‘Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his. Genesis 49:2,8-10 NRSV This…
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Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return:‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.’ Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,…
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They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord— the remnant of Israel;they shall do no wrong and utter no lies,nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths.Then they will pasture and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid. Zephaniah 3:1-2, 9-3, NRSV The prophet Zephaniah foresaw that there would be a day…
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I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near—a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel;it shall crush the borderlands of Moab, and the territory of all the Shethites. Numbers 24:2-7,15-17 NRSV Balaam was the least likely person to foretell that anything good would come from…
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The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted,to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn. Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11,…
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Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any…
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On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll,and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 29:17-24, NRSV In previous chapters from the book of Isaiah, the…
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Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock.For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height; the lofty city he lays low.He lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.. Isaiah 26:1-6, NRSV These words form part of what is entitled “Judah’s Song of Victory”. Such songs…
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On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations;he will swallow…
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A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall…
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