Amos 4-6

New American Standard Bible

“Yet You Have Not Returned to Me”

4 Hear this word, you ^[a]cows of ^(A)Bashan who are on the ^(B)mountain of Samaria,
Who ^(C)exploit the poor, who oppress the needy,
^[b]And say to their ^[c]husbands, “Bring now, that we may ^(D)drink!”
²The Lord ^[d]God has ^(E)sworn by His ^(F)holiness,
“For behold, the days are coming upon you
When ^[e]they will take you away with ^(G)meat hooks,
And the last of you with ^(H)fish hooks.
³You will ^(I)go out through holes in the walls,
One in front of the other,
And you ^[f]will be hurled to Harmon,” declares the Lord.

⁴“Enter Bethel and do wrong;
In Gilgal multiply wrongdoing!
^(J)Bring your sacrifices every morning,
Your tithes every three days.
⁵^[g]Offer a ^(K)thanksgiving offering also from that which is leavened,
And proclaim ^(L)^[h]voluntary offerings, make them known.
For so you ^(M)love to do, you sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord God.

⁶“But I gave you also ^(N)cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
And lack of bread in all your places;
Yet you have ^(O)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
⁷“Furthermore, I ^(P)withheld the rain from you
While there were still three months until harvest.
Then I would send rain on one city,
But on ^(Q)another city I would not send rain;
One part would be rained on,
While the part not rained on would dry up.
⁸So the people of two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink ^(R)water,
But would ^(S)not be satisfied;
Yet you have ^(T)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
⁹“I ^(U)struck you with scorching wind and mildew;
The ^(V)caterpillar was devouring
Your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees;
Yet you have ^(W)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
¹⁰“I sent a ^(X)plague among you ^[i]as in Egypt;
I ^(Y)killed your young men with the sword, along with your ^(Z)captured horses,
And I made the ^(AA)stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils;
Yet you have ^(AB)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
¹¹“I overthrew you, as ^(AC)God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
And you were like a ^(AD)log snatched from a fire;
Yet you have ^(AE)not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
¹²“Therefore so I will do to you, Israel;
Because I will do this to you,
Prepare to ^(AF)meet your God, Israel.”
¹³For behold, He who ^(AG)forms mountains and ^(AH)creates the wind,
And ^(AI)declares to a person what are His thoughts,
He who ^(AJ)makes dawn into darkness
And ^(AK)treads on the high places of the earth,
^(AL)The Lord God of armies is His name.

“Seek Me So That You May Live”

5 Hear this word which I am taking up for you as a ^(AM)song of mourning, house of Israel:
²She has fallen, she will ^(AN)not rise again—
The ^(AO)virgin Israel.
She lies unnoticed on her land;
There is ^(AP)no one to raise her up.

³For this is what the Lord ^[j]God says:

“The city which goes forth a thousand strong
Will have a ^(AQ)hundred left,
And the one which goes forth a hundred strong
Will have ^(AR)ten left to the house of Israel.”

⁴For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:

“^(AS)Seek Me ^(AT)so that you may live.
⁵But do not ^[k]resort to ^(AU)Bethel
And do not come to ^(AV)Gilgal,
Nor cross over to ^(AW)Beersheba;
For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity
And Bethel will ^[l]come to nothing.
⁶^(AX)Seek the Lord so that you may live,
Or He will break through like a ^(AY)fire, ^[m]house of Joseph,
And it will consume with no one to extinguish it for Bethel,
⁷For those who turn ^(AZ)justice into wormwood,
And ^[n]throw righteousness to the earth.”

⁸He who made the ^(BA)Pleiades and Orion,
And ^(BB)changes deep darkness into morning,
^[o]Who also ^(BC)darkens day into night,
Who ^(BD)calls for the waters of the sea
And pours them out on the surface of the earth,
The ^(BE)Lord is His name.
⁹It is He who ^(BF)makes destruction flash upon the strong,
So that ^(BG)destruction comes upon the fortress.

¹⁰They hate him who ^(BH)rebukes in the ^[p]gate,
And they ^(BI)despise him who speaks with integrity.
¹¹Therefore because you impose heavy ^[q]rent on the poor
And take a tribute of grain from them,
Though you have built ^(BJ)houses of cut stone,
Yet you will not live in them;
You have planted beautiful vineyards, yet you will ^(BK)not drink their wine.
¹²For I know your offenses are many and your sins are great,
You who are ^(BL)hostile to the righteous and accept bribes,
And ^[r]turn away the poor from justice at the ^[s]gate.
¹³Therefore at ^[t]such a time the prudent person ^(BM)keeps quiet, because it is an evil time.

¹⁴Seek good and not evil, so that you may live;
And so may the Lord God of armies be with you,
^(BN)Just as you have said!
¹⁵^(BO)Hate evil, love good,
And establish justice in the ^[u]gate!
Perhaps the Lord God of armies
^(BP)Will be gracious to the ^(BQ)remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord God of armies, the Lord says:

“There is ^(BR)mourning in all the public squares,
And in all the streets they say, ‘Oh no! Oh no!’
They also call the ^(BS)farmer to mourning
And ^[v]^(BT)professional mourners to mourning rites.
¹⁷And in all the ^(BU)vineyards there is mourning,
Because I will pass through the midst of you,” says the Lord.

¹⁸Woe to you who are longing for the ^(BV)day of the Lord,
For what ^[w]purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?
It will be ^(BW)darkness and not light;
¹⁹As when a man ^(BX)flees from a lion
And a bear confronts him,
^[x]Or he goes home, leans with his hand against the wall,
And a snake bites him.
²⁰Will the day of the Lord not be ^(BY)darkness instead of light,
Even gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹“I hate, I ^(BZ)reject your festivals,
Nor do I ^[y]^(CA)delight in your festive assemblies.
²²Even though you ^(CB)offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
And I will not even look at the ^(CC)peace offerings of your fattened oxen.
²³Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
²⁴But let ^(CD)justice roll out like waters,
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

²⁵“^[z]^(CE)Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, house of Israel? ²⁶^(CF)You also carried along ^[aa]Sikkuth your king and ^[ab]Kiyyun, your images, ^[ac]the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. ²⁷Therefore I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.

“Carefree in Zion”

6 ^(CG)Woe to those who are carefree in Zion,
And to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,
The ^(CH)dignitaries of the foremost of nations,
To whom the house of Israel comes.
²Go over to ^(CI)Calneh and look,
And go from there to ^(CJ)Hamath the great,
Then go down to ^(CK)Gath of the Philistines.
Are ^[ad]they better than these kingdoms,
Or is their territory greater than yours?
³Are you ^(CL)postponing the day of disaster,
And would you ^(CM)bring near the seat of violence?

⁴Those who lie on beds of ivory,
And lounge around on their ^(CN)couches,
And ^(CO)eat lambs from the flock,
And calves from the midst of the fattened cattle,
⁵Who improvise to the sound of the harp,
And like David have ^[ae]composed ^(CP)songs for themselves,
⁶Who ^(CQ)drink wine from sacred bowls
While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils—
Yet they have not ^(CR)grieved over the collapse of Joseph.
⁷Therefore, they will now ^(CS)go into exile at the head of the exiles,
And the revelry of those who ^(CT)lounge around will come to an end.

⁸The Lord ^[af]God has ^(CU)sworn by Himself, the Lord God of armies has declared:
“I ^(CV)loathe the arrogance of Jacob,
And ^[ag]detest his ^(CW)citadels;
Therefore I will ^(CX)give up the city and ^[ah]all it contains.”

⁹And it will be, if ^(CY)ten men are left in one house, they will die. ¹⁰Then one’s ^[ai]uncle, or his ^(CZ)undertaker, will lift him up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” And that one will say, “No one.” Then he will ^[aj]answer, “^(DA)Keep quiet! For ^[ak]the name of the Lord is ^(DB)not to be mentioned.” ¹¹For behold, the Lord is going to ^(DC)command that the ^(DD)great house be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.

¹²Do horses run on rocks?
Or does one ^[al]plow them with oxen?
Yet you have turned ^(DE)justice into poison,
And the fruit of righteousness into ^[am]wormwood,
¹³You who rejoice in ^[an]^(DF)Lodebar,
^[ao]And say, “Have we not ^(DG)by our own strength taken ^[ap]Karnaim for ourselves?”
¹⁴“For behold, ^(DH)I am going to raise up a nation against you,
House of Israel,” declares the Lord God of armies,
“And they will torment you from the ^(DI)entrance of Hamath
To the ^(DJ)brook of the Arabah.”

Footnotes

Amos 4:1 I.e., haughty, prominent women
Amos 4:1 Lit Who
Amos 4:1 Lit lords
Amos 4:2 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
Amos 4:2 Lit he
Amos 4:3 As in LXX; MT will hurl
Amos 4:5 Lit Offer up in smoke
Amos 4:5 Or freewill offerings
Amos 4:10 Lit in the way of Egypt
Amos 5:3 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord, and so throughout the ch
Amos 5:5 Lit seek
Amos 5:5 Lit be
Amos 5:6 Or in the house
Amos 5:7 Lit they have thrown
Amos 5:8 Lit And He darkened
Amos 5:10 I.e., the place where court was held
Amos 5:11 Or tax
Amos 5:12 Lit they turn
Amos 5:12 I.e., the place where court was held
Amos 5:13 Lit that time
Amos 5:15 I.e., the place where court was held
Amos 5:16 Lit those who know mourning
Amos 5:18 Lit will this be to you, the day
Amos 5:19 Or Then
Amos 5:21 Lit like to smell your
Amos 5:25 Or You presented Me with the sacrifices and a grain offering
Amos 5:26 Or Sakkuth (Saturn), or the tabernacle of your Moloch
Amos 5:26 Or Kaiwan (Saturn), or stands of
Amos 5:26 Or your star gods
Amos 6:2 Or you
Amos 6:5 Or invented musical instruments
Amos 6:8 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Amos 6:8 Lit hate
Amos 6:8 Lit its fullness
Amos 6:10 Or beloved one
Amos 6:10 Lit say
Amos 6:10 Lit not to make mention in the name of
Amos 6:12 Another reading is plow the sea with oxen
Amos 6:12 I.e., bitterness
Amos 6:13 Lit nothing
Amos 6:13 Lit Who say
Amos 6:13 Lit a pair of horns

Revelation 7

New American Standard Bible

An Interlude

7 After this I saw ^(A)four angels standing at the ^(B)four corners of the earth, holding back ^(C)the four winds of the earth ^(D)so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. ²And I saw another angel ascending ^(E)from the rising of the sun, holding the ^(F)seal of ^(G)the living God; and he called out with a loud voice to the ^(H)four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, ³saying, “^(I)Do not harm the earth, or the sea, or the trees until we have ^(J)sealed the bond-servants of our God on their ^(K)foreheads.”

The 144,000

⁴And I heard the ^(L)number of those who were sealed: ^(M)144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

⁵from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, ⁶from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, ⁷from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, ⁸from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, and from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.

A Multitude from the Tribulation

⁹After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from ^(N)every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing ^(O)before the throne and ^(P)before the Lamb, clothed in ^(Q)white robes, and ^(R)palm branches were in their hands; ¹⁰and they *cried out with a loud voice, saying,

“^(S)Salvation belongs to our God ^(T)who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

¹¹And all the angels were standing ^(U)around the throne and around ^(V)the elders and the ^(W)four living creatures; and they ^(X)fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying,

“^(Y)Amen, ^(Z)blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might belong to our God forever and ever. ^(AA)Amen.”

¹³Then one of the elders ^(AB)responded, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the ^(AC)white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” ¹⁴I ^[a]said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the ^(AD)great tribulation, and they have ^(AE)washed their robes and made them ^(AF)white in the ^(AG)blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵For this reason they are ^(AH)before the throne of God, and they ^(AI)serve Him day and night in His ^[b]^(AJ)temple; and ^(AK)He who sits on the throne will spread His ^(AL)tabernacle over them. ¹⁶^(AM)They will no longer hunger nor thirst, nor will the sun ^[c]beat down on them, nor any scorching heat; ¹⁷for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their ^(AN)shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the ^[d]^(AO)water of life; and ^(AP)God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”