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Second Pronouncement of Punishment
4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria,
who oppress the poor and crush the needy,
who say to their husbands, “Bring us something to drink!”
2 The Lord God has sworn by His holiness:
Indeed the days are coming upon you
when they will take you away with hooks,
the last one of you with fishhooks.
3 You will go out through breached walls,
every one straight ahead of her;
you will be exiled to Harmon,
says the Lord.
4 Come to Bethel and transgress,
to Gilgal and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning
and your tithes every three days.
5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering;
announce your voluntary offerings loudly,
for so you love to do, O children of Israel,
says the Lord God.
6 Though I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities
and lack of food in all your places,
yet you did not return to Me,
says the Lord.
7 I also withheld the rain from you,
when there were still three months to the harvest.
I would send rain on one town,
and send no rain on another town.
One field would receive rain,
but another field without rain would wither.
8 So two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water,
but they were not satisfied;
yet you did not return to Me,
says the Lord.
9 I struck you with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured your many gardens and vineyards,
your fig trees and olive trees;
yet you did not return to Me,
says the Lord.
10 Pestilence like that of Egypt
I sent against you.
By the sword I killed your young men;
your horses were taken captive.
The stench of your camps I brought up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to Me,
says the Lord.
11 I destroyed some of you,
as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a firebrand plucked out of the fire;
yet you did not return to Me,
says the Lord.
12 Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel,
and because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!
13 The One who forms the mountains
and creates the wind,
who reveals His thoughts to man,
who turns the darkness into dawn
and strides on the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of Hosts, is His name.
Third Pronouncement of Punishment
5 Hear this word which I take up as a dirge against you, O house of Israel:
2 Fallen, no more to rise
is maiden Israel;
forsaken on her land,
with no one to raise her up.
3 For thus says the Lord God:
The city that went out with a thousand
will be left with a hundred,
and the one that went out with a hundred
will be left with ten for the house of Israel.
4 Indeed, thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
Seek Me and live!
5 But do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Beersheba;
for Gilgal will surely go into captivity,
and Bethel shall be no more.
6 Seek the Lord and live,
or He will break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it will devour Bethel,
with no one to quench it.
7 You who turn justice into bitterness
and cast righteousness down to the ground!
8 The One who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns the deep darkness into dawn
and darkens the day into night,
who summons the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the surface of the earth—
the Lord is His name,
9 the One who flashes destruction against the strong,
so that destruction comes against the fortress.
10 They hate the one who prosecutes at the gate,
and abhor the one who speaks with integrity.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and take from him a levy of wheat,
though you have built houses of hewn stone,
you will not dwell in them;
though you have planted pleasant vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know your transgressions are many
and your sins are grievous,
you who oppress the just,
who take a bribe and subvert the needy at the gate.
13 Therefore the prudent are silent at such a time,
for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil,
so that you may live;
then the Lord, the God of Hosts, will truly be with you,
as you claim.
15 Hate evil and love good,
and establish justice at the gate.
It may then be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Lord:
Wailing will be in all the squares,
and in all the streets they will say, “Alas! Alas!”
They shall call the farmer to mourning,
and to wailing those skilled in lamentation.
17 In all vineyards there shall be wailing,
for I will pass through you,
says the Lord.
The Day of the Lord Is Darkness
18 Woe to you that desire
the day of the Lord!
Why do you want the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, and not light,
19 as if someone fled away from a lion,
but a bear attacked him,
or got into the house
and rested his hand on the wall,
but a snake bit him.
20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light?
Will it not be deep darkness, with no brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I am not pleased by your solemn assemblies.
22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings or your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
nor will I regard the offerings
of your fattened animals.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll down like water,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings
those forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
26 But you will carry away Sukuth your king
and Kaiwan your star-images,
your gods that you made for yourselves,
27 as I drive you away into exile beyond Damascus,
says the Lord, whose name is the God of Hosts.
Woe to the Complacent
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those confident on the mount of Samaria,
nobles of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel comes!
2 Cross over to Kalneh and see,
and go from there to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines—
are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory?
3 You who brush off the day of disaster,
but bring on a session of lawlessness;
4 who lie upon beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches,
eating lambs from the flock and calves from the stall;
5 who sing to the sound of the harp
and invent musical instruments for themselves like David;
6 who drink from bowls of wine
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the destruction of Joseph.
7 Therefore now they will go at the head of the captives into exile,
and the revelry of those who are lounging will vanish.
8 The Lord God hath sworn by Himself, an oracle of the Lord the God of Hosts:
I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his palaces,
so I will deliver up the city
with all that is in it.
9 If there remain ten people in one house, they will die. 10 And when a relative or one who prepares the bodies picks them up to carry them out of the house, and says to someone in the recesses of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” and he says, “No,” he will say, “Hush!”—not to pronounce the name of the Lord.
11 But indeed the Lord gives a command,
and He will shatter the great house to bits,
and the small house to pieces.
12 Can horses run on a rocky crag?
Can one plow the sea with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison,
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
13 you who rejoice in Lo Debar, who say,
“Is it not by our own strength that we captured Karnaim?”
14 Watch: I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,
says the Lord, the God of Hosts,
and they will oppress you
from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi Arabah.
The Message to Thyatira
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
“The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like fine brass, says these things: 19 I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and that your last works are more than the first.
20 “But I have a few things against you: You permit that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, but she did not repent. 22 Look! I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23 I will put her children to death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the hearts and minds. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
24 “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this teaching, who have not known what some call the ‘depths of Satan,’ I will put on you no other burden. 25 But hold firmly what you have until I come.
26 “To him who overcomes and keeps My works to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
27 He ‘shall rule them with a rod of iron;
like the vessels of a potter they shall be broken in pieces’[a]—
even as I myself have received authority from My Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Message to Sardis
3 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
“He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars says these things: I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain but are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfected before God. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
4 “You have a few names even in Sardis who have not soiled their garments. They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments. I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Psalm 130
A Song of Ascents.
1 From the depths I call on You, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice;
let Your ears be attentive
to the sound of my supplications.
3 If you, O Lord, should keep track of iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand?
4 For there is forgiveness with You,
that You may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, with bated breath I wait;
I long for His Word!
6 My soul waits for the Lord,
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 Let Israel wait for the Lord!
For mercy is found with the Lord;
with Him is great redemption.
8 He shall redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
21 He who delicately brings up his servant from a child
will have him as a son in the end.
22 An angry man stirs up strife,
and a furious man abounds in transgression.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.