Daily Reading

1 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah because he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

2 And Hezekiah was glad for them and showed them his treasury, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the fine oil, and his whole armory and everything which was found among his treasures; there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say? And from where have they come to you? And Hezekiah said, They have come to me from a distant land, from Babylon.

4 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said, They have seen everything that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.

5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Jehovah of hosts:

6 The days are now coming when everything that is in your house and that your fathers have laid up as a treasure unto this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left, says Jehovah.

7 And they will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of Jehovah which you have spoken is good. He said moreover, Indeed there will be peace and truth in my days.

1 Comfort, oh, comfort My people, / Says your God.

2 Speak unto the heart of Jerusalem, / And cry out to her, / That her warfare has finished, / That the penalty for her iniquity has been accepted; / For she has received from the hand of Jehovah double / For all her sins.

3 The voice of one who cries / In the wilderness: Make clear / The way of Jehovah; / Make straight in the desert / A highway for our God.

4 Every valley will be lifted up, / And every mountain and hill will be made low, / And the crooked places will become straight, / And the rough places, a broad plain.

5 Then the glory of Jehovah will be revealed, / And all flesh will see it together, / Because the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.

6 A voice said, Cry out. / And he said, What shall I cry? / All flesh is grass / And all its glory is like the flower of the field;

7 The grass withers, the flower fades, / Because the breath of Jehovah blows upon it. / Surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers and the flower fades, / But the word of our God will stand forever.

9 Go up to a high mountain, / O Zion, who brings glad tidings; / Lift up your voice with power, / O Jerusalem, who brings glad tidings; / Lift it up; do not be afraid. / Say to the cities of Judah, / Behold your God!

10 Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty One, / And His arm will rule for Him. / Behold, His reward is with Him, / And His recompense before Him.

11 He will feed His flock as a Shepherd; / In His arm He will gather the lambs; / In His bosom He will carry them. / He will lead those who are nursing the young.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, / Who has calculated the extent of the heavens with a handspan, / And measured out the dust of the earth by a measure, / And weighed the mountains in scales / And the hills in balances?

13 Who has directed the Spirit of Jehovah, / Or who has made matters known to Him as His counselor?

14 With whom did He consult and who instructed Him, / And taught Him in the path of justice, / And taught Him knowledge, / And caused Him to know the way of understanding?

15 Indeed the nations are like a drop from a bucket, / And are accounted as specks of dust on the scales. / Indeed He takes up the islands as very fine powder.

16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, / Nor are its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.

17 All the nations are as nothing before Him; / They are counted by Him as less than nothing and vanity.

18 To whom then will you liken God? / Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

19 When the workman has cast an idol, / A goldsmith overlays it with gold / Also refining chains of silver for it.

20 He that is so impoverished that he lacks an offering / Chooses wood that will not rot, / And seeks a skillful craftsman for himself / To prepare an idol that will not be moved.

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? / Has it not been told to you from the beginning? / Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, / And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; / Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, / And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;

23 Who brings the princes to nought; / He makes the judges of the earth as nothing.

24 They have scarcely been planted; / They have scarcely been sown; / Their stem has scarcely taken root in the earth; / Nevertheless He blows on them and they are withered, / And the storm wind carries them away like stubble.

25 To whom will you liken Me, / That I should be compared? Says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high, / And see who has created these things, / Who brings out their host by number; / He calls all of them by name. / Through the greatness of His might and the strength of His power / Not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, / And why do you speak, O Israel, / My way is hidden from Jehovah, / And my judgment has been passed over by my God?

28 Do you not know, / Or have you not heard, / That the eternal God, Jehovah, / The Creator of the ends of the earth, / Does not faint and does not become weary? / There is no searching out of His understanding.

29 He gives power to the faint, / And to those who have no vigor He multiplies strength.

30 Although youths will faint and become weary, / And young men will collapse exhausted;

31 Yet those who wait on Jehovah will renew their strength; / They will mount up with wings like eagles; / They will run and will not become weary; / They will walk and will not faint.

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation,

16 Because in Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him.

17 And He is before all things, and all things cohere in Him;

18 And He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things;

19 For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell

20 And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross — through Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.

21 And you, though once alienated and enemies in your mind because of your evil works,

22 He now has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and without reproach before Him;

23 If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast and not being moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I Paul became a minister.

24 I now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church;

25 Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God, which was given to me for you, to complete the word of God,

26 The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to His saints;

27 To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,

28 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ;

29 For which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.