Old/New Testament
Judgment for Betrayal
5 Hear this, O priests!
Pay attention, O house of Israel!
Give ear, O house of the king!
For the judgment applies to you:
For you were a snare at Mizpah
and a net spread on Tabor.
2 Rebels were deep in slaughter,
so I am a chastisement for them all.
3 I myself have known Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from Me.
For now, Ephraim, you are a prostitute—
Israel is defiled!
4 They will not give up their evil deeds
to return to their God.
For a spirit of prostitution is in them,
and Adonai they have not known.
5 The Pride of Israel will answer to his face:
Israel and Ephraim will stagger in their iniquity,
Judah also will stumble with them.
6 With their flocks and with their herds
they will go to seek Adonai,
but they will not find Him—
He has withdrawn from them.
7 They have betrayed Adonai,
for they have begotten foreign children.
Now the New Moon will devour them,
with their portions.
8 Blow a shofar in Gibeah,
a trumpet in Ramah!
Sound an alarm at Beth-aven:
“Behind you, Benjamin!”
9 Ephraim will be become desolate
in the day of rebuke.
Among the tribes of Israel
I made known what is certain.
10 The princes of Judah were like those who move a boundary mark.
I pour out My fury on them like water.
11 Oppressed is Ephraim,
crushed by judgment,
for he willingly followed a worthless thing.
12 So, I will be like a moth to Ephraim
and like decay to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah his wound,
Ephraim went to Assyria
and sent envoys to a warring king.
But he cannot heal you
nor will he cure your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear and go away.
I will carry off, and nobody will rescue.
15 I will go and return to My place
until they admit their guilt.
Then they will seek My face.
In their distress they will seek Me earnestly:
Prayer of Teshuvah
6 Come, let us return to Adonai.
For He has torn, but He will heal us.
He has smitten, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us.
On the third day He will raise us up,
and we will live in His presence.[a]
3 So let us know, let us strive to know Adonai.
Like dawn His going forth is certain.
He will come to us like the rain,
like the latter rain watering the earth.
Covenant Loyalty More Than Sacrifice
4 “O Ephraim, what shall I do for you?
O Judah, what will I do for you?
For your loyalty is like a morning cloud
or like dew rising early, vanishing.
5 Therefore I cut them down by the prophets.
I slew them by the words of My mouth.
Now the judgments pronounced against you:
light will go forth.
6 For I delight in loyalty[b] and not sacrifice,
knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But like Adam, they transgressed a covenant.
There they dealt treacherously with Me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with bloody footprints.
9 Like marauding bands waiting for a man,
so a company of priests murders
on the way toward Shechem.
For they have committed crime.
10 In the house of Israel
I have seen a horrible thing:
Ephraim’s prostitution is there,
Israel has become unclean.
11 Also, Judah, there is a harvest for you,
when I return My people from captivity.”
Iniquity of Senseless Ephraim
7 “When I would have healed Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,
even the wickedness of Samaria,
for they practice fraud.
So a thief breaks in;
a marauding band will raid outside.
2 But they never admit in their heart
that I remember all their evil.
Now their deeds are all around them.
They are right before My face.
3 They gladden the king with their evil
and the princes with their lies.
4 All of them are practicing adultery,
as an oven heated by a baker who stops stirring
or kneading dough when it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king,
princes become sick from wine.
His hand drags scorners along.
6 For their hearts are like an oven,
as they wait in ambush.
All night their anger smolders.
In the morning it burns like a blazing fire.
7 All of them are hot like an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All of their kings have fallen.
None among them calls on Me.
8 Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples.
Ephraim has become a pancake
that never gets turned over.
9 Strangers devoured his strength—
yet he does not know it.
Gray hairs have spread on him—
and he does not know it.
10 Though the Pride of Israel
has answered him to his face,
yet they did not return
to Adonai their God,
nor seek Him about all this.
11 Ephraim is like a senseless silly dove,
they call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.
12 As they are going,
I will spread out My net over them,
I will bring them down like a bird from the sky.
I will chasten them as in the report
that comes to their assembly.
13 Oy to them!
For they strayed from Me.
Devastation to them!
For they rebelled against Me.
Should I redeem them
after they spoke lies about Me?
14 Nor did they not cry to Me in their heart
when they were wailing on their beds.
For the sake of grain and new wine
they slash themselves—
they keep turning away from Me.
15 I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they kept planning evil against Me.
16 They will turn back—only not upwards.
They are like a treacherous bow.
Their princes will fall by the sword
because of the insolence with their tongues.
This will be for their ridicule in the land of Egypt.
Idols Thrown Down
8 “Put a shofar to your mouth!
Like a vulture he comes
against the house of Adonai.
For they overstepped My covenant
and transgressed My Torah.
2 Will they cry out to Me,
‘My God, we—Israel—knew You’?[c]
3 Israel has rejected goodness—
an adversary will pursue him.
4 They crowned kings, but not by Me.
They appointed princes
I did not approve.
Their silver and gold they made into idols—
just so they would be cut down.
5 Samaria! Your calf is thrown down!
My anger is kindled against them!
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For a craftsman from Israel made it,
so it is no god.
For the calf of Samaria will be splinters.
7 “For they sow wind, and reap a whirlwind.
There is no mature grain—
the sprout yields no meal.
Should it produce anything,
strangers would swallow it up.
8 Israel has been swallowed up!
Now they are among the nations,
like an ornament with no delight in it.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey alone by itself.
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Although they hire among the nations,
I will now round them up.
So they will begin to decrease
under the burden of king and princes.
11 “When Ephraim multiplied altars
for making sin offerings,
they became his altars for sinning.
12 Though I were to write out for him
ten thousand things from My Torah,
they are regarded as something strange.
13 Sacrifices are gifts for Me—
should they sacrifice meat and then eat it?
Adonai will not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity
and punish their sin—
they will return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built temples,
while Judah has multiplied fortified cities.
So I will send fire upon its cities
that will consume their citadels.”
Ephesus: Return to Your First Love
2 To the angel of Messiah’s community in Ephesus write: “Thus says the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks in the midst of the seven golden menorot: 2 I know all about your deeds and your toil and your patient endurance, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. You have tested those who call themselves emissaries and are not, and have found them to be liars. 3 You have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
4 “But this I have against you, that you have forsaken your first love. [a] 5 Remember then from where you have fallen. Repent and do the deeds you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your menorah from its place—unless you repent.
6 “Yet you have this going for you, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach is saying to Messiah’s communities. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the Tree of Life, which is in the Paradise of God.”[b]
Smyrna: Do Not Fear Satan’s Testing
8 To the angel of Messiah’s community in Smyrna write: “Thus says the First and Last, who was dead and came to life. 9 I know your tribulation and your poverty (yet you are rich), as well as the slander of those who say they are Jewish and are not, but are a synagogue of satan. 10 Do not fear what 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 have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. [c] 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach is saying to Messiah’s communities. The one who overcomes shall never be harmed by the second death.”
Pergamum: Beware the Trap of Balaam
12 To the angel of Messiah’s community in Pergamum write: “Thus says the One who has the sharp two-edged sword: [d] 13 I know where you live—where satan’s throne is. Yet you continue to hold firm to My name, and you did not deny your faith in Me even in the days of Antipas, My faithful witness, who was killed among you, where satan resides.
14 “But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who was teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before Bnei-Yisrael, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. [e] 15 Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent then! If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of My mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach is saying to Messiah’s communities. To the one who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna,[f] and I will give him a white stone—and written on the stone a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.”[g]
Thyatira: Do Not Tolerate Jezebel
18 To the angel of Messiah’s community in Thyatira write: “Thus says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet like polished bronze: 19 I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your last deeds are greater than the first.
20 “But this I have against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel,[h] who calls herself a prophetess—yet she is teaching and deceiving My servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation—unless they repent of her doings. 23 I will also strike her children with a deadly disease. Then all of Messiah’s communities will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts,[i] and I will give to each of you according to your deeds.
24 “But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to this teaching and have not learned the so-called ‘deep things’ of satan—I place on you no other burden. 25 Only hold firm to what you have until I come. 26 To the one who overcomes and guards My deeds until the end,
‘I will give him authority over the nations
27 and he shall rule them with an iron rod,
as when clay pots are broken into pieces.’[j]
28 Even as I have received from My Father, so I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach is saying to Messiah’s communities.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.