1 Then, when a famine arose over the land, after that barrenness which had happened in the days of Abraham, Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Palestinians, in Gerar.
2 And the Lord appeared to him, and he said: “Do not descend into Egypt, but rest in the land that I will tell you,
3 and sojourn in it, and I will be with you, and I will bless you. For to you and to your offspring I will give all these regions, completing the oath that I promised to Abraham your father.
4 And I will multiply your offspring like the stars of heaven. And I will give to your posterity all these regions. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed,
5 because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts and commandments, and observed the ceremonies and the laws.”
6 And so Isaac remained in Gerar.
7 And when he was questioned by the men of that place about his wife, he answered, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to confess her to be his mate, thinking that perhaps they would put him to death because of her beauty.
8 And when very many days had passed, and he had remained in the same place, Abimelech, king of the Palestinians, gazing through a window, saw him being playful with Rebekah, his wife.
9 And summoning him, he said: “It is clear that she is your wife. Why did you falsely claim her to be your sister?” He answered, “I was afraid, lest I might die because of her.”
10 And Abimelech said: “Why have you burdened us? Someone from the people could have lain with your wife, and you would have brought a great sin upon us.” And he instructed all the people, saying,
11 Whoever will touch the wife of this man will die a death.
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and he found, in that same year, one hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him.
13 And the man was enriched, and he continued prospering as well as increasing, until he became very great.
14 Likewise, he had possessions of sheep and of herds, and a very large family. Because of this, the Palestinians envied him,
15 so, at that time, they obstructed all the wells that the servants of his father Abraham had dug, filling them with soil.
16 It reached a point where Abimelech himself said to Isaac, “Move away from us, for you have become very much more powerful than we.”
17 And departing, he then went toward the torrent of Gerar, and he dwelt there.
18 Again, he dug up other wells, which the servants of his father Abraham had dug, and which, after his death, the Philistines had formerly obstructed. And he called them by the same names that his father had called them before.
19 And they dug in the torrent, and they found living water.
20 But in that place also the shepherds of Gerar argued against the shepherds of Isaac, by saying, “It is our water.” For this reason, he called the name of the well, because of what had happened, ‘Calumny.’
21 Then they dug up yet another one. And over that one also they fought, and he called it, ‘Enmity.’
22 Advancing from there, he dug another well, over which they did not contend. And so he called its name, ‘Latitude,’ saying, “Now the Lord has expanded us and caused us to increase across the land.”
23 Then he ascended from that place into Beersheba,
24 where the Lord appeared to him on the same night, saying: “I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you, and I will multiply your offspring because of my servant Abraham.”
25 And so he built an altar there. And he invoked the name of the Lord, and he stretched out his tent. And he instructed his servants to dig a well.
26 When Abimelech, and Ahuzzath, his friend, and Phicol, the leader of the military, had arrived from Gerar to that place,
27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, a man whom you hate, and whom you have expelled from among you?”
28 And they responded: “We saw that the Lord is with you, and therefore we said: Let there be an oath between us, and let us initiate a pact,
29 so that you may not do us any kind of harm, just as we have touched nothing of yours, and have not caused any injury to you, but with peace we released you, augmented by the blessing of the Lord.”
30 Therefore, he made them a feast, and after the food and drink,
31 arising in the morning, they swore to one another. And Isaac sent them away peacefully to their own place.
32 Then, behold, on the same day the servants of Isaac came, reporting to him about a well which they had dug, and saying: “We have found water.”
33 Therefore, he called it, ‘Abundance.’ And the name of the city was established as ‘Beersheba,’ even to the present day.
34 In truth, at forty years of age, Esau took wives: Judith, the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon, of the same place.
35 And they both offended the mind of Isaac and Rebekah.
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1 Her time is drawing near, and her days will not be prolonged. For the Lord will take pity on Jacob, and he will still choose from Israel, and he will cause them to rest upon their own soil. And the new arrival will be joined to them, and he will adhere to the house of Jacob.
2 And the people will take them, and lead them to their place. And the house of Israel will possess them, in the land of the Lord, as men and women servants. And they will take captive those who had taken them captive. And they will subjugate their oppressors.
3 And this shall be in that day: when God will have given you rest from your labor, and from your oppression, and from the difficult servitude under which you served before,
4 you will accept this parable against the king of Babylon, and you will say: “How is it that the oppressor has ceased, along with his tribute?
5 The Lord has crushed the staff of the impious, the scepter of despots,
6 which struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, which subjugated the nations in fury, which persecuted with cruelty.
7 All the earth has become quiet and still; it has been gladdened and has rejoiced.
8 The evergreens, too, have rejoiced over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying: ‘Since you have slept, no one has ascended who would cut us down.’
9 Hell below was stirred up to meet you at your advent; it has awakened the giants for you. All the leaders of the earth have risen from their thrones, all the leaders among the nations.”
10 Everyone will respond and will say to you: “Now you are wounded, just as we were; you have become like us.
11 Your arrogance has been dragged down to Hell. Your body has fallen dead. The moths will be strewn beneath you, and the worms will be your covering.
12 How is it that you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who used to rise like the sun? How is it that you have fallen to the earth, you who wounded the peoples?
13 And you said in your heart: ‘I will climb up to heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be enthroned upon the mountain of the covenant, on the northern parts.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.’
15 Yet truly, you shall be dragged down to Hell, into the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you, will lean toward you, and will gaze upon you, saying: ‘Could this be the man who disturbed the earth, who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who would not even open a prison for his prisoners?’ “
18 All the kings of the nations throughout the whole world have slept in glory, each man in his own house.
19 But you have been rejected from your grave, like a useless polluted plant, and you have been bound up with those who were slain by the sword, and who descended to the bottom of the pit, like a rotting carcass.
20 You will not be associated with them, even in the grave. For you have destroyed your own land; you have slain your own people. The offspring of the wicked ones will not be called upon for eternity.
21 Prepare his sons for the slaughter, according to the iniquity of their fathers. They will not rise up, nor inherit the earth, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 But I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts. And I will perish the name of Babylon and its remnants: both the plant and its progeny, says the Lord.
23 And I will appoint it as a possession for the hedgehog, with swamps of water. And I will sweep it out and wear it away with a brush, says the Lord of hosts.
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying: Surely, just as I have considered it, so shall it be, and in the same manner as I have drawn it through my mind,
25 so shall it occur. So shall I crush the Assyrian in my land, and I will trample him upon my mountains, and his yoke will be taken away from them, and his burden will be removed from their shoulder.
26 This is the plan that I have decided, concerning the entire earth, and this is the hand which is extended over all the nations.
27 For the Lord of hosts has decreed it, and who is able to weaken it? And his hand is extended, so who can avert it?
28 In the year in which king Ahaz died, this burden was given:
29 You should not rejoice, all you of Philistia, that the rod of him who struck you has been crushed. For from the root of the serpent will go forth a king snake, and his offspring will engulf that which flies.
30 And the firstborn of the poor will be pastured, and the poor will rest in faithfulness. And I will cause your root to pass away by famine, and I will put to death your remnant.
31 Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city! All of Philistia has been prostrated. For a smoke will arrive from the north, and there is no one who will escape his army.
32 And what will be the response to this news among the nations? It will be that the Lord has established Zion, and that the poor of his people will hope in him.
11 And let them trust in thee who know thy name: for thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.
12 Sing ye to the Lord, who dwelleth in Sion: declare his ways among the Gentiles:
13 For requiring their blood he hath remembered the: he hath not forgotten the cry of the poor.
14 Have mercy on me, O Lord: see my humiliation which I suffer from my enemies.
15 Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion.
16 I will rejoice in thy salvation: the Gentiles have stuck fast in the destruction which they have prepared. Their foot hath been taken in the very snare which they hid.
17 The Lord shall be known when he executeth judgments: the sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands.
18 The wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God.
19 For the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end: the patience of the poor shall not perish for ever.
20 Arise, O Lord, let not man be strengthened: let the Gentiles be judged in thy sight.
21 Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them: that the Gentiles may know themselves to be but men.
1 And it happened that, when Jesus had completed instructing his twelve disciples, he went away from there in order to teach and to preach in their cities.
2 Now when John had heard, in prison, about the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples, he said to him,
3 Are you he who is to come, or should we expect another?
4 And Jesus, responding, said to them: “Go and report to John what you have heard and seen.
5 The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor are evangelized.
6 And blessed is he who has found no offense in me.”
7 Then, after they departed, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
8 So what did you go out to see? A man in soft garments? Behold, those who are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings.
9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
10 For this is he, of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send my Angel before your face, who shall prepare your way before you.’
11 Amen I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 But from the days of John the Baptist, even until now, the kingdom of heaven has endured violence, and the violent carry it away.
