" Listen to Me, My people; And give ear to Me, O My nation: For law will proceed from Me, And I will make My justice rest As a light of the peoples.

" Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart [is] My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults.

" Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld [by Me] from birth, Who have been carried from the womb:

Even to [your] old age, I [am] He, And [even] to gray hairs I will carry [you!] I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver [you.]

" Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I [am] He, I [am] the First, I [am] also the Last.

Why do you spend money for [what is] not bread, And your wages for [what] does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat [what is] good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.

Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you -- The sure mercies of David.

" Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart [is] My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults.

But judgment will return to righteousness, And all the upright in heart will follow it.

The way of the wicked [is] an abomination to the LORD, But He loves him who follows righteousness.

He who follows righteousness and mercy Finds life, righteousness and honor.

Blessed [are] those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;

Why? Because [they did] not [seek it] by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

Therefore let us pursue the things [which make] for peace and the things by which one may edify another.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing [I do,] forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Pursue peace with all [people,] and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

I have not spoken in secret, In a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek Me in vain'; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.

This [is] Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah

Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD!

Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore!

Seek the LORD and live, Lest He break out like fire [in] the house of Joseph, And devour [it,] With no one to quench [it] in Bethel --

Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the LORD's anger.

Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah [shall be] her name.

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall [a child] be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear [a child?"]

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh -- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands --

that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.