Evening Devotion

¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
⁹ Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—
¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
¹² On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (ESV)

¹ The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
² Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
³ Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.
⁴ His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.
⁵ The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
⁶ The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.
⁷ All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods!
⁸ Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O LORD.
⁹ For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
¹⁰ O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
¹¹ Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
¹² Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! (ESV)

¹⁵ Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
¹⁶ But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
¹⁷ They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”
¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.”
¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
²⁰ And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.
²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (ESV)

⁸ Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
⁹ The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
¹⁰ For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”
¹¹ Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!
¹² They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.
¹³ Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.
¹⁴ Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down, her revelers and he who exults in her.
¹⁵ Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
¹⁶ But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
¹⁷ Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
¹⁸ Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes,
¹⁹ who say: “Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!”
²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
²² Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!
²⁴ Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵ Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
²⁶ He will raise a signal for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
²⁷ None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken;
²⁸ their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind.
²⁹ Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue.
³⁰ They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by its clouds.

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
³ And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
⁷ And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
⁹ And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
¹⁰ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
¹¹ Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,
¹² and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
¹³ And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.

¹ In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.
² When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
³ And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.
⁴ And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
⁵ Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,
⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”
⁷ thus says the Lord GOD: “‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.
⁸ For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
⁹ And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’”
¹⁰ Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz:
¹¹ “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.”
¹³ And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?
¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
¹⁵ He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
¹⁶ For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
¹⁷ The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”
¹⁸ In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
¹⁹ And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.
²⁰ In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.
²¹ In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep,
²² and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.
²³ In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.
²⁴ With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns.
²⁵ And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

¹ Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’
² And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”
³ And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz;
⁴ for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”
⁵ The LORD spoke to me again:
⁶ “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
⁷ therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks,
⁸ and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
⁹ Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered.
¹⁰ Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. (ESV)

² Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.
³ I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.
⁴ I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.
⁵ For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.
⁶ But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
⁷ and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
⁸ For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.
⁹ As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
¹⁰ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
¹¹ For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.
¹² So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.
¹³ Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
¹⁴ For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true.
¹⁵ And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.
¹⁶ I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you. (ESV)

²³ Then Israel came to Egypt; Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
²⁴ And the LORD made his people very fruitful and made them stronger than their foes.
²⁵ He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.
²⁶ He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷ They performed his signs among them and miracles in the land of Ham.
²⁸ He sent darkness, and made the land dark; they did not rebel against his words.
²⁹ He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die.
³⁰ Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.
³¹ He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country.
³² He gave them hail for rain, and fiery lightning bolts through their land.
³³ He struck down their vines and fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.
³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came, young locusts without number,
³⁵ which devoured all the vegetation in their land and ate up the fruit of their ground.
³⁶ He struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their strength. (ESV)