Old/New Testament
Israel’s Punishment
9 Israel, do not rejoice;
don’t shout for joy as the other nations do.
You have been like a prostitute against your God.
You love the pay of prostitutes on every threshing floor.
2 But the threshing floor and the winepress will not feed the people,
and there won’t be enough new wine.
3 The people will not stay in the Lord’s land.
Israel will return to being captives as they were in Egypt,
and in Assyria they will eat food that they are not allowed to eat.
4 The Israelites will not give offerings of wine to the Lord;
they will not give him sacrifices.
Their sacrifices will be like food that is eaten at a funeral;
it is unclean, and everyone who eats it becomes unclean.
Their food will only satisfy their hunger;
they cannot sacrifice it in the Temple.
5 What will you do then on the day of feasts
and on the day of the Lord’s festival?
6 Even if the people are not destroyed,
Egypt will capture them;
Memphis[a] will bury them.
Weeds will grow over their silver treasures,
and thorns will drive them out of their tents.
7 The time of punishment has come,
the time to pay for sins.
Let Israel know this:
You think the prophet is a fool,
and you say the spiritual person is crazy.
You have sinned very much,
and your hatred is great.
8 Is Israel a watchman?
Are God’s people prophets?
Everywhere Israel goes, traps are set for him.
He is an enemy in God’s house.
9 The people of Israel have gone deep into sin
as the people of Gibeah[b] did.
The Lord will remember the evil things they have done,
and he will punish their sins.
10 “When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert.
Your ancestors were like
finding the first figs on the fig tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
they began worshiping an idol,
and they became as hateful as the thing they worshiped.
11 Israel’s glory will fly away like a bird;
there will be no more pregnancy, no more births, no more getting pregnant.
12 But even if the Israelites bring up children,
I will take them all away.
How terrible it will be for them
when I go away from them!
13 I have seen Israel, like Tyre,
given a pleasant place.
But the people of Israel will soon bring out
their children to be killed.”
14 Lord, give them what they should have.
What will you give them?
Make their women unable to have children;
give them dried-up breasts that cannot feed their babies.
15 “The Israelites were very wicked in Gilgal,
so I have hated them there.
Because of the sinful things they have done,
I will force them to leave my land.
I will no longer love them;
their leaders have turned against me.
16 Israel is beaten down;
its root is dying, and it has no fruit.
If they have more children,
I will kill the children they love.”
17 God will reject them,
because they have not obeyed him;
they will wander among the nations.
Israel Will Pay for Sin
10 Israel is like a large vine
that produced plenty of fruit.
As the people became richer,
they built more altars for idols.
As their land became better,
they put up better stone pillars to honor gods.
2 Their heart was false,
and now they must pay for their guilt.
The Lord will break down their altars;
he will destroy their holy stone pillars.
3 Then they will say, “We have no king,
because we didn’t honor the Lord.
As for the king,
he couldn’t do anything for us.”
4 They make many false promises
and agreements which they don’t keep.
So people sue each other in court;
they are like poisonous weeds growing in a plowed field.
5 The people from Israel are worried about
the calf-shaped idol at Beth Aven.
The people will cry about it,
and the priests will cry about it.
They used to shout for joy about its glory,
6 but it will be carried off to Assyria
as a gift to the great king.
Israel will be disgraced,
and the people will be ashamed for not obeying.
7 Israel will be destroyed;
its king will be like a chip of wood floating on the water.
8 The places of false worship will be destroyed,
the places where Israel sins.
Thorns and weeds will grow up
and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
9 “Israel, you have sinned since the time of Gibeah,[c]
and the people there have continued sinning.
But war will surely overwhelm them in Gibeah,
because of the evil they have done there.
10 When I am ready,
I will come to punish them.
Nations will come together against them,
and they will be punished for their double sins.
11 Israel is like a well-trained young cow
that likes to thresh grain.
I will put a yoke on her neck
and make her work hard in the field.
Israel will plow,
and Judah will break up the ground.
12 I said, ‘Plant goodness,
harvest the fruit of loyalty,
plow the new ground of knowledge.
Look for the Lord until he comes
and pours goodness on you like water.’
13 But you have plowed evil
and harvested trouble;
you have eaten the fruit of your lies.
Because you have trusted in your own power
and your many soldiers,
14 your people will hear the noise of battle,
and all your strong, walled cities will be destroyed.
It will be like the time King Shalman
destroyed Beth Arbel in battle,
when mothers and their children were bashed to death.
15 The same will happen to you, people of Bethel,
because you did so much evil.
When the sun comes up,
the king of Israel will die.
God’s Love for Israel
11 “When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and I called my son out of Egypt.
2 But when I called the people of Israel,
they went away from me.
They offered sacrifices to the Baals
and burned incense to the idols.
3 It was I who taught Israel to walk,
and I took them by the arms,
but they did not understand
that I had healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ropes of love.
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down and fed them.
5 “The Israelites will become captives again, as they were in Egypt,
and Assyria will become their king,
because they refuse to turn back to God.
6 War will sweep through their cities
and will destroy them
and kill them because of their wicked plans.
7 My people have made up their minds
to turn away from me.
The prophets call them to turn to me,
but none of them honors me at all.
8 “Israel, how can I give you up?
How can I give you away, Israel?
I don’t want to make you like Admah
or treat you like Zeboiim.[d]
My heart beats for you,
and my love for you stirs up my pity.
9 I won’t punish you in my anger,
and I won’t destroy Israel again.
I am God and not a human;
I am the Holy One, and I am among you.
I will not come against you in anger.
10 They will go after the Lord,
and he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will hurry to him from the west.
11 They will come swiftly
like birds from Egypt
and like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them again in their homes,”
says the Lord.
The Lord Is Against Israel
12 Israel has surrounded me with lies;
the people have made evil plans.
And Judah turns against God,
the faithful Holy One.
To the Church in Sardis
3 “Write this to the angel of the church in Sardis:
“The One who has the seven spirits and the seven stars says this: I know what you do. People say that you are alive, but really you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what you have left before it dies completely. I have found that what you are doing is less than what my God wants. 3 So do not forget what you have received and heard. Obey it, and change your hearts and lives. So you must wake up, or I will come like a thief, and you will not know when I will come to you. 4 But you have a few there in Sardis who have kept their clothes unstained, so they will walk with me and will wear white clothes, because they are worthy. 5 Those who win the victory will be dressed in white clothes like them. And I will not erase their names from the book of life, but I will say they belong to me before my Father and before his angels. 6 Everyone who has ears should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the Church in Philadelphia
7 “Write this to the angel of the church in Philadelphia:
“This is what the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David, says. When he opens a door, no one can close it. And when he closes it, no one can open it. 8 I know what you do. I have put an open door before you, which no one can close. I know you have little strength, but you have obeyed my teaching and were not afraid to speak my name. 9 Those in the synagogue that belongs to Satan say they are Jews, but they are not true Jews; they are liars. I will make them come before you and bow at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you. 10 You have obeyed my teaching about not giving up your faith. So I will keep you from the time of trouble that will come to the whole world to test those who live on earth.
11 “I am coming soon. Continue strong in your faith so no one will take away your crown. 12 I will make those who win the victory pillars in the temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem,[a] that comes down out of heaven from my God. I will also write on them my new name. 13 Everyone who has ears should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the Church in Laodicea
14 “Write this to the angel of the church in Laodicea:
“The Amen,[b] the faithful and true witness, the ruler of all God has made, says this: 15 I know what you do, that you are not hot or cold. I wish that you were hot or cold! 16 But because you are lukewarm—neither hot, nor cold—I am ready to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich, and I have become wealthy and do not need anything.’ But you do not know that you are really miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I advise you to buy from me gold made pure in fire so you can be truly rich. Buy from me white clothes so you can be clothed and so you can cover your shameful nakedness. Buy from me medicine to put on your eyes so you can truly see.
19 “I correct and punish those whom I love. So be eager to do right, and change your hearts and lives. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you will eat with me.
21 “Those who win the victory will sit with me on my throne in the same way that I won the victory and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Everyone who has ears should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.