Old/New Testament
The Lord Challenges the Nations
41 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands![a]
Let the nations find renewed strength!
Let them approach and then speak;
let us come together for debate.[b]
2 Who stirs up this one from the east?[c]
Who[d] officially commissions him for service?[e]
He hands nations over to him,[f]
and enables him to subdue[g] kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
like windblown straw with his bow.[h]
3 He pursues them and passes by unharmed;[i]
he advances with great speed.[j]
4 Who acts and carries out decrees?[k]
Who[l] summons the successive generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning,
and at the very end—I am the one.[m]
5 The coastlands[n] see and are afraid;
the whole earth[o] trembles;
they approach and come.
6 They help one another;[p]
one says to the other, ‘Be strong!’
7 The craftsman encourages the metalsmith,
the one who wields the hammer encourages[q] the one who pounds on the anvil.
He approves the quality of the welding,[r]
and nails it down so it won’t fall over.
The Lord Encourages His People
8 “You, my servant Israel,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
offspring of Abraham my friend,[s]
9 you whom I am bringing back[t] from the earth’s extremities,
and have summoned from the remote regions—
I told you, ‘You are my servant.’
I have chosen you and not rejected you.
10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you!
Don’t be frightened, for I am your God![u]
I strengthen you—
yes, I help you—
yes, I uphold you with my victorious right hand![v]
11 Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated;
your adversaries[w] will be reduced to nothing[x] and perish.
12 When you will look for your opponents,[y] you will not find them;
your enemies[z] will be reduced to absolutely nothing.
13 For I am the Lord your God,
the one who takes hold of your right hand,
who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’
14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob,[aa]
men of[ab] Israel.
I am helping you,” says the Lord,
your Protector,[ac] the Holy One of Israel.[ad]
15 “Look, I am making you like[ae] a sharp threshing sledge,
new and double-edged.[af]
You will thresh the mountains and crush them;
you will make the hills like straw.[ag]
16 You will winnow them and the wind will blow them away;
the wind will scatter them.
You will rejoice in the Lord;
you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.
17 The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none;
their tongues are parched from thirst.
I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers;[ah]
I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.
18 I will make streams flow down the slopes
and produce springs in the middle of the valleys.
I will turn the wilderness into a pool of water
and the arid land into springs.
19 I will make cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees grow in the wilderness;
I will make evergreens, firs, and cypresses grow together in the arid rift valley.[ai]
20 I will do this so[aj] people[ak] will observe and recognize,
so they will pay attention and understand
that the Lord’s power[al] has accomplished this,
and that the Holy One of Israel has brought it into being.[am]
The Lord Challenges the Pagan Gods
21 “Present your argument,” says the Lord.
“Produce your evidence,”[an] says Jacob’s king.[ao]
22 “Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!
Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles,[ap]
so we may examine them[aq] and see how they were fulfilled.[ar]
Or decree for us some future events!
23 Predict how future events will turn out,[as]
so we might know you are gods.
Yes, do something good or something bad,
so we might be frightened and in awe.[at]
24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;
the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting.[au]
25 I have stirred up one out of the north[av] and he advances,
one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name.[aw]
He steps on[ax] rulers as if they were clay,
like a potter treading the clay.
26 Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know?
Who announced it[ay] ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’?
Indeed, none of them decreed it.
Indeed, none of them announced it.
Indeed, no one heard you say anything!
27 I first decreed to Zion, ‘Look, here’s what will happen!’[az]
I sent a herald to Jerusalem.
28 I look, but there is no one,
among them there is no one who serves as an adviser,
that I might ask questions and receive answers.
29 Look, all of them are nothing,[ba]
their accomplishments are nonexistent;
their metal images lack any real substance.[bb]
The Lord Commissions His Special Servant
42 [bc] “Here is my servant whom I support,
my chosen one in whom I take pleasure.
I have placed my Spirit on him;
he will make just decrees[bd] for the nations.[be]
2 He will not cry out or shout;
he will not publicize himself in the streets.[bf]
3 A crushed reed he will not break,
a dim wick he will not extinguish;[bg]
he will faithfully make just decrees.[bh]
4 He will not grow dim or be crushed[bi]
before establishing justice on the earth;
the coastlands[bj] will wait in anticipation for his decrees.”[bk]
5 This is what the true God,[bl] the Lord, says—
the one who created the sky and stretched it out,
the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it,[bm]
the one who gives breath to the people on it,
and life to those who live on it:[bn]
6 “I, the Lord, officially commission you;[bo]
I take hold of your hand.
I protect you[bp] and make you a covenant mediator for people,[bq]
and a light[br] to the nations,[bs]
7 to open blind eyes,[bt]
to release prisoners[bu] from dungeons,
those who live in darkness from prisons.
The Lord Intervenes
8 “I am the Lord! That is my name!
I will not share my glory with anyone else,
or the praise due me with idols.
9 Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass;[bv]
now I announce new events.
Before they begin to occur,
I reveal them to you.”[bw]
10 Sing to the Lord a brand new song!
Praise him[bx] from the horizon of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and everything that lives in it,[by]
you coastlands[bz] and those who live there.
11 Let the wilderness and its cities shout out,
the towns where the nomads of Kedar live.
Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully;
let them shout loudly from the mountaintops.
12 Let them give the Lord the honor he deserves;[ca]
let them praise his deeds in the coastlands.[cb]
13 The Lord emerges like a hero,
like a warrior he inspires himself for battle;[cc]
he shouts, yes, he yells,
he shows his enemies his power.[cd]
14 “I have been inactive[ce] for a long time;
I kept quiet and held back.
Like a woman in labor I groan;
I pant and gasp.[cf]
15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up;[cg]
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands,[ch]
and dry up pools of water.[ci]
16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way;[cj]
I will guide them down paths they have never traveled.[ck]
I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,
and level out the rough ground.[cl]
This is what I will do for them.
I will not abandon them.
17 Those who trust in idols
will turn back and be utterly humiliated,[cm]
those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’
The Lord Reasons with His People
18 “Listen, you deaf ones!
Take notice,[cn] you blind ones!
19 My servant is truly blind,
my messenger is truly deaf.
My covenant partner,[co] the servant of the Lord, is truly blind.[cp]
20 You see[cq] many things, but don’t comprehend;[cr]
their ears are open, but do not hear.”
21 The Lord wanted to exhibit his justice
by magnifying his law and displaying it.[cs]
22 But these people are looted and plundered;
all of them are trapped in pits[ct]
and held captive[cu] in prisons.
They were carried away as loot with no one to rescue them;
they were carried away as plunder, and no one says, “Bring that back!”[cv]
23 Who among you will pay attention to this?
Who will listen attentively in the future?[cw]
24 Who handed Jacob over to the robber?
Who handed Israel over to the looters?[cx]
Was it not the Lord, against whom we sinned?
They refused to follow his commands;
they disobeyed his law.[cy]
25 So he poured out his fierce anger on them,[cz]
along with the devastation[da] of war.
Its flames encircled them,[db] but they did not realize it;[dc]
it burned against them, but they did not take it to heart.[dd]
Salutation
1 From Paul[a] and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you![b]
Thanksgiving for Response to the Gospel
2 We thank God always for all of you as we mention you constantly[c] in our prayers, 3 because we recall[d] in the presence of our God and Father[e] your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope[f] in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 We know,[g] brothers and sisters[h] loved by God, that he has chosen you,[i] 5 in that[j] our gospel did not come to you merely in words,[k] but in power and in the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction (surely you recall the character we displayed when we came among you to help you).[l]
6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, when you received[m] the message with joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, despite great affliction. 7 As a result you became an example[n] to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For from you the message of the Lord[o] has echoed forth not just in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place reports of your faith in God have spread,[p] so that we do not need to say anything. 9 For people everywhere[q] report how you welcomed us[r] and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.[s]
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