Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 15 September 2018

The last day of the first half of September.  By tomorrow, we will be closer to October ( -brrrr!) than to August.  I don't like that, not one bit:  October brings Hallowe'en, and I can recall (as a kid) doing the "trick or treat" thing in the snow.  I hate snow, hate cold, hate winter and Fall as well.  I'm a Spring person, and always will be.  But the Autumnal Equinox is in just one week, the 22nd.  So forgive, please, the less-than-upbeat mood.  I hate this time of year.  With Winter hitting on December 22.  So I won't be real happy until 20 March, if then.



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Isaiah 31

1Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!

2Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.

3Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.

4For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.

5As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.

6Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.

7For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.

8Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.

9And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 32

1Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.

2And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

3And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

4The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

5The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.

6For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

7The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.

8But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.

9Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.

10Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.

11Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.

12They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

13Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:

14Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;

15Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.

16Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.

17And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

18And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

19When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.

20Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.