Old/New Testament
Announcement of Sin and Judgment
5 Hear this, you priests!
Pay attention, you Israelites![a]
Listen closely,[b] O king![c]
For judgment is about to overtake you.[d]
For you were like a trap[e] to Mizpah,[f]
like a net[g] spread out to catch Tabor.[h]
2 Those who revolt are knee-deep in slaughter,[i]
but I will discipline them all.[j]
3 I know Ephraim all too well;[k]
the evil of[l] Israel is not hidden from me.
For you have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim;
Israel has defiled itself.[m]
4 Their wicked deeds do not allow them to return to their God;
for a spirit of idolatry[n] is in them,
and they do not acknowledge the Lord.
5 The arrogance of Israel testifies against it;
Israel and Ephraim will be overthrown[o] because[p] of their iniquity.
Even Judah will be brought down[q] with them.
The Futility of Sacrificial Ritual without Moral Obedience
6 Although they bring their flocks and herds[r]
to seek[s] the favor of the Lord,[t]
They will not find him—
he has withdrawn himself from them!
7 They have committed treason[u] against the Lord,
because they bore illegitimate children.
Soon[v] the new moon festival will devour them and their fields.
The Prophet’s Declaration of Judgment
8 Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah!
Sound the trumpet in Ramah!
Sound the alarm in Beth Aven;[w]
tremble in fear,[x] O Benjamin!
9 Ephraim will be ruined in the day of judgment.[y]
What I am declaring[z] to the tribes of Israel will certainly take place![aa]
The Oppressors of the Helpless Will Be Oppressed
10 The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary markers.
I will pour out my rage on them like a torrential flood.[ab]
11 Ephraim will be oppressed,[ac] crushed[ad] under judgment,[ae]
because he was determined to pursue worthless idols.[af]
The Curse of the Incurable Wound
12 I will be like a moth to Ephraim,
like wood rot[ag] to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw[ah] his sickness
and Judah saw his wound,
then Ephraim turned[ai] to Assyria,
and begged[aj] its great king[ak] for help.
But he will not be able to heal you.
He cannot cure your wound![al]
The Lion Will Carry Israel Off Into Exile
14 I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear them to pieces,
then I will carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them!
15 Then I will return again to my lair
until they have suffered their punishment.[am]
Then they will seek me;[an]
in their distress they will earnestly seek me.
Superficial Repentance Breeds False Assurance of God’s Forgiveness
6 Come on! Let’s return to the Lord.
He himself has torn us to pieces,
but he will heal us!
He has injured[ao] us,
but he will bandage our wounds!
2 He will restore[ap] us in a very short time;[aq]
he will heal us in a little while,[ar]
so that we may live in his presence.
3 So let us search for him![as]
Let us seek[at] to know the Lord!
He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn,
as certainly as the winter rain comes,
as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.
Transitory Faithfulness and Imminent Judgment
4 What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, O Judah?
For[au] your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist;[av]
it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew.[aw]
5 Therefore, I will certainly cut[ax] you into pieces at the hands of the prophets;[ay]
I will certainly kill you[az] in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment,[ba]
for[bb] my judgment[bc] will come forth like the light of the dawn.[bd]
6 For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice;
I delight[be] in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings.[bf]
Indictments Against the Cities of Israel and Judah
7 At Adam[bg] they broke[bh] the covenant;
Oh how[bi] they were unfaithful[bj] to me!
8 Gilead is a city full of evildoers;[bk]
its streets are stained with bloody footprints![bl]
9 The company of priests is like a gang of robbers,
lying in ambush to pounce on a victim.
They commit murder on the road to Shechem;
they have done heinous crimes!
10 I have seen a disgusting thing in the house of Israel:
there Ephraim commits prostitution with other gods,[bm]
and Israel defiles itself.
11 I have appointed a time to reap judgment[bn] for you also, O Judah!
If Israel Would Repent of Sin, God Would Relent of Judgment
Whenever I want to restore the fortunes of my people,[bo]
7 whenever I want to heal Israel,
the sin of Ephraim is revealed,
and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed.
For they do what is wrong;
thieves break into houses,
and gangs rob people out in the streets.
2 They do not realize[bp]
that I remember all their wicked deeds.
Their evil deeds have now surrounded them;
their sinful deeds are always before me.[bq]
Political Intrigue and Conspiracy in the Palace
3 The royal advisers delight the king with their evil schemes,
the princes make him glad with their lies.
4 They are all like bakers,[br]
they[bs] are like a smoldering oven;
they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire
until the kneaded dough is ready for baking.
5 At the celebration[bt] of their king,[bu]
his princes become inflamed[bv] with wine;
they conspire[bw] with evildoers.
6 They approach him, all the while plotting against him.
Their hearts are like an oven;
their anger smolders all night long,
but in the morning it bursts into a flaming fire.
7 All of them are blazing like an oven;
they devour their rulers.
All their kings fall,
and none of them call on me!
Israel Lacks Discernment and Refuses to Repent
8 Ephraim has mixed itself like flour[bx] among the nations;
Ephraim is like a ruined cake of bread that is scorched on one side.[by]
9 Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced,[bz]
but he does not recognize it.
His head is filled with gray hair,
but he does not realize it.
10 The arrogance of Israel testifies against him,
yet they refuse to return to the Lord their God.
In spite of all this they refuse to seek him.
Israel Turns to Assyria and Egypt for Help
11 Ephraim has been like a dove,
easily deceived and lacking discernment.
They called to Egypt for help;
they turned to Assyria for protection.
12 I will throw my bird net over them while they are flying;
I will bring them down like birds in the sky;
I will discipline them when I hear them flocking together.
Israel Has Turned Away from the Lord
13 Woe to them! For they have fled from me!
Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me!
I want to deliver[ca] them,
but they have lied to me.
14 They do not pray to me,[cb]
but howl in distress on their beds;
they slash themselves[cc] for grain and new wine,
but turn away from me.
15 Although I trained and strengthened them,[cd]
they plot evil against me!
16 They turn to Baal;[ce]
they are like an unreliable bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because their prayers to Baal[cf] have made me angry.
So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt.[cg]
God Will Raise Up the Assyrians to Attack Israel
8 Sound the alarm![ch]
An eagle[ci] looms over the temple of the Lord!
For they have broken their covenant with me[cj]
and have rebelled against my law.
2 Israel cries out to me,
“My God, we acknowledge you!”
3 But Israel has rejected what is morally good;
so an enemy will pursue him.
The Political and Cultic Sin of Israel
4 They enthroned kings without my consent.[ck]
They appointed princes without my approval.[cl]
They made idols out of their silver and gold,
but they will be destroyed![cm]
5 O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol.
My anger burns against them!
They will not survive much longer without being punished,[cn]
even though they are Israelites!
6 That idol was made by a workman—it is not God!
The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.
The Fertility Cultists Will Become Infertile
7 They sow the wind,
and so they will reap the whirlwind!
The stalk does not have any standing grain;
it will not produce any flour.
Even if it were to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it all up.
8 Israel will be swallowed up among the nations;
they will be like a worthless piece of pottery.
Israel’s Hired Lovers
9 They have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey that wanders off.
Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers.[co]
10 Even though they have hired lovers among the nations,[cp]
I will soon gather them together for judgment.[cq]
Then[cr] they will begin to waste away
under the oppression of a mighty king.[cs]
Sacrifices Ineffective without Moral Obedience
11 Although Ephraim has built many altars for sin offerings,
these have become altars for sinning.
12 I spelled out my law for him in great detail,
but they regard it as something totally unknown[ct] to them.
13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to me
and eat the meat,
but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices.[cu]
Soon he will remember their wrongdoing,
he will punish their sins,
and they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built royal palaces,
and Judah has built many fortified cities.
But I will send fire on their cities;
it will consume their royal citadels.
To the Church in Ephesus
2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write the following:[a]
“This is the solemn pronouncement of[b] the one who has a firm grasp on[c] the seven stars in his right hand[d]—the one who walks among the seven golden[e] lampstands: 2 ‘I know your works as well as your[f] labor and steadfast endurance, and that you cannot tolerate[g] evil. You have even put to the test[h] those who refer to themselves as apostles (but are not), and have discovered that they are false. 3 I am also aware[i] that you have persisted steadfastly,[j] endured much for the sake of my name, and have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you: You have departed[k] from your first love! 5 Therefore, remember from what high state[l] you have fallen and repent! Do[m] the deeds you did at the first;[n] if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—that is, if you do not repent.[o] 6 But you do have this going for you:[p] You hate what the Nicolaitans[q] practice[r]—practices I also hate. 7 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers,[s] I will permit[t] him to eat from the tree of life that is[u] in the paradise of God.’[v]
To the Church in Smyrna
8 “To[w] the angel of the church in Smyrna write the following:[x]
“This is the solemn pronouncement of[y] the one who is the first and the last, the one who was dead, but[z] came to life: 9 ‘I know the distress you are suffering[aa] and your poverty (but you are rich). I also know[ab] the slander against you[ac] by those who call themselves Jews and really are not, but are a synagogue[ad] of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. The devil is about to have some of you thrown[ae] into prison so you may be tested,[af] and you will experience suffering[ag] for ten days. Remain faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown that is life itself.[ah] 11 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers[ai] will in no way be harmed by the second death.’
To the Church in Pergamum
12 “To[aj] the angel of the church in Pergamum write the following:[ak]
“This is the solemn pronouncement of[al] the one who has the sharp double-edged sword:[am] 13 ‘I know[an] where you live—where Satan’s throne is. Yet[ao] you continue to cling[ap] to my name and you have not denied your[aq] faith in me,[ar] even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness,[as] who was killed in your city[at] where Satan lives. 14 But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam,[au] who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block[av] before the people[aw] of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.[ax] 15 In the same way, there are also some among you who follow the teaching of the Nicolaitans.[ay] 16 Therefore,[az] repent! If not, I will come against you quickly and make war against those people[ba] with the sword of my mouth. 17 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers,[bb] I will give him some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white[bc] stone,[bd] and on that stone will be written a new name that no one can understand[be] except the one who receives it.’
To the Church in Thyatira
18 “To[bf] the angel of the church in Thyatira write the following:[bg]
“This is the solemn pronouncement of[bh] the Son of God, the one who has eyes like a fiery flame[bi] and whose feet are like polished bronze:[bj] 19 ‘I know your deeds: your love, faith,[bk] service, and steadfast endurance.[bl] In fact,[bm] your more recent deeds are greater than your earlier ones. 20 But I have this against you: You tolerate that[bn] woman[bo] Jezebel,[bp] who calls herself a prophetess, and by her teaching deceives[bq] my servants[br] to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.[bs] 21 I[bt] have given her time to repent, but[bu] she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness,[bv] and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering,[bw] unless they repent of her deeds. 23 Furthermore, I will strike her followers[bx] with a deadly disease,[by] and then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will repay[bz] each one of you[ca] what your deeds deserve.[cb] 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, all who do not hold to this teaching[cc] (who have not learned the so-called “deep secrets[cd] of Satan”), to you I say: I do not put any additional burden on you. 25 However, hold on to what you have until I come. 26 And to the one who conquers[ce] and who continues in[cf] my deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations[cg]—
27 he[ch] will rule[ci] them with an iron rod[cj]
and like clay jars he will break them to pieces,[ck]
28 just as I have received the right to rule[cl] from my Father—and I will give him the morning star.[cm] 29 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
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