Old/New Testament
Judgment against the Leaders of Ephraim
28 Ah! The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
and the withering flower of the glory of his beauty,
which is at the head of the rich valley,[a]
ones overcome[b] with wine!
2 Look! The Lord has a mighty and strong one,
like a rainstorm of hail, a wind storm of destruction,
like a rainstorm of mighty overflowing waters,
he will put them to the earth with his hand.
3 The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
will be trampled[c] by feet,
4 and the withering flower of the glory of its beauty
which is at the head of the rich valley[d]
will be like its early fig before summer,
which the one who sees it swallows[e] while it is still in his hand.
5 In that day, Yahweh of hosts will become a garland of glory
and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people,
6 and a spirit of justice to the one who sits over judgment,
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 And these also stagger because of wine
and stagger because of strong drink;
priest and prophet stagger because of strong drink;
they are confused[f] because of wine.
They stagger because of strong drink;
they err in vision.
They stagger in the rendering of a decision,
8 for all the tables are full of disgusting vomit, with no place left.[g]
9 To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from milk,
those taken from the breast?
10 For it is blah-blah upon blah-blah,
blah-blah upon blah-blah,
gah-gah upon gah-gah,
gah-gah upon gah-gah,[h]
a little here, a little there.
11 For he will speak with stammering[i] and another tongue to this people, 12 to whom he has said,
“This is rest; give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”; yet[j] they were not willing to hear.
13 And to them the word of Yahweh will be
blah-blah upon blah-blah
blah-blah upon blah-blah
gah-gah upon gah-gah
gah-gah upon gah-gah,[k]
a little here, a little there,
so that they may go and stumble backward
and be broken and ensnared and captured.
The Cornerstone of Zion
14 Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, men of mockery,
rulers of these people in Jerusalem:
15 Because you have said,
“We have made[l] a covenant with death,
and we have made an agreement with Sheol.
The overwhelming flood, when it passes through, will not come to us,
for we have made lies[m] our refuge,
and we have hidden ourselves in falsehood.”
16 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this:
“Look! I am laying a stone in Zion,
a tested[n] stone,
a precious cornerstone,
a founded foundation:
‘The one who trusts will not panic.’[o]
17 And I will make justice the measuring line,
and righteousness the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,[p]
and waters will flood over the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
you will become a trampling place for the overwhelming flood when it passes through.
19 As often as it passes through,[q] it will take you,
for morning by morning[r] it will pass through,
in the day and in the night,
and understanding the message will be only terror.”
20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,[s]
and the covering is too narrow when wrapping oneself.
21 For Yahweh will rise up as at Mount Perazim;
he will rave as in the valley at Gibeon
to do his deed—his deed is strange—
and to work his work—his work is alien!
22 And now you must not scoff,
or your bonds will be strong,
for I have heard from the Lord, Yahweh of hosts:
complete destruction
decreed upon all the land.
A Parable of Yahweh’s Work
23 Listen, and hear my voice!
Listen attentively, and hear my word!
24 Is it all day that the plowman plows,
opens to sow seed, harrows his ground?
25 When he has leveled its surface,[t] does he not scatter dill,
and sow cumin seed,
and plant[u] wheat in planted rows,[v]
and barley in an appointed place,
and spelt grain as its border?
26 And his God instructs him about the prescription;[w]
he teaches him.
27 For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a wheel of a utility cart rolled[x] over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Grain is crushed fine,
but certainly one does not thresh it forever;
and one drives the wheel of his cart,
but his horses do not crush it.
29 This also comes forth from Yahweh of hosts.
He is wonderful in advice;
he makes great wisdom.
Woe to Jerusalem
29 Ah! Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!
Add year to year,
let festivals recur.
2 Yet[y] I will inflict Ariel,
and there shall be mourning and lamentation,
and it shall be to me like an altar hearth.[z]
3 And I will encamp in a circle[aa] against you,
and I will lay siege to you with towers[ab]
and I will raise up siegeworks against you.
4 Then[ac] you shall be low;
you shall speak from the earth,
and your words[ad] will be low, from dust.
And your voice will be from the earth, like a ghost,
and your word will whisper from the dust.
5 But[ae] the multitude of your strangers shall be like fine dust,
and the multitude of tyrants like chaff that passes by.
And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.
6 You will be punished by Yahweh of hosts
with thunder and earthquake and great sound,
storm wind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,
all those who fight against her and her stronghold,
and those who inflict her shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 And it shall be as when the hungry person dreams—look, he is eating!
And he wakes up and his inner self is empty.
Or[af] as when the thirsty person dreams—look, he is drinking!
And he wakes up and look, he is faint,
and his inner self is longing for water.
So shall be the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be astonished and be amazed!
Blind yourselves and be blinded!
They are drunk but[ag] not from wine;
they stagger but[ah] not from strong drink.
10 For Yahweh has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep,
and he has shut your eyes, the prophets,
and he has covered your heads, the seers.
11 And the vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. When they give it to one who knows the[ai] document, saying, “Read[aj] this now!” He says, “I am not able, for it is sealed.” 12 And if the document is given to one who does not know how to read,[ak] saying, “Read[al] this now!” he says, “I do not know how to read.”[am]
13 And the Lord said,
“Because this people draw near with its mouth,
and with its lips it honors me,
and its heart is far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught,
14 therefore look, I am again doing something spectacular
and a spectacle with this spectacular people.
And the wisdom of its wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of its discerning ones shall keep itself hidden.”
15 Ah! Those who make a plan deep, to hide it from Yahweh,
and their deeds are[an] in a dark place.
And they say, “Who sees us?
And who knows us?”
16 Your perversity!
As if a potter[ao] shall be regarded as the clay!
That the product of its maker says,
“He did not make me,”
and the thing made into shape says of its potter,[ap]
“He has no understanding.”
Blessing after Punishment
17 In a very little while[aq] shall not Lebanon change into a fruitful land,
and the fruitful land be regarded as a forest?
18 And on that day, the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll,
and the eyes of the blind shall see out of gloom and darkness.
19 And the meek have joy after joy[ar] in Yahweh,
and the needy of the people shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel.
20 For the tyrant shall be no more,
and the scoffer shall come to an end.
And all those lying in wait for evil shall be cut off;
21 those who mislead a person into sin with a word
and set a trap for the arbitrator[as] in the gate
and guide away the righteous by emptiness.
22 Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says this to the house of Jacob:
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
and his face will no longer grow pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will treat my name as holy,
and they will treat the holy one of Jacob as holy,
and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 And those who err in spirit will acquire[at] understanding,
and those who grumble will learn instruction.
Warning Against Evil Workers
3 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, but is a safeguard for you. 2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation.[a] 3 For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship[b] by the Spirit[c] of God and boast in Christ Jesus and do not put confidence in the flesh, 4 although I could have confidence even in the flesh.
Righteousness Through Christ
If anyone else thinks to put confidence in the flesh, I can do so more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day[d], from the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born from Hebrews, according to the law a Pharisee, 6 according to zeal persecuting the church, according to the righteousness in the law being blameless. 7 But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have considered loss because of Christ. 8 More than that[e], I even consider all things to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for the sake of whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them[f] dung, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and may be found in him, not having my righteousness which is from the law, but which is through faith in Christ,[g] the righteousness from God on the basis of faith,[h] 10 so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already received this,[i] or have already been made perfect, but I press on if indeed I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ.[j] 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have laid hold of it.[k] But I do one thing, forgetting the things behind and straining toward the things ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Imitate Paul
15 Therefore as many as are perfect, let us hold this opinion[l], and if you think anything differently, God will reveal this also to you. 16 Only to what we have attained, to the same hold on. 17 Become fellow imitators of me, brothers, and observe those who walk in this way, just as you have us as an example. 18 For many live, of whom I spoke about to you many times, but now speak about even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ, 19 whose end is destruction, whose God is the stomach, and whose glory is in their shame, the ones who think on earthly things. 20 For our commonwealth exists in heaven, from which also we eagerly await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our humble body to be conformed to his glorious body, in accordance with the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
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