Isaiah 47-48 471 “Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate. 2 Take the millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs, and wade through the rivers. 3 Your nakedness will be uncovered. Yes, your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and will spare no one.” 4 Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name, is the Holy One of Israel. 5 “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms. 6 I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged. 7 You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’ so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the results. 8 “Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I won’t sit as a widow, neither will I know the loss of children.’ 9 But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in their full measure, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments. 10 For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ 11 Therefore disaster will come on you. You won’t know when it dawns. Mischief will fall on you. You won’t be able to put it away. Desolation will come on you suddenly, which you don’t understand. 12 “Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if you might profit, as if you might prevail. 13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you. 14 Behold, they are like stubble. The fire will burn them. They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame. It won’t be a coal to warm at or a fire to sit by. 15 The things that you labored in will be like this: those who have trafficked with you from your youth will each wander in his own way. There will be no one to save you. 481 “Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. You swear by Yahweh’s name, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness— 2 for they call themselves citizens of the holy city, and rely on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name. 3 I have declared the former things from of old. Yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them. I did them suddenly, and they happened. 4 Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow bronze; 5 therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them. My engraved image and my molten image has commanded them.’ 6 You have heard it. Now see all this. And you, won’t you declare it? “I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known. 7 They are created now, and not from of old. Before today, you didn’t hear them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ 8 Yes, you didn’t hear. Yes, you didn’t know. Yes, from of old your ear was not opened, for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb. 9 For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise, I hold it back for you so that I don’t cut you off. 10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it; for how would my name be profaned? I will not give my glory to another. 12 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he. I am the first. I am also the last. 13 Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens. when I call to them, they stand up together. 14 “Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I have brought him and he shall make his way prosperous. 16 “Come near to me and hear this: “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it happened, I was there.” Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me with his Spirit. 17 Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. 18 Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19 Your offspring also would have been as the sand and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.” 20 Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing announce this, tell it even to the end of the earth: say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!” 21 They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He also split the rock and the waters gushed out. 22 “There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”

Proverbs 28:1-14 281 The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion. 2 In rebellion, a land has many rulers, but order is maintained by a man of understanding and knowledge. 3 A needy man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no crops. 4 Those who forsake the law praise the wicked; but those who keep the law contend with them. 5 Evil men don’t understand justice; but those who seek Yahweh understand it fully. 6 Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich. 7 Whoever keeps the law is a wise son; but he who is a companion of gluttons shames his father. 8 He who increases his wealth by excessive interest gathers it for one who has pity on the poor. 9 He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. 10 Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, he will fall into his own trap; but the blameless will inherit good. 11 The rich man is wise in his own eyes; but the poor who has understanding sees through him. 12 When the righteous triumph, there is great glory; but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves. 13 He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. 14 Blessed is the man who always fears; but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

Luke 23:44-49 2344 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 45 The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last. 47 When the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous man.” 48 All the multitudes that came together to see this, when they saw the things that were done, returned home beating their breasts. 49 All his acquaintances and the women who followed with him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things.

Hebrews 10:32-39 1032 But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings; 33 partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. 34 For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. 35 Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. 37 “In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait. 38 But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.