Amos 4-6

New International Version

Israel Has Not Returned to God

4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan^(A) on Mount Samaria,^(B)
    you women who oppress the poor^(C) and crush the needy^(D)
    and say to your husbands,^(E) “Bring us some drinks!^(F)”
²The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness:
    “The time^(G) will surely come
when you will be taken away^(H) with hooks,^(I)
    the last of you with fishhooks.^[a]
³You will each go straight out
    through breaches in the wall,^(J)
    and you will be cast out toward Harmon,^[b]”
declares the Lord.
⁴“Go to Bethel^(K) and sin;
    go to Gilgal^(L) and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,^(M)
    your tithes^(N) every three years.^[c]^(O)
⁵Burn leavened bread^(P) as a thank offering
    and brag about your freewill offerings^(Q)—
boast about them, you Israelites,
    for this is what you love to do,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.

⁶“I gave you empty stomachs in every city
and lack of bread in every town,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.^(R)

⁷“I also withheld^(S) rain from you
    when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
    but withheld it from another.^(T)
One field had rain;
    another had none and dried up.
⁸People staggered from town to town for water^(U)
    but did not get enough^(V) to drink,
    yet you have not returned^(W) to me,”
declares the Lord.^(X)

⁹“Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
destroying them with blight and mildew.^(Y)
Locusts^(Z) devoured your fig and olive trees,^(AA)
yet you have not returned^(AB) to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹⁰“I sent plagues^(AC) among you
    as I did to Egypt.^(AD)
I killed your young men^(AE) with the sword,
    along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench^(AF) of your camps,
    yet you have not returned to me,”^(AG)
declares the Lord.^(AH)

¹¹“I overthrew some of you
as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.^(AI)
You were like a burning stick^(AJ) snatched from the fire,
yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.^(AK)

¹²“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
and because I will do this to you, Israel,
prepare to meet your God.”

¹³He who forms the mountains,^(AL)
    who creates the wind,^(AM)
    and who reveals his thoughts^(AN) to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
    and treads on the heights of the earth^(AO)—
    the Lord God Almighty is his name.^(AP)

A Lament and Call to Repentance

5 Hear this word, Israel, this lament^(AQ) I take up concerning you:

²“Fallen is Virgin^(AR) Israel,
never to rise again,
deserted in her own land,
with no one to lift her up.^(AS)”

³This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel:

“Your city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left;
your town that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left.^(AT)”

⁴This is what the Lord says to Israel:

“Seek^(AU) me and live;^(AV)
⁵    do not seek Bethel,
do not go to Gilgal,^(AW)
    do not journey to Beersheba.^(AX)
For Gilgal will surely go into exile,
    and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.^[d]^(AY)”
⁶Seek^(AZ) the Lord and live,^(BA)
    or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire;^(BB)
it will devour them,
    and Bethel^(BC) will have no one to quench it.^(BD)

⁷There are those who turn justice into bitterness^(BE)
and cast righteousness^(BF) to the ground.^(BG)

⁸He who made the Pleiades and Orion,^(BH)
    who turns midnight into dawn^(BI)
    and darkens day into night,^(BJ)
who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out over the face of the land—
    the Lord is his name.^(BK)
⁹With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold
    and brings the fortified city to ruin.^(BL)

¹⁰There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court^(BM)
and detest the one who tells the truth.^(BN)

¹¹You levy a straw tax on the poor^(BO)
    and impose a tax on their grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,^(BP)
    you will not live in them;^(BQ)
though you have planted lush vineyards,
    you will not drink their wine.^(BR)
¹²For I know how many are your offenses
    and how great your sins.^(BS)

There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes^(BT)
and deprive the poor^(BU) of justice in the courts.^(BV)
¹³Therefore the prudent keep quiet^(BW) in such times,
for the times are evil.^(BX)

¹⁴Seek good, not evil,
    that you may live.^(BY)
Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,
    just as you say he is.
¹⁵Hate evil,^(BZ) love good;^(CA)
    maintain justice in the courts.^(CB)
Perhaps^(CC) the Lord God Almighty will have mercy^(CD)
    on the remnant^(CE) of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, says:

“There will be wailing^(CF) in all the streets^(CG)
    and cries of anguish in every public square.
The farmers^(CH) will be summoned to weep
    and the mourners to wail.
¹⁷There will be wailing^(CI) in all the vineyards,
    for I will pass through^(CJ) your midst,”
says the Lord.^(CK)

The Day of the Lord

¹⁸Woe to you who long
    for the day of the Lord!^(CL)
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?^(CM)
    That day will be darkness,^(CN) not light.^(CO)
¹⁹It will be as though a man fled from a lion
    only to meet a bear,^(CP)
as though he entered his house
    and rested his hand on the wall
    only to have a snake bite him.^(CQ)
²⁰Will not the day of the Lord be darkness,^(CR) not light—
    pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?^(CS)

²¹“I hate,^(CT) I despise your religious festivals;^(CU)
    your assemblies^(CV) are a stench to me.
²²Even though you bring me burnt offerings^(CW) and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.^(CX)
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
    I will have no regard for them.^(CY)
²³Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.^(CZ)
²⁴But let justice^(DA) roll on like a river,
    righteousness^(DB) like a never-failing stream!^(DC)

²⁵“Did you bring me sacrifices^(DD) and offerings
    forty years^(DE) in the wilderness, people of Israel?
²⁶You have lifted up the shrine of your king,
    the pedestal of your idols,^(DF)
    the star of your god^[e]—
    which you made for yourselves.
²⁷Therefore I will send you into exile^(DG) beyond Damascus,”
    says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.^(DH)

Woe to the Complacent

6 Woe to you^(DI) who are complacent^(DJ) in Zion,
    and to you who feel secure^(DK) on Mount Samaria,^(DL)
you notable men of the foremost nation,
    to whom the people of Israel come!^(DM)
²Go to Kalneh^(DN) and look at it;
    go from there to great Hamath,^(DO)
    and then go down to Gath^(DP) in Philistia.
Are they better off than^(DQ) your two kingdoms?
    Is their land larger than yours?
³You put off the day of disaster
    and bring near a reign of terror.^(DR)
⁴You lie on beds adorned with ivory
    and lounge on your couches.^(DS)
You dine on choice lambs
    and fattened calves.^(DT)
⁵You strum away on your harps^(DU) like David
    and improvise on musical instruments.^(DV)
⁶You drink wine^(DW) by the bowlful
    and use the finest lotions,
    but you do not grieve^(DX) over the ruin of Joseph.^(DY)
⁷Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile;^(DZ)
    your feasting and lounging will end.^(EA)

The Lord Abhors the Pride of Israel

⁸The Sovereign Lord has sworn by himself^(EB)—the Lord God Almighty declares:

“I abhor^(EC) the pride of Jacob^(ED)
and detest his fortresses;^(EE)
I will deliver up^(EF) the city
and everything in it.^(EG)”

⁹If ten^(EH) people are left in one house, they too will die. ¹⁰And if the relative who comes to carry the bodies out of the house to burn them^[f]^(EI) asks anyone who might be hiding there, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” then he will go on to say, “Hush!^(EJ) We must not mention the name of the Lord.”

¹¹For the Lord has given the command,
and he will smash^(EK) the great house^(EL) into pieces
and the small house into bits.^(EM)

¹²Do horses run on the rocky crags?
    Does one plow the sea^[g] with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison^(EN)
    and the fruit of righteousness^(EO) into bitterness^(EP)—
¹³you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar^[h]
    and say, “Did we not take Karnaim^[i] by our own strength?^(EQ)”

¹⁴For the Lord God Almighty declares,
“I will stir up a nation^(ER) against you, Israel,
that will oppress you all the way
from Lebo Hamath^(ES) to the valley of the Arabah.^(ET)”

Footnotes

Amos 4:2 Or away in baskets, / the last of you in fish baskets
Amos 4:3 Masoretic Text; with a different word division of the Hebrew (see Septuagint) out, you mountain of oppression
Amos 4:4 Or days
Amos 5:5 Hebrew aven, a reference to Beth Aven (a derogatory name for Bethel); see Hosea 4:15.
Amos 5:26 Or lifted up Sakkuth your king / and Kaiwan your idols, / your star-gods; Septuagint lifted up the shrine of Molek / and the star of your god Rephan, / their idols
Amos 6:10 Or to make a funeral fire in honor of the dead
Amos 6:12 With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text plow there
Amos 6:13 Lo Debar means nothing.
Amos 6:13 Karnaim means horns; horn here symbolizes strength.

Revelation 7

New International Version

144,000 Sealed

7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners^(A) of the earth, holding back the four winds^(B) of the earth to prevent^(C) any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. ²Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal^(D) of the living God.^(E) He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea:^(F) ³“Do not harm^(G) the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads^(H) of the servants of our God.” ⁴Then I heard the number^(I) of those who were sealed: 144,000^(J) from all the tribes of Israel.

⁵From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,

from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,

from the tribe of Gad 12,000,

⁶from the tribe of Asher 12,000,

from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,

from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,

⁷from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,

from the tribe of Levi 12,000,

from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,

⁸from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,

from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,

from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.

The Great Multitude in White Robes

⁹After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,^(K) standing before the throne^(L) and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes^(M) and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,^(N)
who sits on the throne,^(O)
and to the Lamb.”

¹¹All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders^(P) and the four living creatures.^(Q) They fell down on their faces^(R) before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying:

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”^(S)

¹³Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes^(T)—who are they, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes^(U) and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.^(V) ¹⁵Therefore,

“they are before the throne of God^(W)
    and serve him^(X) day and night in his temple;^(Y)
and he who sits on the throne^(Z)
    will shelter them with his presence.^(AA)
¹⁶‘Never again will they hunger;
    never again will they thirst.^(AB)
The sun will not beat down on them,’^[a]
    nor any scorching heat.^(AC)
¹⁷For the Lamb at the center of the throne
    will be their shepherd;^(AD)
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’^[b]^(AE)
    ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’^[c]”^(AF)