Old/New Testament
4 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan[a] who live on Mount Samaria!
You[b] oppress the poor;
you crush the needy.
You say to your[c] husbands,
“Bring us more to drink!”[d]
2 The Sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character:[e]
“Certainly the time is approaching[f]
when you will be carried away[g] in baskets,[h]
every last one of you[i] in fishermen’s pots.[j]
3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls;[k]
you will be thrown out[l] toward Harmon.”[m]
The Lord is speaking.
Israel has an Appointment with God
4 “Go to Bethel[n] and rebel![o]
At Gilgal[p] rebel some more!
Bring your sacrifices in[q] the morning,
your tithes on[r] the third day!
5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast![s]
Make a public display of your voluntary offerings![t]
For you love to do this, you Israelites.”
The Sovereign Lord is speaking.
6 “But surely I gave[u] you no food to eat in all your cities;
you lacked food everywhere you lived.[v]
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest.[w]
I gave rain to one city, but not to another.
One field[x] would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.
8 People from[y] two or three cities staggered into one city to get[z] water,
but remained thirsty.[aa]
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
9 “I destroyed your crops[ab] with blight and disease.
Locusts kept[ac] devouring your orchards,[ad] vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues.[ae]
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with the horses you had captured.
I made the stench from the corpses[af] rise up into your nostrils.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
11 “I overthrew some of you the way God[ag] overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.[ah]
You were like a burning stick[ai] snatched from the flames.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking
12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel.
Because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, Israel!”[aj]
13 For here he is!
He[ak] formed the mountains and created the wind.
He reveals[al] his plans[am] to men.
He turns the dawn into darkness[an]
and marches on the heights of the earth.
The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies[ao] is his name!
Death is Imminent
5 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you,[ap] family[aq] of Israel:
2 “The virgin[ar] Israel has fallen down and will not get up again.
She is abandoned on her own land
with no one to help her get up.”[as]
3 The Sovereign Lord says this:
“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers[at] will have only a hundred left;
the town[au] that marches out with a hundred soldiers[av] will have only ten left for the family of Israel.”[aw]
4 The Lord says this to the family[ax] of Israel:
“Seek me[ay] so you can live!
5 Do not seek Bethel.[az]
Do not visit Gilgal.
Do not journey down[ba] to Beer Sheba.
For the people of Gilgal[bb] will certainly be carried into exile,[bc]
and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.”[bd]
6 Seek the Lord so you can live!
Otherwise he will break out[be] like fire against Joseph’s[bf] family;[bg]
the fire[bh] will consume
and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel.[bi]
7 The Israelites[bj] turn justice into bitterness;[bk]
they throw what is fair and right[bl] to the ground.[bm]
8 But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;
he can turn the darkness into morning
and daylight[bn] into night.
He summons the water of the seas
and pours it out on the earth’s surface.
The Lord is his name!
9 He flashes[bo] destruction down upon the strong
so that destruction overwhelms[bp] the fortified places.
10 The Israelites[bq] hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate;[br]
they despise anyone who speaks honestly.
11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops[bs]
and exact a grain tax from them,
you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone,
nor will you drink the wine from the fine[bt] vineyards you planted.[bu]
12 Certainly[bv] I am aware of[bw] your many rebellious acts[bx]
and your numerous sins.
You[by] torment the innocent, you take bribes,
and you deny justice to[bz] the needy at the city gate.[ca]
13 For this reason whoever is smart[cb] keeps quiet[cc] in such a time,
for it is an evil[cd] time.
14 Seek good and not evil so you can live!
Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies just might be with you,
as you claim he is.
15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right.
Promote[ce] justice at the city gate.[cf]
Maybe the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on[cg] those who are left from[ch] Joseph.[ci]
16 Because of Israel’s sins[cj] this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,[ck] says:
“In all the squares there will be wailing,
in all the streets they will mourn the dead.[cl]
They will tell the field workers[cm] to lament
and the professional mourners[cn] to wail.
17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing,
for I will pass through[co] your midst,” says the Lord.
The Lord Demands Justice
18 Woe[cp] to those who wish for the day of the Lord!
Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?
It will bring darkness, not light.
19 Disaster will be inescapable,[cq]
as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear,
then escaped into[cr] a house,
leaned his hand against the wall,
and was bitten by a poisonous snake.
20 Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring[cs] darkness, not light—
gloomy blackness, not bright light?
21 “I absolutely despise[ct] your festivals!
I get no pleasure[cu] from your religious assemblies.
22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings,[cv] I will not be satisfied;
I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves.[cw]
23 Take away from me your[cx] noisy songs;
I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments.[cy]
24 Justice must flow like torrents of water,
righteous actions[cz] like a stream that never dries up.
25 You did not bring me[da] sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family[db] of Israel.
26 You will pick up your images[dc] of Sikkuth,[dd] your king,[de]
and Kiyyun,[df] your star god, which you made for yourselves,
27 and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord.
He is called the God of Heaven’s Armies.
The Party is over for the Rich
6 Woe[dg] to those who live in ease in Zion,[dh]
to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.
They think of themselves as[di] the elite class of the best nation.
The family[dj] of Israel looks to them for leadership.[dk]
2 They say to the people:[dl]
“Journey over to Calneh and look at it;
then go from there to Hamath-Rabbah;[dm]
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are they superior to our two[dn] kingdoms?
Is their territory larger than yours?”[do]
3 You refuse to believe a day of disaster will come,[dp]
but you establish a reign of violence.[dq]
4 They lie around on beds decorated with ivory,[dr]
and sprawl out on their couches.
They eat lambs from the flock,
and calves from the middle of the pen.
5 They sing[ds] to the tune of[dt] stringed instruments;[du]
like David they invent[dv] musical instruments.
6 They drink wine from sacrificial bowls,[dw]
and pour the very best oils on themselves.[dx]
Yet they are not concerned over[dy] the ruin[dz] of Joseph.
7 Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile,[ea]
and the religious banquets[eb] where they sprawl on couches[ec] will end.
8 The Sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life.[ed]
The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is speaking:
“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;
I hate their[ee] fortresses.
I will hand over to their enemies[ef] the city of Samaria[eg] and everything in it.”
9 If ten men are left in one house, they too will die. 10 When their close relatives, the ones who will burn the corpses,[eh] pick up their bodies to remove the bones from the house, they will say to anyone who is in the inner rooms of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” He will respond, “No one.” Then he will say, “Hush! Don’t invoke the Lord’s name!”[ei]
11 Indeed, look! The Lord is giving the command.[ej]
He will smash the large house to bits
and the small house into little pieces.
12 Can horses run on rocky cliffs?
Can one plow the sea with oxen?[ek]
Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant,
and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant.[el]
13 You are happy because you conquered Lo Debar.[em]
You say, “Did we not conquer Karnaim[en] by our own power?”
14 “Look! I am about to bring[eo] a nation against you, family[ep] of Israel,”
the Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking.
“They will oppress[eq] you all the way from Lebo Hamath[er] to the stream of the rift valley.”[es]
The Sealing of the 144,000
7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so no wind could blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. 2 Then[a] I saw another angel ascending from the east,[b] who had[c] the seal[d] of the living God. He[e] shouted out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given permission[f] to damage the earth and the sea:[g] 3 “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees until we have put a seal on the foreheads of the servants[h] of our God.” 4 Now[i] I heard the number of those who were marked with the seal,[j] 144,000, sealed from all[k] the tribes of the people of Israel:[l]
5 From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand,
6 from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand,
7 from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand,
8 from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.
9 After these things I looked, and here was[m] an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe,[n] people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. 10 They were shouting out in a loud voice,
“Salvation belongs to our God,[o] who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels stood[p] there in a circle around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground[q] before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying,
“Amen! Praise and glory,
and wisdom and thanksgiving,
and honor and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
13 Then[r] one of the elders asked[s] me, “These dressed in long white robes—who are they and where have they come from?” 14 So[t] I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.”[u] Then[v] he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They[w] have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! 15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve[x] him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them.[y] 16 They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat,[z] 17 because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[aa]
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