Old/New Testament
5 “Listen to this, you priests and all of Israel’s leaders; listen, all you men of the royal family: You are doomed! For you have deluded the people with idols at Mizpah and Tabor 2 and dug a deep pit to trap them at Acacia. But never forget—I will settle up with all of you for what you’ve done.
3 “I have seen your evil deeds: Israel, you have left me as a prostitute leaves her husband; you are utterly defiled. 4 Your deeds won’t let you come to God again, for the spirit of adultery is deep within you, and you cannot know the Lord.
5 “The very arrogance of Israel testifies against her in my court. She will stumble under her load of guilt, and Judah, too, shall fall. 6 Then at last, they will come with their flocks and herds to sacrifice to God, but it will be too late—they will not find him. He has withdrawn from them and they are left alone.
7 “For they have betrayed the honor of the Lord, bearing children that aren’t his. Suddenly they and all their wealth will disappear. 8 Sound the alarm! Warn with trumpet blasts in Gibeah and Ramah, and on over to Beth-aven; tremble, land of Benjamin! 9 Hear this announcement, Israel: When your day of punishment comes, you will become a heap of rubble.
10 “The leaders of Judah have become the lowest sort of thieves.[a] Therefore, I will pour my anger down upon them like a waterfall, 11 and Ephraim will be crushed and broken by my sentence because she is determined to follow idols. 12 I will destroy her as a moth does wool; I will sap away the strength of Judah like dry rot.
13 “When Ephraim and Judah see how sick they are, Ephraim will turn to Assyria, to the great king there, but he can neither help nor cure.
14 “I will tear Ephraim and Judah as a lion rips apart its prey; I will carry them off and chase all rescuers away.
15 “I will abandon them and return to my home until they admit their guilt and look to me for help again, for as soon as trouble comes, they will search for me and say:
6 “‘Come, let us return to the Lord; it is he who has torn us—he will heal us. He has wounded—he will bind us up. 2 In just a couple of days,[b] or three at the most, he will set us on our feet again to live in his kindness! 3 Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him, and he will respond to us as surely as the coming of dawn or the rain of early spring.’”
4 “O Ephraim and Judah, what shall I do with you? For your love vanishes like morning clouds, and disappears like dew. 5 I sent my prophets to warn you of your doom; I have slain you with the words of my mouth, threatening you with death. Suddenly, without warning, my judgment will strike you as surely as day follows night.
6 “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me.
7 “But like Adam, you broke my covenant; you refused my love. 8 Gilead is a city of sinners, tracked with footprints of blood. 9 Her citizens are gangs of robbers, lying in ambush for their victims; packs of priests murder along the road to Shechem and practice every kind of sin. 10 Yes, I have seen a horrible thing in Israel—Ephraim chasing other gods, Israel utterly defiled.
11 “O Judah, for you also there is a plentiful harvest of punishment waiting—and I wanted so much to bless you!
7 “I wanted to forgive Israel, but her sins were far too great—no one can even live in Samaria without being a liar, thief, and bandit!
2 “Her people never seem to recognize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds give them away on every side; I see them all. 3 The king is glad about their wickedness; the princes laugh about their lies. 4 They are all adulterers; as a baker’s oven is constantly aflame—except after he kneads the dough and waits for it to rise again—so are these people constantly aflame with lust.
5 “On the king’s birthday, the princes get him drunk; he makes a fool of himself and drinks with those who mock him. 6 Their hearts blaze like a furnace with intrigue. Their plot smolders through the night, and in the morning it flames forth like raging fire.
7 “They kill their kings one after another,[c] and no one cries out to me for help.
8 “My people mingle with the heathen, picking up their evil ways; thus they become as good-for-nothing as a half-baked cake!
9 “Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don’t know it. Ephraim’s hair is turning gray, and he doesn’t even realize how weak and old he is. 10 His pride in other gods has openly condemned him; yet he doesn’t return to his God, nor even try to find him.
11 “Ephraim is a silly, witless dove, calling to Egypt, flying to Assyria. 12 But as she flies, I throw my net over her and bring her down like a bird from the sky; I will punish her for all her evil ways.
13 “Woe to my people for deserting me; let them perish, for they have sinned against me. I wanted to redeem them but their hard hearts would not accept the truth. 14 They lie there sleepless with anxiety but won’t ask my help. Instead, they worship heathen gods, asking them for crops and for prosperity.
15 “I have helped them and made them strong, yet now they turn against me.
16 “They look everywhere except to heaven, to the Most High God. They are like a crooked bow that always misses targets; their leaders will perish by the sword of the enemy for their insolence to me. And all Egypt will laugh at them.
8 “Sound the alarm! They are coming! Like a vulture, the enemy descends upon the people of God because they have broken my treaty and revolted against my laws.
2 “Now Israel pleads with me and says, ‘Help us, for you are our God!’ 3 But it is too late! Israel has thrown away her chance with contempt, and now her enemies will chase her. 4 She has appointed kings and princes, but not with my consent. They have cut themselves off from my help by worshiping the idols that they made from their silver and gold.
5 “O Samaria, I reject this calf—this idol you have made. My fury burns against you. How long will it be before one honest man is found among you? 6 When will you admit this calf you worship was made by human hands! It is not God! Therefore, it must be smashed to bits.
7 “They have sown the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. Their cornstalks stand there barren, withered, sickly, with no grain; if it has any, foreigners will eat it.
8 “Israel is destroyed; she lies among the nations as a broken pot. 9 She is a lonely, wandering wild ass. The only friends she has are those she hires; Assyria is one of them.
10 “But though she hires ‘friends’ from many lands, I will send her off to exile. Then for a while at least she will be free of the burden of her wonderful king! 11 Ephraim has built many altars, but they are not to worship me! They are altars of sin! 12 Even if I gave her ten thousand laws, she’d say they weren’t for her—that they applied to someone far away. 13 Her people love the ritual of their sacrifice, but to me it is meaningless! I will call for an accounting of their sins and punish them; they shall return to Egypt.
14 “Israel has built great palaces; Judah has constructed great defenses for her cities, but they have forgotten their Maker. Therefore, I will send down fire upon those palaces and burn those fortresses.”
2
“I write to inform you of a message from him who walks among the churches and holds their leaders in his right hand.
“He says to you: 2 I know how many good things you are doing. I have watched your hard work and your patience; I know you don’t tolerate sin among your members, and you have carefully examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but aren’t. You have found out how they lie. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
4 “Yet there is one thing wrong; you don’t love me as at first! 5 Think about those times of your first love (how different now!) and turn back to me again and work as you did before; or else I will come and remove your candlestick from its place among the churches.
6 “But there is this about you that is good: You hate the deeds of the licentious Nicolaitans,[b] just as I do.
7 “Let this message sink into the ears of anyone who listens to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: To everyone who is victorious, I will give fruit from the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God.
8
“This message is from him who is the First and Last, who was dead and then came back to life.
9 “I know how much you suffer for the Lord, and I know all about your poverty (but you have heavenly riches!). I know the slander of those opposing you, who say that they are Jews—the children of God—but they aren’t, for they support the cause of Satan. 10 Stop being afraid of what you are about to suffer—for the devil will soon throw some of you into prison to test you. You will be persecuted for ‘ten days.’ Remain faithful even when facing death and I will give you the crown of life—an unending, glorious future.[c] 11 Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: He who is victorious shall not be hurt by the Second Death.
12
“This message is from him who wields the sharp and double-bladed sword. 13 I am fully aware that you live in the city where Satan’s throne is, at the center of satanic worship; and yet you have remained loyal to me and refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you by Satan’s devotees.
14 “And yet I have a few things against you. You tolerate some among you who do as Balaam did when he taught Balak how to ruin the people of Israel by involving them in sexual sin and encouraging them to go to idol feasts. 15 Yes, you have some of these very same followers of Balaam[d] among you!
16 “Change your mind and attitude, or else I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 “Let everyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: Everyone who is victorious shall eat of the hidden manna, the secret nourishment from heaven; and I will give to each a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one else knows except the one receiving it.
18
“This is a message from the Son of God, whose eyes penetrate like flames of fire, whose feet are like glowing brass.
19 “I am aware of all your good deeds—your kindness to the poor, your gifts and service to them; also I know your love and faith and patience, and I can see your constant improvement in all these things.
20 “Yet I have this against you: You are permitting that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach my servants that sex sin is not a serious matter; she urges them to practice immorality and to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to change her mind and attitude, but she refused. 22 Pay attention now to what I am saying: I will lay her upon a sickbed of intense affliction, along with all her immoral followers,[e] unless they turn again to me, repenting of their sin with her; 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches deep within men’s hearts, and minds; I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.
24-25 “As for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, really), I will ask nothing further of you; only hold tightly to what you have until I come.
26 “To everyone who overcomes—who to the very end keeps on doing things that please me—I will give power over the nations. 27 You will rule them with a rod of iron just as my Father gave me the authority to rule them; they will be shattered like a pot of clay that is broken into tiny pieces. 28 And I will give you the Morning Star!
29 “Let all who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.