Study Desk

All of you that honor the Lord and obey the words of his servant, the path you walk may be dark indeed, but trust in the Lord , rely on your God.

Think of your ancestor, Abraham, and of Sarah, from whom you are descended. When I called Abraham, he was childless, but I blessed him and gave him children; I made his descendants numerous.

Jerusalem, wake up! Rouse yourself and get up! You have drunk the cup of punishment that the Lord in his anger gave you to drink; you drank it down, and it made you stagger.

The Sovereign Lord says to his people, "When you became slaves, no money was paid for you; in the same way nothing will be paid to set you free.

Break into shouts of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem! The Lord will rescue his city and comfort his people.

The Lord will use his holy power; he will save his people, and all the world will see it.

The Lord says, "My servant will succeed in his task; he will be highly honored.

It was the will of the Lord that his servant grow like a plant taking root in dry ground. He had no dignity or beauty to make us take notice of him. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing that would draw us to him.

"But he endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne. All the while we thought that his suffering was punishment sent by God.

All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved.

He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people.

The Lord says, "It was my will that he should suffer; his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. And so he will see his descendants; he will live a long life, and through him my purpose will succeed.

After a life of suffering, he will again have joy; he will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.

And so I will give him a place of honor, a place among the great and powerful. He willingly gave his life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven."

Your Creator will be like a husband to you— the Lord Almighty is his name. The holy God of Israel will save you— he is the ruler of all the world.

The Lord says to his people, "Do what is just and right, for soon I will save you.

A foreigner who has joined the Lord 's people should not say, "The Lord will not let me worship with his people." A man who has been castrated should never think that because he cannot have children, he can never be part of God's people.

And the Lord says to those foreigners who become part of his people, who love him and serve him, who observe the Sabbath and faithfully keep his covenant:

The Sovereign Lord , who has brought his people Israel home from exile, has promised that he will bring still other people to join them.

The Lord has told the foreign nations to come like wild animals and devour his people.