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The Lord takes care of his people
54 ‘Sing with joy,
you woman who could not give birth to any children.
You have never known the pain of a child's birth,
but now shout loudly with joy.
Be happy, because the woman who is alone
will have many children.
She will have more children than the woman who has a husband.’[a]
That is what the Lord says.
2 Make your tent bigger!
You need more room to live in.
Yes, do it!
Make the tent's ropes longer!
Make the pegs that hold it stronger!
3 The borders of your land will be wider in all directions.
Your descendants will take land from other nations.
They will live in the cities that had become empty.
4 Do not be afraid.
You will not be ashamed again.
Do not be frightened of shame.
Nobody will make you ashamed.
You will forget the shame
which you had when you were young.
You will forget that you were ashamed to be alone,
like a widow.
5 Now your Maker is your husband.
His name is the Lord Almighty.
Israel's Holy God is your Redeemer.
He is called, ‘The God who rules the whole earth’.
6 ‘The Lord will now call you to come back to him.
You have been like a wife who was very upset,
because her husband has left her.
You have been like a wife who married when she was young,
and her husband sent her away.’
That is what your God says.
7 ‘For a short time I went away from you.
But now I will bring you back to myself,
because I feel very sorry for you.
8 For a moment I became very angry with you,
and I turned away from you.
But now I will be kind to you,
because my love for you continues for ever.’
That is what the Lord, your Redeemer, says.
9 ‘This is like what I did in Noah's time.[b]
At that time, I promised that a flood of water would never again destroy the earth.
Now, at this time, I have promised that I will not be angry with you again.
I will not speak against you again.
10 The mountains may shake to pieces,
and the hills may disappear.
But I will never take my love away from you.
My covenant that brings peace between us will never finish.’
That is what the Lord who is very kind to you says.
11 ‘My city, enemies attacked you,
like a strong storm.
Nobody was there to help you.
Look! Now I will use beautiful jewels to build you again.
I will build your foundation with blue sapphires.
12 I will build your strong towers with rubies.
I will build your gates with valuable jewels,
and I will build your walls with beautiful stones.[c]
13 I, the Lord, will teach your children,
and peace will fill their lives.
14 You will have a strong foundation of righteousness.
Your cruel enemies will be far away.
You will have nothing to be afraid of.
No trouble will come near to frighten you.
15 If anyone comes to attack you,
I will not have sent them.
You will win against anyone who tries to attack you.
16 Look! I myself created the worker
who knows how to use iron to make things.
He makes his fire very hot,
and he makes weapons from the iron.
He makes weapons that are strong to fight with.
I also created the armies
who use their weapons to destroy people.
17 But nobody can make a weapon that will beat you,
when your enemies attack you.
If people accuse you of bad things,
you will show that they are wrong.
That is what the Lord will do
as a gift for his servants.
Yes, I will show that they are right.’
That is what the Lord says.
Come to the Lord!
55 ‘Listen! All of you who are thirsty,
come here for water to drink!
You may have no money,
but come here and buy food to eat!
Come and buy wine and milk!
You do not need to pay any money. It is free![d]
2 Do not spend money on anything that is not real food.
You work hard for your money,
so do not spend it on things which do not help you.
Listen carefully to me.
Eat something that will make you strong!
Enjoy the best food!
3 Come to me and listen carefully.
If you accept my teaching,
you will have real life!
Then I will make a covenant with you,
to be my people.
My promise will continue for ever,
like the promise that I made to King David.
4 So look! I chose David
to show my power to other people.
I made him a leader to rule the people of the nations.
5 Now you will call other nations to come to you.
They will be nations that you did not know before.
Nations that did not know you before
will now run quickly to you.
They will come to you,
because they see that you are great.
The Lord your God, Israel's Holy God,
will make people honour you.’
6 Come to serve the Lord now,
while he lets you find him.
Call out to him for help,
while he is near you.
7 Wicked people need to change the way that they live.
Evil people must stop thinking their evil thoughts.
They must turn back to the Lord our God,
because he will be kind to them.
Yes, God will completely forgive them,
if they turn back to him.
8 The Lord says,
‘Remember! My thoughts are not the same as your thoughts.
The way that you do things is not the same as the way that I do things.
9 The sky is far higher than the earth.
In the same way, I do things in a much better way than you do.
Also, my thoughts are much higher than your thoughts.
10 The rain and the snow come down from the sky,
and they do not immediately return there.
Instead, they give water to the earth,
so that crops will grow there.
Then the farmer has seeds to plant,
and people have food to eat.
11 It is the same when I give my word to people.
It will not return to me without any result.
No! My word does what I want it to do.
What I promise to do will certainly happen.’
12 You will leave that foreign land with joy!
You will travel home with peace in your minds.
The mountains and the hills will sing with joy
as you travel past.
The trees in the fields will clap their hands together!
13 Where thorn bushes have been growing,
pine trees will grow instead.
Myrtle bushes will grow where there are weeds now.
Those things will show everyone that the Lord is great.
It will be a sign to people for ever.
God promises to bless all the nations
56 This is what the Lord says:
‘Always be fair and do what is right.
Soon I will come to rescue you.
I will do what is right for my people.
2 God will bless the people who do what is right.
They must be careful to obey my laws.
They must respect the rules for the Sabbath day
and keep it special.
They must refuse to do anything that is evil.
3 When a foreigner decides to serve the Lord, he should not say, “The Lord will keep me separate from his own people.” A eunuch should not say, “I am no better than a dead tree.” ’
4 The Lord says this:
‘I will bless eunuchs who obey my laws.
They must respect the rules for Sabbath days.
They must choose to do what pleases me.
They must always obey my covenant with my people.
5 If they do that, I will give them a special place in my temple.
It will cause people to remember them.
Their name will continue in a better way
than through sons and daughters.
People will always honour their name.
Nobody will cut it off.[e]
6 I will also bless foreigners who decide to serve me.
They must be faithful to me as my servants.
They must respect the rules for the Sabbath day and keep it special.
They must always obey my covenant.
7 Then I will bring them to my holy mountain.[f]
I will make them happy in my house, where people pray to me.
I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices,
when they offer them to me on my altar.
People will call my temple,
“A house where people from all nations may pray.” ’[g]
8 The Almighty Lord is the one who brings together all the Israelite people who are in exile. He says, ‘I will continue to bring more people to join with them.’
God warns Israel's leaders
9 ‘Come here, you wild animals!
Come, you wild animals that live in the forest!
Come and eat my people![h]
10 Israel's guards are blind!
They do not see what is happening.
They are all like dogs that cannot make a noise.
They cannot warn people about danger.
They love to lie on the ground
and they dream while they sleep.
11 They are like dogs who are always hungry.
They eat a lot but they never have enough.
They are like shepherds
who do not understand what to do.
They do whatever they want to do,
so that it will help them get what they want.
12 They say to each other,
“Come! We must go and find more wine to drink!
We can drink as much beer as we want!
Tomorrow we can do it all again!
It might be even better than today!” ’
57 When somebody who worships God dies,
nobody else may think much about it.
An honest person may suddenly die.
Nobody really understands what is happening.
God takes away his servants,
so that evil things will not hurt them any more.
2 When somebody who has lived in a good way dies,
he goes to a place where there is peace.
In death, people like that rest on their beds.
3 The Lord says,
‘But you magicians, come here!
You use magic to learn about future times.
You are the family of an adulteress and a prostitute.
4 Who do you think you are laughing at?
Who are you insulting?
Who are you pointing at with your tongue?
You are people who have turned against God.
You love to tell lies.
5 You worship your idols among the big trees,
and you have sex at the same time.[i]
You kill your children as sacrifices to your false gods.
You do that beside streams
and in caves among the rocks.
6 You take big stones from the streams,
and they become your idols.
They are the gods that you love to worship.
You pour drink offerings over them.
You offer grain to them.
Because of what you do,
should I not punish you?
7 You go up to the tops of high hills,
and you lie down there to have sex.
You go there to offer sacrifices to your gods.
8 You put your images behind the doors of your rooms.
Then you turn your backs to me,
and you get into bed with your false gods.
You have made an agreement with them.
You pay money to have sex with your lovers.
You love to see their bare bodies.
9 You take olive oil as a gift to your king,
and also many perfumes.[j]
You send your people far away
to get news of other gods.
You even talk to the spirits of dead people.
10 You become very tired,
because you travel so far.
But you would never say,
“This is useless!”
Instead, you find new strength,
and you do not stop.
11 What idol are you so afraid of,
that you choose to deceive me?
You seem to have forgotten about me.
You do not think about me at all.
Have I been silent for too long?
Is that why you no longer respect me?
12 Now I will speak against the things that you do.
You think that they are good and right,
but those things will not help you.
13 Shout for help, if you like.
See if your group of idols can help you!
The wind will blow them all away.
Even a breath will carry them away.
But if people trust me to help them,
this land will belong to them.
They will worship me on my holy mountain.’[k]
The Lord promises to help his people
14 The Lord says,
‘Build a road! Make it ready for my people to travel on!
Remove everything that would cause them to fall.’
Children and parents
6 You who are children, obey your parents. Because you belong to the Lord, that is the right thing to do. 2 God's Law says: ‘Always respect your father and your mother.’ That is the first rule of God's Law that also has a promise. 3 The promise is this: ‘As a result, you will be happy and you will live for a long time on the earth.’[a]
4 Fathers, do not do things that make your children angry. Instead, teach them carefully as they grow up. Help them to understand the message of the Lord, and help them to obey it.
Slaves and masters
5 You who are slaves, obey your human masters. Respect them and be afraid of them. Work well to help them, as if you were working for Christ as your master. 6 Do not do good work only when they can see you. Some people only work to make other people like them. Instead, work well all the time, as slaves who serve Christ. Work in the way that God wants you to work. 7 Be happy to obey your human masters. Remember that you are serving the Lord himself, not just other people. 8 You know that anyone who does some good thing will receive a good gift from the Lord. This will happen whether that person is a slave or a free person.
9 You who are masters, be good to your slaves in the same way. Do not frighten them with punishment. Remember that both you and your slaves have the same Master in heaven. And he is always fair when he judges people, whoever they are.
How God helps us to be strong
10 At the end of my letter, I want to say this to you: Be united with the Lord, so that you are strong. Then his great power will help you. 11 Use all the help that God gives to us. Then you can be like a soldier who fights against the Devil. You must put on the whole armour that God gives to us. The Devil attacks us in clever ways, and we need to be strong. 12 We are not fighting against human enemies. Instead, we are fighting against the rulers and the powerful spirits that have authority over this dark world. We are fighting against the bad spirits who live in the heavens.
13 Because of that, take all the help that God gives, like it is your armour. Then, when the bad time comes, you will be able to stand strongly. You will not fall. After you have finished everything, you will still be standing strongly in your place.
14 So you must stand strongly. This is God's armour that you must wear: God's true message will be like a belt that you tie round your body.[b] Always do what is right. That will be like a metal shirt that you wear to keep your body safe. 15 Be prepared to tell people the good news about peace with God. That will be like shoes on your feet. 16 As well as all that, have faith to trust God. That will be like a shield that you hold in front of you. It will stop the Devil from hurting you with his arrows that burn with fire.[c] 17 Remember that God has saved you from your sins. That will be like a strong hat that keeps your head safe. Also, use God's message to help you. That will be like a sword that God's Spirit puts in your hand.
18 As you stand strongly like that, always pray for God's help. Pray about everything as God's Spirit helps you to pray. For this purpose, watch carefully all the time. Also, continue to pray for all God's people everywhere.
19 Please pray for me, too. Pray that God will give me the right message to speak. Pray that I will not be afraid to tell people about God's good news. Pray that I can explain God's secret to them. 20 God has sent me to tell people the good news on his behalf. And that is why I am now in prison. So pray that I will speak God's message bravely, as I ought to speak it.
Paul finishes his letter
21 My Christian friend, Tychicus, will tell you all the news about me. He works hard as the Lord's servant. He will tell you about what is happening here. Then you will know what I am doing and how I am. 22 That is the reason why I am sending him to you. I want him to tell you what is happening to us here, so that you will feel stronger.
23 I pray that God, the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ will be good to you who are believers. I pray that you will have peace in your minds. I pray that you will love one another, as you continue to trust Christ. 24 I pray that God will be very kind to everyone who continues to love our Lord Jesus Christ.
David wrote this song for the music leader, to ask God to help him.
A prayer for help[a]
70 God, please save me!
Lord, come quickly to help me!
2 Stop the people who want to kill me,
so that they become ashamed and confused.
Chase the people who want to hurt me,
so that they run away in shame.
3 When people laugh at me,
make them ashamed for what they have done.
4 God, may those who want to know you be very happy.
Everyone who loves you because you have saved them
should never stop saying, ‘Praise God.’
5 But I am poor and weak, God.
Please hurry to give me help.
You are the one who helps me
and who saves me.
Lord, come quickly to help me!
8 23. If anyone has ideas to do evil things, people will know that he always causes trouble.
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