Old/New Testament
The Priests Are a Snare
5 Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
Because the judgment applies to you;
because you have been a snare for Mizpah,
and a net spread out on Tabor;
2 they dug a deep pit[a] in Shittim,
but I am a punishment for all of them.
3 I myself know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me;
because now you have played the whore, O Ephraim—
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not permit them
to return them to God.
Because a spirit of whoredom is in their midst,
they do not know Yahweh.
5 The pride of Israel testifies against him,[b]
and Israel and Ephraim stumble in their guilt,
and Judah stumbles with them.
6 With their flocks[c] and herds[d] they will go
to seek Yahweh, but they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
7 They have dealt faithlessly with Yahweh
because they have borne illegitimate children.
Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.
8 Blow the horn[e] in Gibeah,
the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm in Beth-aven;
look behind you, Benjamin.
9 Ephraim will be a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I will reveal what is true.
10 The princes of Judah have become
like those who remove a landmark;
on them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed,
crushed in judgment,
because he was determined
to go after filth.[f]
12 But I am like a maggot to Ephraim
and like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 And when Ephraim saw his illness,
and Judah his wound,
Ephraim went to Assyria,
he sent to the great king.[g]
But he was unable to cure you
and heal your wound.
14 Because I will be like a lion to Ephraim
and like a fierce strong lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear and I will go;
I will carry off, and there is no one who delivers.
15 I will return again[h] to my place
until they acknowledge their guilt
and seek my face;
in their distress they will search[i] me.
A Call to Yahweh
6 Come, let us return to Yahweh;
because it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
he has struck us down and will bind us up.
2 He will revive us after two days;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live in his presence.[j]
3 Let us know, let us press on to know Yahweh;
his rising is sure like the dawn.
He will come like the showers to us,
like the spring rain that waters the earth.
4 What will I do with you, O Ephraim?
What will I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes away early in the morning.
5 Therefore, I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment[k] goes forth like the light.
6 Because I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
7 But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant;
there they dealt faithlessly with me.
8 Gilead is a city of evil,
a cunning city because of blood.[l]
9 Like bandits lying in wait,
so is a band of priests;
they murder on the road to Shechem;
indeed, they commit a monstrous crime.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen something horrible;
Ephraim’s unfaithfulness is there.
Israel is defiled.
Ephraim’s Guilt
11 For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed,
when I restore the fortunes of my people,
7 when I would heal Israel,
and the corruption of Ephraim is revealed,
and the wicked deeds of Samaria;
because they deal in falsehood,
the thief breaks in,[m]
and the bandit raids the outside.
2 But they did not consider[n]
that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their deeds surround them;
they are before my face.
3 By their wickedness they make the king glad,
and the officials by their treacheries.
4 All of them commit adultery,
like a burning oven
whose baker has stopped from stirring the fire,
and from kneading the dough until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king, the princes
became sick with the heat of wine;[o]
he stretched out his hand with mockers.
6 Because they are kindled[p] like an oven,
their heart burns within them;
all night their anger smolders,[q]
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot as an oven,
and they devour[r] their rulers.
All their kings have fallen;
there is none who calls to me amongst them.
8 Ephraim mixes himself
with the nations;
Ephraim is a bread cake
not turned over.
9 Foreigners devour[s] his strength,
and he does not know it;
mold[t] is also sprinkled upon him,
and he does not know it.
10 The pride of Israel testifies against him[u]—
they do not return to Yahweh their God;
they do not seek him for all of this.[v]
11 Ephraim was like a dove,
silly, without sense;[w]
they call to Egypt,
they go to Assyria.
12 Just as they go, I will cast my net
over them;
I will bring them down
like the birds[x] of the heavens;[y]
I will discipline them
according to a report to their assembly.[z]
13 Woe to them, because they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me!
I myself would redeem them,
but they speak lies against me.
14 They do not cry out to me from their heart,
but they wail on their beds;
because of grain and new wine they lacerate[aa] themselves;
they depart from me.
15 And I myself trained
and strengthened their arms;
but they plan evil against me.
16 They turn, not to the Most High,[ab]
like a slack bow;
their officials will fall by the sword
because of the anger of their tongue.
This is their scorn[ac]
in the land of Egypt.
Israel Rejects the Good
8 Put to your lips the trumpet
like a vulture over the house of Yahweh,
because they have broken my covenant[ad]
and rebelled against my law.
2 They cry out to me,
“My God! We, Israel, know you!”
3 Israel has spurned the good;
the enemy will pursue him.
4 They appointed kings, but not through me;
they made officials, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold
they made idols for themselves
for their[ae] own destruction.[af]
5 Your calf is rejected,[ag] O Samaria;
my anger burns against them.
How long[ah] will they be incapable of innocence?
6 Because it is from Israel,
an artisan made it,
it is not a god;
for the calf of Samaria
will be broken to pieces.
7 Because they sow the wind,
they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain does not have heads;[ai]
it will not yield flour.
And if it would yield,
strangers would devour it.
8 Israel is swallowed up;
now they are among the nations,
like an object that no one desires.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
a wild donkey alone to itself;
Ephraim has sold itself for lovers.
10 Even though they have sold themselves to the nations,
now I will gather them.
They will soon writhe
from the burden of kings[aj] and princes.
11 When Ephraim multiplied altars
to expiate sins,
they became to him altars to sin on.
12 I write for him myriads of my instruction;[ak]
they are regarded as a strange thing.
13 They offer sacrifices of my choice[al]
and they eat flesh;
Yahweh does not accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins;
they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
but I will send fire on his cities
and it will devour her strongholds.
The Letter to the Church in Ephesus
2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
“This is what the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand says, the one who walks in the midst of the seven gold lampstands: 2 ‘I know your works, and your labor and patient endurance, and that you are not able to tolerate evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you found them to be false. 3 And you have patient endurance, and have endured many things because of my name, and have not become weary. 4 But I have this against you: that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the works you did at first[a]. But if you do not, I am coming to you, and I will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 But you do have this: that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, things which I also hate. 7 The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to him to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.’
The Letter to the Church in Smyrna
8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
“This is what the first and the last says, who was dead and came to life: 9 ‘I know your affliction and poverty (but you are rich), and the slander of those who call themselves Jews[b] and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and you will experience affliction ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.’
The Letter to the Church in Pergamum
12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
“This is what the one who has the sharp double-edged sword says: 13 ‘I know where you live, where the throne of Satan is. And you hold fast to my name and did not deny your[c] faith in me, even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan lives. 14 But I have a few things against you: that you have there those who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. 15 So likewise you also have those who hold fast to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent! But if you do not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword from my mouth. 17 The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give to him some of the hidden manna, and I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
The Letter to the Church in Thyatira
18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
“This is what the Son of God says, the one who has his eyes like a fiery flame and his feet like fine bronze: 19 ‘I know your works, and your love, and faith, and service, and patient endurance—and your last works are greater than the first. 20 But I have against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, the one who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 And I have given her time in order to repent, and she did not want to repent from her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I am throwing her into a sickbed and those who committed adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent from her deeds. 23 And I will kill her children with deadly disease, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. 24 But I say to you, to the rest who are in Thyatira, all those who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they say, I do not put upon you any other burden. 25 Nevertheless, hold fast to what you have until I come. 26 And the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him authority over the nations, 27 and “he will shepherd them with an iron rod; he will break them in pieces like jars made of clay,”[d] 28 as I also have received from my Father, and I will give him the morning star. 29 The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
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