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The Lord says that Israel is guilty
10 Israel was like a healthy vine that had lots of grapes.
But as the Israelites became more and more rich,
they built more and more altars.
As their land gave more crops,
they made the pillars that they worshipped more beautiful.
2 They do not truly trust God.
They are guilty and they must receive their punishment.
The Lord will break their altars.
He will destroy their special pillars.
3 Soon these people will say, ‘We did not respect the Lord's authority.
Because of that we have no king.
But even if we had a king now, he could not do anything to help us.’
4 They promise to do many things,
but they never do what they promise.
They make useless agreements.
So people accuse each other in the courts.
They are like weeds that grow in a farmer's field.
5 The people who live in Samaria will be afraid.
They will worry about their image of a calf at Beth Aven.[a]
They will weep because it will go away from them.
The priests who serve the idol will cry too.
They know that an enemy will take away their great and beautiful idol.
6 Assyria's army will carry the idol away.[b]
It will be a gift to give honour to Assyria's great king.
Ephraim's people will feel ashamed.
They will be sorry that they trusted in their wooden idol.
7 The people of Samaria and their king will come to an end.[c]
They will be like a small stick that water carries away.
8 The wicked altars on the hills will break into pieces.[d]
These are places where Israel's people have done bad things.
Thorn bushes and weeds will grow all over their altars.
Then the people will say to the mountains, ‘Hide us!’
They will say to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’
The Lord promises to punish Israel
9 The Lord says,
‘People of Israel, you have continued to do bad things,
since the time that you were at Gibeah.[e]
When the people did evil things at Gibeah,
war destroyed them as a result.
10 When I decide that the time is right,
I will punish the Israelites.
Because of their many sins,
I will bring other nations to attack them.
Their enemies will tie them up with chains.
11 Ephraim was like a cow that I had taught to stamp on grain.[f]
She loved to work for me.
But now I will make her do hard work!
I will put a heavy yoke on her beautiful neck.
Judah will also have to plough the ground.
Jacob's descendants must work to dig up the hard ground.[g]
12 Be like a farmer who plants good seed.
Plant things that are good and right.
Then your harvest will be faithful love.
Plough the hard ground and prepare it for the Lord to bless you.
It is time for you to turn back to the Lord.
Then he will bless you with good things,
like rain that falls on the ground!
13 But instead, you have planted evil things.
So your harvest is terrible trouble.
The food that you eat comes from your lies.
You trusted in your own strength to save you.
You thought that your strong army would keep you safe.
14 So you will soon hear the noise of war.
Enemies will destroy all your strong buildings.
It will be like the time that King Shalman's army destroyed Beth Arbel.[h]
In that battle, cruel soldiers killed mothers together with their children.
15 The same thing will happen to you, people of Bethel,
because of the wicked things that you have done.[i]
When the day of your punishment arrives,
the king of Israel will surely die.’
The Lord still loves his people
11 The Lord says,
‘When Israel was a child, I loved him as my son.
I called my son to come out of Egypt.[j]
2 But the more I spoke to Israel's people,
the more they turned away from me.
They offered sacrifices to the images of Baal.
They burned incense to give honour to their idols.
3 I was the one who taught this child, Ephraim, to walk![k]
I held their hand and I led them.
I took care of them,
but they did not understand this.
4 I loved them and I was kind to them.
I led them as their guide.
I gave them rest from their hard work.
I bent down to feed them.
5 But they refuse to turn back to me.
So they must return to Egypt.
Assyria will rule over them.
6 War will come to their cities.
Enemies will break down the strong city gates.
War will destroy my people and all their wicked ideas.
7 My people have decided to turn away from me.
That is all that they can think about.
They call up to a God who rules above,
but he will not help them.
8 Israel, I cannot leave you alone.
I cannot let you belong to someone else.
I cannot destroy you, as I did to Admah and Zeboiim.[l]
I now realize that I love you too much.
I could never destroy you completely.
9 I am very angry with you,
but I will not punish you so much.
I will never destroy my people, Ephraim.
This is because I am God. I am not a human.
I am the Holy God who is with you.
I will not come to destroy you in my anger.
10 I will roar loudly like a lion,
so that my children come to follow me.
When I roar, my children will shake with fear,
as they come from the west.
11 They will return to me, like birds that fly from Egypt.
They will come like doves that fly from Assyria.
They will be afraid, as they return.
I will bring them back to live in their homes again.’
That is what the Lord says.
The Lord accuses Israel
12 The Lord says,
‘Ephraim's people are always speaking lies to me.
Yes, Israel's descendants try to deceive me.
But Judah's people have stayed with God as their guide.
They continue to be faithful to the Holy God.’[m]
12 Ephraim's people chase after useless things all the time.
They think that they can catch the wind that comes from the east!
But the result is more violence and lies.
They make an agreement with Assyria to get their help.
They also send their olive oil to Egypt to ask for their help.[n]
2 The Lord is ready to accuse Judah's people in a court of law.
He will punish Jacob's descendants for the bad way that they live.
He will punish them as their sins deserve.
3 Before Jacob was born, he cheated his brother.
He did that when they were both inside their mother's body.[o]
When Jacob became a man, he fought against God.
4 He fought against an angel and he won.
He wept and he asked God to bless him.
There at Bethel, Jacob met with God. God spoke to him there.
5 This was the Lord God Almighty!
We know him as the Lord, his special name.
6 So now, you must return to your God.
You must show faithful love for each other.
You must judge people in a fair way.
You must be patient. Trust God to come and help you.
7 Your traders love to cheat people.
They use false weights and measures.
8 Ephraim's people proudly say,
‘We are rich! We have become very rich!
In all the ways that we have found riches,
nobody can accuse us.
We have not really done anything that is a sin!’
9 God says,
‘Remember that I am the Lord your God!
I brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.
Now I will make you live in tents again,
as you did before, in the wilderness.
10 I gave my messages to the prophets.
I showed them many visions.[p]
I used stories for the prophets to teach the people about me.
11 The people in Gilead do wicked things.[q]
They will become as useless as their idols.
At Gilgal, the people offer bulls as sacrifices on their altars.
Those altars will be like heaps of stones in a farmer's field.’
12 Jacob ran away to the land of Aram.[r]
He worked there as a shepherd so that he could get a wife.
13 The Lord used a prophet to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
He used a prophet to keep them safe in the wilderness.
14 But Ephraim's people have made the Lord very angry.
He will punish them with death for their terrible sins.
Their Lord will pay them back as they deserve,
because they have insulted him.
The Lord is angry with Israel
13 In past times, when the leaders of Israel spoke, the people were afraid.[s]
The people respected their leaders.
But the people became guilty when they worshipped Baal.
Because of that, they died.
2 Now the Israelites continue to do more and more sins.
They use metal to make idols for themselves.
They use clever skills to make idols from silver.
All their idols are only things that people have made themselves.
People offer sacrifices to the image of a calf.
They say, ‘Kiss the calf!’
3 So those people will soon disappear!
They will quickly disappear like mist or dew in the morning.
They will be like chaff that the wind blows away from a threshing floor.
They will be like smoke that disappears out of an open window.[t]
4 The Lord says,
‘I am the Lord your God.
I brought you out from Egypt.
You must not serve any other God.
No one else can save you except me.
5 I took care of you in the wilderness,
where it was very hot and dry.
6 I gave food to my people, so that they were not hungry.
But when they had enough to eat, they became proud.
As a result, they forgot about me.[u]
7 So I will attack them like a lion.
I will be like a leopard that waits beside the road.
It is ready to catch anything that goes that way.
8 I will attack them like an angry bear that has lost her children.
I will tear them into pieces.
I will eat them like a hungry lion.
I will attack them and kill them, like a wild animal.
9 I will destroy you, Israel.
There will be nobody to help you.
10 What has happened to your king?
He cannot save you!
Where are your rulers?
You asked me to give you rulers like the other nations have.
You said, “Give us a king and rulers.”
11 I was angry, but I agreed to give you a king.
Now I am even more angry and I will take your king away!
12 I have a record of Ephraim's sin.
Ephraim's people will certainly receive their punishment.
13 They will be in pain like a woman who is giving birth.
Her child is foolish. He refuses to be born!
14 Will I save these people from the power of death?
Will I rescue them from their graves?
Death, what diseases can you bring?
What can you do to hurt my people?[v]
I will not be kind to my people and forgive them.’
15 Among the other nations, Israel has been successful.
It has been like a plant that grows well.
But now the Lord will send trouble.
It will be like a strong east wind that comes from the desert.
Israel's wells and springs of water will become dry.
All the valuable things that Israel has stored will disappear.
16 Samaria's people are guilty and they will receive their punishment.[w]
They have turned against their God.
They will die in war.
Cruel enemies will kill their young children.
Soldiers will cut open their pregnant women.
Return to the Lord!
14 Israel's people, return to the Lord your God!
Your sins have caused you to fall down.
2 Return to the Lord and pray to him! Say to him,
‘Please forgive all our sins.
Be kind to us as we come to you.
We will praise you with our mouths, as our sacrifice to you.
3 Assyria cannot save us.
The horses that we ride into war will not keep us safe.
We will never again say to the idols that we have made, “You are our gods.”
You are kind to children who have no family.
So please be kind to us.’
4 The Lord says,
‘My people turned away from me, but I will forgive them.
I will love them very much.
I will not be angry with them any more.
5 I will bless Israel's people, like rain that falls on dry ground.
They will grow like beautiful flowers.
They will have strong roots, like the great trees in Lebanon.
6 They will grow like a tree that makes new branches.
They will be beautiful like olive trees.
They will have a sweet smell, like the forests in Lebanon.
7 I will give my people shade to live in safely.
They will plant crops that give them plenty of food.
They will be successful, like a vine that gives many grapes.
They will be famous, like the wine from Lebanon.[x]
8 People of Ephraim, do not let me see your idols any more!
I will answer your prayers. I will take care of you.
I am like a strong green tree.
All the good things that you have come from me.’
9 If you are wise, you should understand these things.
If you understand, think carefully about them.
The Lord teaches you to live in ways that are right.
Righteous people live in those good ways.
But people who turn against the Lord fall down and lose their way.[y]
False teachers are trying to turn people away from God
1 This letter is from me, Jude. I am Jesus Christ's servant and I am James's brother.[a] I am writing to you people that God, the Father, loves. God has chosen you to be his own people. He is keeping you safe until the time when Jesus Christ returns.
2 I pray that God will be kind to you and that he will give you peace in your minds more and more. I want you to know more and more how much God loves you.
3 My friends, I wanted very much to write to you about how God has saved us from sin. That is what he has done for you and for us. But instead of that, I now know that I must write to you about something else. I must tell you to be strong and brave. You must do everything that you can to keep God's true message safe. God has given this message to his special people and his message will never change. Do not let anyone teach you a different message.
4 I say this because certain bad people have secretly come among you. They have turned away from God. They are trying to change God's true message. They teach that we can do any evil things that we want to do. They say that God will be kind and he will forgive us for all those things. They do not accept the authority of Jesus Christ, who is our only Master and our Lord. God will certainly punish those wicked people. A long time ago God said that he would punish people like them.
5 Remember that the Lord brought Israel's people out of Egypt where they had been slaves. But later he destroyed all those same people who did not trust him.[b] I want you to remember these important things. You should already know all about them, but you must never forget them. 6 Also remember that some angels refused to obey God. They took more authority for themselves than God had given them. They left their own proper place with God in heaven.[c] So God has tied them up as prisoners for ever in a completely dark place. He will keep them there until that great day when he will judge everyone.
7 Also, remember what happened to the cities called Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities that were near them.[d] Like those bad angels, the people who lived in those places were also doing evil things. They were having sex with people who were not their husbands or their wives. They liked to have sex in other ways that are not right. God destroyed their cities. He has punished them with fire that never stops burning. That is an example of what will happen to wicked people like them.
8 These false teachers who have come among you do the same kind of bad things. Their dreams deceive them so that they use their bodies to do disgusting things. They refuse to obey God's authority. They insult God's powerful angels. 9 Even the leader of God's angels, Michael, did not speak bad words like that against the Devil. Long ago, Michael argued with the Devil about who should have Moses' dead body.[e] But even when the Devil said bad words against God, Michael himself did not speak against the Devil. He did not think that he should do that. Instead, Michael said, ‘The Lord himself will show that you are wrong.’ 10 But these false teachers speak bad things against anything that they do not understand. They are like animals that cannot think properly. They just do the things that their nature causes them to do. Those are the things that are destroying them.
11 It will be terrible for them! They have lived in the way that Cain lived.[f] They have made the same mistake that Balaam made, because they wanted to get money for themselves.[g] Like Korah, they have refused to obey God.[h] So God will destroy them.
The false teachers are very dangerous
12 When you eat special meals together as believers, those false teachers meet with you. But they are dangerous! They will stop you showing your love for one another. They come only because they want to eat too much. They do not respect God or other people. They only think about themselves and they are not ashamed. They are like clouds that you think will bring rain. But the wind blows those clouds along and there is no rain. They are like trees that have no fruit, even at the time for harvest. People pull trees like that out of the ground. They are completely dead and can give no fruit. 13 Those false teachers are like water in the sea that the wind blows during a storm. The dirt that comes to the top of the water is like the disgusting things that those people do. They are like stars that have moved away from their proper places in the sky. God has prepared a completely dark place for them. God will keep them there for ever.
14 Long ago, Enoch also spoke about those false teachers.[i] Enoch belonged to the seventh family that was born, starting with Adam. He said, ‘Look, the Lord will come with many thousands of his own angels. 15 He will judge all people. He will punish everyone who lives in a way that does not please him. He will punish them because of all the wicked things that they have done. He will punish them because of all the bad words that they have spoken against him.’[j] 16 Those people are always complaining. They like to accuse other people. They do any bad things that will make themselves happy. They speak great things about themselves, to show how important they are. They praise other people only so that they can get something good for themselves.
Christians must continue to trust God
17 But as for you, my friends, remember the message that the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ have taught you. They spoke about what would happen in future times. 18 They said to you, ‘In the last days of this world, some people will laugh at God's message.[k] They will say that it is silly to obey God. Instead, they will do the bad things that they want to do. Those things do not please God.’
19 It is people like this who cause you to argue with one another, so that you belong to separate groups. Their thoughts belong to this world. They do not have God's Spirit in them.
20 But you, my friends, have believed the message that comes from God himself. So you must help one another to trust God more and more. Pray to God with the help of the Holy Spirit. 21 Continue to live in a way that shows God's love. As you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come, remember that he is very kind. Because of that, you will have life with God for ever.
22 Help those people who do not know whether to trust God. Be kind to them. 23 Some people are in great danger. You must save them from the fire of God's punishment.[l] Also be kind to people who have done wicked and disgusting things. But be careful! Do not let their sins make you bad too.
Jude thanks God
24 God is able to keep you safe so that you continue to trust him. One day you will stand in front of him and you will be very happy. God will bring you to that place and you will be completely good. You will be able to stand near to God, who shines with beautiful light. 25 He is the only God. He is the one who saves us because of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we praise him! We say that he is very great! He rules with power and authority. This has always been true. It is true now, and it will be true for ever. Amen!
A song to sing as we climb.
Solomon wrote this song.
Every good thing comes from God[a]
127 The Lord must build your house.
If not, the work of the builders is useless.
The Lord must keep the city safe.
If not, the city guards are useless.
2 It will not help you to work all day for food, and never stop.
God gives food to the people that he loves.
Even while they sleep, God takes care of them.
3 Children are a gift from the Lord.
He blesses us with descendants.
4 If you have sons while you are a young man,
they are like a soldier's arrows.
5 If a man has many sons,
God has blessed him.[b]
When his enemies speak against him at the city gate,
they will not win.[c]
15 If you want your children to be wise,
warn them and punish them when they do wrong things.
If you let them do anything that they want to do,
they will make their mother ashamed.
16 When wicked people receive more power, there is also more sin.
But those wicked people will fall while righteous people watch.
17 Warn your children when they do wrong things,
so that you have peace in your mind.
They will make you very happy.
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