Amos 1-3
Christian Standard Bible
1 The words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders[a](A) from Tekoa(B)—what he saw regarding Israel in the days of King Uzziah(C) of Judah and Jeroboam(D) son of Jehoash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.(E)
2 He said:
The Lord roars(F) from Zion
and makes his voice heard from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn,[b](G)
and the summit of Carmel(H) withers.
Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors
3 The Lord says:
I will not relent from punishing Damascus(I)
for three crimes, even four,(J)
because they threshed Gilead with iron sledges.
4 Therefore, I will send fire against Hazael’s palace,
and it will consume Ben-hadad’s(K) citadels.
5 I will break down the gates[c](L) of Damascus.
I will cut off the ruler from the Valley of Aven,
and the one who wields the scepter from Beth-eden.
The people of Aram will be exiled to Kir.(M)
The Lord has spoken.
6 The Lord says:
I will not relent from punishing Gaza(N)
for three crimes, even four,
because they exiled a whole community,
handing them over to Edom.
7 Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Gaza,
and it will consume its citadels.
8 I will cut off the ruler from Ashdod,(O)
and the one who wields the scepter from Ashkelon.(P)
I will also turn my hand against Ekron,
and the remainder of the Philistines(Q) will perish.
The Lord God has spoken.
9 The Lord says:
I will not relent from punishing Tyre(R)
for three crimes, even four,
because they handed over
a whole community of exiles to Edom
and broke[d] a treaty of brotherhood.(S)
10 Therefore, I will send fire(T) against the walls of Tyre,
and it will consume its citadels.
11 The Lord says:
I will not relent from punishing Edom(U)
for three crimes, even four,
because he pursued his brother with the sword.(V)
He stifled his compassion,
his anger tore at him(W) continually,
and he harbored his rage incessantly.
12 Therefore, I will send fire against Teman,(X)
and it will consume the citadels of Bozrah.
13 The Lord says:
I will not relent from punishing the Ammonites(Y)
for three crimes, even four,
because they ripped open
the pregnant women of Gilead(Z)
in order to enlarge their territory.(AA)
14 Therefore, I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah,(AB)
and it will consume its citadels.
There will be shouting on the day of battle(AC)
and a violent wind on the day of the storm.(AD)
15 Their king and his princes
will go into exile together.(AE)
The Lord has spoken.
2 The Lord says:
I will not relent from punishing Moab(AF)
for three crimes, even four,
because he burned the bones
of the king of Edom to lime.(AG)
2 Therefore, I will send fire against Moab,
and it will consume the citadels of Kerioth.(AH)
Moab will die with a tumult,(AI)
with shouting and the sound of the ram’s horn.
3 I will cut off the judge(AJ) from the land
and kill all its officials(AK) with him.
The Lord has spoken.
Judgment on Judah
4 The Lord says:
I will not relent from punishing Judah(AL)
for three crimes, even four,
because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord(AM)
and have not kept his statutes.(AN)
The lies(AO) that their ancestors followed(AP)
have led them astray.
5 Therefore, I will send fire(AQ) against Judah,
and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.
Judgment on Israel
6 The Lord says:
I will not relent from punishing Israel(AR)
for three crimes, even four,
because they sell a righteous person for silver
and a needy person for a pair of sandals.(AS)
7 They trample the heads of the poor(AT)
on the dust of the ground
and obstruct the path of the needy.(AU)
A man and his father have sexual relations
with the same girl,(AV)
profaning my holy name.(AW)
8 They stretch out beside every altar(AX)
on garments taken as collateral,(AY)
and in the house of their God
they drink wine obtained through fines.(AZ)
9 Yet I destroyed the Amorite(BA) as Israel advanced;
his height(BB) was like the cedars,
and he was as sturdy as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit(BC) above and his roots beneath.
10 And I brought you from the land of Egypt(BD)
and led you forty years in the wilderness(BE)
in order to possess the land of the Amorite.(BF)
11 I raised up some of your sons as prophets(BG)
and some of your young men as Nazirites.(BH)
Is this not the case, Israelites?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
12 But you made the Nazirites drink wine
and commanded the prophets,
“Do not prophesy.”(BI)
13 Look, I am about to crush[e] you in your place(BJ)
as a wagon crushes when full of grain.
14 Escape will fail the swift,(BK)
the strong one will not maintain his strength,(BL)
and the warrior will not save his life.
15 The archer will not stand his ground,(BM)
the one who is swift of foot
will not save himself,
and the one riding a horse will not save his life.(BN)
16 Even the most courageous of the warriors
will flee naked on that day(BO)—
this is the Lord’s declaration.
God’s Reasons for Punishing Israel
3 Listen to this message that the Lord has spoken against you, Israelites, against the entire clan that I brought from the land of Egypt:(BP)
2 I have known only you(BQ)
out of all the clans of the earth;
therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.(BR)
3 Can two walk together(BS)
without agreeing to meet?
4 Does a lion roar(BT) in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion growl from its lair
unless it has captured something?
5 Does a bird land in a trap on the ground
if there is no bait for it?
Does a trap spring from the ground
when it has caught nothing?
6 If a ram’s horn(BU) is blown in a city,
aren’t people afraid?(BV)
If a disaster(BW) occurs in a city,
hasn’t the Lord done it?(BX)
7 Indeed, the Lord God does nothing
without revealing his counsel
to his servants the prophets.(BY)
8 A lion has roared;(BZ)
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;(CA)
who will not prophesy?(CB)
9 Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod(CC)
and on the citadels in the land of Egypt:
Assemble on the mountains of Samaria,(CD)
and see the great turmoil in the city
and the acts of oppression within it.(CE)
10 The people are incapable of doing right(CF)—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
those who store up violence and destruction(CG)
in their citadels.
11 Therefore, the Lord God says:
An enemy(CH) will surround the land;
he will destroy(CI) your strongholds
and plunder your citadels.(CJ)
12 The Lord says:
As the shepherd snatches two legs
or a piece of an ear
from the lion’s mouth,(CK)
so the Israelites who live in Samaria
will be rescued
with only the corner of a bed(CL)
or the[f] cushion[g] of a couch.[h](CM)
13 Listen and testify(CN) against the house of Jacob—
this is the declaration of the Lord God,
the God of Armies.
14 I will punish the altars of Bethel(CO)
on the day I punish Israel for its crimes;
the horns of the altar(CP) will be cut off
and fall to the ground.(CQ)
15 I will demolish the winter house(CR)
and the summer house;(CS)
the houses inlaid with ivory(CT) will be destroyed,
and the great houses(CU) will come to an end.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Revelation 9
Christian Standard Bible
The Fifth Trumpet
9 The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth.(A) The key for the shaft to the abyss(B) was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great[a] furnace(C) so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft.(D) 3 Then locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth,(E) and power[b] was given to them(F) like the power that scorpions have on the earth.(G) 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree,(H) but only those people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads.(I) 5 They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment them for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.(J)
7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle.(K) Something like golden crowns was on their heads; their faces were like human faces; 8 they had hair like women’s hair; their teeth were like lions’ teeth;(L) 9 they had chests like iron breastplates; the sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots with horses rushing into battle; 10 and they had tails with stingers like scorpions, so that with their tails they had the power to harm people for five months. 11 They had as their king[c] the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon,[d](M) and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.[e]
12 The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this.(N)
The Sixth Trumpet
13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet. From the four[f] horns of the golden altar(O) that is before God, I heard a voice 14 say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels(P) bound at the great river Euphrates.”(Q) 15 So the four angels who were prepared for the hour, day, month, and year(R) were released to kill a third(S) of the human race. 16 The number of mounted troops was two hundred million;[g] I heard their number. 17 This is how I saw the horses and their riders in the vision: They had breastplates that were fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur.(T) 18 A third of the human race was killed by these three plagues—by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came from their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails, which resemble snakes, have heads that inflict injury.
20 The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands(U) to stop worshiping demons(V) and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood,(W) which cannot see, hear, or walk.(X) 21 And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
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