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Chaos in Jerusalem
3 Now the Lord, the Almighty Lord, is about to take away from Jerusalem and Judah everything and everyone that the people depend on. He is going to take away their food and their water, 2 their heroes and their soldiers, their judges and their prophets, their fortunetellers and their statesmen, 3 their military and civilian leaders, their politicians and everyone who uses magic to control events. 4 The Lord will let the people be governed by immature boys. 5 Everyone will take advantage of everyone else. Young people will not respect their elders, and worthless people will not respect their superiors.
6 A time will come when the members of a clan will choose one of their number and say to him, “You at least have something to wear, so be our leader in this time of trouble.”
7 But he will answer, “Not me! I can't help you. I don't have any food or clothes either. Don't make me your leader!”
8 Yes, Jerusalem is doomed! Judah is collapsing! Everything they say and do is against the Lord; they openly insult God himself. 9 Their prejudices will be held against them. They sin as openly as the people of Sodom did. They are doomed, and they have brought it on themselves.
10 The righteous will be happy,[a] and things will go well for them. They will get to enjoy what they have worked for. 11 But evil people are doomed; what they have done to others will now be done to them.
12 Moneylenders oppress my people, and their creditors cheat them.
My people, your leaders are misleading you, so that you do not know which way to turn.
The Lord Judges His People
13 The Lord is ready to state his case; he is ready to judge his people.[b] 14 The Lord is bringing the elders and leaders of his people to judgment. He makes this accusation: “You have plundered vineyards, and your houses are full of what you have taken from the poor. 15 You have no right to crush my people and take advantage of the poor. I, the Sovereign Lord Almighty, have spoken.”
A Warning to the Women of Jerusalem
16 The Lord said, “Look how proud the women of Jerusalem are! They walk along with their noses in the air. They are always flirting. They take dainty little steps, and the bracelets on their ankles jingle. 17 But I will punish them—I will shave their heads and leave them bald.”
18 A day is coming when the Lord will take away from the women of Jerusalem everything they are so proud of—the ornaments they wear on their ankles, on their heads, on their necks, 19 and on their wrists. He will take away their veils 20 and their hats; the magic charms they wear on their arms and at their waists; 21 the rings they wear on their fingers and in their noses; 22 all their fine robes, gowns, cloaks, and purses; 23 their revealing garments, their linen handkerchiefs, and the scarves and long veils they wear on their heads.
24 Instead of using perfumes, they will stink; instead of fine belts, they will wear coarse ropes; instead of having beautiful hair, they will be bald; instead of fine clothes, they will be dressed in rags; their beauty will be turned to shame!
25 The men of the city, yes, even the strongest men, will be killed in war. 26 The city gates will mourn and cry, and the city itself will be like a woman sitting on the ground, stripped naked.
4 When that time comes, seven women will grab hold of one man and say, “We can feed and clothe ourselves, but please let us say you are our husband, so that we won't have to endure the shame of being unmarried.”
Jerusalem Will Be Restored
2 The time is coming when the Lord will make every plant and tree in the land grow large and beautiful. All the people of Israel who survive will take delight and pride in the crops that the land produces. 3 Everyone who is left in Jerusalem, whom God has chosen for survival, will be called holy. 4 By his power the Lord will judge and purify the nation and wash away the guilt of Jerusalem and the blood that has been shed there. 5 (A)Then over Mount Zion and over all who are gathered there, the Lord will send a cloud in the daytime and smoke and a bright flame at night. God's glory will cover and protect the whole city. 6 His glory will shade the city from the heat of the day and make it a place of safety, sheltered from the rain and storm.
The Song of the Vineyard
5 (B)Listen while I sing you this song,
a song of my friend and his vineyard:
My friend had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug the soil and cleared it of stones;
he planted the finest vines.
He built a tower to guard them,
dug a pit for treading the grapes.
He waited for the grapes to ripen,
but every grape was sour.
3 So now my friend says, “You people who live in Jerusalem and Judah, judge between my vineyard and me. 4 Is there anything I failed to do for it? Then why did it produce sour grapes and not the good grapes I expected?
5 “Here is what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge around it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild animals eat it and trample it down. 6 I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I will not trim the vines or hoe the ground; instead, I will let briers and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall on it.”
7 Israel is the vineyard of the Lord Almighty;
the people of Judah are the vines he planted.
He expected them to do what was good,
but instead they committed murder.
He expected them to do what was right,
but their victims cried out for justice.
The Evil That People Do
8 You are doomed! You buy more houses and fields to add to those you already have. Soon there will be no place for anyone else to live, and you alone will live in the land. 9 I have heard the Lord Almighty say, “All these big, fine houses will be empty ruins. 10 The grapevines growing on five acres of land will yield only five gallons of wine. Ten bushels of seed will produce only one bushel of grain.”
11 (C)You are doomed! You get up early in the morning to start drinking, and you spend long evenings getting drunk. 12 At your feasts you have harps and tambourines and flutes—and wine. But you don't understand what the Lord is doing, 13 and so you will be carried away as prisoners. Your leaders will starve to death, and the common people will die of thirst. 14 The world of the dead is hungry for them, and it opens its mouth wide. It gulps down the nobles of Jerusalem along with the noisy crowd of common people.
15 Everyone will be disgraced, and all who are proud will be humbled. 16 But the Lord Almighty shows his greatness by doing what is right, and he reveals his holiness by judging his people. 17 In the ruins of the cities lambs will eat grass and young goats will find pasture.[c]
18 You are doomed! You are unable to break free from your sins. 19 You say, “Let the Lord hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind.”
20 You are doomed! You call evil good and call good evil. You turn darkness into light and light into darkness. You make what is bitter sweet, and what is sweet you make bitter.
21 You are doomed! You think you are wise, so very clever.
22 You are doomed! Heroes of the wine bottle! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing drinks! 23 But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the innocent from getting justice. 24 So now, just as straw and dry grass shrivel and burn in the fire, your roots will rot and your blossoms will dry up and blow away, because you have rejected what the Lord Almighty, Israel's holy God, has taught us. 25 The Lord is angry with his people and has stretched out his hand to punish them. The mountains will shake, and the bodies of those who die will be left in the streets like rubbish. Yet even then the Lord's anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
26 The Lord gives a signal to call for a distant nation.[d] He whistles for them to come from the ends of the earth. And here they come, swiftly, quickly! 27 None of them grow tired; none of them stumble. They never doze or sleep. Not a belt is loose; not a sandal strap is broken. 28 Their arrows are sharp, and their bows are ready to shoot. Their horses' hoofs are as hard as flint, and their chariot wheels turn like a whirlwind. 29 The soldiers roar like lions that have killed an animal and are carrying it off where no one can take it away from them.
30 When that day comes, they will roar over Israel as loudly as the sea. Look at this country! Darkness and distress! The light is swallowed by darkness.
Paul and the False Apostles
11 I wish you would tolerate me, even when I am a bit foolish. Please do! 2 I am jealous for you, just as God is; you are like a pure virgin whom I have promised in marriage to one man only, Christ himself. 3 (A)I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ—in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake's clever lies. 4 For you gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus, not the one we preached; and you accept a spirit and a gospel completely different from the Spirit and the gospel you received from us!
5 I do not think that I am the least bit inferior to those very special so-called “apostles” of yours! 6 Perhaps I am an amateur in speaking, but certainly not in knowledge; we have made this clear to you at all times and in all conditions.
7 I did not charge you a thing when I preached the Good News of God to you; I humbled myself in order to make you important. Was that wrong of me? 8 While I was working among you, I was paid by other churches. I was robbing them, so to speak, in order to help you. 9 (B)And during the time I was with you I did not bother you for help when I needed money; the believers who came from Macedonia brought me everything I needed. As in the past, so in the future: I will never be a burden to you! 10 By Christ's truth in me, I promise that this boast of mine will not be silenced anywhere in all of Achaia. 11 Do I say this because I don't love you? God knows I love you!
12 I will go on doing what I am doing now, in order to keep those other “apostles” from having any reason for boasting and saying that they work in the same way that we do. 13 Those men are not true apostles—they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ. 14 Well, no wonder! Even Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light! 15 So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end they will get exactly what their actions deserve.
Human Wickedness[a](A)
53 (B)Fools say to themselves,
“There is no God.”
They are all corrupt,
and they have done terrible things;
there is no one who does what is right.
2 God looks down from heaven at people
to see if there are any who are wise,
any who worship him.
3 But they have all turned away;
they are all equally bad.
Not one of them does what is right,
not a single one.
4 “Don't they know?” God asks.
“Are these evildoers ignorant?
They live by robbing my people,
and they never pray to me.”
5 But then they will become terrified,
as they have never been before,
for God will scatter the bones of the enemies of his people.
God has rejected them,
and so Israel will totally defeat them.
6 How I pray that victory
will come to Israel from Zion.
How happy the people of Israel will be
when God makes them prosperous again!
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28 Never move an old property line that your ancestors established.
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29 Show me someone who does a good job, and I will show you someone who is better than most and worthy of the company of kings.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.