Who Has Believed Our Report

13 Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high.

14 Just as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),

15 so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him: for they will see that which had not been told them; and they will understand that which they had not heard.

1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.

4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.

8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?

9 They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

1 “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.

2 He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street.

3 He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.

4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law.”

5 Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.

6 “I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations;

7 to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.

8 “I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.

9 Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”

10 Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants.

11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains!

12 Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands.

13 Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.

14 “I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.

15 I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

16 I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.

17 “Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.

18 “Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.

19 Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?

20 You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.

21 It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.

22 But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers; and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’

23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?

24 Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.

25 Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”

1 Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother he has mentioned my name.

2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver.

3 He said to me, “You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

4 But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God.”

5 Now Yahweh says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and to gather Israel to him, for I am honorable in Yahweh’s eyes, and my God has become my strength.

6 Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel? I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”

7 Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and rise up; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

8 Yahweh says, “In an acceptable time I have answered you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage,

9 saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.

10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them. He will guide them by springs of water.

11 I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be exalted.

12 Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.”

13 Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break out into singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.

14 But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!

16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. your walls are continually before me.

17 Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you.

18 Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live,” says Yahweh, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride.

19 “For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now that land will be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20 The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, ‘This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in.’

21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought these up? Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’”

22 Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and lift up my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; Then you will know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.”

24 Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered?

25 But Yahweh says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder retrieved from the fierce; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.

26 I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

8 There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.

9 Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

10 The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.

11 For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

51 It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem,

1 Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,

2 as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that with it you may grow,

3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious:

4 coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious.

5 You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6 Because it is contained in Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed.”

7 For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone,”

8 and, “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

10 who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

12 having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation.

13 Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme;

14 or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well.

15 For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

16 as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.

17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

18 Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked.

19 For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God.

20 For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God.

21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps,

22 who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”

23 Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.

25 For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

14 I looked, and rose up, and said to the nobles, to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them! Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”

1 Immediately in the morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him up to Pilate.

2 Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered, “So you say.”

3 The chief priests accused him of many things.

4 Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they testify against you!”

5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate marveled.

6 Now at the feast he used to release to them one prisoner, whom they asked of him.

7 There was one called Barabbas, bound with his fellow insurgents, men who in the insurrection had committed murder.

8 The multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do as he always did for them.

9 Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”

10 For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up.

11 But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should release Barabbas to them instead.

12 Pilate again asked them, “What then should I do to him whom you call the King of the Jews?”

13 They cried out again, “Crucify him!”

14 Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they cried out exceedingly, “Crucify him!”

15 Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and handed over Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified.

16 The soldiers led him away within the court, which is the Praetorium; and they called together the whole cohort.

17 They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him.

18 They began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

19 They struck his head with a reed, and spat on him, and bowing their knees, did homage to him.

20 When they had mocked him, they took the purple off him, and put his own garments on him. They led him out to crucify him.

21 They compelled one passing by, coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them, that he might bear his cross.

22 They brought him to the place called Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, “The place of a skull.”

23 They offered him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he didn’t take it.

24 Crucifying him, they parted his garments among them, casting lots on them, what each should take.

25 It was the third hour, and they crucified him.

26 The superscription of his accusation was written over him, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

27 With him they crucified two robbers; one on his right hand, and one on his left.

28 The Scripture was fulfilled, which says, “He was counted with transgressors.”

29 Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days,

30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!”

31 Likewise, also the chief priests mocking among themselves with the scribes said, “He saved others. He can’t save himself.

32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe him.” Those who were crucified with him also insulted him.

33 When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

35 Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.”

36 One ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down.”

37 Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and gave up the spirit.

38 The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.

39 When the centurion, who stood by opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

40 There were also women watching from afar, among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;

41 who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and served him; and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

42 When evening had now come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

43 Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent council member who also himself was looking for God’s Kingdom, came. He boldly went in to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body.

44 Pilate marveled if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead long.

45 When he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.

46 He bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been cut out of a rock. He rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.

47 Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid.

1 If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

2 make my joy full, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;

3 doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;

4 each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

5 Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

12 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmurings and disputes,

15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,

16 holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.

17 Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.

18 In the same way, you also rejoice, and rejoice with me.

19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered up when I know how you are doing.

20 For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.

21 For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

22 But you know the proof of him, that, as a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.

23 Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it will go with me.

24 But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

25 But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need;

26 since he longed for you all, and was very troubled, because you had heard that he was sick.

27 For indeed he was sick, nearly to death, but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.

28 I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such in honor,

30 because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

1 Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

2 Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God.

3 For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God?

4 May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”

5 But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.

6 May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?

7 For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

8 Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.

9 What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin.

10 As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.

11 There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.

12 They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.”

13 “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips”;

14 “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood.

16 Destruction and misery are in their ways.

17 The way of peace, they haven’t known.”

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.

20 Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

21 But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;

22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,

23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;

25 whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;

26 to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

27 Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

28 We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

30 since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.

31 Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.

3 For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;

4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

24:24 Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,

25:25 to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

15 The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.