Old/New Testament
III. Announcement of Judgment
Chapter 6
1 [a]Hear, then, what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice!(A)
2 Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s case,
pay attention, O foundations of the earth!
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he enters into trial with Israel.
3 My people, what have I done to you?
how have I wearied you? Answer me!(B)
4 I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
from the place of slavery I ransomed you;
And I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.(C)
5 [b]My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak planned,
and how Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him.
Recall the passage from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the just deeds of the Lord.(D)
6 [c]With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow before God most high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?(E)
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with myriad streams of oil?
[d] Shall I give my firstborn for my crime,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 [e]You have been told, O mortal, what is good,
and what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.(F)
9 [f]The Lord cries aloud to the city
(It is prudent to fear your name!):
Hear, O tribe and city assembly,
10 Am I to bear criminal hoarding
and the accursed short ephah?[g]
11 Shall I acquit crooked scales,
bags of false weights?
12 You whose wealthy are full of violence,
whose inhabitants speak falsehood
with deceitful tongues in their mouths!
13 I have begun to strike you
with devastation because of your sins.
14 You shall eat, without being satisfied,
food that will leave you empty;
What you acquire, you cannot save;
what you do save, I will deliver up to the sword.(G)
15 You shall sow, yet not reap,
tread out the olive, yet pour no oil,
crush the grapes, yet drink no wine.(H)
16 You have kept the decrees of Omri,
and all the works of the house of Ahab,
and you have walked in their counsels;
Therefore I will deliver you up to ruin,
and your citizens to derision;
and you shall bear the reproach of the nations.
Chapter 7
1 Woe is me! I am like the one who gathers summer fruit,
when the vines have been gleaned;
There is no cluster to eat,
no early fig that I crave.
2 The faithful have vanished from the earth,
no mortal is just!
They all lie in wait to shed blood,
each one ensnares the other.(I)
3 Their hands succeed at evil;
the prince makes demands,
The judge is bought for a price,
the powerful speak as they please.(J)
4 The best of them is like a brier,
the most honest like a thorn hedge.
The day announced by your sentinels!
Your punishment has come;
now is the time of your confusion.
5 Put no faith in a friend,
do not trust a companion;
With her who lies in your embrace
watch what you say.(K)
6 For the son belittles his father,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
and your enemies are members of your household.(L)
IV. Confidence in God’s Future
7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
I will wait for God my savior;
my God will hear me!(M)
8 [h]Do not rejoice over me, my enemy![i]
though I have fallen, I will arise;
though I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light.
9 I will endure the wrath of the Lord
because I have sinned against him,
Until he pleads my case,
and establishes my right.
He will bring me forth to the light;
I will see his righteousness.
10 When my enemy sees this,
shame shall cover her:
She who said to me,
“Where is the Lord, your God?”
My eyes shall see her downfall;
now she will be trampled[j] underfoot,
like mud in the streets.
11 [k]It is the day for building your walls;
on that day your boundaries shall be enlarged.
12 It is the day when those from Assyria to Egypt
shall come to you,
And from Tyre even to the River,
from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain;(N)
13 And the earth shall be a waste
because of its inhabitants,
as a result of their deeds.
14 [l]Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your heritage,
That lives apart(O) in a woodland,
in the midst of an orchard.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead,
as in the days of old;
15 As in the days when you came from the land of Egypt,
show us wonderful signs.
16 The nations will see and will be put to shame,
in spite of all their strength;
They will put their hands over their mouths;
their ears will become deaf.
17 They will lick the dust like a snake,
like crawling things on the ground;
They will come quaking from their strongholds;
they will tremble in fear of you, the Lord, our God.
18 [m]Who is a God like you, who removes guilt
and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance;
Who does not persist in anger forever,
but instead delights in mercy,(P)
19 And will again have compassion on us,
treading underfoot our iniquities?
You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins;
20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob,
and loyalty to Abraham,
As you have sworn to our ancestors
from days of old.(Q)
Chapter 13
The First Beast.[a] 1 Then I saw a beast come out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads; on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads blasphemous name[s].(A) 2 The beast I saw was like a leopard, but it had feet like a bear’s, and its mouth was like the mouth of a lion.[b](B) To it the dragon gave its own power and throne, along with great authority. 3 I saw that one of its heads seemed to have been mortally wounded, but this mortal wound was healed.[c] Fascinated, the whole world followed after the beast. 4 They worshiped the dragon because it gave its authority to the beast; they also worshiped the beast[d] and said, “Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?”
5 [e]The beast was given a mouth uttering proud boasts and blasphemies,(C) and it was given authority to act for forty-two months.[f] 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was also allowed to wage war against the holy ones and conquer them, and it was granted authority over every tribe, people, tongue, and nation.(D) 8 All the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, all whose names were not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life, which belongs to the Lamb who was slain.(E)
9 Whoever has ears ought to hear these words.(F)
10 Anyone destined for captivity goes into captivity.
Anyone destined to be slain by the sword shall be slain by the sword.(G)
Such is the faithful endurance of the holy ones.
The Second Beast.[g] 11 Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb’s but spoke like a dragon. 12 It wielded all the authority of the first beast in its sight and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. 13 It performed great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of everyone.(H) 14 It deceived the inhabitants of the earth with the signs it was allowed to perform in the sight of the first beast, telling them to make an image for the beast who had been wounded by the sword and revived. 15 It was then permitted to breathe life into the beast’s image, so that the beast’s image could speak and [could] have anyone who did not worship it put to death.(I) 16 It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads,(J) 17 so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beast’s name or the number that stood for its name.
18 [h](K)Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.