3 And to the angel (messenger) of the assembly (church) in Sardis write: These are the words of Him Who has the seven Spirits of God [^[a]the sevenfold Holy Spirit] and the seven stars: I know your record and what you are doing; you are supposed to be alive, but [in reality] you are dead.

² Rouse yourselves and keep awake, and strengthen and invigorate what remains and is on the point of dying; for I have not found a thing that you have done [any work of yours] meeting the requirements of My God or perfect in His sight.

³ So call to mind the lessons you received and heard; continually lay them to heart and obey them, and repent. In case you will not rouse yourselves and keep awake and watch, I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not know or suspect at what hour I will come.

⁴ Yet you still have a few [persons’] names in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes, and they shall walk with Me in white, because they are worthy and deserving.

⁵ Thus shall he who conquers (is victorious) be clad in white garments, and I will not erase or blot out his name from the Book of Life; I will acknowledge him [as Mine] and I will confess his name openly before My Father and before His angels.^(A)

⁶ He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the [Holy] Spirit says to the assemblies (churches).

⁷ And to the angel (messenger) of the assembly (church) in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the Holy One, the True One, He Who has the key of David, Who opens and no one shall shut, Who shuts and no one shall open:^(B)

⁸ I know your [record of] works and what you are doing. See! I have set before you a door wide open which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My Word and guarded My message and have not renounced or denied My name.

⁹ Take note! I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and learn and acknowledge that I have loved you.^(C)

¹⁰ Because you have guarded and kept My word of patient endurance [have held fast the ^[b]lesson of My patience with the ^[c]expectant endurance that I give you], I also will keep you [safe] from the hour of trial (testing) which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth.

9 Rejoice not, O Israel, with exultation as do the peoples, for you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. You have loved [a harlot’s] hire upon every threshing floor [ascribing the harvest to the Baals instead of to God].

² The threshing floor and the winevat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them.

³ They shall not remain in the Lord’s land, but Ephraim shall return to [another] Egypt and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.^(A)

⁴ They shall not pour out wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing to Him. Their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourners; all who eat of them shall be defiled, for their bread shall be [only] for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of the Lord [to be offered first to Him].

⁵ What will you do on the day of the appointed solemn assembly or festival and on the day of the feast of the Lord [when you are in exile]?

⁶ For behold, they are gone away from devastation and destruction; Egypt shall gather them in; Memphis shall bury them. Their precious things of silver shall be in the possession of nettles; thorns shall be [growing] in their tents.

⁷ The days of visitation and punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is [considered] a crazed fool and the man who is inspired is [treated as if] mad or a fanatic, because of the abundance of your iniquity and because the enmity, hostility, and persecution are great.^(B)

⁸ Ephraim was [intended to be] a watchman with my God [and a prophet to the surrounding nations]; but he, that prophet, has become a fowler’s snare in all his ways. There is enmity, hostility, and persecution in the house of his God.

⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. The Lord will [earnestly] remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins.^(C)

¹⁰ I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe fruit on the fig tree in its first season, but they went to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to that shameful thing [Baal], and they became detestable and loathsome like that which they loved.

¹¹ As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird; there shall be no birth, no being with child, and [because of their impurity] no becoming pregnant.

¹² Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them so that not a man shall be left; yes, woe also to them when I look away and depart from them!

¹³ Ephraim, as I have seen with Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place, but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slayer.

¹⁴ Give them [their due], O Lord! [But] what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵ All their wickedness [says the Lord] is focused in Gilgal, for there I hated them; for the wickedness of their [idolatrous] doings I will drive them out of My house [the Holy Land]; I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels.^(D)

¹⁶ Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Yes, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even their beloved children.

¹⁷ My God will cast them away because they did not listen to and obey Him, and they shall be wanderers and fugitives among the nations.

10 Israel is a luxuriant vine that puts forth its [material] fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars [to idols]; according to the goodness and prosperity of their land they have made goodly pillars or obelisks [to false gods].

² Their heart is divided and deceitful; now shall they be found guilty and suffer punishment. The Lord will smite and break down [the horns of] their altars; He will destroy their [idolatrous] pillars.

³ Surely now they shall say, We have no [actual] king because we fear not the Lord; and as for the king, what can he do for us?

⁴ They have spoken mere words of the lips, swearing falsely in making covenants; therefore judgment springs up like hemlock [or other poisonous plants] in the furrows of the field.

⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calf [idol] of Beth-aven [the house of idolatry, contemptuously meaning Bethel], for its people shall mourn over it and its [idolatrous] priests who rejoiced over it [shall tremble] for the glory of [their calf god], because it is departed from it.

⁶ [The golden calf] shall also be carried into Assyria as a tribute-gift to the fighting King Jareb; Ephraim shall be put to shame and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel [to set up calf worship and detach Israel from Judah].

⁷ As for Samaria, her king and her whole monarchy are cut off like twigs or foam upon the water.

⁸ The high places also of Aven [once Beth(el), house of God, now (Beth-)aven, house of idolatry], the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed; the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their [idol] altars, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us! And to the hills, Fall on us!^(E)

⁹ O Israel, you have [willfully] sinned from the days of Gibeah [when you all but wiped out the tribe of Benjamin]! There [Israel] stood [then, only] that the battle against the sons of unrighteousness might not overtake and turn against them at Gibeah [but now the kingdom of the ten tribes and the name of Ephraim shall be utterly blotted out].^(F)

¹⁰ When I please I will chastise them, and hostile peoples shall be gathered against them when I shall bind and yoke them for their two transgressions [revolt from the Lord their God and the worship of idols].^(G)

¹¹ Ephraim indeed is a heifer broken in and loving to tread out the grain, but I have [heretofore] spared the beauty of her fair neck. I will now set a rider upon Ephraim and make him to draw; Judah shall plow and Jacob shall break his clods.

¹² Sow for yourselves according to righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God); reap according to mercy and loving-kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require His favor, till He comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you.^(H)

¹³ You have plowed and plotted wickedness, you have reaped the [willful] injustice [of oppressors], you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your [own] way and your chariots, in the multitude of your mighty men,

¹⁴ Therefore shall a tumult arise against your people and all your fortresses shall be wasted and destroyed, as Shalmaneser wasted and destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; the mother was dashed in pieces with her children.^(I)

¹⁵ So shall it be done to you at [idolatrous] Bethel because of your great wickedness; at daybreak shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off.