Zephaniah 1

New American Standard Bible

Day of Judgment on Judah

1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of ^(A)Josiah son of ^(B)Amon, king of Judah:

²“I will completely ^(C)remove all things
From the face of the ^[a]earth,” declares the Lord.
³“I will remove ^(D)human and animal life;
I will remove the ^(E)birds of the sky
And the fish of the sea,
And the ^[b]^(F)ruins along with the wicked;
And I will eliminate mankind from the face of the ^[c]earth,” declares the Lord.
⁴“So I will ^(G)stretch out My hand against Judah
And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And I will ^(H)eliminate the remnant of Baal from this place,
And the names of the ^(I)idolatrous priests along with the other priests.
⁵And those who bow down on the ^(J)housetops to the heavenly ^[d]lights,
And those who bow down and ^(K)swear to the Lord, but also swear by ^[e]^(L)Milcom,
⁶And those who have ^(M)turned back from following the Lord,
And those who have ^(N)not sought the Lord nor inquired of Him.”

⁷^[f]^(O)Be silent before the Lord ^[g]God!
For the ^(P)day of the Lord is near,
Because the Lord has prepared a ^(Q)sacrifice,
He has ^(R)consecrated His guests.
⁸“Then it will come about on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
That I will ^(S)punish the princes, the king’s sons,
And all who clothe themselves with ^(T)foreign garments.
⁹And on that day I will punish all who leap on the temple threshold,
Who fill the house of their ^[h]lord with ^(U)violence and deceit.
¹⁰And on that day,” declares the Lord,
“There will be the sound of a cry from the ^(V)Fish Gate,
Wailing from the ^[i]^(W)Second Quarter,
And a loud crash from the ^(X)hills.
¹¹Wail, you inhabitants of the ^[j]Mortar,
Because all the ^[k]people of ^(Y)Canaan will be destroyed;
All who weigh out ^(Z)silver will be eliminated.
¹²And it will come about at that time
That I will ^(AA)search Jerusalem with lamps,
And I will punish the people
Who are ^[l]^(AB)stagnant in spirit,
Who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will ^(AC)not do good nor harm!’
¹³Their wealth will become ^(AD)plunder,
And their houses desolate;
Yes, ^(AE)they will build houses but not inhabit them,
And plant vineyards but not drink their wine.”

¹⁴The ^(AF)great ^(AG)day of the Lord is near,
Near and coming very quickly;
Listen, the day of the Lord!
^[m]In it the warrior ^(AH)cries out bitterly.
¹⁵That day is a day of anger,
A day of ^(AI)trouble and distress,
A day of destruction and desolation,
A day of ^(AJ)darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
¹⁶A day of ^(AK)trumpet and battle cry
Against the ^(AL)fortified cities
And the high corner towers.
¹⁷I will bring ^(AM)distress on mankind
So that they will walk ^(AN)like those who are blind,
Because they have sinned against the Lord;
And their ^(AO)blood will be poured out like dust,
And their ^(AP)flesh like dung.
¹⁸Neither their ^(AQ)silver nor their gold
Will be able to save them
On the day of the Lord’s anger;
And ^(AR)all the earth will be devoured
By the fire of His jealousy,
For He will ^(AS)make a complete end,
Indeed a horrifying one,
Of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Footnotes

Zephaniah 1:2 Lit ground
Zephaniah 1:3 Or stumbling blocks
Zephaniah 1:3 Lit ground
Zephaniah 1:5 Lit host; i.e., sun, stars, etc.
Zephaniah 1:5 Or their king; MT Malcam, prob. a variant spelling of Milcom, the Ammonite god
Zephaniah 1:7 Lit Hush
Zephaniah 1:7 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Zephaniah 1:9 Or Lord
Zephaniah 1:10 I.e., a district of Jerusalem
Zephaniah 1:11 I.e., a district of Jerusalem
Zephaniah 1:11 Or merchant people will
Zephaniah 1:12 Lit thickening on their dregs
Zephaniah 1:14 Lit There

2 John

New American Standard Bible

Walk According to His Commandments

¹^(A)The elder to the ^(B)chosen ^(C)lady and her children, whom I ^(D)love in truth; and not only I, but also all who ^(E)know the truth, ²^(F)because of the truth which remains ^(G)in us and will be ^(H)with us forever: ³^(I)Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

⁴^(J)I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received a commandment to do from the Father. ⁵Now I ask you, lady, ^(K)not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had ^(L)from the beginning, that we ^(M)love one another. ⁶And ^(N)this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, ^(O)just as you have heard ^(P)from the beginning, that you are to walk in it.

⁷For ^(Q)many deceivers have ^(R)gone out into the world, those who ^(S)do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is ^(T)the deceiver and the ^(U)antichrist. ⁸^(V)Watch yourselves, ^(W)that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. ⁹^[a]Anyone who ^[b]goes too far and ^(X)does not remain in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, ^(Y)do not receive him into your house, and do not ^[c]give him a greeting; ¹¹for the one who ^[d]gives him a greeting ^[e]^(Z)participates in his evil deeds.

¹²^(AA)Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak ^[f]face to face, so that ^[g]your ^(AB)joy may be made complete.

¹³The children of your ^(AC)chosen sister greet you.

Footnotes

2 John 1:9 Lit Everyone
2 John 1:9 Lit goes on ahead
2 John 1:10 Lit say to him
2 John 1:11 Lit says to him
2 John 1:11 I.e., shares responsibility for them
2 John 1:12 Lit mouth to mouth
2 John 1:12 One early ms our

3 John

New American Standard Bible

A Good Report

¹^(A)The elder to the beloved ^(B)Gaius, whom I ^(C)love in truth.

²Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. ³For I ^(D)was overjoyed when ^(E)brothers came and testified to your truth, that is, how you ^(F)are walking in truth. ⁴I have no greater joy than ^[a]this, to hear of ^(G)my children ^(H)walking in the truth.

⁵Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the ^(I)brothers and sisters, and ^[b]especially when they are ^(J)strangers; ⁶and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to ^[c]^(K)send them on their way in a manner ^(L)worthy of God. ⁷For they went out for the sake of ^(M)the Name, ^(N)accepting nothing from the Gentiles. ⁸Therefore we ought to ^[d]support such people, so that we may ^[e]prove to be fellow workers ^[f]with the truth.

⁹I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to ^(O)be first among them, does not accept ^[g]what we say. ¹⁰For this reason, ^(P)if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with malicious words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not ^(Q)receive the ^(R)brothers either, and he forbids those who want to do so and ^(S)puts them out of the church.

¹¹Beloved, ^(T)do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. ^(U)The one who does what is good is of God; ^(V)the one who does what is evil has not seen God. ¹²Demetrius ^(W)has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we testify too, and ^(X)you know that our testimony is true.

¹³^(Y)I had many things to write to you, but I do not want to write to you with pen and ink; ¹⁴but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak ^[h]face to face.

¹⁵^(Z)Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends ^(AA)by name.

Footnotes

3 John 1:4 Lit these things, that I hear
3 John 1:5 Lit this
3 John 1:6 I.e., give them whatever they might need for the journey
3 John 1:8 Or receive as guests
3 John 1:8 Or become fellow
3 John 1:8 Or for
3 John 1:9 Lit us
3 John 1:14 Lit mouth to mouth

Jude

New American Standard Bible

The Warnings of History to the Ungodly

¹^[a]^(A)Jude, a ^(B)bond-servant of Jesus Christ and brother of ^[b]James,

To ^(C)those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and ^(D)kept for Jesus Christ: ²^(E)May mercy, peace, and love ^(F)be multiplied to you.

³^(G)Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our ^(H)common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you ^(I)contend earnestly for ^(J)the faith that was once for all time ^(K)handed down to ^(L)the ^[c]saints. ⁴For certain people have ^(M)crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand ^[d]^(N)marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn ^(O)the grace of our God into ^(P)indecent behavior and ^(Q)deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵Now I want to ^(R)remind you, though ^(S)you know everything once and for all, that ^[e]the Lord, ^(T)after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, ^[f]subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And ^(U)angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has ^(V)kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day, ⁷just as ^(W)Sodom and Gomorrah and the ^(X)cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and ^(Y)went after ^[g]strange flesh, are exhibited as an ^[h]^(Z)example in undergoing the ^(AA)punishment of eternal fire.

⁸Yet in the same way these people also, dreaming, ^(AB)defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak abusively of angelic ^[i]majesties. ⁹But ^(AC)Michael ^(AD)the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about ^(AE)the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him an abusive judgment, but said, “^(AF)The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰But ^(AG)these people disparage all the things that they do not understand; and ^(AH)all the things that they know by instinct, ^(AI)like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. ¹¹Woe to them! For they have gone ^(AJ)the way of Cain, and for pay ^[j]they have given themselves up to ^(AK)the error of Balaam, and ^(AL)perished in the rebellion of Korah. ¹²These are the ones who are ^[k]hidden reefs ^(AM)in your love feasts when they feast with you ^(AN)without fear, like shepherds caring only for themselves; ^(AO)clouds without water, ^(AP)carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, ^[l]doubly dead, ^(AQ)uprooted; ¹³^(AR)wild waves of the sea, churning up ^(AS)their own shameful deeds like dirty foam; wandering stars, ^(AT)for whom the ^[m]gloom of darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴It was also about these people that ^(AU)Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “^(AV)Behold, the Lord has come with ^[n]many thousands of His holy ones, ¹⁵^(AW)to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ^(AX)ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” ¹⁶These are ^(AY)grumblers, finding fault, ^(AZ)following after their own lusts; ^[o]they speak ^(BA)arrogantly, flattering people ^(BB)for the sake of gaining an advantage.

Keep Yourselves in the Love of God

¹⁷But you, ^(BC)beloved, ^(BD)ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by ^(BE)the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁸that they were saying to you, “^(BF)In the last time there will be mockers, ^(BG)following after their own ungodly lusts.” ¹⁹These are the ones who cause divisions, ^[p]^(BH)worldly-minded, ^[q]devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰But you, ^(BI)beloved, ^(BJ)building yourselves up on your most holy ^(BK)faith, ^(BL)praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, ^(BM)looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. ²²And have mercy on some, who are doubting; ²³save others, ^(BN)snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, ^(BO)hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

²⁴^(BP)Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling, and to ^(BQ)make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with ^(BR)great joy, ²⁵to the ^(BS)only ^(BT)God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, ^(BU)be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority ^(BV)before all time and now and ^[r]forever. Amen.