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Prophecies against Damascus
23 About Damascus:(A)
Hamath and Arpad are put to shame,(B)
for they have heard a bad report and are agitated;
in the sea there is anxiety that cannot be calmed.
24 Damascus has become weak;
she has turned to run;
panic has gripped her.
Distress and labor pains have seized her
like a woman in labor.
25 How can the city of praise not be abandoned,(C)
the town that brings Me joy?
26 Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the declaration of
the Lord of Hosts.(D)
27 I will set fire to the wall of Damascus;
it will consume Ben-hadad’s citadels.(E)
Prophecies against Kedar and Hazor
28 About Kedar(F) and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar,(G) Babylon’s king, defeated, this is what the Lord says:
Rise up, go against Kedar,
and destroy the people of the east!
29 They will take their tents and their flocks
along with their tent curtains and all their equipment.
They will take their camels for themselves.
They will call out to them:
Terror is on every side!(H)
30 Run! Escape quickly! Lie low,
residents of Hazor—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
has drawn up a plan against you;
he has devised a strategy against you.
31 Rise up, go up against a nation at ease,
one living in security.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
They have no doors, not even a gate bar;
they live alone.(I)
32 Their camels will become plunder,
and their massive herds of cattle will become spoil.(J)
I will scatter them to the wind in every direction,
those who shave their temples;
I will bring calamity on them across all their borders.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
33 Hazor will become a jackals’ den,(K)
a desolation forever.
No one will live there;
no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident.(L)
Prophecies against Elam
34 This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet about Elam[a] at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.(M) 35 This is what the Lord of Hosts says:
I am about to shatter Elam’s bow,(N)
the source[b] of their might.
36 I will bring the four winds against Elam
from the four corners of the heavens,
and I will scatter them to all these winds.
There will not be a nation
to which Elam’s banished ones will not go.
37 I will devastate Elam before their enemies,
before those who want to take their lives.
I will bring disaster on them,
My burning anger.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will send the sword after them(O)
until I finish them off.
38 I will set My throne in Elam,
and I will destroy the king and officials from there.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Prophecies against Babylon
50 The word the Lord spoke about Babylon,(Q) the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2 Announce to the nations;
proclaim and raise up a signal flag;(R)
proclaim, and hide nothing.
Say: Babylon is captured;
Bel(S) is put to shame;
Marduk is devastated;
her idols are put to shame;
her false gods, devastated.
3 For a nation from the north will come against her;(T)
it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it—
both man and beast will escape.[d]
4 In those days and at that time—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
the Israelites and Judeans will come together,
weeping as they come,
and will seek the Lord their God.(U)
5 They will ask about Zion,
turning their faces to this road.
They will come and join themselves[e] to the Lord
in an everlasting covenant(V) that will never be forgotten.
6 My people are lost sheep;(W)
their shepherds have led them astray,
guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.(X)
They have wandered from mountain to hill;
they have forgotten their resting place.
7 All who found them devoured them.
Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;
instead, they have sinned against the Lord,
their righteous grazing land,(Y)
the hope of their ancestors,(Z) the Lord.”
8 Escape from Babylon;(AA)
depart from the Chaldeans’ land.
Be like the rams that lead the flock.
9 For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon
an assembly of great nations from the north country.
They will line up in battle formation against her;
from there she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like those of a skilled[f] warrior
who does not return empty-handed.
10 The Chaldeans will become plunder;
all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
11 Because you rejoice,
because you sing in triumph—
you who plundered My inheritance—
because you frolic like a young cow treading grain
and neigh like stallions,(AB)
12 your mother will be utterly humiliated;
she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all[g] the nations—
a dry land, a wilderness,(AC) an Arabah.
13 Because of the Lord’s wrath,
she will not be inhabited;
she will become a desolation, every bit of her.
Everyone who passes through Babylon
will be horrified
and scoff because of all her wounds.(AD)
14 Line up in battle formation around Babylon,
all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,
for she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Raise a war cry against her on every side!
She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen;
her walls are demolished.(AE)
Since this is the Lord’s vengeance,(AF)
take out your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon
as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor’s sword,(AG)
each will turn to his own people,(AH)
each will flee to his own land.
The Return of God’s People
17 Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions.(AI)
The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;
the last one who crushed his bones
was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.(AJ)
18 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to punish the king of Babylon(AK) and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19 I will return Israel to his grazing land,
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;
he will be satisfied
in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.(AL)
20 In those days and at that time—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
one will search for Israel’s guilt,
but there will be none,
and for Judah’s sins,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive(AM) those I leave as a remnant.(AN)
The Invasion of Babylon
21 “Go against the land of Merathaim,
and against those living in Pekod.
Put them to the sword;
completely destroy them—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
do everything I have commanded you.(AO)
22 The sound of war is in the land(AP)—
a great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and smashed!
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!(AQ)
24 Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught,(AR)
but you did not even know it.
You were found and captured
because you fought against the Lord.
25 The Lord opened His armory
and brought out His weapons of wrath,(AS)
because it is a task of the Lord God of Hosts
in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the most distant places.[h]
Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain
and completely destroy her.
Leave her no survivors.
27 Put all her young bulls to the sword;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, because their day has come,
the time of their punishment.(AT)
The Humiliation of Babylon
28 “There is a voice of fugitives and those who escape
from the land of Babylon
announcing in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
the vengeance for His temple.(AU)
29 Summon the archers to Babylon,
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;(AV)
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.(AW)
30 Therefore, her young men will fall
in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the Lord’s declaration.(AX)
31 Look, I am against you, you arrogant one—
this is the declaration of
the Lord God of Hosts—
because your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
32 The arrogant will stumble and fall
with no one to pick him up.
I will set fire to his cities,
and it will consume everything around him.”(AY)
The Desolation of Babylon
33 This is what the Lord of Hosts says:
Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed.
All their captors hold them fast;(AZ)
they refuse to release them.
34 Their Redeemer is strong;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.
He will fervently plead their case(BA)
so that He might bring rest to the earth
but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.(BB)
35 A sword is over the Chaldeans—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials, and against her sages.
36 A sword is against the diviners,
and they will act foolishly.
A sword is against her heroic warriors,
and they will be terrified.
37 A sword is against his horses and chariots
and against all the foreigners among them,(BC)
and they will be like women.(BD)
A sword is against her treasuries,
and they will be plundered.
38 A drought will come on her waters,
and they will be dried up.
For it is a land of carved images,
and they go mad because of terrifying things.[i](BE)
39 Therefore, desert creatures[j] will live with hyenas,
and ostriches will also live in her.
It will never again be inhabited
or lived in through all generations.(BF)
40 Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring towns(BG)—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
so no one will live there;
no human being will even stay in it
as a temporary resident.(BH)
The Conquest of Babylon
41 Look! A people comes from the north.
A great nation and many kings will be stirred up
from the remote regions of the earth.(BI)
42 They grasp bow and javelin.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,(BJ)
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon has heard reports about them,
and his hands fall helpless.
Distress has seized him—
pain, like a woman in labor.(BK)
44 “Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets[k](BL) of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. Indeed, I will chase Babylon[l] away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like Me? Who will summon Me? Who is the shepherd who can stand against Me?”
45 Therefore, hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them. 46 At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.(BM)
Greeting
1 Paul,(A) a slave of God(B) and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to build up[a] the faith of God’s elect(C) and their knowledge of the truth(D) that leads[b] to godliness,(E) 2 in the hope of eternal life(F) that God, who cannot lie,(G) promised before time began.(H) 3 In His own time He has revealed(I) His message(J) in the proclamation that I was entrusted(K) with by the command(L) of God our Savior:(M)
4 To Titus,(N) my true son(O) in our common faith.
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.(P)
Titus’s Ministry in Crete
5 The reason I left you in Crete(Q) was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders(R) in every town: 6 one(S) who is blameless,(T) the husband of one wife, having faithful[c] children not accused of wildness or rebellion. 7 For an overseer,(U) as God’s administrator, must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not addicted to wine, not a bully, not greedy for money, 8 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, 9 holding to the faithful message as taught,(V) so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching(W) and to refute those who contradict it.
10 For there are also many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from Judaism.[d] 11 It is necessary to silence them; they overthrow whole households by teaching what they shouldn’t in order to get money dishonestly. 12 One of their very own prophets said,
Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.[e]
13 This testimony is true.(X) So, rebuke them sharply,(Y) that they may be sound in the faith 14 and may not pay attention to Jewish myths(Z) and the commands of men who reject the truth.(AA)
15 To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience(AB) are defiled. 16 They profess to know God,(AC) but they deny Him by their works.(AD) They are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified for any good work.(AE)
Psalm 97
The Majestic King
1 The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice;
let the many coasts and islands be glad.(A)
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround Him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.(B)
3 Fire goes before Him
and burns up His foes on every side.(C)
4 His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.(D)
5 The mountains melt like wax
at the presence of the Lord—
at the presence of the Lord of all the earth.(E)
7 All who serve carved images,
those who boast in idols, will be put to shame.(H)
All the gods[a] must worship Him.(I)
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the towns[b] of Judah rejoice
because of Your judgments, Lord.(J)
9 For You, Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth;
You are exalted above all the gods.(K)
10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!(L)
He protects the lives of His godly ones;(M)
He rescues them from the power of the wicked.(N)
11 Light dawns[c][d] for the righteous,
gladness for the upright in heart.(O)
12 Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous ones,
and praise His holy name.[e](P)
Psalm 98
Praise the King
A psalm.
1 Sing a new song to the Lord,(Q)
for He has performed wonders;
His right hand and holy arm
have won Him victory.(R)
2 The Lord has made His victory known;
He has revealed His righteousness
in the sight of the nations.(S)
3 He has remembered His love
and faithfulness to the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth
have seen our God’s victory.(T)
13 The slacker says, “There’s a lion in the road—
a lion in the public square!”(A)
14 A door turns on its hinges,
and a slacker, on his bed.(B)
15 The slacker buries his hand in the bowl;
he is too weary to bring it to his mouth.(C)
16 In his own eyes, a slacker is wiser(D)
than seven men who can answer sensibly.
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