Shepherds at Christmas

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The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

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 <div class="label">34</div><div class="s1">The Lord Will Be Israel&#8217;s Shepherd</div><div class="p"> 1The word of the Lord came to me: 2&#8220;Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: &#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.</div><div class="p"> 7&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.</div><div class="p"> 11&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.</div><div class="p"> 17&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?</div><div class="p"> 20&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, 22I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.</div><div class="p"> 25&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. 26I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.#34:26 Or I will cause them and the places surrounding my hill to be named in blessings (see Gen. 48:20); or I will cause them and the places surrounding my hill to be seen as blessed I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 30Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. 31You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">35</div><div class="s1">A Prophecy Against Edom</div><div class="p"> 1The word of the Lord came to me: 2&#8220;Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir; prophesy against it 3and say: &#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolate waste. 4I will turn your towns into ruins and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the Lord.</div><div class="p"> 5&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Because you harbored an ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity, the time their punishment reached its climax, 6therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. 7I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and cut off from it all who come and go. 8I will fill your mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines. 9I will make you desolate forever; your towns will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord.</div><div class="p"> 10&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Because you have said, &#8220;These two nations and countries will be ours and we will take possession of them,&#8221; even though I the Lord was there, 11therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will treat you in accordance with the anger and jealousy you showed in your hatred of them and I will make myself known among them when I judge you. 12Then you will know that I the Lord have heard all the contemptible things you have said against the mountains of Israel. You said, &#8220;They have been laid waste and have been given over to us to devour.&#8221; 13You boasted against me and spoke against me without restraint, and I heard it. 14This is what the Sovereign Lord says: While the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. 15Because you rejoiced when the inheritance of Israel became desolate, that is how I will treat you. You will be desolate, Mount Seir, you and all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the Lord.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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 <div class="label">2</div><div class="p"> 1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.</div><div class="s1">The Living Stone and a Chosen People</div><div class="p"> 4As you come to him, the living Stone&#8212;rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him&#8212; 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house#2:5 Or into a temple of the Spirit to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;See, I lay a stone in Zion,</div><div class="q2">a chosen and precious cornerstone,</div><div class="q1">and the one who trusts in him</div><div class="q2">will never be put to shame.&#8221;#2:6 Isaiah 28:16</div><div class="m"> 7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,</div><div class="q1">&#8220;The stone the builders rejected</div><div class="q2">has become the cornerstone,&#8221;#2:7 Psalm 118:22</div><div class="m"> 8and,</div><div class="q1">&#8220;A stone that causes people to stumble</div><div class="q2">and a rock that makes them fall.&#8221;#2:8 Isaiah 8:14</div><div class="m">They stumble because they disobey the message&#8212;which is also what they were destined for.</div><div class="p"> 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God&#8217;s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.</div><div class="s1">Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society</div><div class="p"> 11Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.</div><div class="p"> 13Submit yourselves for the Lord&#8217;s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15For it is God&#8217;s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God&#8217;s slaves. 17Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.</div><div class="p"> 18Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 20But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.</div><div class="q1"> 22&#8220;He committed no sin,</div><div class="q2">and no deceit was found in his mouth.&#8221;#2:22 Isaiah 53:9</div><div class="m"> 23When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24&#8220;He himself bore our sins&#8221; in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; &#8220;by his wounds you have been healed.&#8221; 25For &#8220;you were like sheep going astray,&#8221;#2:24,25 Isaiah 53:4,5,6 (see Septuagint) but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.</div>
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