Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Isaiah 44-48

44“But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.

²This is what the Lord says- he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

⁴They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.

⁵One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord ‘; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord ‘s,’ and will take the name Israel.

⁶“This is what the Lord says- Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.

⁷Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come- yes, let him foretell what will come.

⁸Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”

⁹All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame.

¹⁰Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing?

¹¹He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy.

¹²The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint.

¹³The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.

¹⁴He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.

¹⁵It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.

¹⁶Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”

¹⁷From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me; you are my god.”

¹⁸They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.

¹⁹No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”

²⁰He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

²¹“Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you.

²²I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

²³Sing for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.

²⁴“This is what the Lord says- your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord , who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

²⁵who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense,

²⁶who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be built,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’

²⁷who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’

²⁸who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.” ‘

45“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

²I will go before you and will level the mountains ; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.

³I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord , the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

⁴For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.

⁵I am the Lord , and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,

⁶so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord , and there is no other.

⁷I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord , do all these things.

⁸“You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the Lord , have created it.

⁹“Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

¹⁰Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to his mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’

¹¹“This is what the Lord says- the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?

¹²It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.

¹³I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the Lord Almighty.”

¹⁴This is what the Lord says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and those tall Sabeans- they will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you, coming over to you in chains. They will bow down before you and plead with you, saying, ‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other; there is no other god.’ “

¹⁵Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel.

¹⁶All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced; they will go off into disgrace together.

¹⁷But Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting.

¹⁸For this is what the Lord says- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited- he says: “I am the Lord , and there is no other.

¹⁹I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord , speak the truth; I declare what is right.

²⁰“Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save.

²¹Declare what is to be, present it- let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord ? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.

²²“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

²³By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.

²⁴They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength.’ ” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame.

²⁵But in the Lord all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult.

46Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary.

²They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity.

³“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth.

⁴Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

⁵“To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?

⁶Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it.

⁷They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles.

⁸“Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels.

⁹Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.

¹⁰I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

¹¹From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.

¹²Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness.

¹³I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.

47“Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter of the Babylonians. No more will you be called tender or delicate.

²Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams.

³Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”

⁴Our Redeemer-the Lord Almighty is his name- is the Holy One of Israel.

⁵“Sit in silence, go into darkness, Daughter of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms.

⁶I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.

⁷You said, ‘I will continue forever- the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.

⁸“Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’

⁹Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.

¹⁰You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’

¹¹Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.

¹²“Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.

¹³All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.

¹⁴Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. Here are no coals to warm anyone; here is no fire to sit by.

¹⁵That is all they can do for you- these you have labored with and trafficked with since childhood. Each of them goes on in his error; there is not one that can save you.

48“Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel- but not in truth or righteousness-

²you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and rely on the God of Israel- the Lord Almighty is his name:

³I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

⁴For I knew how stubborn you were; the sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze.

⁵Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’

⁶You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? “From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.

⁷They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot say, ‘Yes, I knew of them.’

⁸You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ear has not been open. Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth.

⁹For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off.

¹⁰See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.

¹²“Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last.

¹³My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together.

¹⁴“Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The Lord ‘s chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians.

¹⁵I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission.

¹⁶“Come near me and listen to this: “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.” And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, with his Spirit.

¹⁷This is what the Lord says- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.

¹⁸If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

¹⁹Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”

²⁰Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”

²¹They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out.

²²“There is no peace,” says the Lord , “for the wicked.”

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Isaiah 40-43

40Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord ‘s hand double for all her sins.

³A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord ; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

⁵And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

⁶A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.

⁷The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass.

⁸The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

⁹You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”

¹⁰See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.

¹¹He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who has understood the mind of the Lord , or instructed him as his counselor?

¹⁴Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?

¹⁵Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.

¹⁷Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.

¹⁸To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?

¹⁹As for an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it.

²⁰A man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.

²¹Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

²³He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

²⁴No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

²⁵“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord ; my cause is disregarded by my God”?

²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

²⁹He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

³¹but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

41“Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of judgment.

²“Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service ? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.

³He pursues them and moves on unscathed, by a path his feet have not traveled before.

⁴Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord -with the first of them and with the last-I am he.”

⁵The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward;

⁶each helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!”

⁷The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer spurs on him who strikes the anvil. He says of the welding, “It is good.” He nails down the idol so it will not topple.

⁸“But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend,

⁹I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

¹⁰So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

¹¹“All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish.

¹²Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.

¹³For I am the Lord , your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

¹⁴Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord , your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵“See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

¹⁶You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.

¹⁹I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,

²⁰so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹“Present your case,” says the Lord . “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.

²²“Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come,

²³tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.

²⁴But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable.

²⁵“I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes- one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay.

²⁶Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’? No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you.

²⁷I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’ I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good tidings.

²⁸I look but there is no one- no one among them to give counsel, no one to give answer when I ask them.

²⁹See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion.

42“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

²He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.

³A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

⁴he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.”

⁵This is what God the Lord says- he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:

⁶“I, the Lord , have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,

⁷to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

⁸“I am the Lord ; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.

⁹See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” Song of Praise to the Lord

¹⁰Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them.

¹¹Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops.

¹²Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim his praise in the islands.

¹³The Lord will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.

¹⁴“For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant.

¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.

¹⁶I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

¹⁷But those who trust in idols, who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame. Israel Blind and Deaf

¹⁸“Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see!

¹⁹Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the Lord ?

²⁰You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.”

²¹It pleased the Lord for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious.

²²But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, “Send them back.”

²³Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to come?

²⁴Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord , against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways; they did not obey his law.

²⁵So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

43But now, this is what the Lord says- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

³For I am the Lord , your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.

⁴Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.

⁵Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.

⁶I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth-

⁷everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

⁸Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf.

⁹All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of them foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things? Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.”

¹⁰“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord , “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

¹¹I, even I, am the Lord , and apart from me there is no savior.

¹²I have revealed and saved and proclaimed- I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord , “that I am God.

¹³Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”

¹⁴This is what the Lord says- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride.

¹⁵I am the Lord , your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.”

¹⁶This is what the Lord says- he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,

¹⁷who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

¹⁸“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

¹⁹See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

²⁰The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen,

²¹the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

²²“Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel.

²³You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense.

²⁴You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses.

²⁵“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

²⁶Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence.

²⁷Your first father sinned; your spokesmen rebelled against me.

²⁸So I will disgrace the dignitaries of your temple, and I will consign Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Isaiah 37-39; Psalm 76

37When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord .

²He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

³They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.

⁴It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”

⁵When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,

⁶Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard-those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’ “

⁸When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.

⁹Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt , was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word:

¹⁰“Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’

¹¹Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?

¹²Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them-the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?

¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?”

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord .

¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord :

¹⁶“O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

¹⁷Give ear, O Lord , and hear; open your eyes, O Lord , and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.

¹⁸“It is true, O Lord , that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.

¹⁹They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.

²⁰Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord , are God. “

²¹Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²²this is the word the Lord has spoken against him: “The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.

²³Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord. And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.

²⁵I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’

²⁶“Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.

²⁷Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.

²⁸“But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me.

²⁹Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.

³⁰“This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

³¹Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.

³²For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

³³“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.

³⁴By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the Lord .

³⁵“I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”

³⁶Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning-there were all the dead bodies!

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

³⁸One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

38In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

²Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord ,

³“Remember, O Lord , how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:

⁵“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord , the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.

⁶And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

⁷” ‘This is the Lord ‘s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised:

⁸I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’ ” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

¹⁰I said, “In the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years?”

¹¹I said, “I will not again see the Lord , the Lord , in the land of the living; no longer will I look on mankind, or be with those who now dwell in this world.

¹²Like a shepherd’s tent my house has been pulled down and taken from me. Like a weaver I have rolled up my life, and he has cut me off from the loom; day and night you made an end of me.

¹³I waited patiently till dawn, but like a lion he broke all my bones; day and night you made an end of me.

¹⁴I cried like a swift or thrush, I moaned like a mourning dove. My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens. I am troubled; O Lord, come to my aid!”

¹⁵But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul.

¹⁶Lord, by such things men live; and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health and let me live.

¹⁷Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.

¹⁸For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.

¹⁹The living, the living-they praise you, as I am doing today; fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.

²⁰The Lord will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord .

²¹Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

²²Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the temple of the Lord ?”

39At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery.

²Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses-the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?” “From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”

⁴The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?” “They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty:

⁶The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord .

⁷And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

⁸“The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

PSALM 76

¹In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel.

²His tent is in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.

³There he broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war. Selah

⁴You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains rich with game.

⁵Valiant men lie plundered, they sleep their last sleep; not one of the warriors can lift his hands.

⁶At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and chariot lie still.

⁷You alone are to be feared. Who can stand before you when you are angry?

⁸From heaven you pronounced judgment, and the land feared and was quiet-

⁹when you, O God, rose up to judge, to save all the afflicted of the land. Selah

¹⁰Surely your wrath against men brings you praise, and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

¹¹Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them; let all the neighboring lands bring gifts to the One to be feared.

¹²He breaks the spirit of rulers; he is feared by the kings of the earth.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Isaiah 35-36

35The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus,

²it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord , the splendor of our God.

³Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way;

⁴say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”

⁵Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

⁷The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

⁸And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.

⁹No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

36In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

²Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field,

³Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.

⁴The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, ” ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?

⁵You say you have strategy and military strength-but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?

⁶Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.

⁷And if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”-isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

⁸” ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses-if you can put riders on them!

⁹How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁰Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord ? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ “

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

¹²But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall-who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁴This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you!

¹⁵Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

¹⁶“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

¹⁷until I come and take you to a land like your own-a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸“Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

²⁰Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

²¹But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Isaiah 31-34

31Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord .

²Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked, against those who help evildoers.

³But the Egyptians are men and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, he who helps will stumble, he who is helped will fall; both will perish together.

⁴This is what the Lord says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over his prey- and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against him, he is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor- so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.

⁵Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.”

⁶Return to him you have so greatly revolted against, O Israelites.

⁷For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.

⁸“Assyria will fall by a sword that is not of man; a sword, not of mortals, will devour them. They will flee before the sword and their young men will be put to forced labor.

⁹Their stronghold will fall because of terror; at sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,” declares the Lord , whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

32See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.

²Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

³Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.

⁵No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

⁶For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil: He practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning the Lord ; the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds water.

⁷The scoundrel’s methods are wicked, he makes up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.

⁸But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.

⁹You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say!

¹⁰In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.

¹¹Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! Strip off your clothes, put sackcloth around your waists.

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines

¹³and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers- yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.

¹⁴The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,

¹⁵till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.

¹⁶Justice will dwell in the desert and righteousness live in the fertile field.

¹⁷The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

¹⁸My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.

¹⁹Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely,

²⁰how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

33Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.

²O Lord , be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.

³At the thunder of your voice, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter.

⁴Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts men pounce on it.

⁵The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

⁷Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

⁸The highways are deserted, no travelers are on the roads. The treaty is broken, its witnesses are despised, no one is respected.

⁹The land mourns and wastes away, Lebanon is ashamed and withers; Sharon is like the Arabah, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

¹⁰“Now will I arise,” says the Lord . “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up.

¹¹You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw; your breath is a fire that consumes you.

¹²The peoples will be burned as if to lime; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”

¹³You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power!

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

¹⁵He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil-

¹⁶this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar.

¹⁸In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror: “Where is that chief officer? Where is the one who took the revenue? Where is the officer in charge of the towers?”

¹⁹You will see those arrogant people no more, those people of an obscure speech, with their strange, incomprehensible tongue.

²⁰Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.

²¹There the Lord will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them.

²²For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.

²³Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder.

²⁴No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.

34Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!

²The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter.

³Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

⁴All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

⁵My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed.

⁶The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat- the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom.

⁷And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat.

⁸For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.

⁹Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch!

¹⁰It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.

¹¹The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation.

¹²Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away.

¹³Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls.

¹⁴Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also repose and find for themselves places of rest.

¹⁵The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate.

¹⁶Look in the scroll of the Lord and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together.

¹⁷He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Isaiah 28-30

28Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley- to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!

²See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour, he will throw it forcefully to the ground.

³That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, will be trampled underfoot.

⁴That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like a fig ripe before harvest- as soon as someone sees it and takes it in his hand, he swallows it.

⁵In that day the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.

⁶He will be a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions.

⁸All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth.

⁹“Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast?

¹⁰For it is: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule ; a little here, a little there.”

¹¹Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people,

¹²to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”- but they would not listen.

¹³So then, the word of the Lord to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there- so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord , you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

¹⁵You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

¹⁶So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.

¹⁹As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.

²⁰The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.

²¹The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon- to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task.

²²Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land.

²³Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say.

²⁴When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?

²⁵When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field?

²⁶His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.

²⁷Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a stick.

²⁸Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it.

²⁹All this also comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.

29Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.

²Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.

³I will encamp against you all around; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.

⁴Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.

⁵But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,

⁶the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.

⁷Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night-

⁸as when a hungry man dreams that he is eating, but he awakens, and his hunger remains; as when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but he awakens faint, with his thirst unquenched. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.

¹⁰The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”

¹²Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

¹³The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

¹⁴Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

¹⁵Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord , who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”

¹⁶You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”?

¹⁷In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest?

¹⁸In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

¹⁹Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord ; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down-

²¹those who with a word make a man out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

²²Therefore this is what the Lord , who redeemed Abraham, says to the house of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale.

²³When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”

30“Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord , “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin;

²who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge.

³But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.

⁴Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

⁵everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace.”

⁶An oracle concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation,

⁷to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.

⁸Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.

⁹These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord ‘s instruction.

¹⁰They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.

¹¹Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”

¹²Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit,

¹³this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

¹⁴It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.”

¹⁵This is what the Sovereign Lord , the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

¹⁶You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

¹⁷A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.”

¹⁸Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

¹⁹O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

²⁰Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.

²¹Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

²²Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

²³He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.

²⁴The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel.

²⁵In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill.

²⁶The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

²⁷See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire.

²⁸His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray.

²⁹And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people go up with flutes to the mountain of the Lord , to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰The Lord will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.

³¹The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria; with his scepter he will strike them down.

³²Every stroke the Lord lays on them with his punishing rod will be to the music of tambourines and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.

³³Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the Lord , like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Hosea 8-14

8“Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle is over the house of the Lord because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law.

²Israel cries out to me, ‘O our God, we acknowledge you!’

³But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him.

⁴They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction.

⁵Throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity?

⁶They are from Israel! This calf-a craftsman has made it; it is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria.

⁷“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up.

⁸Israel is swallowed up; now she is among the nations like a worthless thing.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

¹⁰Although they have sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them together. They will begin to waste away under the oppression of the mighty king.

¹¹“Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning.

¹²I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something alien.

¹³They offer sacrifices given to me and they eat the meat, but the Lord is not pleased with them. Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.

¹⁴Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has fortified many towns. But I will send fire upon their cities that will consume their fortresses.”

9Do not rejoice, O Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.

²Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them.

³They will not remain in the Lord ‘s land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord , nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the Lord .

⁵What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts, on the festival days of the Lord ?

⁶Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents.

⁷The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac.

⁸The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.

⁹They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.

¹⁰“When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree. But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.

¹¹Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

¹²Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Woe to them when I turn away from them!

¹³I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer.”

¹⁴Give them, O Lord – what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry.

¹⁵“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.

¹⁶Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.”

¹⁷My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.

10Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.

²Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones.

³Then they will say, “We have no king because we did not revere the Lord . But even if we had a king, what could he do for us?”

⁴They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

⁵The people who live in Samaria fear for the calf-idol of Beth Aven. Its people will mourn over it, and so will its idolatrous priests, those who had rejoiced over its splendor, because it is taken from them into exile.

⁶It will be carried to Assyria as tribute for the great king. Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols.

⁷Samaria and its king will float away like a twig on the surface of the waters.

⁸The high places of wickedness will be destroyed- it is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹“Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?

¹⁰When I please, I will punish them; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin.

¹¹Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground.

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord , until he comes and showers righteousness on you.

¹³But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors,

¹⁴the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated- as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

¹⁵Thus will it happen to you, O Bethel, because your wickedness is great. When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

11“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

²But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.

³It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.

⁴I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.

⁵“Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent?

⁶Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans.

⁷My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them.

⁸“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.

⁹I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man- the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.

¹⁰They will follow the Lord ; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.

¹¹They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord .

¹²Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit. And Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One.

12Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.

²The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

³In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God.

⁴He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there-

⁵the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name of renown!

⁶But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.

⁷The merchant uses dishonest scales; he loves to defraud.

⁸Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.”

⁹“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of your appointed feasts.

¹⁰I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them.”

¹¹Is Gilead wicked? Its people are worthless! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Their altars will be like piles of stones on a plowed field.

¹²Jacob fled to the country of Aram ; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep.

¹³The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him.

¹⁴But Ephraim has bitterly provoked him to anger; his Lord will leave upon him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.

13When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.

²Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idols.”

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.

⁴“But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.

⁵I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat.

⁶When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.

⁷So I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

⁸Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open. Like a lion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart.

⁹“You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.

¹⁰Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’?

¹¹So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.

¹²The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.

¹³Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he does not come to the opening of the womb.

¹⁴“I will ransom them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? “I will have no compassion,

¹⁵even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the Lord will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.

¹⁶The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.”

14Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!

²Take words with you and return to the Lord . Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

³Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

⁴“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;

⁶his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

⁷Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

⁸O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me.”

⁹Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Hosea 1-7

1The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:

²When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord .”

³So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

⁵In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them.

⁷Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them-not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God.”

⁸After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son.

⁹Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

¹⁰“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

¹¹The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

2“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

²“Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

³Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.

⁴I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.

⁵Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’

⁶Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

⁷She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’

⁸She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold- which they used for Baal.

⁹“Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.

¹¹I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days-all her appointed feasts.

¹²I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.

¹³I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the Lord .

¹⁴“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.

¹⁵There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

¹⁶“In that day,” declares the Lord , “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master. ‘

¹⁷I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.

¹⁸In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.

¹⁹I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.

²⁰I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord .

²¹“In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord – “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;

²²and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.

²³I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one. ‘ I will say to those called ‘Not my people, ‘ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ “

3The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.

³Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.”

⁴For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol.

⁵Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.

4Hear the word of the Lord , you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.

²There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

³Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.

⁴“But let no man bring a charge, let no man accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

⁵You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother-

⁶my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.

⁷The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.

⁸They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness.

⁹And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

¹⁰“They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not increase, because they have deserted the Lord to give themselves

¹¹to prostitution, to old wine and new, which take away the understanding

¹²of my people. They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.

¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

¹⁴“I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes- a people without understanding will come to ruin!

¹⁵“Though you commit adultery, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. “Do not go to Gilgal; do not go up to Beth Aven. And do not swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’

¹⁶The Israelites are stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. How then can the Lord pasture them like lambs in a meadow?

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!

¹⁸Even when their drinks are gone, they continue their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

¹⁹A whirlwind will sweep them away, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

5“Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! Listen, O royal house! This judgment is against you: You have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.

²The rebels are deep in slaughter. I will discipline all of them.

³I know all about Ephraim; Israel is not hidden from me. Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution; Israel is corrupt.

⁴“Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the Lord .

⁵Israel’s arrogance testifies against them; the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin; Judah also stumbles with them.

⁶When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord , they will not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.

⁷They are unfaithful to the Lord ; they give birth to illegitimate children. Now their New Moon festivals will devour them and their fields.

⁸“Sound the trumpet in Gibeah, the horn in Ramah. Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven ; lead on, O Benjamin.

⁹Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of reckoning. Among the tribes of Israel I proclaim what is certain.

¹⁰Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary stones. I will pour out my wrath on them like a flood of water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, trampled in judgment, intent on pursuing idols.

¹²I am like a moth to Ephraim, like rot to the people of Judah.

¹³“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sores, then Ephraim turned to Assyria, and sent to the great king for help. But he is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores.

¹⁴For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.

¹⁵Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”

6“Come, let us return to the Lord . He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.

²After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.

³Let us acknowledge the Lord ; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴“What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.

⁵Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.

⁶For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷Like Adam, they have broken the covenant- they were unfaithful to me there.

⁸Gilead is a city of wicked men, stained with footprints of blood.

⁹As marauders lie in ambush for a man, so do bands of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

¹⁰I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There Ephraim is given to prostitution and Israel is defiled.

¹¹“Also for you, Judah, a harvest is appointed. “Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

7whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets;

²but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me.

³“They delight the king with their wickedness, the princes with their lies.

⁴They are all adulterers, burning like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir from the kneading of the dough till it rises.

⁵On the day of the festival of our king the princes become inflamed with wine, and he joins hands with the mockers.

⁶Their hearts are like an oven; they approach him with intrigue. Their passion smolders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot as an oven; they devour their rulers. All their kings fall, and none of them calls on me.

⁸“Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over.

⁹Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he does not notice.

¹⁰Israel’s arrogance testifies against him, but despite all this he does not return to the Lord his God or search for him.

¹¹“Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless- now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria.

¹²When they go, I will throw my net over them; I will pull them down like birds of the air. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them.

¹³Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak lies against me.

¹⁴They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds. They gather together for grain and new wine but turn away from me.

¹⁵I trained them and strengthened them, but they plot evil against me.

¹⁶They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

2 Kings 18:1-8; 2 Chronicles 29-31; Psalm 48

2 Kings 18:1-8

18In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

²He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.

³He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord , just as his father David had done.

⁴He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan. )

⁵Hezekiah trusted in the Lord , the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.

⁶He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses.

⁷And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

⁸From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.

2 Chronicles 29-31

29Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.

²He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord , just as his father David had done.

³In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them.

⁴He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side

⁵and said: “Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord , the God of your fathers. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary.

⁶Our fathers were unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord ‘s dwelling place and turned their backs on him.

⁷They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary to the God of Israel.

⁸Therefore, the anger of the Lord has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread and horror and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes.

⁹This is why our fathers have fallen by the sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity.

¹⁰Now I intend to make a covenant with the Lord , the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us.

¹¹My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.”

¹²Then these Levites set to work: from the Kohathites, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah; from the Merarites, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; from the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah;

¹³from the descendants of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; from the descendants of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;

¹⁴from the descendants of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; from the descendants of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

¹⁵When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the temple of the Lord , as the king had ordered, following the word of the Lord .

¹⁶The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord ‘s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord . The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the Lord . For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.

¹⁸Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: “We have purified the entire temple of the Lord , the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread, with all its articles.

¹⁹We have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz removed in his unfaithfulness while he was king. They are now in front of the Lord ‘s altar.”

²⁰Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together and went up to the temple of the Lord .

²¹They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer these on the altar of the Lord .

²²So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar; next they slaughtered the rams and sprinkled their blood on the altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled their blood on the altar.

²³The goats for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them.

²⁴The priests then slaughtered the goats and presented their blood on the altar for a sin offering to atone for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.

²⁵He stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through his prophets.

²⁶So the Levites stood ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets.

²⁷Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. As the offering began, singing to the Lord began also, accompanied by trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel.

²⁸The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the singers sang and the trumpeters played. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed.

²⁹When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped.

³⁰King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed their heads and worshiped.

³¹Then Hezekiah said, “You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord . Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord .” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings.

³²The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred male lambs-all of them for burnt offerings to the Lord .

³³The animals consecrated as sacrifices amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep and goats.

³⁴The priests, however, were too few to skin all the burnt offerings; so their kinsmen the Levites helped them until the task was finished and until other priests had been consecrated, for the Levites had been more conscientious in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

³⁵There were burnt offerings in abundance, together with the fat of the fellowship offerings and the drink offerings that accompanied the burnt offerings. So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished.

³⁶Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly.

30Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the Lord , the God of Israel.

²The king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month.

³They had not been able to celebrate it at the regular time because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem.

⁴The plan seemed right both to the king and to the whole assembly.

⁵They decided to send a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, calling the people to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the Lord , the God of Israel. It had not been celebrated in large numbers according to what was written.

⁶At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read: “People of Israel, return to the Lord , the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.

⁷Do not be like your fathers and brothers, who were unfaithful to the Lord , the God of their fathers, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see.

⁸Do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; submit to the Lord . Come to the sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you.

⁹If you return to the Lord , then your brothers and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will come back to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”

¹⁰The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned and ridiculed them.

¹¹Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem.

¹²Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the Lord .

¹³A very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month.

¹⁴They removed the altars in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.

¹⁵They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the temple of the Lord .

¹⁶Then they took up their regular positions as prescribed in the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood handed to them by the Levites.

¹⁷Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs to the Lord .

¹⁸Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the Lord , who is good, pardon everyone

¹⁹who sets his heart on seeking God-the Lord , the God of his fathers-even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.”

²⁰And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

²¹The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great rejoicing, while the Levites and priests sang to the Lord every day, accompanied by the Lord ‘s instruments of praise.

²²Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites, who showed good understanding of the service of the Lord . For the seven days they ate their assigned portion and offered fellowship offerings and praised the Lord , the God of their fathers.

²³The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully.

²⁴Hezekiah king of Judah provided a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep and goats for the assembly, and the officials provided them with a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep and goats. A great number of priests consecrated themselves.

²⁵The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel, including the aliens who had come from Israel and those who lived in Judah.

²⁶There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.

²⁷The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.

31When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.

²Hezekiah assigned the priests and Levites to divisions-each of them according to their duties as priests or Levites-to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give thanks and to sing praises at the gates of the Lord ‘s dwelling.

³The king contributed from his own possessions for the morning and evening burnt offerings and for the burnt offerings on the Sabbaths, New Moons and appointed feasts as written in the Law of the Lord .

⁴He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give the portion due the priests and Levites so they could devote themselves to the Law of the Lord .

⁵As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything.

⁶The men of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them in heaps.

⁷They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month.

⁸When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw the heaps, they praised the Lord and blessed his people Israel.

⁹Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites about the heaps;

¹⁰and Azariah the chief priest, from the family of Zadok, answered, “Since the people began to bring their contributions to the temple of the Lord , we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare, because the Lord has blessed his people, and this great amount is left over.”

¹¹Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms in the temple of the Lord , and this was done.

¹²Then they faithfully brought in the contributions, tithes and dedicated gifts. Conaniah, a Levite, was in charge of these things, and his brother Shimei was next in rank.

¹³Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismakiah, Mahath and Benaiah were supervisors under Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by appointment of King Hezekiah and Azariah the official in charge of the temple of God.

¹⁴Kore son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the East Gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings given to God, distributing the contributions made to the Lord and also the consecrated gifts.

¹⁵Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah assisted him faithfully in the towns of the priests, distributing to their fellow priests according to their divisions, old and young alike.

¹⁶In addition, they distributed to the males three years old or more whose names were in the genealogical records-all who would enter the temple of the Lord to perform the daily duties of their various tasks, according to their responsibilities and their divisions.

¹⁷And they distributed to the priests enrolled by their families in the genealogical records and likewise to the Levites twenty years old or more, according to their responsibilities and their divisions.

¹⁸They included all the little ones, the wives, and the sons and daughters of the whole community listed in these genealogical records. For they were faithful in consecrating themselves.

¹⁹As for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who lived on the farm lands around their towns or in any other towns, men were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among them and to all who were recorded in the genealogies of the Levites.

²⁰This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God.

²¹In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.

Psalm 48

PSALM 48

¹Great is the Lord , and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

²It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. Like the utmost heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.

³God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.

⁴When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,

⁵they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror.

⁶Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labor.

⁷You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind.

⁸As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever. Selah

⁹Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.

¹⁰Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness.

¹¹Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers,

¹³consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation.

¹⁴For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Isaiah 23-27

23An oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.

²Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.

³On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

⁵When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island.

⁷Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?

⁸Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?

⁹The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

¹⁰Till your land as along the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.

¹¹The Lord has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.

¹²He said, “No more of your reveling, O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus ; even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!

¹⁵At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶“Take up a harp, walk through the city, O prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”

¹⁷At the end of seventy years, the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

¹⁸Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord ; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the Lord , for abundant food and fine clothes.

24See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants-

²it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor.

³The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word.

⁴The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish.

⁵The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.

⁷The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan.

⁸The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent.

⁹No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers.

¹⁰The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred.

¹¹In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all gaiety is banished from the earth.

¹²The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces.

¹³So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.

¹⁴They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord ‘s majesty.

¹⁵Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord ; exalt the name of the Lord , the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.

¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!”

¹⁷Terror and pit and snare await you, O people of the earth.

¹⁸Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake.

¹⁹The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken.

²⁰The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls-never to rise again.

²¹In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.

²²They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.

²³The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed; for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously.

25O Lord , you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.

²You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.

³Therefore strong peoples will honor you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

⁴You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall

⁵and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

⁶On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine- the best of meats and the finest of wines.

⁷On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;

⁸he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.

⁹In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord , we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

¹⁰The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain; but Moab will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure.

¹¹They will spread out their hands in it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands.

¹²He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low; he will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust.

26In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.

²Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.

³You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord , the Lord , is the Rock eternal.

⁵He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust.

⁶Feet trample it down- the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor.

⁷The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.

⁸Yes, Lord , walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.

⁹My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord .

¹¹O Lord , your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

¹²Lord , you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

¹³O Lord , our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor.

¹⁴They are now dead, they live no more; those departed spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin; you wiped out all memory of them.

¹⁵You have enlarged the nation, O Lord ; you have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶Lord , they came to you in their distress; when you disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer.

¹⁷As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, O Lord .

¹⁸We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth; we have not given birth to people of the world.

¹⁹But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.

²⁰Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.

²¹See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer.

27In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.

²In that day- “Sing about a fruitful vineyard:

³I, the Lord , watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.

⁴I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire.

⁵Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”

⁶In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

⁷Has the Lord struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?

⁸By warfare and exile you contend with her- with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows.

⁹By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.

¹⁰The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.

¹¹When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.

¹²In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one.

¹³And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.