Besides Me There Is No God
6 Thus says the Lord, the yKing of Israel
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
“I am the zfirst and I am the last;
abesides me there is no god.
7 Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.1
Let him declare and set it before me,
since I appointed an ancient people.
bLet them declare what is to come, and what will happen.
8 Fear not, nor be afraid;
have I not told you from of old and declared it?
And cyou are my witnesses!
Is there a God besides me?
There is no dRock; I know not any.”
The Lord Redeems Israel
21 hRemember these things, O Jacob,
and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you; you are my servant;
O Israel, iyou will not be forgotten by me.
22 I have jblotted out your transgressions like a cloud
and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you.
23 kSing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it;
shout, O depths of the earth;
lbreak forth into singing, O mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For the Lord mhas redeemed Jacob,
and will be glorified1 in Israel.
Unity in the Body of Christ
1 mI therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to nwalk oin a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with ppatience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the qbond of peace. 4 There is rone body and sone Spirit—just as you were called to tthe one hope that belongs to your call— 5 uone Lord, vone faith, wone baptism, 6 xone God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to yeach one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,
z“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”1
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?2 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended afar above all the heavens, that he might bfill all things.) 11 And he gave cthe apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds3 and teachers,4 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the dbody of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to emature manhood,5 to the measure of the stature of the ffullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be gchildren, htossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, iby human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the jhead, into Christ, 16 kfrom whom the whole body, ljoined and mheld together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
A Great Crowd Follows Jesus
7 vJesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they wcrush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, x“You are the ySon of God.” 12 And he strictly zordered them not to make him known.
The Twelve Apostles
13 aAnd he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have bauthority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the ctwelve: dSimon (to whom he gave the ename Peter); 17 fJames the son of Zebedee and gJohn the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 hAndrew, and iPhilip, and jBartholomew, and kMatthew, and lThomas, and mJames the son of Alphaeus, and nThaddaeus, and oSimon the Zealot,1 19 and pJudas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
