Mark 9:12

¹Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed? ²For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. ³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. ⁴Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ⁷He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth. ⁸He was taken away by oppression and judgment. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people? ⁹They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. ¹⁰Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the LORD’s pleasure will prosper in his hand. ¹¹After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light^[+] and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. ¹²Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

⁶I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.

¹⁴Just as many were astonished at you— his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—

¹⁶He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to prepare a people prepared for the Lord.”

³The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God. ⁴Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. ⁵The LORD’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”

⁷The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and rise up, princes, and they shall worship, because of the LORD who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

¹¹Herod with his soldiers humiliated him and mocked him. Dressing him in luxurious clothing, they sent him back to Pilate.

⁷“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says the LORD of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

²Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples ³and said to him, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?”

⁴Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: ⁵the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.⁶Blessed is he who finds no occasion for stumbling in me.”

⁷As these went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. ⁹But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet. ¹⁰For this is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’¹¹Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. ¹²From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.^13[+] For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. ¹⁴If you are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come. ¹⁵He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

¹⁶“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions ¹⁷and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance. We mourned for you, and you didn’t lament.’ ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? ²My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent. ³But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel. ⁴Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them. ⁵They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed. ⁶But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people. ⁷All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying, ⁸“He trusts in the LORD. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.” ⁹But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust while at my mother’s breasts. ¹⁰I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb. You are my God since my mother bore me. ¹¹Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help. ¹²Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. ¹³They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring. ¹⁴I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death. ¹⁶For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.^17[+] I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me. ¹⁸They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing. ¹⁹But don’t be far off, LORD. You are my help. Hurry to help me! ²⁰Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. ²¹Save me from the lion’s mouth! Yes, you have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen. ²²I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the assembly, I will praise you. ²³You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel! ²⁴For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard. ²⁵My praise of you comes in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him. ²⁶The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the LORD who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever. ²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you. ²⁸For the kingdom is the LORD’s. He is the ruler over the nations. ²⁹All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can’t keep his soul alive. ³⁰Posterity shall serve him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord. ³¹They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.