Bible in 90 Days

⁹ I will destroy you, O Israel;
    who^[a] can help you?
¹⁰ Where^[b] now is your king, to save you;
    where are all^[c] your princes,^[d] to defend you^[e]—
those of whom you said,
    “Give me a king and princes”?
¹¹ I have given you kings in my anger,
    and I have taken them away in my wrath.

¹² The iniquity of E′phraim is bound up,
    his sin is kept in store.
¹³ The pangs of childbirth come for him,
    but he is an unwise son;
for now he does not present himself
    at the mouth of the womb.

¹⁴ Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?
    Shall I redeem them from Death?
O Death, where^[f] are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where^[g] is your destruction?
    Compassion is hid from my eyes.

¹⁵ Though he may flourish as the reed plant,^[h]
    the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come,
    rising from the wilderness;
and his fountain shall dry up,
    his spring shall be parched;
it shall strip his treasury
    of every precious thing.
^16 [i] Samar′ia shall bear her guilt,
    because she has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword,
    their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
    and their pregnant women ripped open.

⁸ O E′phraim, what have I to do with idols?
    It is I who answer and look after you.^[n]
I am like an evergreen cypress,
    from me comes your fruit.

⁹ Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
    whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
    and the upright walk in them,
    but transgressors stumble in them.

⁴ What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵ Awake, you drunkards, and weep;
    and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
⁶ For a nation has come up against my land,
    powerful and without number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷ It has laid waste my vines,
    and splintered my fig trees;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
⁹ The cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
    the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰ The fields are laid waste,
    the ground mourns;
because the grain is destroyed,
    the wine fails,
    the oil languishes.

¹¹ Be confounded, O tillers of the soil,
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley;
    because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹² The vine withers,
    the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are withered;
and gladness fails
    from the sons of men.

¹⁴ Sanctify a fast,
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God;
    and cry to the Lord.

¹⁵ Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
¹⁶ Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seed shrivels under the clods,^[o]
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are ruined
    because the grain has failed.
¹⁸ How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep are dismayed.

¹⁹ Unto thee, O Lord, I cry.
For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the wild beasts cry to thee
    because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

2 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near,
² a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
    a great and powerful people;
their like has never been from of old,
    nor will be again after them
    through the years of all generations.

³ Fire devours before them,
    and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
    but after them a desolate wilderness,
    and nothing escapes them.

⁴ Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
    and like war horses they run.
⁵ As with the rumbling of chariots,
    they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of a flame of fire
    devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
    drawn up for battle.

⁶ Before them peoples are in anguish,
    all faces grow pale.
⁷ Like warriors they charge,
    like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way,
    they do not swerve^[p] from their paths.
⁸ They do not jostle one another,
    each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
    and are not halted.
⁹ They leap upon the city,
    they run upon the walls;
they climb up into the houses,
    they enter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰ The earth quakes before them,
    the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.
¹¹ The Lord utters his voice
    before his army,
for his host is exceedingly great;
    he that executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
    who can endure it?

¹² “Yet even now,” says the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord, your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
    and repents of evil.
¹⁴ Who knows whether he will not turn and repent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a cereal offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord, your God?

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶     gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
    assemble the elders;
gather the children,
    even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷ Between the vestibule and the altar
    let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare thy people, O Lord,
    and make not thy heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

²⁰ “I will remove the northerner far from you,
    and drive him into a parched and desolate land,
his front into the eastern sea,
    and his rear into the western sea;
the stench and foul smell of him will rise,
    for he has done great things.

²¹ “Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!
²² Fear not, you beasts of the field,
    for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

²³ “Be glad, O sons of Zion,
    and rejoice in the Lord, your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

²⁴ “The threshing floors shall be full of grain,
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵ I will restore to you the years
    which the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶ “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
²⁷ You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again
    be put to shame.

¹¹ Hasten and come,
    all you nations round about,
    gather yourselves there.
Bring down thy warriors, O Lord.
¹² Let the nations bestir themselves,
    and come up to the valley of Jehosh′aphat;
for there I will sit to judge
    all the nations round about.

¹³ Put in the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
    for the wine press is full.
The vats overflow,
    for their wickedness is great.

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes,
    in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
    in the valley of decision.
¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶ And the Lord roars from Zion,
    and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
    and the heavens and the earth shake.
But the Lord is a refuge to his people,
    a stronghold to the people of Israel.

¹⁸ “And in that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
    and the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the stream beds of Judah
    shall flow with water;
and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord
    and water the valley of Shittim.

¹⁹ “Egypt shall become a desolation
    and Edom a desolate wilderness,
for the violence done to the people of Judah,
    because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
²⁰ But Judah shall be inhabited for ever,
    and Jerusalem to all generations.
²¹ I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty,^[t]
    for the Lord dwells in Zion.”

⁹ “Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,
    whose height was like the height of the cedars,
    and who was as strong as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above,
    and his roots beneath.
¹⁰ Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
    and led you forty years in the wilderness,
    to possess the land of the Amorite.
¹¹ And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,
    and some of your young men for Nazirites.
    Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”
                says the Lord.

¹² “But you made the Nazirites drink wine,
    and commanded the prophets,
    saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’

¹³ “Behold, I will press you down in your place,
    as a cart full of sheaves presses down.
¹⁴ Flight shall perish from the swift,
    and the strong shall not retain his strength,
    nor shall the mighty save his life;
¹⁵ he who handles the bow shall not stand,
    and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself,
    nor shall he who rides the horse save his life;
¹⁶ and he who is stout of heart among the mighty
    shall flee away naked in that day,”
                says the Lord.

³ “Do two walk together,
    unless they have made an appointment?
⁴ Does a lion roar in the forest,
    when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from his den,
    if he has taken nothing?
⁵ Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth,
    when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground,
    when it has taken nothing?
⁶ Is a trumpet blown in a city,
    and the people are not afraid?
Does evil befall a city,
    unless the Lord has done it?
⁷ Surely the Lord God does nothing,
    without revealing his secret
    to his servants the prophets.
⁸ The lion has roared;
    who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
    who can but prophesy?”

⁹ Proclaim to the strongholds in Assyria,^[af]
    and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samar′ia,
    and see the great tumults within her,
    and the oppressions in her midst.”
¹⁰ “They do not know how to do right,” says the Lord,
    “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”

¹³ “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,”
    says the Lord God, the God of hosts,
¹⁴ “that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions,
    I will punish the altars of Bethel,
and the horns of the altar shall be cut off
    and fall to the ground.
¹⁵ I will smite the winter house with the summer house;
    and the houses of ivory shall perish,
and the great houses^[ah] shall come to an end,”
                says the Lord.

4 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
    who are in the mountain of Samar′ia,
who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
    who say to their husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
² The Lord God has sworn by his holiness
    that, behold, the days are coming upon you,
when they shall take you away with hooks,
    even the last of you with fishhooks.
³ And you shall go out through the breaches,
    every one straight before her;
    and you shall be cast forth into Harmon,”
                says the Lord.

⁴ “Come to Bethel, and transgress;
    to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning,
    your tithes every three days;
⁵ offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,
    and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;
    for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”
                says the Lord God.

⁷ “And I also withheld the rain from you
    when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain upon one city,
    and send no rain upon another city;
one field would be rained upon,
    and the field on which it did not rain withered;
⁸ so two or three cities wandered to one city
    to drink water, and were not satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
                says the Lord.

⁹ “I smote you with blight and mildew;
    I laid waste^[ai] your gardens and your vineyards;
    your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
                says the Lord.

¹⁰ “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
    I slew your young men with the sword;
I carried away your horses;^[aj]
    and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
                says the Lord.

¹¹ “I overthrew some of you,
    as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomor′rah,
    and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
                says the Lord.

¹² “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
    because I will do this to you,
    prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

¹³ For lo, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind,
    and declares to man what is his thought;
who makes the morning darkness,
    and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

³ For thus says the Lord God:
“The city that went forth a thousand
    shall have a hundred left,
and that which went forth a hundred
    shall have ten left
    to the house of Israel.”

⁴ For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
“Seek me and live;
⁵     but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
    or cross over to Beer-sheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
    and Bethel shall come to nought.”

⁶ Seek the Lord and live,
    lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
    and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
⁷ O you who turn justice to wormwood,
    and cast down righteousness to the earth!

⁸ He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
    and turns deep darkness into the morning,
    and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea,
    and pours them out upon the surface of the earth,
the Lord is his name,
⁹ who makes destruction flash forth against the strong,
    so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate him who reproves in the gate,
    and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
¹¹ Therefore because you trample upon the poor
    and take from him exactions of wheat,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
    but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
    but you shall not drink their wine.
¹² For I know how many are your transgressions,
    and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
    and turn aside the needy in the gate.
¹³ Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time;
    for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil,
    that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
    as you have said.
¹⁵ Hate evil, and love good,
    and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
    will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

²¹ “I hate, I despise your feasts,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²² Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings,
    I will not accept them,
and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts
    I will not look upon.
²³ Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
²⁴ But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

⁴ “Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory,
    and stretch themselves upon their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock,
    and calves from the midst of the stall;
⁵ who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
    and like David invent for themselves instruments of music;
⁶ who drink wine in bowls,
    and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
    but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
⁷ Therefore they shall now be the first of those to go into exile,
    and the revelry of those who stretch themselves shall pass away.”

¹¹ For behold, the Lord commands,
    and the great house shall be smitten into fragments,
    and the little house into bits.
¹² Do horses run upon rocks?
    Does one plow the sea with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
    and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
¹³ you who rejoice in Lo-debar,^[am]
    who say, “Have we not by our own strength
    taken Karnaim^[an] for ourselves?”
¹⁴ “For behold, I will raise up against you a nation,
    O house of Israel,” says the Lord, the God of hosts;
“and they shall oppress you from the entrance of Hamath
    to the Brook of the Arabah.”

⁴ Hear this, you who trample upon the needy,
    and bring the poor of the land to an end,
⁵ saying, “When will the new moon be over,
    that we may sell grain?
And the sabbath,
    that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great,
    and deal deceitfully with false balances,
⁶ that we may buy the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    and sell the refuse of the wheat?”

⁷ The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
    “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
⁸ Shall not the land tremble on this account,
    and every one mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
    and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

⁹ “And on that day,” says the Lord God,
    “I will make the sun go down at noon,
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning,
    and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth upon all loins,
    and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
    and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹ “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
    “when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹² They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
    but they shall not find it.

¹³ “In that day the fair virgins and the young men
    shall faint for thirst.
¹⁴ Those who swear by Ash′imah of Samar′ia,
    and say, ‘As thy god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As the way of Beer-sheba lives,’
    they shall fall, and never rise again.”

² “Though they dig into Sheol,
    from there shall my hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven,
    from there I will bring them down.
³ Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
    from there I will search out and take them;
and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
    there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
⁴ And though they go into captivity before their enemies,
    there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them;
and I will set my eyes upon them
    for evil and not for good.”

⁵ The Lord, God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
    and all who dwell in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile,
    and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
⁶ who builds his upper chambers in the heavens,
    and founds his vault upon the earth;
who calls for the waters of the sea,
    and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.

⁷ “Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
    O people of Israel?” says the Lord.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
    and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?
⁸ Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
    and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground;
    except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
                says the Lord.

⁹ “For lo, I will command,
    and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
    but no pebble shall fall upon the earth.
¹⁰ All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
    who say, ‘Evil shall not overtake or meet us.’