²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they beat you with a rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. ²⁵ For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.”^{(A) 26} The Lord of hosts will wield a whip against them, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.^{(B) 27} On that day his burden will be removed from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck.

Pronouncement about the Sabbath

²³ One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.^{(A) 24} The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” ²⁵ And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, ²⁶ how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?”^{(B) 27} Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath,^{(C) 28} so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Man with a Withered Hand

3 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand.^{(D) 2} They were watching him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.^{(E) 3} And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴ Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.^(F)

A Multitude at the Seaside

⁷ Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him;^{(G) 8} hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon.^{(H) 9} He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him, ¹⁰ for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.^{(I) 11} Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!”^{(J) 12} But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.^(K)

Proclamation against Babylon

13 The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.^(A)

Restoration of Judah

14 But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and will settle them in their own land, and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.^{(U) 2} And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations^[c] as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppressed them.^(V)

9 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit;^{(A) 2} he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.^{(B) 3} Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions of the earth.^{(C) 4} They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^{(D) 5} They were allowed to torment them for five months but not to kill them, and the agony suffered was like that caused by a scorpion when it stings someone.^{(E) 6} And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.^(F)

⁷ In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,^{(G) 8} their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;^{(H) 9} they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.^{(I) 10} They have tails like scorpions, with stingers, and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months. ¹¹ They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon,^[a] and in Greek he is called Apollyon.^[b](J)

¹² The first woe has passed. There are still two woes to come.^(K)

¹³ Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the horns^[c] of the golden altar before God,^{(L) 14} saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great River Euphrates.”^{(M) 15} So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of humankind. ¹⁶ The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number.^{(N) 17} And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire^[d] and of sulfur; the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.^{(O) 18} By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of the horses’^[e] mouths. ¹⁹ For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, with heads, and with them they inflict harm.

²⁰ The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.^{(P) 21} And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their prostitution or their thefts.