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4 Listen to this, you cows of Bashan,
who are on the mountain of Samaria,
you women who are oppressing the poor,
who are crushing the needy,
who say to your husbands, “Bring us more drinks!”
2 The Lord God swears by his holiness:
The days are surely coming against you,
when they will drag you away with hooks,
every last one of you with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through the broken-down walls.
Each woman will go straight ahead,
and you will be thrown out[a] toward Harmon,[b]
declares the Lord.
4 Go to Bethel and rebel.
Rebel even more at Gilgal.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every third day.
5 Burn some leavened bread as a thank offering,
and proclaim voluntary offerings—announce them!
For you love to do this, you people of Israel,
says the Lord God.
Warnings Produce No Repentance
6 I am the one who gave to you clean teeth[c] in all of your cities,
and lack of food in all your places,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
7 I am the one who withheld the rain from you
while there were still three months before the harvest.
I would send rain on one city,
but on another city I would not send rain.
One plot of ground would receive rain,
but another plot, on which it did not rain, would dry up.
8 Whenever people from two or three cities staggered to another city to get water to drink,
they would not have enough,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
9 I struck you with blight and mildew.
Your many gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees,
and your olive trees were devoured by locusts,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
10 I sent plagues against you like the plagues in Egypt.
I killed your best soldiers with the sword,
together with your captured horses.
I made the stench of your camp rise up into your nostrils,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
11 I overthrew some of you,
just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you became like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
but you did not return to me,
declares the Lord.
12 Therefore, this is what I will do to you, Israel.
Yes, this is what I will do to you:
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
13 Indeed, he who forms mountains and who creates wind,
who declares his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn into darkness,
and who treads down the high places of the earth,
the Lord, the God of Armies, is his name.
Mourning for Fallen Israel
5 Listen to this word that I am raising against you as a lament,[d] O house of Israel:
2 Virgin Israel has fallen, and she will not rise again.
She is abandoned on her own soil.
There is no one to lift her up.
3 For this is what the Lord God says:
A city that marches out with a thousand will have a hundred left.
A city that marches out with a hundred will have ten left for the house of Israel.
Seek the Lord and Live!
4 Listen, this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live!
5 But do not seek Bethel.
Do not go to Gilgal.
Do not travel to Beersheba,
because Gilgal surely will go into exile,
and Bethel will become nothing.
6 Seek the Lord and live,
or he will rush upon the house of Joseph like fire.
The fire will consume, and no one will extinguish it for Bethel.
7 There are some who turn justice into wormwood,[e]
who throw righteousness to the ground.
8 There is one who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns the shadow of death into morning,
who darkens day into night,
who summons the waters of the seas,
who pours them out upon the face of the earth—
the Lord is his name.
9 He causes destruction to flash against a stronghold,
and destruction comes upon a fortress.
10 There are those who hate an arbitrator[f] in the city gate.[g]
They despise anyone who speaks honestly.
11 That is why you trample on the poor,
and you collect taxes on their grain.
You have built houses of cut stones,
but you will not live in them.
You have planted choice vineyards,
but you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know that your rebellious deeds are many,
and your sins are numerous,
you who are enemies of a righteous man,
you who take bribes.
They thrust away needy people in the city gate.
13 That is why a prudent man will be silent in that time,
because it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, so that you may live,
and then it will be like this for you:
The Lord, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you claim.
15 Hate evil and love good.
Establish justice in the city gate.
Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore, this is what the Lord says,
the God of Armies, who is the Lord:
In the city squares there will be grief,
and in the streets they will say, “Woe, woe!”
They will summon the farmer to mourn
and the professional mourners to sing laments.
17 In all the vineyards there will be grief,
because I will pass through your midst, says the Lord.
The Day of the Lord Brings Darkness
18 Woe to those who long for the Day of the Lord!
What good will the Day of the Lord be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.
19 It will be as if a man flees from a lion,
but a bear meets him,
or he enters a house and rests his hand on a wall,
but a snake bites him.
20 Will not the Day of the Lord be darkness and not light,
gloom without a trace of brightness?
The Lord Hates Faithless Worship
21 I hate, I reject, your festivals!
I do not delight in the aroma of the sacrifices at your sacred convocations.
22 Even if you offer up to me your whole burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
I will not pay any attention to your fellowship offerings of fattened calves.
23 Get the noise of your songs away from me!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll like the waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 Did you bring me sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?
26 You lifted up images of Sakkuth, your king,
and of Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves.[h]
27 So I will exile you beyond Damascus,
says the Lord, whose name is the God of Armies.
Judgment Against Complacency
6 Woe to[i] you who are complacent in Zion,
you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you distinguished people of the leading nation,
to whom the house of Israel comes.
2 Travel to Kalneh and look.
Go from there to Hamath Rabbah,
and go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than those kingdoms?
Are their territories greater than your territory?[j]
3 You who are trying to put off the evil day,
you bring near the session for violence!
4 Those who lie on ivory beds,
sprawling upon their couches,
eating lambs from the flock
and calves straight from the stall,
5 improvising tunes on the lyre,
composing music for themselves on musical instruments like David,
6 drinking large bowls of wine—
they slather[k] themselves with the most expensive perfumed oils,
but they do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7 That is why they will go into exile as the first of the exiles.
Those who sprawl out at their feasts for the dead will depart.
Certain Destruction for Proud Israel
8 The Lord God swears by himself,
declares the Lord, the God of Armies:
I detest the pride of Jacob,
and I hate his citadels,
so I will hand over the city and everything in it.
9 If ten men happen to survive in one house, they will die. 10 When a relative who burns the bodies[l] comes to take away the bones from the house, he will say to whoever remains in the recesses of the house, “Is there anyone else still with you?” And they will say, “No one.” And he will say, “Silence! For you must not invoke the name of the Lord!”[m]
11 Look, the Lord is indeed giving a command, and he will smash the largest house into fragments and the smallest house into splinters.
12 Do horses run on a rocky cliff?
Does anyone plow the sea with an ox?[n]
Yet you turn justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.
13 You are rejoicing over Lo Debar.
You are saying, “Was it not by our strength that we captured Karnaim for ourselves?”
14 Indeed, I am about to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord, the God of Armies.
They will oppress you from Lebo Hamath to the Canyon of the Arabah.[o]
Letter to the Church in Thyatira
18 To the messenger of the church in Thyatira write:
The Son of God, whose eyes are like fiery flames and whose feet are like polished bronze, says this:
19 I know your works and love and faith and service, as well as your patient endurance, and that you are doing more now than you did at first.
20 But I have this against you: You allow that woman Jezebel, the one who calls herself a prophetess, to deceive my servants and to teach them to commit sexual immorality and eat things offered to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Look, I am going to throw her onto a bed and throw those who commit adultery with her into great suffering, if they do not repent of her[a] works. 23 And I will put her children to death. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches hearts and minds, and that I will give to each of you according to your works.
24 To the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to this teaching, who do not know Satan’s “deep things,” as they call them, I say that I will not lay any other burden on you. 25 Only hold fast to what you have until I come.
26 To the one who is victorious and continues to do my works until the end, I will give him authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with an iron staff and shatter them like clay pots, 28 just as I myself have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star.
29 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Letter to the Church in Sardis
3 To the messenger of the church in Sardis write:
The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this:
I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what is left, which is about to die, for I have found that your works are not complete in the sight of my God. 3 Therefore remember what you received and heard. Hold on to it and repent! If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come upon you.
4 Yet you have a few names in Sardis, people who have not defiled their clothes. They will walk with me in white clothing, for they are worthy.
5 The one who is victorious in this way[b] will be clothed in white clothing. I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
6 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Psalm 130
Out of the Depths
Heading
A song of the ascents.
Out of the Depths
1 Out of the depths I have called to you, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to the sound of my cry for mercy.
3 If you, Lord,[a] kept a record of guilt,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is pardon,
so you are feared.
5 I wait for the Lord. My soul waits,
and in his word I have put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 Israel, wait confidently for the Lord,
because with the Lord there is mercy.
With him there is abundant redemption.
8 So he himself will redeem Israel from all its guilt.
21 If someone pampers his servant from the time he is young,
later on he will have grief.
22 A hothead stirs up a fight,
and a quick-tempered person commits many sins.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.