Friday, January 3, 2025

^35:1Be glad, thou thirsty desert: let the wilderness exult, and flower as the lily. ²And the desert places of Jordan shall blossom and rejoice; the glory of Libanus has been given to it, and the honour of Carmel; and my people shall see the glory of the Lord, and the majesty of God. ³Be strong, ye relaxed hands and palsied knees. ⁴Comfort one another, ye faint-hearted; be strong, fear not; behold, our God renders judgment, and he will render it; he will come and save us. ⁵Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. ⁶Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly; for water has burst forth in the desert, and a channel of water in a thirsty land. ⁷And the dry land shall become pools, and a fountain of water shall be poured into the thirsty land; there shall there be a joy of birds, ready habitations and marshes. ⁸There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way; and there shall not pass by there any unclean person, neither shall there be there an unclean way; but the dispersed shall walk on it, and they shall not go astray. ⁹And there shall be no lion there, neither shall any evil beast go up upon it, nor at all be found there; but the redeemed and gathered on the Lord's behalf, shall walk in it, ¹⁰and shall return, and come to Sion with joy, and everlasting joy shall be over their head; for on their head shall be praise and exultation, and joy shall take possession of them: sorrow and pain, and groaning have fled away.

Brenton LXX, public domain

^13:25As John was fulfilling his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But behold, one comes after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ ²⁶“Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent out to you. ²⁷For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they didn’t know him, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. ²⁸Though they found no cause for death, they still asked Pilate to have him killed. ²⁹When they had fulfilled all things that were written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. ³⁰But God raised him from the dead, ³¹and he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people. ³²We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers, ³³that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your father.’

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^3:1In those days, John the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ²“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” ³For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make the way of the Lord ready! Make his paths straight!” ⁴Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵Then people from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him. ⁶They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! ⁹Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ¹⁰Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire. ¹¹“I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

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^1:16Wash you, be clean; remove your iniquities from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities; ¹⁷learn to do well; diligently seek judgment, deliver him that is suffering wrong, plead for the orphan, and obtain justice for the widow. ¹⁸And come, let us reason together, saith the Lord: and though your sins be as purple, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool. ¹⁹And if ye be willing, and hearken to me, ye shall eat the good of the land: ²⁰but if ye be not willing, nor hearken to me, a sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.

Brenton LXX, public domain

^19:1While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples. ²He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They said to him, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³He said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Christ Jesus.” ⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke with other languages and prophesied. ⁷They were about twelve men in all. ⁸He entered into the synagogue and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.

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^1:1The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ²As it is written in the prophets, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you: ³the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight!’” ⁴John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. ⁵All the country of Judea and all those of Jerusalem went out to him. They were baptized by him in the Jordan river, confessing their sins. ⁶John was clothed with camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loosen. ⁸I baptized you in water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”

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^12:3Draw ye therefore water with joy out of the wells of salvation. ⁴And in that day thou shalt say, Sing to the Lord, call aloud upon his name, proclaim his glorious deeds among the Gentiles; make mention that his name is exalted. ⁵Sing praise to the name of the Lord; for he has done great things: declare this in all the earth. ⁶Exalt and rejoice, ye that dwell in Sion: for the Holy One of Israel is exalted in the midst of her.

Brenton LXX, public domain

^6:3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; ⁶knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. ⁷For he who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, ⁹knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him! ¹⁰For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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^1:9In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰Immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹A voice came out of the sky, “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

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^49:8Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I succoured thee: and I have formed thee, and given thee for a covenant of the nations, to establish the earth, and to cause to inherit the desert heritages: ⁹saying to them that are in bonds, Go forth; and bidding them that are in darkness shew themselves. They shall be fed in all the ways, and in all the paths shall be their pasture. ¹⁰They shall not hunger, neither shall they thirst; neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them; but he that has mercy on them shall comfort them, and by fountains of waters shall he lead them. ¹¹And I will make every mountain a way, and every path a pasture to them. ¹²Behold, these shall come from far: and these from the north and the west, and others from the land of the Persians. ¹³Rejoice, ye heavens; and let the earth be glad: let the mountains break forth with joy; for the Lord has had mercy on his people, and has comforted the lowly ones of his people. ¹⁴But Sion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and, The Lord has forgotten me. ¹⁵Will a woman forget her child, so as not to have compassion upon the offspring of her womb? but if a woman should even forget these, yet I will not forget thee, saith the Lord.

Brenton LXX, public domain

^2:11For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, ¹²instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age; ¹³looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. ^3:4But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, ⁵not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, ⁶whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior; ⁷that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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^3:13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” ¹⁵But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. ¹⁶Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. ¹⁷Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

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^1:15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. ¹⁶They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. ^2:1But say the things which fit sound doctrine, ²that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance, ³and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good, ⁴that they may train the young wives to love their husbands, to love their children, ⁵to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed. ⁶Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded. ⁷In all things show yourself an example of good works. In your teaching, show integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility, ⁸and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned, that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us. ⁹Exhort servants to be in subjection to their own masters and to be well-pleasing in all things, not contradicting, ¹⁰not stealing, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things.

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^13:1As he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings!” ²Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone on another, which will not be thrown down.” ³As he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴“Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are all about to be fulfilled?” ⁵Jesus, answering, began to tell them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray. ⁶For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and will lead many astray. ⁷“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t be troubled. For those must happen, but the end is not yet. ⁸For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines and troubles. These things are the beginning of birth pains.

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^1:15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. ¹⁶They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. ^2:1But say the things which fit sound doctrine, ²that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance, ³and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good, ⁴that they may train the young wives to love their husbands, to love their children, ⁵to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed. ⁶Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded. ⁷In all things show yourself an example of good works. In your teaching, show integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility, ⁸and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned, that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us. ⁹Exhort servants to be in subjection to their own masters and to be well-pleasing in all things, not contradicting, ¹⁰not stealing, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things.

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^10:23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into God’s Kingdom!” ²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into God’s Kingdom! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.” ²⁶They were exceedingly astonished, saying to him, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.” ²⁸Peter began to tell him, “Behold, we have left all and have followed you.” ²⁹Jesus said, “Most certainly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for my sake, and for the sake of the Good News, ³⁰but he will receive one hundred times more now in this time: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” ³²They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus was going in front of them, and they were amazed; and those who followed were afraid. He again took the twelve, and began to tell them the things that were going to happen to him.

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