¹³ I know where you live—a place where Satan sits enthroned. [Yet] you are clinging to and holding fast My name, and you did not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed (martyred) in your midst—where Satan dwells.

¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: you have some people there who are clinging to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap and a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, [to entice them] to eat food that had been sacrificed to idols and to practice lewdness [giving themselves up to sexual vice].^(A)

¹⁵ You also have some who in a similar way are clinging to the teaching of the Nicolaitans [those corrupters of the people] which thing I hate.

¹⁶ Repent [then]! Or else I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.

¹⁷ He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Spirit says to the assemblies (churches). To him who overcomes (conquers), I will give to eat of the manna that is hidden, and I will give him a white stone with a new name engraved on the stone, which no one knows or understands except he who receives it.^(B)

¹⁸ And to the angel (messenger) of the assembly (church) in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, Who has eyes that flash like a flame of fire, and Whose feet glow like bright and burnished and white-hot bronze:^(C)

¹⁹ I know your record and what you are doing, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your recent works are more numerous and greater than your first ones.

²⁰ But I have this against you: that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess [claiming to be inspired], and who is teaching and leading astray my servants and beguiling them into practicing sexual vice and eating food sacrificed to idols.^(D)

²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she has no desire to repent of her immorality [symbolic of idolatry] and refuses to do so.

²² Take note: I will throw her on a bed [^[a]of anguish], and those who commit adultery with her [her paramours] I will bring down to ^[b]pressing distress and severe affliction, unless they turn away their minds from conduct [such as] hers and repent of ^[c]their doings.

²³ And I will strike her children (her proper followers) dead [thoroughly exterminating them]. And all the assemblies (churches) shall recognize and understand that I am He Who searches minds (the thoughts, feelings, and purposes) and the [inmost] hearts, and I will give to each of you [the reward for what you have done] as your work deserves.^(E)

²⁴ But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not explored and known the depths of Satan, as they say—I tell you that I do not lay upon you any other [fresh] burden:

²⁵ Only hold fast to what you have until I come.

²⁶ And he who overcomes (is victorious) and who obeys My commands to the [very] end [doing the works that please Me], I will give him authority and power over the nations;

²⁷ And he shall rule them with a sceptre (rod) of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, and [his power over them shall be] like that which I Myself have received from My Father;^(F)

²⁸ And I will give him the Morning Star.

²⁹ He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the [Holy] Spirit says to the assemblies (churches).

7 When I would heal Israel, then Ephraim’s guilt is uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria; how they practice falsehood, and the thief enters and the troop of bandits ravage and raid without.

² But they do not consider and say to their minds and hearts that I [earnestly] remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings surround and entangle them; they are before My face.

³ They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

⁴ They are all [idolatrous] adulterers; their passion smolders like heat of an oven when the baker ceases to stir the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

⁵ On the [special] day of our king the princes made themselves and him sick with the heat of wine; [the king] stretched out his hand with scoffers and lawless men.

⁶ For they have made ready their heart, and their mind burns [with intrigue] like an oven while they lie in wait. Their anger smolders all night; in the morning it blazes forth as a flaming fire.

⁷ They are all hot as an oven and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen; there is none among them who calls to Me.

⁸ Ephraim mixes himself among the peoples [courting the favor of first one country, then another]; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹ Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not; yes, gray hairs are sprinkled here and there upon him, and he does not know it.

¹⁰ And the pride of Israel testifies against him and to his face. But they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek nor inquire of nor require Him in spite of all this.

¹¹ Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart or understanding; they call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.

¹² As they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the heavens. I will chastise them according to the announcement [or prediction made] to their congregation [in the Scriptures].^(A)

¹³ Woe to them, for they have wandered from Me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled and trespassed against Me! Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.

¹⁴ They do not cry to Me from their heart, but they wail upon their beds; they gash and distress and assemble themselves [in mourning] for grain and new wine; they rebel against Me.

¹⁵ Although I have chastened them and trained and strengthened their arms, yet they think and devise evil against Me.

¹⁶ They turn back, shift, or change, but not upwards [to the Most High]. They are like a deceitful bow; their princes shall fall by the sword for the insolence and rage of their tongue. This shall be [cause for] their derision and scorning in the land of Egypt.

8 Set the trumpet to your lips! [The enemy] comes as a [great] vulture against the house of the Lord, because they have broken My covenant and transgressed against My law.

² Then they will cry to Me, My God, we [of Israel] know You!

³ Israel has rejected the good [with loathing]; the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴ They set up kings, but not from Me [therefore without My blessing]; they have made princes or removed them [without consulting Me; therefore], I knew and recognized [them] not. With their silver and their gold they made idols for themselves, that they [the silver and the gold] may be destroyed.

⁵ Your calf [idol], O Samaria, is loathsome and I have spurned it. My wrath burns against them. How long will it be before they attain purity?

⁶ For this [calf] too is from Israel; a craftsman made it; therefore it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to shivers and go up in flames.

⁷ For they sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, strangers and aliens would eat it up.

⁸ Israel is [as if] swallowed up. Already they have become among the nations as a vessel [of cheap, coarse pottery] that is useless.

⁹ For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass taking her own way by herself; Ephraim has hired lovers.

¹⁰ Yes, though with presents they hire [allies] among the nations, now will I gather them up, and in a little while they will sorrow and begin to diminish [their gifts] because of the burden (tribute) imposed by the king of princes [the king of Assyria].

¹¹ For Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning; yes, to him altars are intended for sinning.

¹² I wrote for him the ten thousand things of My law, but they are counted as a strange thing [as something which does not concern him].

¹³ My sacrificial gifts they sacrifice [as a mere form]; yes, they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now He will [earnestly] remember their guilt and iniquity and will punish their sins. They shall return to [another] Egypt [Assyria].^(B)

¹⁴ For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces and idol temples, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities and it shall devour his palaces and fortified buildings.^(C)