Old/New Testament
God’s Indictment of His People
6 Hear now what the Lord is saying,
“Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
And let the hills [as witnesses] hear your voice.
2
“Hear, O mountains, the indictment of the Lord,
And you enduring foundations of the earth,
For the Lord has a case (a legal complaint) against His people,
And He will dispute (challenge) Israel.
3
“O My people, what have I done to you [since you have turned away from Me]?
And how have I wearied you? Answer Me.
4
“For I brought you up from the land of Egypt
And ransomed you from the house of slavery,
And I sent before you Moses [to lead you], Aaron [the high priest], and Miriam [the prophetess].
5
“My people, remember now
What Balak king of Moab devised [with his evil plan against Israel]
And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him [turning the curse into blessing for Israel],
[Remember what the Lord did for you] from [a]Shittim to Gilgal,
So that you may know the righteous and saving acts [displaying the power] of the Lord.”(A)
What God Requires of Man
6
With what shall I come before the Lord [to honor Him]
And bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With yearling calves?
7
Will the Lord be delighted with thousands of rams,
Or with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I present my firstborn for my acts of rebellion,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
Except to be just, and to love [and to diligently practice] kindness (compassion),
And to walk humbly with your God [setting aside any overblown sense of importance or self-righteousness]?(B)
9
The voice of the Lord shall call to the city [of Jerusalem]—
And it is sound wisdom to heed [solemnly] and fear Your name [with awe-filled reverence];
“Hear, O tribe [the rod of punishment]. Who has appointed its time?
10
“Are there not still treasures gained by wickedness
In the house of the wicked,
And a short (inaccurate) measure [for grain] that is cursed?(C)
11
“Can I [be guiltless and] justify deceptive scales
And a bag of dishonest weights?(D)
12
“For the rich men of the city are full of violence [of every kind];
Her inhabitants speak lies
And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13
“So also I will make you sick, striking you down,
Desolating and devastating you, because of your sins.
14
“You shall eat, but you will not be satisfied,
And your [b]emptiness shall be among you;
You will [try to] remove [your goods and those you love] for safekeeping
But you will fail to save anything,
And what you do save I shall give to the sword.
15
“You shall sow but you shall not reap;
You shall tread olives, but shall not anoint yourself with oil,
And [you will extract juice from] the grapes, but you shall not drink the wine.
16
“For [you have kept] the statutes of Omri [the idolatrous king],
And all the works of the [wicked] house (dynasty) of Ahab;
And you walk in their counsels and policies.
Therefore, I shall hand you over for destruction and horror
And your [city’s] inhabitants for ridicule,
And you shall bear the rebuke and scorn of My people.”
The Prophet Acknowledges Injustice
7 Woe is me (judgment is coming)! For I am
Like one who gathers the summer fruits, like one who gleans the vintage grapes.
There is not a cluster of grapes to eat,
No first-ripe fig which my appetite craves.
2
The godly person [who is faithful and loyal to God] has perished from the earth,
And there is no upright person [one with good character and moral integrity] among men.
They all lie in wait to shed blood;
Each hunts the other with a net.
3
Concerning evil, both of their hands pursue it and do it diligently and thoroughly;
The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe,
And a great man speaks the [evil] desire of his soul.
So they twist the course of justice between them.
4
The best of them is [injurious] like a briar;
The most upright is [prickly] like a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen [that is, the time predicted by the prophets]
And your punishment comes;
Now shall be their confusion.
5
Do not trust in a neighbor [because of the moral corruption in the land];
Do not have confidence in a friend.
Guard the doors of your mouth
From her who lies in your bosom.(E)
6
For the son dishonors the father and treats him contemptuously,
The daughter rises up [in hostility] against her mother,
The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
A man’s enemies are the men (members) of his own household.(F)
God Is the Source of Salvation and Light
7
But as for me, I will look expectantly for the Lord and with confidence in Him I will keep watch;
I will wait [with confident expectation] for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.
8
Do not rejoice over me [amid my tragedies], O my enemy!
Though I fall, I will rise;
Though I sit in the darkness [of distress], the Lord is a light for me.
9
I will bear the indignation and wrath of the Lord
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my case and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light,
And I will behold His [amazing] righteousness and His remarkable deliverance.(G)
10
Then my enemy [all the pagan nations] shall see it,
And shame [for despising the Lord] will cover her who said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will look on her [with satisfaction at her judgment];
Now she (unbelievers) will be trampled down
Like mud of the streets.
11
It shall be a day for building your walls,
On that day the boundary [of Israel] shall be [greatly] extended.(H)
12
It shall be a day when [c]the Gentiles will come to you
From Assyria and from the cities of Egypt,
And from Egypt even to the river Euphrates,
From sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13
Yet the earth [beyond the land of Israel] shall become desolate because of those who dwell in it,
Because of the fruit of their deeds.
14
Shepherd and rule Your people with Your scepter [of blessing],
The flock of Your inheritance and Your possession
Which dwells alone [separate and secure from attack] in the forest,
In the midst of a garden land.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
As in the days of old [the days of Moses and Elijah].
15
“As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt,
I shall show you marvelous and miraculous things.”
16
The [pagan] nations shall see [God’s omnipotence in delivering Israel] and be ashamed
Of all their might [which cannot be compared to His].
They shall put their hand on their mouth [in silent astonishment];
Their ears shall be deaf.
17
They shall lick the dust like a serpent;
Like crawling things of the earth
They shall come trembling out of their fortresses and hiding places.
They shall turn and come with fear and dread to the Lord our God
And they shall be afraid and stand in awe before You [O Lord].(I)
18
Who is a God like You, who forgives wickedness
And passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of His possession?
He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He [constantly] delights in mercy and lovingkindness.
19
He shall again have compassion on us;
He will subdue and tread underfoot our wickedness [destroying sin’s power].
Yes, You will cast all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.(J)
20
You shall give truth to Jacob
And lovingkindness and mercy to Abraham,
As You have sworn to our forefathers
From the days of old.(K)
The Beast from the Sea
13 And the [a]dragon (Satan) stood on the sandy shore of the sea.(A)
Then I saw a [vicious] beast coming up out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten royal [b]crowns (diadems), and on his heads were blasphemous names. 2 And the beast that I saw resembled a [c]leopard, but his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like that of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 3 I saw one of his heads which seemed to have a fatal wound, but his fatal wound was healed; and the entire earth followed after the beast in amazement. 4 They fell down and worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; they also worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like (as great as) the beast, and who is able to wage war against him?” 5 And the beast was given a mouth (the power of speech), uttering great things and arrogant and blasphemous words, and he was given freedom and authority to act and to do as he pleased for [d]forty-two months (three and a half years).(B) 6 And he opened his mouth to speak blasphemies (abusive speech, slander) against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, and those who live in heaven.
7 He was also [e]permitted to wage war against the saints (God’s people) and to overcome them, and authority and power over every tribe and people and language and nation.(C) 8 All the inhabitants of the earth will fall down and worship him, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slain [as a willing sacrifice]. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10 If anyone is destined for captivity, he will go into captivity; if anyone kills with a sword, he must be killed with a sword. Here is [the call for] the patient endurance and the faithfulness of the saints [which is seen in the response of God’s people to difficult times].(D)
The Beast from the Earth
11 Then I saw [f]another beast rising up out of the earth; he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon.(E) 12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence [when the two are together]. And he makes the earth and those who inhabit it worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs (awe-inspiring acts), even making fire fall from the sky to the earth, right before peoples’ eyes. 14 And he deceives those [unconverted ones] who inhabit the earth [into believing him] because of the signs which he is given [by Satan] to perform in the presence of the [first] beast, telling those who inhabit the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded [fatally] by the sword and has come back to life.(F) 15 And he is given power to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast will even [appear to] speak, and cause those who do not bow down and worship the image of the beast to be put to death.(G) 16 Also he compels all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead [signifying allegiance to the beast], 17 and that no one will be able to buy or sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let the person who has enough insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the [imperfect] number of a man; [g]and his number is [h]six hundred and sixty-six.
Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.