Zephaniah 1-2
Christian Standard Bible
1 The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah,(A) in the days of Josiah(B) son of Amon,(C) king of Judah.
The Great Day of the Lord
2 I will completely sweep away everything
from the face of the earth(D)—
this is the Lord’s declaration.
3 I will sweep away people and animals;(E)
I will sweep away the birds of the sky
and the fish of the sea,
and the ruins[a] along with the wicked.(F)
I will cut off mankind
from the face of the earth.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
4 I will stretch out my hand(G) against Judah
and against all the residents of Jerusalem.
I will cut off every vestige of Baal(H)
from this place,
the names of the pagan priests(I)
along with the priests;
5 those who bow in worship on the rooftops(J)
to the stars in the sky;
those who bow and pledge loyalty to the Lord(K)
but also pledge loyalty to Milcom;[b](L)
6 and those who turn back from following the Lord,
who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.
7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord God,(M)
for the day of the Lord is near.(N)
Indeed, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice;(O)
he has consecrated his guests.(P)
8 On the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
I will punish the officials, the king’s sons,
and all who are dressed in foreign clothing.
9 On that day(Q) I will punish
all who skip over the threshold,[c](R)
who fill their master’s house
with violence and deceit.
10 On that day—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
there will be an outcry from the Fish Gate,(S)
a wailing from the Second District,(T)
and a loud crashing from the hills.
11 Wail, you residents of the Hollow,[d]
for all the merchants[e] will be silenced;
all those loaded with silver will be cut off.
12 And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps
and punish those who settle down comfortably,[f](U)
who say to themselves:
The Lord will do nothing—good or bad.(V)
13 Their wealth will become plunder
and their houses a ruin.
They will build houses but never live in them,
plant vineyards but never drink their wine.(W)
14 The great day of the Lord is near,(X)
near and rapidly approaching.
Listen, the day of the Lord—
then the warrior’s cry is bitter.
15 That day is a day of wrath,
a day of trouble and distress,
a day of destruction and desolation,
a day of darkness(Y) and gloom,
a day of clouds and total darkness,(Z)
16 a day of ram’s horn and battle cry
against the fortified cities,
and against the high corner towers.
17 I will bring distress on mankind,
and they will walk like the blind(AA)
because they have sinned against the Lord.
Their blood will be poured out like dust
and their flesh like dung.
18 Their silver and their gold
will be unable to rescue them
on the day of the Lord’s wrath.(AB)
The whole earth will be consumed
by the fire of his jealousy,(AC)
for he will make a complete,
yes, a horrifying end
of all the inhabitants of the earth.
A Call to Repentance
2 Gather yourselves together;
gather together, undesirable[g] nation,
2 before the decree(AD) takes effect
and the day passes like chaff,
before the burning of the Lord’s anger(AE) overtakes you,
before the day of the Lord’s anger overtakes you.(AF)
3 Seek the Lord,(AG) all you humble(AH) of the earth,
who carry out what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
perhaps you will be concealed(AI)
on the day of the Lord’s anger.
Judgment against the Nations
4 For Gaza will be abandoned,
and Ashkelon will become a ruin.
Ashdod will be driven out at noon,
and Ekron will be uprooted.(AJ)
5 Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast,
nation of the Cherethites
The word of the Lord is against you,(AL)
Canaan, land of the Philistines:
I will destroy you until there is no one left.(AM)
6 The seacoast will become pasturelands
with caves for shepherds and pens for sheep.
7 The coastland will belong
to the remnant of the house of Judah;
they will find pasture there.
They will lie down in the evening
among the houses of Ashkelon,
for the Lord their God will return to them
and restore their fortunes.(AN)
8 I have heard the taunting(AO) of Moab
and the insults of the Ammonites,(AP)
who have taunted my people
and threatened their territory.
9 Therefore, as I live—
this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel—
Moab will be like Sodom(AQ)
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah:(AR)
a place overgrown with weeds,
a salt pit, and a perpetual wasteland.
The remnant of my people will plunder them;
the remainder of my nation will dispossess them.
10 This is what they get for their pride,
because they have taunted and acted arrogantly(AS)
against the people of the Lord of Armies.
11 The Lord will be terrifying to them
when he starves all the gods of the earth.
Then all the distant coasts and islands of the nations
will bow in worship to him,
each in its own place.
12 You Cushites will also be slain by my sword.(AT)
13 He will also stretch out his hand against the north
and destroy Assyria;
he will make Nineveh a desolate ruin,(AU)
dry as the desert.
14 Herds will lie down in the middle of it,
every kind of wild animal.[i]
Both eagle owls[j] and herons[k]
will roost in the capitals of its pillars.
Their calls will sound[l] from the window,
but devastation[m] will be on the threshold,
for he will expose the cedar work.[n]
15 This is the jubilant(AV) city
that lives in security,
that says to herself:
I exist, and there is no one else.
What a desolation she has become,
a place for wild animals to lie down!
Everyone who passes by her
scoffs[o] and shakes his fist.
Footnotes
- 1:3 Perhaps objects connected with idolatry
- 1:5 Some LXX mss, Syr, Vg; MT, other LXX mss read their king
- 1:9 Hb obscure
- 1:11 Or the market district
- 1:11 Or Canaanites
- 1:12 Lit who thicken on their dregs
- 2:1 Or shameless
- 2:5 = Sea Peoples
- 2:14 Lit every wild animal of a nation
- 2:14 Or the pelicans
- 2:14 Or the hedgehogs
- 2:14 Lit sing
- 2:14 LXX, Vg read ravens
- 2:14 Hb obscure
- 2:15 Or hisses
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.
Psalm 144:12-15
Christian Standard Bible
12 Then our sons will be like plants
nurtured in their youth,
our daughters, like corner pillars
that are carved in the palace style.(A)
13 Our storehouses will be full,
supplying all kinds of produce;(B)
our flocks will increase by thousands
and tens of thousands in our open fields.(C)
14 Our cattle will be well fed.[a]
There will be no breach in the walls,
no going into captivity,[b]
and no cry of lament in our public squares.(D)
15 Happy are the people with such blessings.
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.(E)
Proverbs 31:3-4
Christian Standard Bible
3 Don’t spend your energy(A) on women
or your efforts on those who destroy kings.(B)
4 It is not for kings, Lemuel,
it is not for kings(C) to drink wine(D)
or for rulers to desire beer.
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