Old/New Testament
The Lord Will Judge Ephraim
28 The splendid crown of Ephraim’s drunkards is doomed,[a]
the withering flower, its beautiful splendor,[b]
situated[c] at the head of a rich valley,
the crown of those overcome with wine.[d]
2 Look, the Lord[e] sends a strong, powerful one.[f]
With the force of a hailstorm or a destructive windstorm,[g]
with the might of a driving, torrential rainstorm,[h]
he will knock that crown[i] to the ground with his hand.[j]
3 The splendid crown of Ephraim’s drunkards
will be trampled underfoot.
4 The withering flower, its beautiful splendor,
situated at the head of a rich valley,
will be like an early fig before harvest—
as soon as someone notices it,
he grabs it and swallows it.[k]
5 At that time[l] the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will become a beautiful crown
and a splendid diadem for the remnant of his people.
6 He will give discernment to the one who makes judicial decisions,
and strength to those who defend the city from attackers.[m]
7 Even these men[n] stagger because of wine;
they stumble around because of beer—
priests and prophets stagger because of beer,
they are confused[o] because of wine,
they stumble around because of beer;
they stagger while seeing prophetic visions,[p]
they totter while making legal decisions.[q]
8 Indeed, all the tables
are covered with vomit,
with filth, leaving no clean place.[r]
9 Who is the Lord[s] trying to teach?
To whom is he explaining a message?[t]
To those just weaned from milk!
To those just taken from their mother’s breast![u]
10 Indeed, they will hear meaningless gibberish,
senseless babbling,
a syllable here, a syllable there.[v]
11 For with mocking lips and a foreign tongue
he will speak to these people.[w]
12 In the past he said to them,[x]
“This is where security can be found.
Provide security for the one who is exhausted.
This is where rest can be found.”[y]
But they refused to listen.
13 So the Lord’s message to them will sound like
meaningless gibberish,
senseless babbling,
a syllable here, a syllable there.[z]
As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk,[aa]
and be injured, ensnared, and captured.[ab]
The Lord Will Judge Jerusalem
14 Therefore, listen to the Lord’s message,
you who mock,
you rulers of these people
who reside in Jerusalem.
15 For you say,
“We have made a treaty with death,
with Sheol[ac] we have made an agreement.[ad]
When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by[ae]
it will not reach us.
For we have made a lie our refuge,
we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.”[af]
16 Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord, says:
“Look, I am laying[ag] a stone in Zion,
an approved[ah] stone,
set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation.[ai]
The one who maintains his faith will not panic.[aj]
17 I will make justice the measuring line,
fairness the plumb line;
hail will sweep away the unreliable refuge,[ak]
the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place.
18 Your treaty with death will be dissolved;[al]
your agreement[am] with Sheol will not last.[an]
When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by,[ao]
you will be overrun by it.[ap]
19 Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you;
indeed,[aq] every morning it will sweep by,
it will come through during the day and the night.”[ar]
When this announcement is understood,
it will cause nothing but terror.
20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
and the blanket is too narrow to wrap around oneself.[as]
21 For the Lord will rise up, as he did at Mount Perazim;[at]
he will rouse himself, as he did in the Valley of Gibeon,[au]
to accomplish his work,
his peculiar work,
to perform his task,
his strange task.[av]
22 So now, do not mock,
or your chains will become heavier!
For I have heard a message about decreed destruction,
from the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies against the entire land.[aw]
23 Pay attention and listen to my message.[ax]
Be attentive and listen to what I have to say![ay]
24 Does a farmer just keep on plowing at planting time?[az]
Does he keep breaking up and harrowing his ground?
25 Once he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter the seed of the caraway plant,
sow the seed of the cumin plant,
and plant the wheat, barley, and grain in their designated places?[ba]
26 His God instructs him;
he teaches him the principles of agriculture.[bb]
27 Certainly[bc] caraway seed is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin seed.[bd]
Certainly caraway seed is beaten with a stick,
and cumin seed with a flail.[be]
28 Grain is crushed,
though one certainly does not thresh it forever.
The wheel of one’s wagon rolls over it,
but his horses do not crush it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
who gives supernatural guidance and imparts great wisdom.[bf]
Ariel is Besieged
29 Ariel is as good as dead[bg]—
Ariel, the town David besieged![bh]
Keep observing your annual rituals;
celebrate your festivals on schedule.[bi]
2 I will threaten Ariel,
and she will mourn intensely
and become like an altar hearth[bj] before me.
3 I will lay siege to you on all sides;[bk]
I will besiege you with troops;[bl]
I will raise siege works against you.
4 You will fall;
while lying on the ground[bm] you will speak;
from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard.[bn]
Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld;[bo]
from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation.[bp]
5 But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust,
the horde of tyrants[bq] like chaff that is blown away.
It will happen suddenly, in a flash.
6 Judgment will come from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,[br]
accompanied by thunder, earthquake, and a loud noise,
by a strong gale, a windstorm, and a consuming flame of fire.
7 It will be like a dream, a night vision.
There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,
those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.
8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming that he is eating,
only to awaken and find that his stomach is empty.[bs]
It will be like a thirsty man dreaming that he is drinking,
only to awaken and find that he is still weak and his thirst unquenched.[bt]
So it will be for the horde from all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.
God’s People Are Spiritually Insensitive
9 You will be shocked and amazed![bu]
You are totally blind![bv]
They are drunk, but not because of wine;
they stagger,[bw] but not because of beer.
10 For the Lord has poured out on you
a strong urge to sleep deeply.[bx]
He has shut your eyes (you prophets),
and covered your heads (you seers).
11 To you this entire prophetic revelation[by] is like words in a sealed scroll. When they hand it to one who can read[bz] and say, “Read this,” he responds, “I can’t, because it is sealed.” 12 Or when they hand the scroll to one who can’t read[ca] and say, “Read this,” he says, “I can’t read.”[cb]
13 The Lord[cc] says,
“These people say they are loyal to me;[cd]
they say wonderful things about me,[ce]
but they are not really loyal to me.[cf]
Their worship consists of
nothing but man-made ritual.[cg]
14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people—
an absolutely extraordinary deed.[ch]
Wise men will have nothing to say,
the sages will have no explanations.”[ci]
15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead,[cj]
who do their work in secret and boast,[ck]
“Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?”[cl]
16 Your thinking is perverse![cm]
Should the potter be regarded as clay?[cn]
Should the thing made say[co] about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?
Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?
Changes Are Coming
17 In just a very short time[cp]
Lebanon will turn into an orchard,
and the orchard will be considered a forest.[cq]
18 At that time[cr] the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll,
and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness.[cs]
19 The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord;
the poor among humankind will take delight[ct] in the Holy One of Israel.[cu]
20 For tyrants will disappear,
those who taunt will vanish,
and all those who love to do wrong will be eliminated[cv]—
21 those who bear false testimony against a person,[cw]
who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate[cx]
and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges.[cy]
22 So this is what the Lord, the one who delivered Abraham, has said to the family of Jacob:[cz]
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed;
their faces will no longer show their embarrassment.[da]
23 For when they see their children,
whom I will produce among them,[db]
they will honor[dc] my name.
They will honor the Holy One of Jacob;[dd]
they will respect[de] the God of Israel.
24 Those who stray morally will gain understanding;[df]
those who complain will acquire insight.[dg]
True and False Righteousness
3 Finally, my brothers and sisters,[a] rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.
2 Beware of the dogs,[b] beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh![c] 3 For we are the circumcision,[d] the ones who worship by the Spirit of God,[e] exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials[f] 4 —though mine too are significant.[g] If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials,[h] I have more: 5 I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee.[i] 6 In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. 7 But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. 8 More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung![j]—that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness[k]—a righteousness from God that is in fact[l] based on Christ’s[m] faithfulness.[n] 10 My aim is to know him,[o] to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings,[p] and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow,[q] to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Keep Going Forward
12 Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.[r] 13 Brothers and sisters,[s] I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded:[t] Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 14 with this goal in mind,[u] I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God[v] in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view.[w] If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.[x] 16 Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard[y] that we have already attained.[z]
17 Be imitators of me,[aa] brothers and sisters,[ab] and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example. 18 For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things.[ac] 20 But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform these humble bodies of ours[ad] into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.
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