,
the scorching heat or sun will not strike them;
for their compassionate One will guide them,
and lead them to springs of water.^(p)
11 I will make all My mountains into a road,
and My highways will be raised up.^(q)
12 See, these will come from far away,
from the north and from the west,^[d](r)
and from the land of Sinim.^[e][f]

¹³ Shout for joy, you heavens!^(s)
Earth, rejoice!
Mountains break into joyful shouts!
For the Lord has comforted His people,^(t)
and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.^(u)

¹⁴ Zion says, "The Lord has abandoned me;
The Lord has forgotten me!"
¹⁵ "Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget,
yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;^(v)
your walls are continually before Me.
¹⁷ Your builders^[g] hurry;
those who destroy and devastate you will leave you.
¹⁸ Look up, and look around.
They all gather together; they come to you.^(w)
As I live"—
this is the Lord 's declaration—
"you will wear all your children^[h] as jewelry,
and put them on as a bride does.
¹⁹ For your waste and desolate places
and your land marked by ruins—
will now be indeed too small for the inhabitants,^(x)
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰ Yet as you listen, the children
that you have been deprived of will say,
‘This place is too small for me;
make room for me so that I may settle.'^(y)
21 Then you will say within yourself,
‘Who fathered these for me?
I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive,
exiled and wandering—
but who brought them up?
See, I was left by myself—
but these, where did they come from?'"^[i]

Look, I will lift up My hand to the nations,
and raise My banner to the peoples.^(z)
They will bring your sons in their arms,
and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.^(aa)
23 Kings will be your foster fathers,
and their queens^[j] your nursing mothers.^(ab)
They will bow down to you
with their faces to the ground,
and lick the dust at your feet.^(ac)
Then you will know that I am Yahweh;^(ad)
those who put their hope in Me
will not be put to shame.^(ae)

²⁴ Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
or the captives of the righteous^[k] be delivered?
²⁵ For this is what the Lord says:
"Even the captives of a mighty man will be taken,
and the prey of a tyrant will be delivered;
I will contend with the one who contends with you,
and I will save your children.
²⁶ I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,^(af)
and they will be drunk with their own blood
as with sweet wine.
Then all flesh will know
that I, Yahweh, am your Savior,^(ag)
and your Redeemer,^(ah) the Mighty One of Jacob."^(ai)

Where is your mother's divorce certificate
that I used to send her away?^(a)
Or who were My creditors that I sold you to?^(b)
Look, you were sold for your iniquities,^(c)
and your mother was put away
because of your transgressions.
² Why was no one there when I came?
Why was there no one to answer when I called?
Is My hand too short to redeem?^(d)
Or do I have no power to deliver?
Look, I dry up the sea by My rebuke;^(e)
I turn the rivers into a wilderness;
their fish rot because of lack of water
and die of thirst.
³ I dress the heavens in black
and make sackcloth their clothing.^(f)

⁴ The Lord God has given Me
the tongue of those who are instructed^(g)
to know how to sustain the weary with a word.
He awakens Me each morning;
He awakens My ear to listen like those being instructed.^(h)
5 The Lord God has opened My ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I did not turn back.^(i)
6 I gave My back to those who beat Me,
and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard.
I did not hide My face from scorn and spitting.^(j)
7 The Lord God will help Me;
therefore I have not been humiliated;
therefore I have set My face like flint,^(k)
and I know I will not be put to shame.
⁸ The One who vindicates Me is near;^(l)
who will contend with Me?
Let us confront each other.^[a]
Who has a case against Me?^[b]
Let him come near Me!
⁹ In truth, the Lord God will help Me;
who will condemn Me?^(m)
Indeed, all of them will wear out like a garment;
a moth will devour them.^(n)
10 Who among you fears the Lord ,
listening to the voice of His Servant?^(o)
Who among you walks in darkness,
and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of Yahweh;
let him lean on his God.
¹¹ Look, all you who kindle a fire,
who encircle yourselves with^[c] firebrands;
walk in the light of your fire
and in the firebrands you have lit!
This is what you'll get from My hand:
you will lie down in a place of torment.