Tuesday, January 5, 2027

¹Be glad, thou thirsty desert: let the wilderness exult, and flower as the lily. ²And the desert places of Jordan shall blossom and rejoice; the glory of Libanus has been given to it, and the honour of Carmel; and my people shall see the glory of the Lord, and the majesty of God.

³Be strong, ye relaxed hands and palsied knees. ⁴Comfort one another, ye faint-hearted; be strong, fear not; behold, our God renders judgment, and he will render it; he will come and save us. ⁵Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. ⁶Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly; for water has burst forth in the desert, and a channel of water in a thirsty land. ⁷And the dry land shall become pools, and a fountain of water shall be poured into the thirsty land; there shall there be a joy of birds, ready habitations and marshes. ⁸There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way; and there shall not pass by there any unclean person, neither shall there be there an unclean way; but the dispersed shall walk on it, and they shall not go astray. ⁹And there shall be no lion there, neither shall any evil beast go up upon it, nor at all be found there; but the redeemed and gathered on the Lord's behalf, shall walk in it, ¹⁰and shall return, and come to Sion with joy, and everlasting joy shall be over their head; for on their head shall be praise and exultation, and joy shall take possession of them: sorrow and pain, and groaning have fled away.

¹⁶Wash you, be clean; remove your iniquities from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities; ¹⁷learn to do well; diligently seek judgment, deliver him that is suffering wrong, plead for the orphan, and obtain justice for the widow.

¹⁸And come, let us reason together, saith the Lord: and though your sins be as purple, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool. ¹⁹And if ye be willing, and hearken to me, ye shall eat the good of the land: ²⁰but if ye be not willing, nor hearken to me, a sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.

³Draw ye therefore water with joy out of the wells of salvation. ⁴And in that day thou shalt say, Sing to the Lord, call aloud upon his name, proclaim his glorious deeds among the Gentiles; make mention that his name is exalted. ⁵Sing praise to the name of the Lord; for he has done great things: declare this in all the earth. ⁶Exalt and rejoice, ye that dwell in Sion: for the Holy One of Israel is exalted in the midst of her.

⁸Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I succoured thee: and I have formed thee, and given thee for a covenant of the nations, to establish the earth, and to cause to inherit the desert heritages: ⁹saying to them that are in bonds, Go forth; and bidding them that are in darkness shew themselves. They shall be fed in all the ways, and in all the paths shall be their pasture. ¹⁰They shall not hunger, neither shall they thirst; neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them; but he that has mercy on them shall comfort them, and by fountains of waters shall he lead them. ¹¹And I will make every mountain a way, and every path a pasture to them. ¹²Behold, these shall come from far: and these from the north and the west, and others from the land of the Persians.

¹³Rejoice, ye heavens; and let the earth be glad: let the mountains break forth with joy; for the Lord has had mercy on his people, and has comforted the lowly ones of his people.

¹⁴But Sion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and, The Lord has forgotten me. ¹⁵Will a woman forget her child, so as not to have compassion upon the offspring of her womb? but if a woman should even forget these, yet I will not forget thee, saith the Lord.

¹In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. ²But the earth was unsightly and unfurnished, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the water. ³And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. ⁴And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness. ⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

⁶And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be a division between water and water, and it was so. ⁷And God made the firmament, and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament. ⁸And God called the firmament Heaven, and God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹And God said, Let the water which is under the heaven be collected into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And the water which was under the heaven was collected into its places, and the dry land appeared. ¹⁰And God called the dry land Earth, and the gatherings of the waters he called Seas, and God saw that it was good. ¹¹And God said, Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit-tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and it was so. ¹²And the earth brought forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁵And the Lord said to Moses, Why criest thou to me? speak to the children of Israel, and let them proceed. ¹⁶And do thou lift up thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand over the sea, and divide it, and let the children of Israel enter into the midst of the sea on the dry land. ¹⁷And lo! I will harden the heart of Pharao and of all the Egyptians, and they shall go in after them; and I will be glorified upon Pharao, and on all his host, and on his chariots and his horses. ¹⁸And all the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I am glorified upon Pharao and upon his chariots and his horses.

²¹And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the Lord carried back the sea with a strong south wind all the night, and made the sea dry, and the water was divided. ²²And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the water of it was a wall on the right hand and a wall on the left.

²³And the Egyptians pursued them and went in after them, and every horse of Pharao, and his chariots, and his horsemen, into the midst of the sea.

²⁷And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the water returned to its place toward day; and the Egyptians fled from the water, and the Lord shook off the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. ²⁸And the water returned and covered the chariots and the riders, and all the forces of Pharao, who entered after them into the sea: and there was not left of them even one. ²⁹But the children of Israel went along dry land in the midst of the sea, and the water was to them a wall on the right hand, and a wall on the left.

²²So Moses brought up the children of Israel from the Red Sea, and brought them into the wilderness of Sur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water to drink. ²³And they came to Merrha, and could not drink of Merrha, for it was bitter; therefore he named the name of that place, Bitterness. ²⁴And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? ²⁵And Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord shewed him a tree, and he cast it into the water, and the water was sweetened: there he established to him ordinances and judgments, and there he proved him, ²⁶and said, If thou wilt indeed hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and do things pleasing before him, and wilt hearken to his commands, and keep all his ordinances, no disease which I have brought upon the Egyptians will I bring upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God that heals thee. ²⁷And they came to Ælim, and there were there twelve fountains of water, and seventy stems of palm-trees; and they encamped there by the waters.

¹And they departed from Ælim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Ælim and Sina; and on the fifteenth day, in the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt,

⁷And the Lord said to Joshua, This day do I begin to exalt thee before all the children of Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so will I also be with thee. ⁸And now charge the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, As soon as ye shall enter on a part of the water of Jordan, then ye shall stand in Jordan.

¹⁵And when the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord entered upon Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord were dipped in part of the water of Jordan; (now Jordan overflowed all its banks about the time of wheat harvest:) ¹⁶then the waters that came down from above stopped; there stood one solid heap very far off, as far as the region of Kariathiarim, and the lower part came down to the sea of Araba, the salt sea, till it completely failed; and the people stood opposite Jericho. ¹⁷And the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry land in the midst of Jordan; and all the children of Israel went through on dry land, until all the people had completely gone over Jordan.

⁶And Eliu said to him, Stay here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Jordan. And Elisaie said, As the Lord lives and thy soul lives, I will not leave thee: and they both went on. ⁷And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went also, and they stood opposite afar off: and both stood on the bank of Jordan. ⁸And Eliu took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the water: and the water was divided on this side and on that side, and they both went over on dry ground.

⁹And it came to pass while they were crossing over, that Eliu said to Elisaie, Ask what I shall do for thee before I am taken up from thee. And Elisaie said, Let there be, I pray thee, a double portion of thy spirit upon me. ¹⁰And Eliu said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: if thou shalt see me when I am taken up from thee, then shall it be so to thee; and if not, it shall not be so.

¹¹And it came to pass as they were going, they went on talking; and, behold, a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and it separated between them both; and Eliu was taken up in a whirlwind as it were into heaven. ¹²And Elisaie saw, and cried, Father, father, the chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof! And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his garments, and rent them into two pieces. ¹³And Elisaie took up the mantle of Eliu, which fell from off him upon Elisaie; and Elisaie returned, and stood upon the brink of Jordan; ¹⁴and he took the mantle of Eliu, which fell from off him, and smote the water, and said, Where is the Lord God of Eliu? and he smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither; and Elisaie went over.

⁹So Naiman came with horse and chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisaie. ¹⁰And Elisaie sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash seven times in Jordan, and thy flesh shall return to thee, and thou shalt be cleansed. ¹¹And Naiman was angry, and departed, and said, Behold, I said, He will by all means come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of his God, and lay his hand upon the place, and recover the leper. ¹²Are not Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not go and wash in them, and be cleansed? and he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³And his servants came near and said to him, Suppose the prophet had spoken a great thing to thee, wouldest thou not perform it? yet he has but said to thee, Wash, and be cleansed. ¹⁴So Naiman went down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the word of Elisaie: and his flesh returned to him as the flesh of a little child, and he was cleansed.

¹⁶Wash you, be clean; remove your iniquities from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities; ¹⁷learn to do well; diligently seek judgment, deliver him that is suffering wrong, plead for the orphan, and obtain justice for the widow.

¹⁸And come, let us reason together, saith the Lord: and though your sins be as purple, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool. ¹⁹And if ye be willing, and hearken to me, ye shall eat the good of the land: ²⁰but if ye be not willing, nor hearken to me, a sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.

²And Jacob departed for his journey; and having looked up, he saw the host of God encamped; and the angels of God met him. ³And Jacob said, when he saw them, This is the Camp of God; and he called the name of that place, Encampments.

⁴And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother to the land of Seir, to the country of Edom. ⁵And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye say to my lord Esau: Thus saith thy servant Jacob; I have sojourned with Laban and tarried until now. ⁶And there were born to me oxen, and asses, and sheep, and men-servants and women-servants; and I sent to tell my lord Esau, that thy servant might find grace in thy sight. ⁷And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and lo! he comes to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. ⁸And Jacob was greatly terrified, and was perplexed; and he divided the people that was with him, and the cows, and the camels, and the sheep, into two camps. ⁹And Jacob said, If Esau should come to one camp, and smite it, the other camp shall be in safety. ¹⁰And Jacob said, God of my father Abraam, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, thou art he that said to me, Depart quickly to the land of thy birth, and I will do thee good. ¹¹Let there be to me a sufficiency of all the justice and all the truth which thou hast wrought with thy servant; for with this my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two camps.

⁵And the daughter of Pharao came down to the river to bathe; and her maids walked by the river's side, and having seen the ark in the ooze, she sent her maid, and took it up. ⁶And having opened it, she sees the babe weeping in the ark: and the daughter of Pharao had compassion on it, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. ⁷And his sister said to the daughter of Pharao, Wilt thou that I call to thee a nurse of the Hebrews, and shall she suckle the child for thee? ⁸And the daughter of Pharao said, Go: and the young woman went, and called the mother of the child. ⁹And the daughter of Pharao said to her, Take care of this child, and suckle it for me, and I will give thee the wages; and the woman took the child, and suckled it. ¹⁰And when the boy was grown, she brought him to the daughter of Pharao, and he became her son; and she called his name, Moses, saying, I took him out of the water.

³⁶And Gedeon said to God, If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said, ³⁷behold, I put the fleece of wool in the threshing-floor: if there be dew on the fleece only, and drought on all the ground, I shall know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said. ³⁸And it was so: and he rose up early in the morning, and wrung the fleece, and dew dropped from the fleece, a bowl full of water. ³⁹And Gedeon said to God, Let not, I pray thee, thine anger be kindled with me, and I will speak yet once; I will even yet make one trial more with the fleece: let now the drought be upon the fleece only, and let there be dew on all the ground. ⁴⁰And God did so in that night; and there was drought on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

³⁰And Eliu said to the people, Come near to me. And all the people came near to him. ³¹And Eliu took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, as the Lord spoke to him, saying, Israel shall be thy name. ³²And he built up the stones in the name of the Lord, and repaired the altar that had been broken down; and he made a trench that would hold two measures of seed round about the altar. ³³And he piled the cleft wood on the altar which he had made, and divided the whole-burnt-offering, and laid it on the wood, and laid it in order on the altar, and said, Fetch me four pitchers of water, and pour it on the whole-burnt-offering, and on the wood. And they did so. ³⁴And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. ³⁵And the water ran round about the altar, and they filled the trench with water.

³⁶And Eliu cried aloud to heaven, and said, Lord God of Abraam, and Isaac, and Israel, answer me, O Lord, answer me this day by fire, and let all this people know that thou art the Lord, the God of Israel, and I am thy servant, and for thy sake I have wrought these works. ³⁷Hear me, O Lord, hear me, and let this people know that thou art the Lord God, and thou hast turned back the heart of this people. ³⁸Then fire fell from the Lord out of heaven, and devoured the whole-burnt-offerings, and the wood and the water that was in the trench, and the fire licked up the stones and the earth.

³⁹And all the people fell upon their faces, and said, Truly the Lord is God; he is God.

¹⁹And the men of the city said to Elisaie, Behold, the situation of the city is good, as our lord sees; but the waters are bad, and the ground barren. ²⁰And Elisaie said, Bring me a new pitcher, and put salt in it. And they took one, and brought it to him. ²¹And Elisaie went out to the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and says, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be any longer death thence or barren land. ²²And the waters were healed until this day, according to the word of Elisaie which he spoke.

⁸Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I succoured thee: and I have formed thee, and given thee for a covenant of the nations, to establish the earth, and to cause to inherit the desert heritages: ⁹saying to them that are in bonds, Go forth; and bidding them that are in darkness shew themselves. They shall be fed in all the ways, and in all the paths shall be their pasture. ¹⁰They shall not hunger, neither shall they thirst; neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them; but he that has mercy on them shall comfort them, and by fountains of waters shall he lead them. ¹¹And I will make every mountain a way, and every path a pasture to them. ¹²Behold, these shall come from far: and these from the north and the west, and others from the land of the Persians.

¹³Rejoice, ye heavens; and let the earth be glad: let the mountains break forth with joy; for the Lord has had mercy on his people, and has comforted the lowly ones of his people.

¹⁴But Sion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and, The Lord has forgotten me. ¹⁵Will a woman forget her child, so as not to have compassion upon the offspring of her womb? but if a woman should even forget these, yet I will not forget thee, saith the Lord.

¹Be glad, thou thirsty desert: let the wilderness exult, and flower as the lily. ²And the desert places of Jordan shall blossom and rejoice; the glory of Libanus has been given to it, and the honour of Carmel; and my people shall see the glory of the Lord, and the majesty of God.

³Be strong, ye relaxed hands and palsied knees. ⁴Comfort one another, ye faint-hearted; be strong, fear not; behold, our God renders judgment, and he will render it; he will come and save us. ⁵Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. ⁶Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly; for water has burst forth in the desert, and a channel of water in a thirsty land. ⁷And the dry land shall become pools, and a fountain of water shall be poured into the thirsty land; there shall there be a joy of birds, ready habitations and marshes. ⁸There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way; and there shall not pass by there any unclean person, neither shall there be there an unclean way; but the dispersed shall walk on it, and they shall not go astray. ⁹And there shall be no lion there, neither shall any evil beast go up upon it, nor at all be found there; but the redeemed and gathered on the Lord's behalf, shall walk in it, ¹⁰and shall return, and come to Sion with joy, and everlasting joy shall be over their head; for on their head shall be praise and exultation, and joy shall take possession of them: sorrow and pain, and groaning have fled away.

¹Ye that thirst, go to the water, and all that have no money, go and buy; and eat and drink wine and fat without money or price. ²Wherefore do ye value at the price of money, and give your labour for that which will not satisfy? hearken to me, and ye shall eat that which is good, and your soul shall feast itself on good things.

³Give heed with your ears, and follow my ways: hearken to me, and your soul shall live in prosperity; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of David. ⁴Behold, I have made him a testimony among the Gentiles, a prince and commander to the Gentiles. ⁵Nations which know thee not, shall call upon thee, and peoples which are not acquainted with thee, shall flee to thee for refuge, for the sake of the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified thee.

⁶Seek ye the Lord, and when ye find him, call upon him; and when he shall draw nigh to you, ⁷let the ungodly leave his ways, and the transgressor his counsels: and let him return to the Lord, and he shall find mercy; for he shall abundantly pardon your sins. ⁸For my counsels are not as your counsels, nor are my ways as your ways, saith the Lord. ⁹But as the heaven is distant from the earth, so is my way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from my mind. ¹⁰For as rain shall come down, or snow, from heaven, and shall not return until it have saturated the earth, and it bring forth, and bud, and give seed to the sower, and bread for food: ¹¹so shall my word be, whatever shall proceed out of my mouth, it shall by no means turn back, until all the things which I willed shall have been accomplished; and I will make thy ways prosperous, and will effect my commands. ¹²For ye shall go forth with joy, and shall be taught with gladness: for the mountains and the hills shall exult to welcome you with joy, and all the trees of the field shall applaud with their branches. ¹³And instead of the bramble shall come up the cypress, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle: and the Lord shall be for a name, and for an everlasting sign, and shall not fail.

³Draw ye therefore water with joy out of the wells of salvation. ⁴And in that day thou shalt say, Sing to the Lord, call aloud upon his name, proclaim his glorious deeds among the Gentiles; make mention that his name is exalted. ⁵Sing praise to the name of the Lord; for he has done great things: declare this in all the earth. ⁶Exalt and rejoice, ye that dwell in Sion: for the Holy One of Israel is exalted in the midst of her.