Isaiah 32-35

New King James Version

A Reign of Righteousness

32 Behold, ^(A)a king will reign in righteousness,
And princes will rule with justice.
²A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,
And ^(B)a ^[a]cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
³^(C)The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴Also the heart of the ^[b]rash will ^(D)understand knowledge,
And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The foolish person will no longer be called ^[c]generous,
Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
⁶For the foolish person will speak foolishness,
And his heart will work ^(E)iniquity:
To practice ungodliness,
To utter error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry unsatisfied,
And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
⁷Also the schemes of the schemer are evil;
He devises wicked plans
To destroy the poor with ^(F)lying words,
Even when the needy speaks justice.
⁸But a ^[d]generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.

Consequences of Complacency

⁹Rise up, you women ^(G)who are at ease,
Hear my voice;
You complacent daughters,
Give ear to my speech.
¹⁰In a year and some days
You will be troubled, you complacent women;
For the vintage will fail,
The gathering will not come.
¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent ones;
Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare,
And gird sackcloth on your waists.

¹²People shall mourn upon their breasts
For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
¹³^(H)On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers,
Yes, on all the happy homes in ^(I)the joyous city;
¹⁴^(J)Because the palaces will be forsaken,
The bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever,
A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
¹⁵Until ^(K)the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
And ^(L)the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

The Peace of God’s Reign

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
¹⁷^(M)The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
¹⁸My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
In secure dwellings, and in quiet ^(N)resting places,
¹⁹^(O)Though hail comes down ^(P)on the forest,
And the city is brought low in humiliation.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
Who send out freely the feet of ^(Q)the ox and the donkey.

A Prayer in Deep Distress

33 Woe to you ^(R)who plunder, though you have not been plundered;
And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!
^(S)When you cease plundering,
You will be ^(T)plundered;
When you make an end of dealing treacherously,
They will deal treacherously with you.

²O Lord, be gracious to us;
^(U)We have waited for You.
Be ^[e]their arm every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of trouble.
³At the noise of the tumult the people ^(V)shall flee;
When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;
⁴And Your plunder shall be gathered
Like the gathering of the caterpillar;
As the running to and fro of locusts,
He shall run upon them.

⁵^(W)The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times,
And the strength of salvation;
The fear of the Lord is His treasure.

⁷Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside,
^(X)The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
⁸^(Y)The highways lie waste,
The traveling man ceases.
^(Z)He has broken the covenant,
^[f]He has despised the ^[g]cities,
He regards no man.
⁹^(AA)The earth mourns and languishes,
Lebanon is shamed and shriveled;
Sharon is like a wilderness,
And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

Impending Judgment on Zion

¹⁰“Now^(AB) I will rise,” says the Lord;
“Now I will be exalted,
Now I will lift Myself up.
¹¹^(AC)You shall conceive chaff,
You shall bring forth stubble;
Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
¹²And the people shall be like the burnings of lime;
^(AD)Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
¹³Hear, ^(AE)you who are afar off, what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites:
“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring ^(AF)fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
¹⁵He who ^(AG)walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
He who despises the gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
And ^(AH)shuts his eyes from seeing evil:
¹⁶He will dwell on ^[h]high;
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks;
Bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.

The Land of the Majestic King

¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His ^(AI)beauty;
They will see the land that is very far off.
¹⁸Your heart will meditate on terror:
^(AJ)“Where is the scribe?
Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
¹⁹^(AK)You will not see a fierce people,
^(AL)A people of obscure speech, beyond perception,
Of a ^[i]stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰^(AM)Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see ^(AN)Jerusalem, a quiet home,
A tabernacle that will not be taken down;
^(AO)Not one of ^(AP)its stakes will ever be removed,
Nor will any of its cords be broken.
²¹But there the majestic Lord will be for us
A place of broad rivers and streams,
In which no ^[j]galley with oars will sail,
Nor majestic ships pass by
²²(For the Lord is our ^(AQ)Judge,
The Lord is our ^(AR)Lawgiver,
^(AS)The Lord is our King;
He will save us);
²³Your tackle is loosed,
They could not strengthen their mast,
They could not spread the sail.

Then the prey of great plunder is divided;
The lame take the prey.
²⁴And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”;
^(AT)The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

Judgment on the Nations

34 Come ^(AU)near, you nations, to hear;
And heed, you people!
^(AV)Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
The world and all things that come forth from it.
²For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations,
And His fury against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to the ^(AW)slaughter.
³Also their slain shall be thrown out;
^(AX)Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
⁴^(AY)All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
^(AZ)All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as ^(BA)fruit falling from a fig tree.

⁵“For ^(BB)My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it ^(BC)shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
⁶The ^(BD)sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made ^[k]overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For ^(BE)the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
⁷The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust ^[l]saturated with fatness.”

⁸For it is the day of the Lord’s ^(BF)vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
⁹^(BG)Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
¹⁰It shall not be quenched night or day;
^(BH)Its smoke shall ascend forever.
^(BI)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
¹¹^(BJ)But the ^[m]pelican and the ^[n]porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And ^(BK)He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³And ^(BL)thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
^(BM)It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
¹⁴The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the ^[o]jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also ^[p]the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
¹⁵There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.

¹⁶“Search from ^(BN)the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
¹⁷He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”

The Future Glory of Zion

35 The ^(BO)wilderness and the ^[q]wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the ^(BP)desert^[r] shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
²^(BQ)It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,
Even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the ^(BR)glory of the Lord,
The excellency of our God.

³^(BS)Strengthen the ^[s]weak hands,
And make firm the ^[t]feeble knees.
⁴Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with ^(BT)vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and ^(BU)save you.”

⁵Then the ^(BV)eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And ^(BW)the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
⁶Then the ^(BX)lame shall leap like a deer,
And the ^(BY)tongue of the dumb sing.
For ^(BZ)waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
⁷The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In ^(CA)the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸A ^(CB)highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
^(CC)The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
⁹^(CD)No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
¹⁰And the ^(CE)ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And ^(CF)sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Footnotes

Isaiah 32:2 shelter
Isaiah 32:4 hasty
Isaiah 32:5 noble
Isaiah 32:8 noble
Isaiah 33:2 LXX omits their; Syr., Tg., Vg. our
Isaiah 33:8 Tg. They have been removed from their cities
Isaiah 33:8 So with MT, Vg.; DSS witnesses; LXX omits cities
Isaiah 33:16 Lit. heights
Isaiah 33:19 Unintelligible speech
Isaiah 33:21 ship
Isaiah 34:6 Lit. fat
Isaiah 34:7 Lit. made fat
Isaiah 34:11 Or owl
Isaiah 34:11 Or hedgehog
Isaiah 34:14 Lit. howling creatures
Isaiah 34:14 Heb. lilith
Isaiah 35:1 desert
Isaiah 35:1 Heb. arabah
Isaiah 35:3 Lit. sinking
Isaiah 35:3 tottering or stumbling

James 2

New King James Version

Beware of Personal Favoritism

2 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(A)the Lord of glory, with ^(B)partiality. ²For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in ^[a]fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in ^[b]filthy clothes, ³and you ^[c]pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” ⁴have you not ^[d]shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵Listen, my beloved brethren: ^(C)Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be ^(D)rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom ^(E)which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶But ^(F)you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you ^(G)and drag you into the courts? ⁷Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are ^(H)called?

⁸If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ^(I)“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; ⁹but if you ^[e]show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as ^(J)transgressors. ¹⁰For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet ^(K)stumble in one point, ^(L)he is guilty of all. ¹¹For He who said, ^(M)“Do not commit adultery,” also said, ^(N)“Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹²So speak and so do as those who will be judged by ^(O)the law of liberty. ¹³For ^(P)judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown ^(Q)no ^(R)mercy. ^(S)Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith Without Works Is Dead^(T)

¹⁴^(U)What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵^(V)If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶and ^(W)one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? ¹⁷Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” ^(X)Show me your faith without ^[f]your works, ^(Y)and I will show you my faith by ^[g]my works. ¹⁹You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! ²⁰But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is ^[h]dead? ²¹Was not Abraham our father justified by works ^(Z)when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? ²²Do you see ^(AA)that faith was working together with his works, and by ^(AB)works faith was made ^[i]perfect? ²³And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ^(AC)“Abraham believed God, and it was ^[j]accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called ^(AD)the friend of God. ²⁴You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.