Old/New Testament
God’s Message to Aram
17 This is the message for Damascus:
“The city of Damascus will be destroyed.
Only ruins will be left there.
2 People will leave the cities of Aroer.
Flocks of sheep will wander freely in those empty towns.
There will be no one to bother them.
3 The strong, walled cities of Israel will be destroyed.
The government in Damascus will end.
Those left alive of Aram will be
like the glory of Israel,” says the Lord of heaven’s armies.
4 “At that time Israel’s wealth will all be gone.
Israel will be like a man who has lost much weight from sickness.
5 That time will be like the grain harvest in the Valley of Rephaim.
The workers cut the wheat.
Then they cut the heads of grain from the plants.
And they collect the grain.
6 That time will also be like the olive harvest,
when a few olives are left.
Two or three olives are left in the top branches.
Four or five olives are left on full branches,” says the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 At that time people will look to God, their Maker.
Their eyes will see the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not trust the altars they have made.
They will not trust what their hands have made.
They will not respect the Asherah idols
and altars they have made.
9 In that day all their strong cities will be empty. They will be like the cities that the Hivites and the Amorites left. They left their cities when the Israelites came to take the land. Everything will be ruined.
10 You have forgotten the God who saves you.
You have not remembered that God is your place of safety.
You plant the finest grapevines.
You plant grapevines from faraway places.
11 You will plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow.
The next day they will begin to grow.
But at harvest time everything will be dead.
A sickness will kill all the plants.
12 Listen to the many people!
They are crying loud like the noise from the sea.
Listen to the noise!
The crying is like the crashing of great waves.
13 The people roar like those waves.
But when God speaks harshly to them, they will run away.
They will be like chaff on the hills being blown by the wind.
They will be like tumbleweeds blown away by a storm.
14 At night the people will be very frightened.
Before morning, no one will be left.
So our enemies will come to our land,
but they will become nothing.
God’s Message to Cush
18 How terrible it will be for the land beyond the rivers of Cush.
It is filled with the sound of wings.
2 That land sends people across the sea.
They go on the water in boats made of reeds.
Quick messengers, go
to the people who are tall and smooth-skinned.
They are feared everywhere.
They are a powerful nation with strange speech.
They defeat the other nations.
Their land is divided by rivers.
3 All you people of the world, look!
Everyone who lives in the world, look!
You will see a banner raised on a mountain.
You will hear a trumpet sound.
4 The Lord said to me,
“I will quietly watch from where I live.
I will be like heat in the sunshine.
I will be like the dew in the heat of harvest time.”
5 The time will be after the flowers have bloomed and before the harvest.
The new grapes will be budding and growing.
Then the enemy will cut the plants with knives.
He will cut down the vines and take them away.
6 They will be left for the birds of the mountains to eat.
They will be left for the wild animals to eat.
Birds will feed on them all summer.
And that winter wild animals will eat them.
7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of heaven’s armies.
They will come from the people who are tall and smooth-skinned.
They are feared everywhere.
They are a powerful nation with strange speech.
Their land is divided by rivers.
These gifts will be brought to the place of the Lord of heaven’s armies.
They will be brought to Mount Zion.
God’s Message to Egypt
19 The message about Egypt:
Look, the Lord is coming on a fast cloud.
He will enter Egypt.
And the idols of Egypt will tremble before him.
Egypt’s courage will melt away.
2 The Lord says, “I will cause the Egyptians to fight against themselves.
Men will fight with their brothers.
Neighbors will fight neighbors.
Cities will fight cities.
Kingdoms will fight kingdoms.
3 The Egyptians will be afraid.
I will ruin their plans.
They will ask their idols and spirits of the dead what they should do.
They will ask their mediums and fortune-tellers.”
4 The Master, the Lord of heaven’s armies, says,
“I will give Egypt to a hard master.
A powerful king will rule over them.”
5 The sea will become dry.
The water will disappear from the Nile River.
6 The canals will stink.
The streams of Egypt will decrease and dry up.
All the water plants will rot.
7 All the plants along the banks of the Nile will die.
Even the planted fields by the Nile
will dry up, blow away and disappear.
8 The fishermen, all those who catch fish from the Nile,
will groan and cry.
Those who depend on the Nile for food will be sad.
9 All the people who make cloth from flax will be sad.
Those who weave linen will lose hope.
10 Those who weave cloth will be broken.
All those who work for money will be sad.
11 The officers of the city of Zoan are fools.
The wise men who advise the king of Egypt give wrong advice.
How can they say to him they are wise?
How can they say they are from the old family of the kings?
12 Egypt, where are your wise men?
Let them show you
what the Lord of heaven’s armies has planned for Egypt.
13 The officers of Zoan have been fooled.
The leaders of Memphis have believed false things.
So the leaders of Egypt
lead her the wrong way.
14 The Lord has made the leaders confused.
They wander and lead Egypt in the wrong ways.
They are like drunk people stumbling in their own vomit.
15 There is nothing Egypt can do.
No one in Egypt can help.
16 In that day the people of Egypt will be like frightened women. They will be afraid of the Lord of heaven’s armies. He will raise his hand to strike them down. 17 The land of Judah will bring fear to the people in Egypt. Anyone in Egypt who hears the name Judah will be afraid. This will happen because the Lord of heaven’s armies has planned terrible things for Egypt. 18 At that time five cities in Egypt will speak Hebrew, the language of Canaan. They will promise to be loyal to the Lord of heaven’s armies. One of these cities will be named the City of Destruction. 19 At that time there will be an altar for the Lord in the middle of Egypt. At the border of Egypt there will be a monument to the Lord. 20 This will be a sign. It will show that the Lord of heaven’s armies is powerful. When the people cry to the Lord for help, he will send help. He will send someone to save and defend the people. He will rescue them from those who hurt them.
21 So the Lord will show himself to the Egyptians. Then they will say he is the Lord. They will serve God and offer many sacrifices. They will make promises to the Lord, and they will keep them. 22 The Lord will punish the Egyptians. Then he will heal them. They will come back to the Lord. He will listen to their prayers and heal them.
23 At that time there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. Then people from Assyria will go to Egypt. And the Egyptians will go to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship God together. 24 At that time Israel, Assyria and Egypt will join together. This will be a blessing for the earth. 25 The Lord of heaven’s armies will bless them. He will say, “Egypt, you are my people. Assyria, I made you. Israel, I own you. You are all blessed!”
17 So do not be foolish with your lives. But learn what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Do not be drunk with wine. That will ruin you spiritually. But be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord. 20 Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wives and Husbands
21 Be willing to obey each other. Do this because you respect Christ.
22 Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as of the Lord. 23 The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. The church is Christ’s body—Christ is the Savior of the body. 24 The church is under the authority of Christ. So it is the same with you wives. You should be under the authority of your husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Christ died for the church 26 to make it belong to God. Christ used the word to make the church clean by washing it with water. 27 Christ died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it. 28 And husbands should love their wives in the same way. They should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself. 29 No person ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church, 30 because we are parts of his body. 31 The Scripture says, “So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. And the two people will become one body.”[a] 32 That secret truth is very important—I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself. And a wife must respect her husband.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.