Bible Reading
November 5
The World English Bible
Nov.
5
Isaiah
37-40
Isa
37:1 It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his
clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh's
house.
Isa
37:2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the
scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
Isa
37:3 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day
of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have
come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.
Isa
37:4 It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh,
whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God,
and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore
lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.' "
Isa
37:5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
Isa
37:6 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'Thus says Yahweh,
"Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which
the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Isa
37:7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and
will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in
his own land." ' "
Isa
37:8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring
against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
Isa
37:9 He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He
has come out to fight against you." When he heard it, he sent
messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Isa
37:10 "Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying,
'Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem
won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
Isa
37:11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to
all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered?
Isa
37:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers
have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who
were in Telassar?
Isa
37:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the
king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?' "
Isa
37:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers
and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh's house, and spread it
before Yahweh.
Isa
37:15 Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,
Isa
37:16 "Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned
among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the
kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
Isa
37:17 Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and
behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy
the living God.
Isa
37:18 Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the
countries and their land,
Isa
37:19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods,
but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have
destroyed them.
Isa
37:20 Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all
the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you
only."
Isa
37:21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus
says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to me
against Sennacherib king of Assyria,
Isa
37:22 this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him. The
virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The
daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
Isa
37:23 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you
exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy
One of Israel.
Isa
37:24 By your servants, have you defied the Lord, and have said,
"With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height
of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down
its tall cedars and its choice fir trees. I will enter into its
farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field.
Isa
37:25 I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I
will dry up all the rivers of Egypt."
Isa
37:26 Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it
in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be
yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.
Isa
37:27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were
dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and
like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a
field before its crop has grown.
Isa
37:28 But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in,
and your raging against me.
Isa
37:29 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance
has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose
and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by
which you came.
Isa
37:30 This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that
which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from
the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and
eat their fruit.
Isa
37:31 The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again
take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
Isa
37:32 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth, and survivors
will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will
perform this.'
Isa
37:33 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, 'He
will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he
come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
Isa
37:34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he
shall not come to this city,' says Yahweh.
Isa
37:35 'For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and
for my servant David's sake.' "
Isa
37:36 The angel of Yahweh went out and struck one hundred and
eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose
early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
Isa
37:37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned
to Nineveh, and stayed there.
Isa
37:38 It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his
god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the
sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son
reigned in his place.
Isa
38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the
prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, "Thus
says Yahweh, 'Set your house in order, for you will die, and not
live.' "
Isa
38:2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh,
Isa
38:3 and said, "Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have
walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done
that which is good in your sight." Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Isa
38:4 Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying,
Isa
38:5 "Go, and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of
David your father, "I have heard your prayer. I have seen your
tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.
Isa
38:6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of
Assyria, and I will defend this city.
Isa
38:7 This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do
this thing that he has spoken.
Isa
38:8 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone
down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten
steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had
gone down." ' "
Isa
38:9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick,
and had recovered of his sickness.
Isa
38:10 I said, "In the middle of my life I go into the gates of
Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years."
Isa
38:11 I said, "I won't see Yah, Yah in the land of the living.
I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
Isa
38:12 My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a
shepherd's tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will
cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end
of me.
Isa
38:13 I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like
a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
Isa
38:14 I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove.
My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security."
Isa
38:15 What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has
done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of
my soul.
Isa
38:16 Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in
all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.
Isa
38:17 Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love
for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have
cast all my sins behind your back.
Isa
38:18 For Sheol can't praise you. Death can't celebrate you. Those
who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.
Isa
38:19 The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day.
The father shall make known your truth to the children.
Isa
38:20 Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with
stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of Yahweh.
Isa
38:21 Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and
lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover."
Isa
38:22 Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I will go
up to the house of Yahweh?"
Isa
39:1 At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of
Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he
had been sick, and had recovered.
Isa
39:2 Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of
his precious things, the silver, and the gold, the spices, and the
precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found
in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his
dominion, that Hezekiah didn't show them.
Isa
39:3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him,
"What did these men say? Where did they come from to you?"
Hezekiah said, "They have come from a country far from me, even
from Babylon."
Isa
39:4 Then he asked, "What have they seen in your house?"
Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house.
There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."
Isa
39:5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of Yahweh of
Armies:
Isa
39:6 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house,
and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will be
carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,' says Yahweh.
Isa
39:7 'They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom
you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon's
palace.' "
Isa
39:8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "Yahweh's word which you
have spoken is good." He said moreover, "For there will be
peace and truth in my days."
Isa
40:1 "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.
Isa
40:2 "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that
her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she
has received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins."
Isa
40:3 The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of Yahweh
in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
Isa
40:4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill
shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough
places a plain.
Isa
40:5 The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see
it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it."
Isa
40:6 The voice of one saying, "Cry!" One said, "What
shall I cry?" "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory
is like the flower of the field.
Isa
40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh's breath
blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.
Isa
40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God
stands forever."
Isa
40:9 You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You
who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength.
Lift it up. Don't be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold,
your God!"
Isa
40:10 Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm
will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense
before him.
Isa
40:11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the
lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead
those who have their young.
Isa
40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and
marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the
hills in a balance?
Isa
40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or has taught him as
his counselor?
Isa
40:14 Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and
taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and
showed him the way of understanding?
Isa
40:15 Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are
regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the
islands like a very little thing.
Isa
40:16 Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient
for a burnt offering.
Isa
40:17 All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded
by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
Isa
40:18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you
compare to him?
Isa
40:19 A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it
with gold, and casts silver chains for it.
Isa
40:20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree
that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved
image for him that will not be moved.
Isa
40:21 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you been
told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations
of the earth?
Isa
40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its
inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like
a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;
Isa
40:23 who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the
earth like meaningless.
Isa
40:24 They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock
has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and
they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
Isa
40:25 "To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?"
says the Holy One.
Isa
40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who
brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the
greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is
lacking.
Isa
40:27 Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is
hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"
Isa
40:28 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God,
Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't
weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
Isa
40:29 He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him
who has no might.
Isa
40:30 Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly
fall;
Isa
40:31 But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They
will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be
weary. They will walk, and not faint.
Nov.
5
1
Timothy 5
1Ti
5:1 Don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; the
younger men as brothers;
1Ti
5:2 the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all
purity.
1Ti
5:3 Honor widows who are widows indeed.
1Ti
5:4 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn
first to show piety towards their own family, and to repay their
parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.
1Ti
5:5 Now she who is a widow indeed, and desolate, has her hope set on
God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.
1Ti
5:6 But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives.
1Ti
5:7 Also command these things, that they may be without reproach.
1Ti
5:8 But if anyone doesn't provide for his own, and especially his
own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an
unbeliever.
1Ti
5:9 Let no one be enrolled as a widow under sixty years old, having
been the wife of one man,
1Ti
5:10 being approved by good works, if she has brought up children,
if she has been hospitable to strangers, if she has washed the
saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, and if she has
diligently followed every good work.
1Ti
5:11 But refuse younger widows, for when they have grown wanton
against Christ, they desire to marry;
1Ti
5:12 having condemnation, because they have rejected their first
pledge.
1Ti
5:13 Besides, they also learn to be idle, going about from house to
house. Not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things
which they ought not.
1Ti
5:14 I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, bear
children, rule the household, and give no occasion to the adversary
for reviling.
1Ti
5:15 For already some have turned aside after Satan.
1Ti
5:16 If any man or woman who believes has widows, let them relieve
them, and don't let the assembly be burdened; that it might relieve
those who are widows indeed.
1Ti
5:17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially those who labor in the word and in teaching.
1Ti
5:18 For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle the ox when
it treads out the grain." And, "The laborer is worthy of
his wages."
1Ti
5:19 Don't receive an accusation against an elder, except at the
word of two or three witnesses.
1Ti
5:20 Those who sin, reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also
may be in fear.
1Ti
5:21 I command you in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the
chosen angels, that you observe these things without prejudice, doing
nothing by partiality.
1Ti
5:22 Lay hands hastily on no one, neither be a participant in other
men's sins. Keep yourself pure.
1Ti
5:23 Be no longer a drinker of water only, but use a little wine for
your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities.
1Ti
5:24 Some men's sins are evident, preceding them to judgment, and
some also follow later.
1Ti
5:25 In the same way also there are good works that are obvious, and
those that are otherwise can't be hidden.
I
love being a Christian. I love thinking about, talking about, and
singing about Christ and His church. I love to laugh and have fun with
God’s people. I enjoy cutting up with my colleagues. I love to interact
with non-Christians. I enjoy clean jokes (and find myself occasionally
telling ones that are not as humorous as I once thought). Christians can
kindly tease about our favorite football team’s most recent loss or our
most embarrassing moments. Indeed, there is “a time to laugh”
(Ecclesiastes 3:4). After all, “A merry heart does good, like medicine”
(Proverbs 17:22).