Old/New Testament
An Oracle Concerning Damascus
17 The oracle of Damascus.
See, Damascus will cease from being a city;
it shall be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down,
and no one shall make them afraid.
3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram;
they shall be as the glory of the sons of Israel,
says the Lord of Hosts.
4 In that day the glory of Jacob shall decrease,
and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.
5 It shall be as when the harvestman gathers the corn
and reaps the ears with his arm,
and it shall be as he who gathers ears
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it,
as the shaking of an olive tree,
two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
four or five in its outmost fruitful branches,
says the Lord God of Israel.
7 On that day a man shall look to his Maker,
and his eyes shall have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
8 He shall not look to the altars,
the work of his hands,
nor shall he respect what his fingers have made,
either the groves or the images.
9 In that day his strong cities shall be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the sons of Israel; and there shall be a desolation.
10 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength,
therefore you plant pleasant plants
and set them with vine slips of a strange god;
11 in the day that you plant it, you carefully fence it in,
and in the morning you make your seed to flourish;
but the harvest shall be a heap of ruins
in the day of grief and desperate pain.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people
who make a noise like the noise of the seas,
and the rushing of many peoples
who make a rumble like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13 The nations rumble like the rumbling of many waters;
but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off,
and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
and like rolling dust before the whirlwind.
14 At evening time, sudden terror!
And before the morning, they are no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
and the lot of those who rob us.
An Oracle Concerning Ethiopia
18 Woe to the land vibrating with wings,
which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
2 which sends ambassadors by the sea,
even in vessels of reeds on the waters, saying,
“Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared far and wide,
a nation strong and oppressive,
whose land the rivers have divided.”
3 All you inhabitants of the world,
and dwellers on the earth:
When he lifts up a banner on the mountains,
you will see it;
and when he blows a trumpet,
you will hear it.
4 For so the Lord said to me:
I will look from My dwelling place quietly,
like dazzling heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
and the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
then He shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
and take away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together for the fowl of the mountains
and for the beasts of the earth;
and the fowl shall spend the summer feeding on them,
and all the beasts of the earth shall spend the winter on them.
7 In that time a present shall be brought to the Lord of Hosts
from a people tall and smooth,
and from a people feared far and wide,
a nation strong and oppressive,
whose land the rivers have divided,
to the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, even Mount Zion.
An Oracle Concerning Egypt
19 The oracle of Egypt.
See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
and shall come into Egypt;
and the idols of Egypt shall tremble at His presence,
and the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst.
2 I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians,
and they shall fight every one against his brother,
and every one against his neighbor,
city against city,
and kingdom against kingdom.
3 The spirit of Egypt shall be discouraged in their midst,
and I will destroy their counsel;
then they shall seek for the idols and for the charmers
and for the mediums and the sorcerers.
4 The Egyptians I will give over
into the hand of a cruel lord,
and a fierce king shall rule over them,
says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts.
5 The waters from the sea shall dry up,
and the river shall be parched and dry.
6 The canals shall emit a stench;
the streams of Egypt shall diminish and dry up;
the reeds and rushes shall wither.
7 The papyrus reeds by the brooks,
by the mouth of the brooks,
and everything sown by the brooks,
shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen also shall mourn,
and all those who cast a line into the brooks shall lament,
and those who spread nets on the waters
shall languish.
9 Moreover those who work with fine flax
and those who weave white cloth shall be humiliated;
10 and the pillars of Egypt shall be crushed.
All the hired workers shall be grieved in soul.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools;
the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise,
a son of ancient kings?”
12 Where are they? Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now, and let them understand
what the Lord of Hosts
has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools;
the princes of Memphis are deceived;
they have also seduced Egypt,
even those who are the cornerstone of her tribes.
14 The Lord has mingled
a perverse spirit in her;
so they have caused Egypt to err in her every work,
as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 Nor shall there be any work for Egypt,
which its head or tail, its branch or bulrush, may do.
16 In that day Egypt shall become like women. And it shall be afraid and be in dread because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of Hosts which He is about to shake over it. 17 The land of Judah shall become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom it is mentioned shall be in dread of it, because of the counsel of the Lord of Hosts which He has determined against it.
18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of Hosts. One shall be called the City of Destruction.
19 In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. 20 It shall be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He shall send them a Savior and a Champion. And He shall deliver them. 21 The Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall worship with sacrifice and offering, they shall make a vow to the Lord and perform it. 22 The Lord shall strike Egypt. He shall strike and heal it. Then they shall return to the Lord, and He shall be entreated by them and shall heal them.
23 In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel shall be the third group with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the Lord of Hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not be drunk with wine, for that is reckless living. But be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. 20 Give thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 being submissive to one another in the fear of God.
Wives and Husbands
22 Wives, be submissive to your own husbands as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head and Savior of the church, which is His body. 24 But as the church submits to Christ, so also let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 and that He might present to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 In this way men ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord cares for the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.”[a] 32 This is a great mystery, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.