Study Desk

For I beheld, and there was no man who could meditate about these things, that I might ask him, and that he might give me an answer.

He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set justice in the earth; and the islands shall wait for his law.

I the LORD have called you in righteousness and have held your hand and have strengthened you and have given you for a covenant to the people and for a light to the Gentiles;

I have for a long time held my peace; I have kept silent, I have been patient like a woman in travail; I have remained speechless and completely confounded.

The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness sake; he will magnify the law and make it honorable.

Who gave Jacob to be trod under foot and Israel for a spoil? Was it not the LORD, because we have sinned against him? For we would not walk in his ways, neither were we obedient to his law.

BUT now thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not; for I have saved you, I have called you by your name because you are mine.

For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour; I gave Egypt for your sake, and Ethiopia and Sheba for you.

Because you are precious in my sight, you have been honorable and I have loved you; therefore I have given men for your sake and nations for your life.

Fear not; for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west;

Even every one who is called by my name; for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him and I have made him.

Thus says the LORD, your Saviour, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon and have brought back all the fugitives and the Chaldeans who glory in their ships.

This people whom I have chosen for myself, they shall drink.

But you have not called me, O Jacob; for I have called you, O Israel.

You have not brought me lambs of your burnt offerings; neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with request offerings, nor wearied you with demands for incense.

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and will not remember your sins any more.

For I will give water in a parched ground and streams on the dry land; I will pour my spirit upon your descendants and my blessings upon your offspring;

And who is like me? Let him announce it and set it in order and declare it, since I placed the people on the earth for ever. And let them show the wonders that are coming.

The makers of images are all of them vanity; and there is no profit in the works which they desire to make; the craftsmen who make them are witnesses, for they see not, nor hear, nor know.

Therefore let them be ashamed, those who make gods or graven and molten images that are profitable for nothing.