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Call to arms; the future is secure
5 [a] Now muster your troops, Daughter Troop![b]
They have laid siege against us;
with a rod they will strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.
2 As for you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
though you are the least significant of Judah’s forces,
one who is to be a ruler in Israel on my behalf will come out from you.
His origin is from remote times, from ancient days.
3 Therefore, he will give them up
until the time when she who is in labor gives birth.
The rest of his kin will return to the people of Israel.
4 He will stand and shepherd his flock[c] in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
They will dwell secure,
because he will surely become great throughout the earth;
5 he will become one of peace.[d]
When Assyria invades our land and treads down our fortresses,
then we will raise up against him seven shepherds and eight human princes.
6 They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword.
He will rescue us from Assyria
when he invades our land
and treads within our territory.
7 Then the few remaining in Jacob will be amid many peoples
like dew from the Lord,
like spring showers upon the grass,
which does not hope for humans or wait for human ones.
8 Then the few remaining in Jacob will be among the nations,
amid many peoples,
like a lion among the creatures of the forest,
like a young lion among flocks
of sheep, which when it passes by, tramples and tears to pieces
with no one to deliver.
9 Your hand will be lifted over your foes;
all your enemies will be cut off.
Doom for Israel’s enemies
10 On that day—says the Lord—
I will cut down your horses in your midst;
I will destroy your chariots!
11 I will cut down the cities of your land;
I will tear down your defenses!
12 I will demolish the sorceries you perform;
you will have no more diviners!
13 I will cut down your images
and your sacred pillars in your midst.
You will no longer bow down to the works of your hands!
14 I will tear down your sacred poles[e] in your midst;
I will destroy your cities!
15 I will exact vengeance in anger
and in wrath on the nations that don’t obey!
God’s dispute with Israel
6 Hear what the Lord is saying:
Arise, lay out the lawsuit before the mountains;
let the hills hear your voice!
2 Hear, mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord!
Hear, eternal foundations of the earth!
The Lord has a lawsuit against his people;
with Israel he will argue.
3 “My people, what did I ever do to you?
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 I brought you up out of the land of Egypt;
I redeemed you from the house of slavery.
I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you.
5 My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned,
and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him!
Remember everything[f] from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you might learn to recognize the righteous acts of the Lord!”
What does the Lord require?
6 With what should I approach the Lord
and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
with year-old calves?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?
8 He has told you, human one, what is good and
what the Lord requires from you:
to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
Punishment is near
9 The voice of the Lord calls out to the city;
wisdom appears when one fears your name.[g]
Hear, tribe, and who appointed her![h]
10 Are the treasures of wickedness still in the house of wickedness,
while the shorted basket[i] is denounced?[j]
11 Can I approve wicked scales and a bag of false weights
12 in a city[k] whose wealthy are full of violence
and whose inhabitants speak falsehood
with lying tongues in their mouths?
13 So I have made you sick by striking you!
I have struck you because of your sins.
14 You devour, but you aren’t satisfied;
a gnawing emptiness is within you.
You put something aside,
but you don’t keep it safe.
That which you do try to keep safe,
I will give to the sword.
15 You sow, but you don’t gather.
You tread down olives, but you don’t anoint with oil;
you tread grapes, but don’t drink wine.
16 Yet you[l] have kept the policies of Omri,
all the practices of the house of Ahab;
you have followed their counsels.
Therefore, I will make you a sign of destruction,
your[m] inhabitants an object of hissing!
You must bear the reproach of my people.
The prophet laments
7 I’m doomed!
I’ve become like one who,
even after the summer fruit has been gathered,
after the ripened fruits have been collected,
has no cluster of grapes to eat,
no ripe fig that I might desire.
2 Faithful ones have perished from the land;
there is no righteous one among humanity.
All of them lie in wait for bloodshed;
they hunt each other with nets.
3 Their hands are skilled at doing evil.
Official and judge alike ask for a bribe;
the powerful speak however they like;
this is how they conspire.
4 The good among them are like a briar;
those who do the right thing are like a thorny thicket.
(A day for your lookouts![n]
Your punishment has arrived.
The confusion of the wicked[o] is nearby.)
5 Don’t rely on a friend;
put no trust in a companion;
guard the doors of your mouth from she who lies in your embrace.
6 Son disrespects father;
a daughter rises up against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
the enemies of a man are those of his own household.
7 But me! I will keep watch for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.
Zion speaks
8 Do not rejoice[p] over me, my enemy,
because when I fall, I will rise;
if I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light.
9 I must bear the raging of the Lord,
for I have sinned against him,
until he decides my case and provides justice for me.
He will bring me out into the light;
I will see by means of his righteousness.
10 Then my enemy will see;
shame will cover her who said to me:
“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will see her ruin;[q]
now she will become something to be trampled,
like mud in the streets.
Micah responds to Zion
11 A day for the building of your walls!
On that day, the boundary will be distant.
12 On that day, they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
from Egypt to the River,
from sea to sea,
and from mountain to mountain.
13 And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants,
because of the fruit of their actions.
Micah intercedes for the people
14 Shepherd your people with your staff,
the sheep of your inheritance,
those dwelling alone in a forest in the midst of Carmel.
Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as a long time ago.
God agrees
15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show Israel wonderful things.
The prophet continues
16 Nations will see and be ashamed of all their strength;
they will cover their mouths;
their ears will be deaf.
17 They will lick dust like the snake,
like things that crawl on the ground.
They will come trembling from their strongholds to the Lord our God;
they will dread and fear you!
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity,
overlooking the sin of the few remaining for his inheritance?
He doesn’t hold on to his anger forever;
he delights in faithful love.
19 He will once again have compassion on us;
he will tread down our iniquities.
You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea.
20 You will provide faithfulness to Jacob, faithful love to Abraham,
as you swore to our ancestors a long time ago.
One hundred forty-four thousand sealed
7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. They held back the earth’s four winds so that no wind would blow against the earth, the sea, or any tree. 2 I saw another angel coming up from the east, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given the power to damage the earth and sea. 3 He said, “Don’t damage the earth, the sea, or the trees until we have put a seal on the foreheads of those who serve our God.”
4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed from every tribe of the Israelites:
5 From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed;
from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand;
from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand;
6 from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand;
from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand;
from the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand;
7 from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand;
from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand;
from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand;
8 from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand;
from the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand;
from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.
The great crowd and seventh seal
9 After this I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out with a loud voice:
“Victory belongs to our God
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
11 All the angels stood in a circle around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell facedown before the throne and worshipped God, 12 saying,
“Amen! Blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honor and power and might
be to our God forever and always. Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders said to me, “Who are these people wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
Then he said to me, “These people have come out of great hardship. They have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. 15 This is the reason they are before God’s throne. They worship him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. 16 They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, 17 because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water,[a] and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Psalm 135
135 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord’s name!
All you who serve the Lord, praise God!
2 All you who stand in the Lord’s house—
who stand in the courtyards of our God’s temple—
3 praise the Lord, because the Lord is good!
Sing praises to God’s name because it is beautiful!
4 Because the Lord chose Jacob as his own,
God chose Israel as his treasured possession.
5 Yes, I know for certain that the Lord is great—
I know our Lord is greater than all other gods.
6 The Lord can do whatever he wants
in heaven or on earth,
in the seas and in every ocean depth.
7 God forms clouds at the far corners of the earth.
God makes lightning for the rain.
God releases the wind from its storeroom.
8 God struck down the Egyptians’ oldest offspring—
both human and animal!
9 God sent signs and wonders into the very center of Egypt—
against Pharaoh and all his servants.
10 God struck down many nations
and killed mighty kings:
11 Sihon the Amorite king,
Og the king of Bashan,
and all the Canaanite kings.
12 Then God handed their land over as an inheritance—
as an inheritance to Israel, his own people.
13 Lord, your name is forever!
Lord, your fame extends from one generation to the next!
14 The Lord gives justice to his people
and has compassion on those who serve him.
15 The nations’ idols are just silver and gold—
things made by human hands.
16 They have mouths, but they can’t speak.
They have eyes, but they can’t see.
17 They have ears, but they can’t listen.
No, there’s no breath in their lungs!
18 Let the people who made these idols
and all who trust in them
become just like them!
19 House of Israel, bless the Lord!
House of Aaron, bless the Lord!
20 House of Levi, bless the Lord!
You who honor the Lord, bless the Lord!
21 Bless the Lord from Zion—
bless the one who lives in Jerusalem!
Praise the Lord!
5 All God’s words are tried and true;
a shield for those who take refuge in him.
6 Don’t add to his words,
or he will correct you and show you to be a liar.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible