“I, יהוה, have called You in righteousness, and I strengthen Your hand and guard You, and give You for a covenant to a people, for a light to the nations,
“Who raised up the righteous one from the east, called him to His foot, gave the nations before him, and made sovereigns submit to him? He gave them as the dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow.
But now, thus said יהוה, your Creator, O Ya‛aqoḇ, and He who formed you, O Yisra’ĕl, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name, you are Mine.
“Thus said יהוה to His anointed, to Koresh, whose right hand I have strengthened, to subdue nations before him and ungird the loins of sovereigns, to open before him the double doors, so that gates are not shut:
“I have stirred him up in righteousness, and all his ways I make straight. He builds My city and lets My exiles go, not for price nor reward,” declares יהוה of hosts.
and He says, “Shall it be a small matter for You to be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Ya‛aqoḇ, and to bring back the preserved ones of Yisra’ĕl? And I shall give You as a light to the nations, to be My deliverance to the ends of the earth!”
Thus said יהוה, “In a favourable time I shall answer You, and in the day of deliverance I shall help You – and I guard You and give You for a covenant of the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the ruined inheritances,
“And it shall be, if they learn well the ways of My people, to swear by My Name, ‘As יהוה lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Ba‛al, then they shall be established in the midst of My people.
Therefore יהושע spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but possess the light of life.”
And the Elohim of peace who brought up our Master יהושע from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
to whom also Aḇraham gave a tenth part of all, his name being translated, indeed, first, ‘sovereign of righteousness,’ and then also sovereign of Shalĕm, that is, ‘sovereign of peace,’
For it was fitting that we should have such a High Priest – kind, innocent, undefiled, having been separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens,
And because of this He is the Mediator of a renewed covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light,