Old/New Testament
The New People of God[a][b]
Chapter 9
The New Land
1 [c]An oracle:
The word of the Lord
is against the land of Hadrach,
and it will come to rest upon Damascus.
For the cities of Aaron belong to the Lord,
as do all the tribes of Israel,
2 as well as Hamath also,
which borders on it,
and on Tyre and Sidon,
even though they are very wise.
3 Tyre has built a stronghold for itself
and heaped up silver like dust
and gold like the dirt of the streets.
4 But the Lord will strip it of its possessions
and destroy its power on the sea,
and the city itself will be consumed by fire.
5 Ashkelon will witness this and be terrified,
as will Gaza who will writhe in anguish;
the same will be true of Ekron
whose hopes will come to naught.
The king will vanish from Gaza,
and Ashkelon will be uninhabited.
6 Foreigners will settle in Ashdod,
and I will demolish the pride of the Philistines.
7 I will snatch the bloody meat from their mouths
and their abominations from between their teeth.
They, too, will be a remnant belonging to our God;
they will be like a clan in Judah,
and Ekron will become like the Jebusites.[d]
8 I will stand guard at my house
so that no one may pass by unchallenged.
No oppressor will ever again overrun them,
for now I am determined to protect them.
Behold, Your King Comes to You[e]
9 Rejoice with all your heart, O daughter Zion.
Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem.
See, your king is coming to you,
triumphant and victorious,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 He will banish the chariot from Ephraim
and the horses of war from Jerusalem.
The warrior’s bow will be banished,
and he will proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion will be from sea to sea,
and from the river to the ends of the earth.
The Reestablishment of Israel
11 As for you,
because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set free your prisoners
from the waterless dungeon.
12 Return to the fortress,
you prisoners who have waited in hope.
This very day I promise
that I will reward you twofold.
13 For I have strung Judah as my bow
and made Ephraim its arrow.
I have roused your sons, O Zion,
and have made you like a warrior’s sword
against your sons, O Javan.
14 Then the Lord will appear over them,
and his arrow will flash forth like lightning.
The Lord God will sound the trumpet
and march forth in the stormwinds of the south.
15 The Lord of hosts will protect them,
and they will overcome
as they trample underfoot the slingstones.
They will drink blood like wine,
filled to the brim like a bowl,
drenched like the corners of the altar.
16 The Lord, their God, will save them on that day,
for they are his flock, his own people.
Like the precious stones of a crown
they will sparkle throughout his land.
17 What wealth and what beauty will be theirs,
with grain to make the young men flourish
and with new wine for the maidens!
Chapter 10
Be Faithful to the Lord
1 Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime.
It is the Lord who makes the storm clouds.
He will send forth the showers of rain
and grass in the fields for everyone.
2 For the household gods utter nonsense,
and diviners are misled by false signs.
The dreams they relate are deceitful,
offering empty consolation.
That is why the people
wander about like sheep;
they are in distress
for lack of a shepherd.
I Will Reunite and Save
3 My anger has been set ablaze by the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders of the flock.
For the Lord of hosts cares for his flock,
the house of Judah,
and will make it his royal warhorse.
4 From Judah will emerge the cornerstone,
from it the tent peg,
from it the bow ready for battle,
from it all the commanders.
5 Together they will be like warriors
trampling the mud of the streets in battle.
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
and they will rout even those on horseback.
6 I will strengthen the house of Judah,
and I will save the house of Joseph.
I will bring them back
because I have taken pity on them,
and they will be
as though I had never cast them off;
for I am the Lord, their God,
and I will answer them.
7 Then the people of Ephraim will be like warriors,
and their hearts will be cheered as if by wine.
Their children will see it and rejoice;
their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will signal them to gather together,
for I have redeemed them;
they will be as numerous
as they were before.
9 I scattered them among the nations,
yet in far-off countries they will remember me;
they will rear their children and return.
10 I will bring them home from the land of Egypt
and gather them from Assyria.
I will lead them into Gilead and into Lebanon,
until there is no more room to accommodate them.
11 They will pass through the Sea of Egypt,
and the waves of the sea will be subdued,
while the depths of the Nile will be dried up.
The pride of Assyria will be cast down,
and the scepter of Egypt will be taken away.
12 I will make them strong in the Lord,
and they will march in my name,
says the Lord.
Chapter 11
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,
so that the fire may devour your cedars.
2 Wail, you cypress trees,
for the cedars have fallen,
the majestic trees have been ravaged.
Wail, you oaks of Bashan,
for the impenetrable forest has been felled.
3 Listen to the wailing of the shepherds,
for their majesty has been destroyed.
Listen to the roar of the lions,
for the dense thickets of the Jordan have been ravaged.
The New Shepherd of Israel
The Two Shepherds.[f] 4 Thus says the Lord, my God: Be a shepherd to the flock destined for slaughter. 5 Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished, while those who sell them say, “Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich.” Even their own shepherds feel no pity for them.
6 I will no longer have any pity for the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. Rather, I will deliver each one of them into the power of his neighbor or into the clutches of the king. They will devastate the earth, and I will not deliver anyone from their hands.
7 And so I became a shepherd of the flock that was destined to be slaughtered by the sheep dealers. I took two staffs, one of which I named Favor and the other one of which I named Unity, and I pastured the sheep myself. 8 In a single month I got rid of the three shepherds. However, I soon lost patience with the flock, and they detested me.
9 Finally I said. “I will not be your shepherd any longer. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. Those who are left can devour one another.”
10 Then I took my staff “Favor” and snapped it in two, thereby annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. 11 Therefore, it was annulled on that day, and the dealers who were watching me realized that this was the word of the Lord. 12 I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; if not, then forget about it.” Then they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
13 However, the Lord said to me, “Throw it into the treasury—the princely sum at which they valued my efforts.” Therefore, I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 14 Then I broke my second staff, “Unity,” in half, annulling the ties of brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord thereupon said to me: Take once again the equipment of a worthless shepherd. 16 For I am now going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will have no concern for those who are perishing, nor go off in search of the strays, nor heal the injured, nor nourish those who survive, but who will eat the meat of the fat animals, tearing off even their hoofs.
17 Woe to the worthless shepherd
who abandons his flock.
May the sword fall upon his arm
and upon his right eye.
Let his arm be completely withered
and his right eye be totally blinded.
Chapter 12
The Lord Undertakes Defense of Jerusalem.1 An oracle: the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus says the Lord, who spread out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the human spirit within:
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup that will intoxicate all the surrounding nations, and Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the world are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All those who try to lift it will hurt themselves seriously, even though all the nations of the earth will be massed against her.
4 On that day, says the Lord, I will strike all the horses with panic and their riders with madness. Further, I will strike blind all the horses of the peoples, but I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah. 5 Then the people of Judah will say to themselves, “The inhabitants of Jerusalem derive their strength from the Lord of hosts, their God.”
6 On that day, I will make the families of Judah like a brazier burning in a woodland, like a torch aflame among sheaves, and they will consume all the surrounding nations on their right and on their left, while the people of Jerusalem will reside peacefully in their city. 7 The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not surpass that of Judah. 8 On that day, the Lord will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The weakest of them will be like David when that day comes, and the house of David will be godlike, with the angel of the Lord at their head.
9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
10 They Will Cry over Him Whom They Have Pierced.[g] Further, I will pour out a spirit of grace and supplication on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that they will look on me, the one whom they have pierced, and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will grieve over him as one grieves over a firstborn.
11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning over Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.[h] 12 And the land will mourn, each family individually:
The family of the house of David by itself,
and their women by themselves;
the family of the house of Nathan by itself,
and their women by themselves;
13 the family of the house of Levi by itself,
and their women by themselves;
the family of the house of Shimei by itself,
and all their women by themselves;
14 all the remaining families by themselves,
and their women by themselves.
Chapter 20
The Dragon.[a] 1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, with the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and chained him up for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would not again deceive the nations until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released, but only for a short time.
The Reign of the Martyrs: Return and Destruction of Satan.[b] 4 Next, I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given the authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for bearing witness to Jesus and the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.[c]
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed[d] and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them. They will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
7 When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will emerge to lead astray the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—in order to gather them for battle. They are as numerous as the sands of the sea.[e]
9 They marched across the breadth of the earth[f] and laid siege to the camp of the saints and the beloved city. However, fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 The devil who had led them astray was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been flung to be tormented day and night forever and ever.
11 Preparation for the Judgment.[g] Then I saw a great white throne, and the one who was seated upon it. The earth and the sky fled so far from his presence that they could no longer be found.
12 The Resurrection and Judgment.[h] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their deeds, as were recorded in the scrolls.
13 The sea gave up all the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them. The dead were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were hurled into the fiery lake. This fiery lake is the second death.[i] 15 Anyone who was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the fiery lake.
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