Amos 1:1-2
Contemporary English Version
1 (A) I am Amos. And I raised sheep near the town of Tekoa[a] when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam[b] son of Jehoash[c] was king of Israel.
Two years before the earthquake,[d] the Lord gave me several messages[e] about Israel, 2 (B) and I said:
When the Lord roars
from Jerusalem,
pasturelands and Mount Carmel
dry up and turn brown.
Footnotes
- 1.1 Tekoa: In the hill country of Judah about eight kilometers south of Bethlehem.
- 1.1 Uzziah … Jeroboam: Uzziah was king of Judah 781–740 b.c., and Jeroboam II was king of Israel 783–743 b.c.
- 1.1 Jehoash: The Hebrew text has “Joash,” another spelling of the name.
- 1.1 Two years … earthquake: Possibly the earthquake of 760 b.c., which seems to have been especially violent.
- 1.1 messages: Or “visions.”
Amos 5:14-15
Contemporary English Version
14 If you really want to live,
you must stop doing wrong
and start doing right.
I, the Lord God All-Powerful,
will then be on your side,
just as you claim I am.
15 Choose good instead of evil!
See that justice is done.
Maybe I, the Lord All-Powerful,
will be kind to what's left
of your people.[a]
Footnotes
- 5.15 your people: Hebrew “Joseph's descendants” (see the note at 5.6).
Amos 5:21-24
Contemporary English Version
What the Lord Demands
21 (A) I, the Lord, hate and despise
your religious celebrations
and your times of worship.
22 I won't accept your offerings
or animal sacrifices—
not even your very best.
23 No more of your noisy songs!
I won't listen
when you play your harps.
24 But let justice and fairness
flow like a river
that never runs dry.
John 2:13-22
Contemporary English Version
Jesus in the Temple
(Matthew 21.12,13; Mark 11.15-17; Luke 19.45,46)
13 (A) Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. 15 So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.
16 Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, “Get those doves out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace.”
17 (B) The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, “My love for your house burns in me like a fire.”
18 The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, “What miracle[a] will you work to show us why you have done this?”
19 (C) “Destroy this temple,” Jesus answered, “and in three days I will build it again!”
20 The leaders replied, “It took 46 years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?”
21 But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. 22 And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2.18 miracle: See the note at 2.11.
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