Amos 4:6-13

English Standard Version

Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord

⁶“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and ^(A)lack of bread in all your places,
^(B)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁷“I also ^(C)withheld the rain from you
    when there were yet three months to the harvest;
^(D)I would send rain on one city,
    and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
    and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
⁸so two or three cities ^(E)would wander to another city
    to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
^(F)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁹^(G)“I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees ^(H)the locust devoured;
^(I)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹⁰“I sent among you a pestilence ^(J)after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and ^(K)carried away your horses,^[a]
and ^(L)I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
^(M)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹¹“I overthrew some of you,
^(N)as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were ^(O)as a brand^[b] plucked out of the burning;
^(P)yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹²“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

¹³For behold, ^(Q)he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
    and ^(R)declares to man what is his thought,
^(S)who makes the morning darkness,
    and ^(T)treads on the heights of the earth—
    ^(U)the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Amos 4:10 Hebrew along with the captivity of your horses
Amos 4:11 That is, a burning stick

Psalm 85:1-2

English Standard Version

Revive Us Again

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of ^(A)the Sons of Korah.

85 Lord, you were ^(B)favorable to your land;
you ^(C)restored the fortunes of Jacob.
²You ^(D)forgave the iniquity of your people;
you ^(E)covered all their sin. Selah

Read full chapter

Psalm 85:8-13

English Standard Version

⁸^(A)Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
    for he will ^(B)speak peace to his people, to his ^(C)saints;
    but let them not ^(D)turn back to ^(E)folly.
⁹Surely his ^(F)salvation is near to those who fear him,
    that ^(G)glory may dwell in our land.

¹⁰^(H)Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
    ^(I)righteousness and peace kiss each other.
¹¹Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
    and righteousness looks down from the sky.
¹²Yes, ^(J)the Lord will give what is good,
    and our land ^(K)will yield its increase.
¹³^(L)Righteousness will go before him
    and make his footsteps a way.

Read full chapter

2 Peter 3:11-18

English Standard Version

¹¹Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, ^(A)what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ¹²^(B)waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and ^(C)the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! ¹³But according to his promise we are waiting for ^(D)new heavens and a new earth ^(E)in which righteousness dwells.

Final Words

¹⁴^(F)Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him ^(G)without spot or ^(H)blemish, and ^(I)at peace. ¹⁵And count ^(J)the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as ^(K)our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you ^(L)according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. ^(M)There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, ^(N)as they do the other Scriptures. ¹⁷You therefore, beloved, ^(O)knowing this beforehand, ^(P)take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. ¹⁸But ^(Q)grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. ^(R)To him be the glory both now and to the day of ^(S)eternity. Amen.

Read full chapter

Matthew 21:33-46

English Standard Version

The Parable of the Tenants

³³^(A)“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted ^(B)a vineyard ^(C)and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and ^(D)leased it to tenants, and ^(E)went into another country. ³⁴When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants^[a] to the tenants ^(F)to get his fruit. ³⁵^(G)And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and ^(H)stoned another. ³⁶^(I)Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ^(J)‘This is the heir. Come, ^(K)let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ³⁹And they took him and ^(L)threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰^(M)When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹They said to him, ^(N)“He will put those wretches to a miserable death and ^(O)let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, ^(P)“Have you never read in the Scriptures:

^(Q)“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;^[b]
this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God ^(R)will be taken away from you and given to a people ^(S)producing its fruits. ⁴⁴And ^(T)the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and ^(U)when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”^[c]

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶And ^(V)although they were seeking to arrest him, ^(W)they feared the crowds, because they held him to be ^(X)a prophet.

Read full chapter