Old/New Testament
Judgment Against Israel and Judah
5 Hear this, O priests!
Pay attention, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
For the judgment is for you,
because you have been a snare at Mizpah
and a net spread over Tabor,
2 and a pit dug deep in Shittim;
but I will discipline them all.
3 I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from Me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore.
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not allow them
to return to their God;
for a spirit of harlotry is in their midst,
and they do not know the Lord.
5 The pride of Israel testifies against him.
Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity.
Judah also stumbles with them.
6 With their flocks and their herds they will go
to seek the Lord,
but they will not find Him.
He has withdrawn from them.
7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord,
for they have given birth to illegitimate children.
Now the New Moon will devour them
along with their portion.
War, Wrath, and Repentance
8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,
and the trumpet in Ramah.
Cry aloud at Beth Aven,
“Look behind you, O Benjamin!”[a]
9 Ephraim will become desolate
in the day of punishment.
Among the tribes of Israel
I make known that which is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become
like those who remove a boundary marker.
Upon them I will pour out
My wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed
and broken in judgment,
because he eagerly followed after vanity.
12 Therefore I will be like pus to Ephraim
and like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah saw his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
and sent to King Jareb.[b]
Yet he cannot cure you
or heal your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, Myself, will tear and go away.
I will carry off, and no one will rescue.
15 I will again return to My place
until they acknowledge their offense
and seek My face.
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
A Call to Repentance
6 Come, let us return to the Lord,
for He has torn,
and He will heal us.
He has struck,
and He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us.
On the third day He will raise us up,
that we may live before Him.
3 Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain;
like the spring rains He will water the earth.
Impenitence of Israel and Judah
4 What shall I do to you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do to you, O Judah?
Your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
and like the early dew it goes away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets.
I have killed them by the words of My mouth,
and My[c] judgments go forth like light.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But like men[d] they have transgressed the covenant.
There they dealt faithlessly with Me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
polluted with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for someone,
so a company of priests
murder on the way to Shechem.
They commit a shameful deed.
10 I have seen a horrible thing
in the house of Israel.
The harlotry of Ephraim is there;
Israel is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,
when I restore the fortunes of My people.
7 When I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the wickedness of Samaria.
For they deal deceitfully;
the thief breaks in;
the robbers raid outside,
2 but they did not consider in their hearts
that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their own deeds surround them;
they are before My face.
Corrupt and Disloyal Politics
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers,
like an oven heated by a baker,
who ceases stirring the fire
after kneading the dough until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king the princes made him sick
from the heat of wine.
He stretched out his hand with scorners.
6 For they are kindled[e] like an oven.
Their heart burns within them;[f]
their anger smolders[g] all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven,
and they devour their judges.
All their kings have fallen,
and none of them calls to Me.
8 Ephraim mixes himself with the people.
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Foreigners devour his strength,
but he does not know it.
Gray hairs are here and there upon him,
but he does not know it.
10 The pride of Israel testifies against him,
but they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek Him for all this.
11 Ephraim is like a dove,
silly and without sense;
they call to Egypt,
they go to Assyria.
12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like the birds of the sky;
I will discipline them according to
the report to their congregation.
13 Woe to them,
for they have fled from Me!
Destruction to them,
for they have rebelled against Me!
Though I would redeem them,
yet they speak lies against Me.
14 They do not cry to Me with their heart
when they howl on their beds.
They gather together for grain and wine,
they rebel against Me.
15 Though I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise mischief against Me.
16 They return, but not to the Most High.
They are like a loose bow.
Their princes will fall by the sword
for the rage of their tongue.
This will be their derision
in the land of Egypt.
The Apostasy of Israel
8 Set the trumpet to your mouth!
One like an eagle is on the house of the Lord,
because they have transgressed My covenant
and rebelled against My law.
2 Israel cries to Me,
“My God, we know You.”
3 Israel has cast off the good;
the enemy will pursue him.
4 They set up kings, but not through Me;
they made princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and gold,
they made idols,
so that they will be cut off.
5 Your calf, O Samaria, is rejected!
My anger is kindled against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For it is from Israel;
a craftsman made it,
and it is not God!
The calf of Samaria
will be broken to pieces.
7 For they sow the wind,
and they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no head
and will yield no flour.
If it were to yield,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up.
Now they are among the nations
as a vessel in which there is no pleasure.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey alone by itself;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Though they hire among the nations,
I will now gather them.
They will begin to diminish due to the burden
of the king of princes.
11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
12 I have written for him the great things of My law,
but they were regarded as a strange thing.
13 For the sacrifices of My offerings,
they sacrifice flesh and eat it;
but the Lord does not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
They will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built temples,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
so I will send a fire upon his cities,
and it will devour his palaces.
The Message to Ephesus
2 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write:
“He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, says these things: 2 I know your works, your labor and your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles, but are not, and have found them to be liars. 3 You have endured, and have been patient, and for My name’s sake have labored and have not grown weary.
4 “But I have something against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your candlestick from its place, unless you repent. 6 But this you have: You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give permission to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.
The Message to Smyrna
8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
“The First and the Last, who was dead and came to life, says these things: 9 I know your works and tribulation and poverty (but you are rich). And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
11 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.
The Message to Pergamum
12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
“He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things: 13 I know your works and where you live, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold firmly to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
14 “But I have a few things against you: You have there those who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. 15 So you also have those who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will war against them with the sword of My mouth.
17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except he who receives it.
The Message to Thyatira
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
“The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like fine brass, says these things: 19 I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and that your last works are more than the first.
20 “But I have a few things against you: You permit that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, but she did not repent. 22 Look! I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23 I will put her children to death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the hearts and minds. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
24 “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this teaching, who have not known what some call the ‘depths of Satan,’ I will put on you no other burden. 25 But hold firmly what you have until I come.
26 “To him who overcomes and keeps My works to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
27 He ‘shall rule them with a rod of iron;
like the vessels of a potter they shall be broken in pieces’[a]—
even as I myself have received authority from My Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.