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The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem
5 [a] Now muster your troops, O daughter[b] of troops;
siege is laid against us;
with a rod (A)they strike the judge of Israel
on the cheek.
2 [c] (B)But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of (C)Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be (D)ruler in Israel,
(E)whose coming forth is (F)from of old,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up (G)until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then (H)the rest of his brothers shall return
to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand (I)and shepherd his flock (J)in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now (K)he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be (L)their peace.
(M)When the Assyrian comes into our land
and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven (N)shepherds
and eight princes of men;
6 they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
and the land of (O)Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
(P)when he comes into our land
and treads within our border.
A Remnant Shall Be Delivered
7 Then (Q)the remnant of Jacob shall be
in the midst of many peoples
like dew from the Lord,
like showers on the grass,
which delay not for a man
nor wait for the children of man.
8 And (R)the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,
in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
(S)which, when it goes through, treads down
and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.
9 Your hand shall (T)be lifted up over your adversaries,
and all your enemies shall be cut off.
10 And (U)in that day, declares the Lord,
(V)I will cut off your horses from among you
and will destroy your chariots;
11 (W)and I will cut off the cities of your land
and throw down all your strongholds;
12 and I will cut off (X)sorceries from your hand,
and (Y)you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;
13 and (Z)I will cut off your carved images
and (AA)your pillars from among you,
(AB)and you shall bow down no more
to the work of your hands;
14 and I will root out your (AC)Asherah images from among you
(AD)and destroy your cities.
15 And in anger and wrath (AE)I will execute vengeance
on the nations that did not obey.
The Indictment of the Lord
6 (AF)Hear what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
2 (AG)Hear, you mountains, (AH)the indictment of the Lord,
and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against his people,
and he will contend with Israel.
3 “O my people, (AI)what have I done to you?
(AJ)How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For (AK)I brought you up from the land of Egypt
and (AL)redeemed you from the house of slavery,
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and (AM)Miriam.
5 O my people, remember (AN)what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from (AO)Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know (AP)the righteous acts of the Lord.”
What Does the Lord Require?
6 (AQ)“With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before (AR)God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 (AS)Will the Lord be pleased with[d] thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
(AT)Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and (AU)what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,[e]
and to (AV)walk humbly with your God?
Destruction of the Wicked
9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city—
and it is sound wisdom to fear (AW)your name:
“Hear of (AX)the rod and of him who appointed it![f]
10 Can I forget any longer the treasures[g] of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and the scant measure that is accursed?
11 Shall I acquit the man (AY)with wicked scales
and with a bag of deceitful weights?
12 Your[h] rich men are (AZ)full of violence;
your inhabitants (BA)speak lies,
and (BB)their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
(BC)making you desolate because of your sins.
14 (BD)You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
15 (BE)You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
16 For you have kept the statutes of (BF)Omri,[i]
and all the works of the house of (BG)Ahab;
and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you (BH)a desolation, and your[j] inhabitants (BI)a hissing;
so you shall bear (BJ)the scorn of my people.”
Wait for the God of Salvation
7 Woe is me! For I have become
(BK)as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
no (BL)first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
2 (BM)The godly has perished from the earth,
and (BN)there is no one upright among mankind;
(BO)they all lie in wait for blood,
and (BP)each hunts the other with a net.
3 (BQ)Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
(BR)the prince and (BS)the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.
4 The best of them is (BT)like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of (BU)your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
(BV)now their confusion is at hand.
5 (BW)Put no trust in a neighbor;
have no confidence in a friend;
guard (BX)the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;[k]
6 for (BY)the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
(BZ)a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
(CA)I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.
8 (CB)Rejoice not over me, O (CC)my enemy;
(CD)when I fall, I shall rise;
(CE)when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.
9 (CF)I will bear the indignation of the Lord
because I have sinned against him,
until (CG)he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
(CH)He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication.
10 Then (CI)my enemy will see,
and shame will cover her who (CJ)said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
(CK)My eyes will look upon her;
now she will be trampled down
(CL)like the mire of the streets.
11 (CM)A day for the building of your walls!
In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
12 In that day they[l] will come to you,
(CN)from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to (CO)the River,[m]
(CP)from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 But (CQ)the earth will be desolate
because of its inhabitants,
for the fruit of their deeds.
14 (CR)Shepherd your people (CS)with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
(CT)in the midst of (CU)a garden land;[n]
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
15 (CV)As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show them[o] marvelous things.
16 (CW)The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
(CX)they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf;
17 (CY)they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
like the crawling things of the earth;
(CZ)they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
(DA)they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
and they shall be in fear of you.
God's Steadfast Love and Compassion
18 (DB)Who is a God like you, (DC)pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
(DD)for the remnant of his inheritance?
(DE)He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will (DF)again have compassion on us;
(DG)he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
(DH)You will cast all our[p] sins
into the depths of the sea.
20 (DI)You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
(DJ)as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.
The 144,000 of Israel Sealed
7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back (A)the four winds of the earth, (B)that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending (C)from the rising of the sun, with (D)the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3 saying, (E)“Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God (F)on their foreheads.” 4 And (G)I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
A Great Multitude from Every Nation
9 After this I looked, and behold, (H)a great multitude that no one could number, (I)from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, (J)clothed in white robes, with (K)palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, (L)“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and (M)the four living creatures, and they (N)fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 (O)saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, (P)clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of (Q)the great tribulation. (R)They have washed their robes and (S)made them white (T)in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and (U)serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne (V)will shelter them with his presence.
16 (W)They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
(X)the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne (Y)will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of (Z)living water,
and (AA)God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Your Name, O Lord, Endures Forever
135 (A)Praise the Lord!
Praise the name of the Lord,
give praise, O (B)servants of the Lord,
2 who (C)stand in the house of the Lord,
in (D)the courts of the house of our God!
3 Praise the Lord, for (E)the Lord is good;
sing to his name, (F)for it is pleasant![a]
4 For the Lord has (G)chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel as his (H)own possession.
5 For I know that (I)the Lord is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
6 (J)Whatever the Lord pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps.
7 (K)He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who (L)makes lightnings for the rain
and brings forth the wind from his (M)storehouses.
8 He it was who (N)struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
both of man and of beast;
9 who in your midst, O Egypt,
sent (O)signs and wonders
against Pharaoh and all his servants;
10 (P)who struck down many nations
and killed mighty kings,
11 (Q)Sihon, king of the Amorites,
and (R)Og, king of Bashan,
and (S)all the kingdoms of Canaan,
12 and (T)gave their land as a heritage,
a heritage to his people Israel.
13 (U)Your name, O Lord, endures forever,
(V)your renown,[b] O Lord, throughout all ages.
14 (W)For the Lord will vindicate his people
and (X)have compassion on his servants.
15 (Y)The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
16 They have mouths, but do not speak;
they have eyes, but do not see;
17 they have ears, but do not hear,
nor is there any breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make them become like them,
so do all who trust in them.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.