Old/New Testament
35 Again a message came from the Lord. He said:
2 “Son of dust, face toward Mount Seir and prophesy against the people saying, 3 ‘The Lord God says: I am against you, and I will smash you with my fist and utterly destroy you. 4-5 Because you hate my people Israel, I will demolish your cities and make you desolate, and then you shall know I am the Lord. You butchered my people when they were helpless, when I had punished them for all their sins. 6 As I live, the Lord God says, since you enjoy blood so much, I will give you a blood bath—your turn has come! 7 I will utterly wipe out the people of Mount Seir, killing off all those who try to escape and all those who return. 8 I will fill your mountains with the dead—your hills, your valleys, and your rivers will be filled with those the sword has killed. 9 Never again will you revive. You will be abandoned forever; your cities will never be rebuilt. Then you shall know I am the Lord.
10 “‘For you said, “Both Israel and Judah shall be mine. We will take possession of them. What do we care that God is there!” 11 Therefore as I live, the Lord God says, I will pay back your angry deeds with mine—I will punish you for all your acts of envy and of hate. And I will honor my name in Israel by what I do to you. 12 And you shall know that I have heard each evil word you spoke against the Lord, saying, “His people are helpless; they are food for us to eat!” 13 Saying that, you boasted great words against the Lord. And I have heard them all!
14 “‘The whole world will rejoice when I make you desolate. 15 You rejoiced at Israel’s fearful fate. Now I will rejoice at yours! You will be wiped out, O people of Mount Seir and all who live in Edom! And then you will know I am the Lord!’
36 “Son of dust, prophesy to Israel’s mountains. Tell them: ‘Listen to this message from the Lord.
2 “‘Your enemies have sneered at you and claimed your ancient heights as theirs; 3 they have destroyed you on every side and sent you away as slaves to many lands. You are mocked and slandered. 4 Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. He says to the hills and mountains, dales and valleys, and to the ruined farms and the long-deserted cities, destroyed and mocked by heathen nations all around: 5 My anger is afire against these nations, especially Edom, for grabbing my land with relish, in utter contempt for me, to take it for themselves.’
6 “Therefore prophesy and say to the hills and mountains, dales and valleys of Israel: ‘This is what the Lord God says! I am full of fury because you suffered shame before the surrounding nations. 7 Therefore, I have sworn with hand held high that those nations are going to have their turn of being covered with shame, 8 but for Israel good times will return. There will be heavy crops of fruit to prepare for my people’s return—and they will be coming home again soon! 9 See, I am for you, and I will come and help you as you prepare the ground and sow your crops. 10 I will greatly increase your population throughout all Israel, and the ruined cities will be rebuilt and filled with people. 11 Not only the people, but your flocks and herds will also greatly multiply. O mountains of Israel, again you will be filled with homes. I will do even more for you than I did before. Then you shall know I am the Lord. 12 My people will walk upon you once again, and you will belong to them again; and you will no longer be a place for burning their children on idol altars.’”
13 The Lord God says: “Now the other nations taunt you, saying, ‘Israel is a land that devours her people!’ 14 But they will not say this anymore. Your birthrate will rise, and your infant mortality rate will drop off sharply,” says the Lord. 15 “No longer will those heathen nations sneer, for you will no longer be a nation of sinners,” the Lord God says.
16 Then this further word came to me from the Lord:
17 “Son of dust, when the people of Israel were living in their own country, they defiled it by their evil deeds; to me their worship was as foul as filthy rags.[a] 18 They polluted the land with murder and with the worshiping of idols, so I poured out my fury upon them. 19 And I exiled them to many lands; that is how I punished them for the evil way they lived. 20 But when they were scattered out among the nations, then they were a blight upon my holy name because the nations said, ‘These are the people of God and he couldn’t protect them from harm!’ 21 I am concerned about my reputation that was ruined by my people throughout the world.
22 “Therefore say to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord God says: I am bringing you back again, but not because you deserve it; I am doing it to protect my holy name, which you tarnished among the nations. 23 I will honor my great name, that you defiled, and the people of the world shall know I am the Lord. I will be honored before their eyes by delivering you from exile among them.[b] 24 For I will bring you back home again to the land of Israel.
25 “‘Then it will be as though I had sprinkled clean water on you, for you will be clean—your filthiness will be washed away, your idol worship gone. 26 And I will give you a new heart—I will give you new and right desires—and put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony hearts of sin and give you new hearts of love.[c] 27 And I will put my Spirit within you so that you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.
28 “‘And you shall live in Israel, the land which I gave your fathers long ago. And you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will cleanse away your sins. I will abolish crop failures and famine. 30 I will give you huge harvests from your fruit trees and fields, and never again will the surrounding nations be able to scoff at your land for its famines. 31 Then you will remember your past sins and loathe yourselves for all the evils you did. 32 But always remember this: It is not for your own sakes that I will do this, but for mine. O my people Israel, be utterly ashamed of all that you have done!’”
33 The Lord God says: “When I cleanse you from your sins, I will bring you home again to Israel, and rebuild the ruins. 34 Acreage will be cultivated again that through the years of exile lay empty as a barren wilderness; all who passed by were shocked to see the extent of ruin in your land. 35 But when I bring you back, they will say, ‘This God-forsaken land has become like Eden’s garden! The ruined cities are rebuilt and walled and filled with people!’ 36 Then the nations all around—all those still left—will know that I, the Lord, rebuilt the ruins and planted lush crops in the wilderness. For I, the Lord, have promised it, and I will do it.”
37-38 The Lord God says: “I am ready to hear Israel’s prayers for these blessings and to grant them their requests. Let them but ask, and I will multiply them like the flocks that fill Jerusalem’s streets at the time of sacrifice. The ruined cities will be crowded once more, and everyone will know I am the Lord.”
1 From: Simon Peter, a servant and missionary of Jesus Christ.
To: All of you who have our kind of faith. The faith I speak of is the kind that Jesus Christ our God and Savior gives to us. How precious it is, and how just and good he is to give this same faith to each of us.
2 Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and peace? Then learn to know him better and better. 3 For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life: he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us! 4 And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character.
5 But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do. 6 Next, learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you. 7 This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply. 8 The more you go on in this way, the more you will grow strong spiritually and become fruitful and useful to our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But anyone who fails to go after these additions to faith is blind indeed, or at least very shortsighted and has forgotten that God delivered him from the old life of sin so that now he can live a strong, good life for the Lord.
10 So, dear brothers, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen, and then you will never stumble or fall away. 11 And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 I plan to keep on reminding you of these things even though you already know them and are really getting along quite well! 13-14 But the Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that my days here on earth are numbered, and I am soon to die. As long as I am still here I intend to keep sending these reminders to you, 15 hoping to impress them so clearly upon you that you will remember them long after I have gone.
16 For we have not been telling you fairy tales when we explained to you the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming again. My own eyes have seen his splendor and his glory: 17-18 I was there on the holy mountain when he shone out with honor given him by God his Father; I heard that glorious, majestic voice calling down from heaven, saying, “This is my much-loved Son; I am well pleased with him.”
19 So we have seen and proved that what the prophets said came true. You will do well to pay close attention to everything they have written, for, like lights shining into dark corners, their words help us to understand many things that otherwise would be dark and difficult. But when you consider the wonderful truth of the prophets’ words, then the light will dawn in your souls and Christ the Morning Star will shine in your hearts. 20-21 For no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.