Isaiah 3

Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah

 ¹ See now, the Lord,
       the LORD Almighty,
       is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah
       both supply and support:
       all supplies of food and all supplies of water,

 ² the hero and warrior,
       the judge and prophet,
       the soothsayer and elder,

 ³ the captain of fifty and man of rank,
       the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

 ⁴ I will make boys their officials;
       mere children will govern them.

 ⁵ People will oppress each other—
       man against man, neighbor against neighbor.
       The young will rise up against the old,
       the base against the honorable.

 ⁶ A man will seize one of his brothers
       at his father's home, and say,
       "You have a cloak, you be our leader;
       take charge of this heap of ruins!"

 ⁷ But in that day he will cry out,
       "I have no remedy.
       I have no food or clothing in my house;
       do not make me the leader of the people."

 ⁸ Jerusalem staggers,
       Judah is falling;
       their words and deeds are against the LORD,
       defying his glorious presence.

 ⁹ The look on their faces testifies against them;
       they parade their sin like Sodom;
       they do not hide it.
       Woe to them!
       They have brought disaster upon themselves.

 ¹⁰ Tell the righteous it will be well with them,
       for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.

 ¹¹ Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them!
       They will be paid back for what their hands have done.

 ¹² Youths oppress my people,
       women rule over them.
       O my people, your guides lead you astray;
       they turn you from the path.

 ¹³ The LORD takes his place in court;
       he rises to judge the people.

 ¹⁴ The LORD enters into judgment
       against the elders and leaders of his people:
       "It is you who have ruined my vineyard;
       the plunder from the poor is in your houses.

 ¹⁵ What do you mean by crushing my people
       and grinding the faces of the poor?"
       declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

 ¹⁶ The LORD says,
       "The women of Zion are haughty,
       walking along with outstretched necks,
       flirting with their eyes,
       tripping along with mincing steps,
       with ornaments jingling on their ankles.

 ¹⁷ Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion;
       the LORD will make their scalps bald."

 ¹⁸ In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, ¹⁹ the earrings and bracelets and veils, ²⁰ the headdresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, ²¹ the signet rings and nose rings, ²² the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses ²³ and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.

 ²⁴ Instead of fragrance there will be a stench;
       instead of a sash, a rope;
       instead of well-dressed hair, baldness;
       instead of fine clothing, sackcloth;
       instead of beauty, branding.

 ²⁵ Your men will fall by the sword,
       your warriors in battle.

 ²⁶ The gates of Zion will lament and mourn;
       destitute, she will sit on the ground.

Isaiah 4

 ¹ In that day seven women
       will take hold of one man
       and say, "We will eat our own food
       and provide our own clothes;
       only let us be called by your name.
       Take away our disgrace!"

The Branch of the Lord

 ² In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. ³ Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. ⁴ The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit ^[a] of judgment and a spirit ^[b] of fire. ⁵ Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. ⁶ It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

Isaiah 5

The Song of the Vineyard

 ¹ I will sing for the one I love
       a song about his vineyard:
       My loved one had a vineyard
       on a fertile hillside.

 ² He dug it up and cleared it of stones
       and planted it with the choicest vines.
       He built a watchtower in it
       and cut out a winepress as well.
       Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
       but it yielded only bad fruit.

 ³ "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
       judge between me and my vineyard.

 ⁴ What more could have been done for my vineyard
       than I have done for it?
       When I looked for good grapes,
       why did it yield only bad?

 ⁵ Now I will tell you
       what I am going to do to my vineyard:
       I will take away its hedge,
       and it will be destroyed;
       I will break down its wall,
       and it will be trampled.

 ⁶ I will make it a wasteland,
       neither pruned nor cultivated,
       and briers and thorns will grow there.
       I will command the clouds
       not to rain on it."

 ⁷ The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
       is the house of Israel,
       and the men of Judah
       are the garden of his delight.
       And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
       for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Woes and Judgments

 ⁸ Woe to you who add house to house
       and join field to field
       till no space is left
       and you live alone in the land.

 ⁹ The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:
       "Surely the great houses will become desolate,
       the fine mansions left without occupants.

 ¹⁰ A ten-acre ^[c] vineyard will produce only a bath ^[d] of wine,
       a homer ^[e] of seed only an ephah ^[f] of grain."

 ¹¹ Woe to those who rise early in the morning
       to run after their drinks,
       who stay up late at night
       till they are inflamed with wine.

 ¹² They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
       tambourines and flutes and wine,
       but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD,
       no respect for the work of his hands.

 ¹³ Therefore my people will go into exile
       for lack of understanding;
       their men of rank will die of hunger
       and their masses will be parched with thirst.

 ¹⁴ Therefore the grave ^[g] enlarges its appetite
       and opens its mouth without limit;
       into it will descend their nobles and masses
       with all their brawlers and revelers.

 ¹⁵ So man will be brought low
       and mankind humbled,
       the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

 ¹⁶ But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
       and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.

 ¹⁷ Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
       lambs will feed ^[h] among the ruins of the rich.

 ¹⁸ Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
       and wickedness as with cart ropes,

 ¹⁹ to those who say, "Let God hurry,
       let him hasten his work
       so we may see it.
       Let it approach,
       let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come,
       so we may know it."

 ²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good
       and good evil,
       who put darkness for light
       and light for darkness,
       who put bitter for sweet
       and sweet for bitter.

 ²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
       and clever in their own sight.

 ²² Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
       and champions at mixing drinks,

 ²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
       but deny justice to the innocent.

 ²⁴ Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
       and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
       so their roots will decay
       and their flowers blow away like dust;
       for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty
       and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

 ²⁵ Therefore the LORD's anger burns against his people;
       his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
       The mountains shake,
       and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.
       Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
       his hand is still upraised.

 ²⁶ He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
       he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
       Here they come,
       swiftly and speedily!

 ²⁷ Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,
       not one slumbers or sleeps;
       not a belt is loosened at the waist,
       not a sandal thong is broken.

 ²⁸ Their arrows are sharp,
       all their bows are strung;
       their horses' hoofs seem like flint,
       their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

 ²⁹ Their roar is like that of the lion,
       they roar like young lions;
       they growl as they seize their prey
       and carry it off with no one to rescue.

 ³⁰ In that day they will roar over it
       like the roaring of the sea.
       And if one looks at the land,
       he will see darkness and distress;
       even the light will be darkened by the clouds.

2 Corinthians 11

Paul and the False Apostles

 ¹I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. ²I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. ³But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. ⁵But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles." ⁶I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.

 ⁷Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? ⁸I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. ⁹And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. ¹⁰As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. ¹¹Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! ¹²And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. ¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

 ¹¹ My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
       my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

 ¹² The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
       they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

 ¹³ planted in the house of the LORD,
       they will flourish in the courts of our God.

 ¹⁴ They will still bear fruit in old age,
       they will stay fresh and green,

 ¹⁵ proclaiming, "The LORD is upright;
       he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

 ²⁸ Do not move an ancient boundary stone
       set up by your forefathers.

 ²⁹ Do you see a man skilled in his work?
       He will serve before kings;
       he will not serve before obscure men.