Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters; Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out. Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds. read more.
See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself: Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my praise. But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you have given no thought to me, O Israel. You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or given me honour with your offerings of beasts; I did not make you servants to give me an offering, and I did not make you tired with requests for perfumes. You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings: but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have made me tired with your evil doings. I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will no longer keep your evil doings in mind. Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause between us: put forward your cause, so that you may be seen to be in the right. Your first father was a sinner, and your guides have gone against my word. Your chiefs have made my holy place unclean, so I have made Jacob a curse, and Israel a thing of shame.


Put forward your cause, says the Lord; let your strong argument come out, says the King of Jacob. Let the future be made clear to us: give us news of the past things, so that we may give thought to them; or of the things to come, so that we may see if they are true. Give us word of what will be after this, so that we may be certain that you are gods: yes, do good or do evil, so that we may all see it and be surprised. read more.
But you are nothing, and your work is of no value: foolish is he who takes you for his gods.

But now, says the Lord your Maker, O Jacob, and your life-giver, O Israel: have no fear, for I have taken up your cause; naming you by your name, I have made you mine. When you go through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not go over you: when you go through the fire, you will not be burned; and the flame will have no power over you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your saviour; I have given Egypt as a price for you, Ethiopia and Seba for you. read more.
Because of your value in my eyes, you have been honoured, and loved by me; so I will give men for you, and peoples for your life. Have no fear, for I am with you: I will take your seed from the east, and get you together from the west; I will say to the north, Give them up; and to the south, Do not keep them back; send back my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have made for my glory, who has been formed and designed by me. Send out the blind people who have eyes, and those who have ears, but they are shut. Let all the nations come together, and let the peoples be present: who among them is able to make this clear, and give us word of earlier things? let their witnesses come forward, so that they may be seen to be true, and that they may give ear, and say, It is true. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have taken for myself: so that you may see and have faith in me, and that it may be clear to you that I am he; before me there was no God formed, and there will not be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and there is no saviour but me. I gave the word, and made it clear, and there was no strange god among you: for this reason you are my witnesses, says the Lord. From time long past I am God, and from this day I am he: there is no one who is able to take you out of my hand: when I undertake a thing, by whom will my purpose be changed? The Lord, who has taken up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, Because of you I have sent to Babylon, and made all their seers come south, and the Chaldaeans whose cry is in the ships. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Maker of Israel, your King. This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters; Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out. Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds. See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country.

I have been ready to give an answer to those who did not make prayer to me; I have been offering myself to those who were not searching for me; I said, Here am I, here am I, to a nation which gave no respect to my name. All day my hands have been stretched out to an uncontrolled people, who go in an evil way, after the purposes of their hearts; A people who make me angry every day, making offerings in gardens, and burning perfumes on bricks. read more.
Who are seated in the resting-places of the dead, and by night are in the secret places; who take pig's flesh for food, and have the liquid of disgusting things in their vessels. Who say, Keep away, do not come near me, for fear that I make you holy: these are a smoke in my nose, a fire burning all day. See, it is recorded before me, says the Lord: I will not keep back my hand, till I have sent punishment, For their sins and the sins of their fathers, who were burning perfumes on the mountains, and saying evil things against me on the hills: so I will take the measure of their sins, and will send the punishment for them into their breast. This is the word of the Lord: As the new wine is seen in the grapes, and they say, Do not send destruction on it, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants, in order that I may not put an end to them all. And I will take a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah one who will have my mountains for a heritage: and the people I have taken to be mine will have it for themselves, and my servants will have their resting-place there. And Sharon will be a grass-land for the flocks, and the valley of Achor a resting-place for the herds: for my people whose hearts have been turned back to me. But as for you who have given up the Lord, who have no care for my holy mountain, who get ready a table for Chance, and make offerings of mixed wine to Fate; Your fate will be the sword, and you will all go down to death: because when my voice came to you, you made no answer; you did not give ear to my word; but you did what was evil in my eyes, desiring what was not pleasing to me. For this cause says the Lord God, My servants will have food, but you will be in need of food: my servants will have drink, but you will be dry: my servants will have joy, but you will be shamed: My servants will make songs in the joy of their hearts, but you will be crying for sorrow, and making sounds of grief from a broken spirit. And your name will become a curse to my people, and the Lord God will put you to death, and give his servants another name: So that he who is requesting a blessing will make use of the name of the true God, and he who takes an oath will do so by the true God; because the past troubles are gone out of mind, and because they are covered from my eyes.

They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's, will he go back to her again? will not that land have been made unclean? but though you have been acting like a loose woman with a number of lovers, will you now come back to me? says the Lord. Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see; where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your loose ways and your evil-doing. So the showers have been kept back, and there has been no spring rain; still your brow is the brow of a loose woman, you will not let yourself be shamed. read more.
Will you not, from this time, make your prayer to me, crying, My father, you are the friend of my early years? Will he be angry for ever? will he keep his wrath to the end? These things you have said, and have done evil and have had your way. And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what Israel, turning away from me, has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every branching tree, acting like a loose woman there. And I said, After she has done all these things she will come back to me; but she did not. And her false sister Judah saw it. And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and given her a statement in writing ending the relation between us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did the same. So that through all her loose behaviour the land became unclean, and she was untrue, giving herself to stones and trees. But for all this, her false sister Judah has not come back to me with all her heart, but with deceit, says the Lord. And the Lord said to me, Israel in her turning away is seen to be more upright than false Judah. Go, and give out these words to the north, and say, Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be angry for ever. Only be conscious of your sin, the evil you have done against the Lord your God; you have gone with strange men under every branching tree, giving no attention to my voice, says the Lord. Come back, O children who are turned away, says the Lord; for I am a husband to you, and I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and will make you come to Zion; And I will give you keepers, pleasing to my heart, who will give you your food with knowledge and wisdom.

But you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Give ear, now, O children of Israel; is my way not equal? are not your ways unequal? When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him; in the evil which he has done death will overtake him. Again, when the evil-doer, turning away from the evil he has done, does what is ordered and right, he will have life for his soul. read more.
Because he had fear and was turned away from all the wrong which he had done, life will certainly be his, death will not be his fate. But still the children of Israel say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O children of Israel, are my ways not equal? are not your ways unequal? For this cause I will be your judge, O children of Israel, judging every man by his ways, says the Lord. Come back and be turned from all your sins; so that they may not be the cause of your falling into evil. Put away all your evil-doing in which you have done sin; and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit: why are you desiring death, O children of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him on whom death comes, says the Lord: be turned back then, and have life.

And you, son of man, say to the children of Israel, You say, Our wrongdoing and our sins are on us and we are wasting away in them; how then may we have life? Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the evil-doer; it is more pleasing to me if he is turned from his way and has life: be turned, be turned from your evil ways; why are you looking for death, O children of Israel? And you, son of man, say to the children of your people, The righteousness of the upright man will not make him safe in the day when he does wrong; and the evil-doing of the evil man will not be the cause of his fall in the day when he is turned from his evil-doing; and the upright man will not have life because of his righteousness in the day when he does evil. read more.
When I say to the upright that life will certainly be his; if he puts his faith in his righteousness and does evil, not one of his upright acts will be kept in memory; but in the evil he has done, death will overtake him. And when I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; if he is turned from his sin and does what is ordered and right; If the evil-doer lets one who is in his debt have back what is his, and gives back what he had taken by force, and is guided by the rules of life, doing no evil; life will certainly be his, death will not overtake him. Not one of the sins which he has done will be kept in mind against him: he has done what is ordered and right, life will certainly be his. But the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: when it is they whose way is not equal. When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him in it. And when the evil man, turning away from his evil-doing, does what is ordered and right, he will get life by it. And still you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O children of Israel, I will be your judge, giving to everyone the reward of his ways.

Give ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward your cause before the mountains, let your voice be sounding among the hills. Give ear, O you mountains, to the Lord's cause, and take note, you bases of the earth: for the Lord has a cause against his people, and he will take it up with Israel. O my people, what have I done to you? how have I been a weariness to you? give answer against me. read more.
For I took you up out of the land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house; I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, keep in mind now what was designed by Balak, king of Moab, and the answer which Balaam, son of Beor, gave him; the events, from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may be certain of the upright acts of the Lord. With what am I to come before the Lord and go with bent head before the high God? am I to come before him with burned offerings, with young oxen a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of sheep or with ten thousand rivers of oil? am I to give my first child for my wrongdoing, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and loving mercy, and walking without pride before your God. The voice of the Lord is crying out to the town: Give ear, you tribes and the meeting of the town.

From the days of your fathers you have been turned away from my rules and have not kept them. Come back to me, and I will come back to you, says the Lord of armies. But you say, How are we to come back? Will a man keep back from God what is right? But you have kept back what is mine. But you say, What have we kept back from you? Tenths and offerings. You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from me what is mine, even all this nation. read more.
Let your tenths come into the store-house so that there may be food in my house, and put me to the test by doing so, says the Lord of armies, and see if I do not make the windows of heaven open and send down such a blessing on you that there is no room for it. And on your account I will keep back the locusts from wasting the fruits of your land; and the fruit of your vine will not be dropped on the field before its time, says the Lord of armies And you will be named happy by all nations: for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of armies. Your words have been strong against me, says the Lord. And still you say, What have we said against you? You have said, It is no use worshipping God: what profit have we had from keeping his orders, and going in clothing of sorrow before the Lord of armies? And now to us the men of pride seem happy; yes, the evil-doers are doing well; they put God to the test and are safe.


Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for evil-doing and overlooking the sins of the rest of his heritage? he does not keep his wrath for ever, because his delight is in mercy. He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of the sea. You will make clear your good faith to Jacob and your mercy to Abraham, as you gave your oath to our fathers from times long past.

For this is the agreement which I will make with the people of Israel after those days: I will put my laws into their minds, writing them in their hearts: and I will be their God, and they will be my people: And there will be no need for every man to be teaching his brother, or his neighbour, saying, This is the knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, great and small. And I will have mercy on their evil-doing, and I will not keep their sins in mind.

O Lord, for this cause I am waiting for you, give rest to my spirit: make me well again, and let me come back to life. See, in place of peace my soul had bitter sorrow. but you have kept back my soul from the underworld; for you have put all my sins out of your memory.

This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters; Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out. Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds. read more.
See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself: Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my praise. But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you have given no thought to me, O Israel. You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or given me honour with your offerings of beasts; I did not make you servants to give me an offering, and I did not make you tired with requests for perfumes. You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings: but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have made me tired with your evil doings. I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will no longer keep your evil doings in mind.

But this is the agreement which I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my law in their inner parts, writing it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. And no longer will they be teaching every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Get knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord: for they will have my forgiveness for their evil-doing, and their sin will go from my memory for ever.

This is the agreement which I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws in their hearts, writing them in their minds; he said, And I will keep no more memory of their sins and of their evil-doings. Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no more offering for sin.


The Lord who takes up Israel's cause, even his Holy One, says to him whom men make sport of, who is hated by the nations, a servant of rulers: Kings will see and get up from their places, and chiefs will give worship: because of the Lord who keeps faith; even the Holy One of Israel who has taken you for himself.

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth. The Lord did not give you his love or take you for himself because you were more in number than any other people; for you were the smallest of the nations: But because of his love for you, and in order to keep his oath to your fathers, the Lord took you out with the strength of his hand, making you free from the prison-house and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

But as for you, Israel, my servant, and you, Jacob, whom I have taken for myself, the seed of Abraham my friend: You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and sent for from its farthest parts, saying to you, You are my servant, whom I have taken for myself, and whom I have not given up: Have no fear, for I am with you; do not be looking about in trouble, for I am your God; I will give you strength, yes, I will be your helper; yes, my true right hand will be your support.

Then David the king got up and said, Give ear to me, my brothers and my people; it was my desire to put up a house, a resting-place for the ark of the Lord's agreement, and for the foot-rest of our God; and I had got material ready for the building of it. But God said to me, You are not to be the builder of a house for my name, because you are a man of war and have taken life; Though the Lord, the God of Israel, took me out of all my father's family, to be king over Israel for ever, marking out Judah to be chief, and, of the people of Judah, my father's family; and among the sons of my father he was pleased to make me king over all Israel; read more.
And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me a great number of sons) he has made selection of Solomon to take his place on the seat of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And he said to me, Solomon your son will be the builder of my house and the open spaces round it; for I have taken him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will keep his kingdom in its place for ever, if he is strong at all times to do my orders and keep my rules, as at this day.

All this he let you see, so that you might be certain that the Lord is God and there is no other. Out of heaven itself his voice came to you, teaching you; and on earth he let you see his great fire; and his words came to your ears out of the heart of the fire. And because of his love for your fathers, he took their seed and made it his, and he himself, present among you, took you out of Egypt by his great power; read more.
Driving out before you nations greater and stronger than you, to take you into their land and give it to you for your heritage, as at this day.

Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let your hearts ever be turned to him. Keep in mind the great works which he has done; his wonders, and the decisions of his mouth; O you seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his loved ones.


This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters; Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out. Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds. read more.
See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself: Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my praise.

And now, give ear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have taken for myself: The Lord who made you, forming you in your mother's body, the Lord, your helper, says, Have no fear, O Jacob my servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have taken for myself.



This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters; Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out. Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds. read more.
See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself: Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my praise. But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you have given no thought to me, O Israel. You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or given me honour with your offerings of beasts; I did not make you servants to give me an offering, and I did not make you tired with requests for perfumes. You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings: but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have made me tired with your evil doings. I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will no longer keep your evil doings in mind. Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause between us: put forward your cause, so that you may be seen to be in the right. Your first father was a sinner, and your guides have gone against my word. Your chiefs have made my holy place unclean, so I have made Jacob a curse, and Israel a thing of shame.

The evil man goes running away when no man is after him, but the upright are without fear, like the lion. Because of the sin of the land, its troubles are increased; but by a man of wisdom and knowledge they will be put out like a fire.

And I made prayer to the Lord my God, putting our sins before him, and said, O Lord, the great God, greatly to be feared. keeping your agreement and mercy with those who have love for you and do your orders; We are sinners, acting wrongly and doing evil; we have gone against you, turning away from your orders and from your laws: We have not given ear to your servants the prophets, who said words in your name to our kings and our rulers and our fathers and all the people of the land. read more.
O Lord, righteousness is yours, but shame is on us, even to this day; and on the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and on all Israel, those who are near and those who are far off, in all the countries where you have sent them because of the sin which they have done against you. O Lord, shame is on us, on our kings and our rulers and our fathers, because of our sin against you. With the Lord our God are mercies and forgiveness, for we have gone against him; And have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God to go in the way of his laws which he put before us by the mouth of his servants the prophets. And all Israel have been sinners against your law, turning away so as not to give ear to your voice: and the curse has been let loose on us, and the oath recorded in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have done evil against him. And he has given effect to his words which he said against us and against those who were our judges, by sending a great evil on us: for under all heaven there has not been done what has been done to Jerusalem. As it was recorded in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us: but we have made no prayer for grace from the Lord our God that we might be turned from our evil doings and come to true wisdom. So the Lord has been watching over this evil and has made it come on us: for the Lord our God is upright in all his acts which he has done, and we have not given ear to his voice.


Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for evil-doing and overlooking the sins of the rest of his heritage? he does not keep his wrath for ever, because his delight is in mercy. He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of the sea. You will make clear your good faith to Jacob and your mercy to Abraham, as you gave your oath to our fathers from times long past.

It is right for you, O God, to have praise in Zion: to you let the offering be made. To you, O hearer of prayer, let the words of all flesh come. Evils have overcome us: but as for our sins, you will take them away.

The Lord is kind and full of pity, not quickly made angry, but ever ready to have mercy. His feeling will no longer be bitter; he will not keep his wrath for ever. He has not given us the punishment for our sins, or the reward of our wrongdoing. read more.
For as the heaven is high over the earth, so great is his mercy to his worshippers. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our sins from us.

This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters; Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out. Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds. read more.
See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself: Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my praise. But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you have given no thought to me, O Israel. You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or given me honour with your offerings of beasts; I did not make you servants to give me an offering, and I did not make you tired with requests for perfumes. You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings: but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have made me tired with your evil doings. I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will no longer keep your evil doings in mind. Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause between us: put forward your cause, so that you may be seen to be in the right.