Old/New Testament
The Women Who Love Pleasure
4 Listen to me, you cows of Bashan[a] on Samaria’s mountain. You hurt the poor and crush those in need. You tell your husbands,[b] “Bring us something to drink!”
2 The Lord God made a promise. He promised by his holiness that troubles will come to you. People will use hooks and take you away as prisoners. They will use fishhooks to take away your children. 3 Your city will be destroyed. The women will rush out through cracks in the wall and throw themselves onto the pile of dead bodies.[c]
This is what the Lord says: 4 “Go to Bethel and sin. Go to Gilgal[d] and sin even more. Offer your sacrifices in the morning. Bring a tenth of your crops for the three-day festival. 5 And offer a thank offering made with yeast. Tell everyone about the freewill offerings.[e] Israel, you love to do those things. So go and do them.” This is what the Lord God said.
6 “I didn’t give you any food to eat.[f] There was no food in any of your cities, but you didn’t come back to me.” This is what the Lord said.
7 “I also stopped the rain, and it was three months before harvest time. So no crops grew. Then I let it rain on one city, but not on another city. Rain fell on one part of the country, but on the other part of the country, the land became very dry. 8 So the people from two or three cities staggered to another city to get water, but there was not enough water for everyone. Still you didn’t come to me for help.” This is what the Lord said.
9 “I made your crops die from heat and disease. I destroyed your gardens and your vineyards. Locusts ate your fig trees and olive trees. But you still didn’t come to me for help.” This is what the Lord said.
10 “I sent diseases against you, as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with swords. I took away your horses. I made your camp smell very bad from all the dead bodies, but still you didn’t come back to me for help.” This is what the Lord said.
11 “I destroyed you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And those cities were completely destroyed. You were like a burned stick pulled from a fire, but still you didn’t come back to me for help.” This is what the Lord says.
12 “So, Israel, this is what I will do to you. You people of Israel, prepare to meet your God.”
13 He is the one who made the mountains.
He created the wind.[g]
He lets people know his thoughts.
He changes the darkness into dawn.
He walks over the mountains of the earth.
His name is Yahweh, Lord God All-Powerful.
A Sad Song for Israel
5 People of Israel, listen to this song. This funeral song is about you.
2 The virgin[h] of Israel has fallen.
She will not get up anymore.
She was left alone, lying in the dirt.
There is no one to lift her up.
3 This is what the Lord God says:
“Officers leaving the city with 1000 men
will return with only 100 men.
Officers leaving the city with 100 men
will return with only ten men.”
The Lord Encourages Israel to Come Back
4 The Lord says this to the nation[i] of Israel:
“Come looking for me and live.
5 But don’t look in Bethel.
Don’t go to Gilgal.
Don’t cross the border and go down to Beersheba.[j]
The people of Gilgal will be taken away as prisoners,[k]
and Bethel will be destroyed.[l]
6 Come to the Lord and live.
If you don’t go to him, a fire will start at Joseph’s house,[m]
and no one in Bethel[n] can stop it.
7-9 You should go to the Lord for help.
He is the one who made the Pleiades and Orion.[o]
He changes darkness into the morning light.
He changes the day into the dark night.
He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth.
His name is Yahweh!
He keeps one strong city safe,
and he lets another strong city be destroyed.”
The Evil Things That the Israelites Did
You change justice to poison.[p]
You throw away fairness like trash.
10 You hate those prophets, who go to public places and speak against evil,
even though they teach good, simple truths.
11 You take unfair taxes[q] from the poor.
You take loads of wheat from them.
You build fancy houses with cut stone,
but you will not live in them.
You plant beautiful vineyards,
but you will not drink the wine from them.
12 This is because I know about your many sins.
You have done some very bad things:
You hurt people who do right,
you accept money to do wrong,
and you keep the poor from receiving justice in court.
13 At that time wise teachers will be quiet,
because it is a bad time.
14 You say that God is with you,
so you should do good things, not evil.
Then you will live,
and the Lord God All-Powerful will be with you.
15 Hate evil and love goodness.
Bring justice back into the courts.
Maybe then the Lord God All-Powerful
will be kind to the survivors from Joseph’s family.
A Time of Great Sadness Is Coming
16 The Lord, the Lord God All-Powerful says,
“People will be crying in the public places.
They will be crying in the streets.
They will hire the professional criers.[r]
17 People will be crying in the vineyards,
because I will pass through and punish you.”
This is what the Lord said.
18 Some of you want to see
the Lord’s special day of judgment.
Why do you want to see that day of the Lord?
His special day will bring darkness, not light.
19 You will be like someone who escapes from a lion
only to be attacked by a bear,
or like someone who goes into the safety of his house,
leans against the wall,
and is bitten by a snake.
20 The Lord’s special day will be
a day of darkness, not light—a day of gloom, without a ray of light.
The Lord Rejects Israel’s Worship
21 “I hate your festivals;
I will not accept them.
I don’t enjoy your religious meetings.
22 Even if you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
I will not even look at the fat animals
you give as fellowship offerings.
23 Take your noisy songs away from here.
I will not listen to the music from your harps.
24 But let justice flow like a river,
and let goodness flow like a stream that never becomes dry.
25 Israel, you offered me sacrifices
and offerings in the desert for 40 years.[s]
26 But you also carried statues of Sakkuth, your king, and Kaiwan.[t]
There was also that star god[u] that you made for yourselves.
27 So I will send you as captives, far beyond Damascus.”
This is what the Lord says.
His name is God All-Powerful.
Israel’s Good Times Will Be Taken Away
6 Oh, look at the people enjoying life in Zion,
and those on Mount Samaria who feel so safe.
They are such important leaders of a most important nation.
The “House of Israel” comes to you for advice.
2 Go look at Calneh.
From there, go to the large city Hamath.
Go to the Philistine city of Gath.[v]
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Their countries are larger than yours.
3 You people are rushing toward the day of punishment.
You bring near the rule of violence.
4 But now you lie on ivory beds
and stretch out on your couches.
You eat tender young lambs from the flock
and young calves from the stable.
5 You play your harps,
and like David, you practice on[w] your musical instruments.
6 You drink wine in fancy cups.[x]
You use the best perfumes.
And it doesn’t even bother you
that Joseph’s family is being destroyed.
7 You people are stretched out on your couches now, but your good times will end. You will be taken away as prisoners to a foreign country, and you will be some of the first people taken. 8 The Lord God used his own name and made an oath. The Lord God All-Powerful said,
“I hate what Jacob is proud of.
I hate his strong towers.
So I will let an enemy take the city
and everything in it.”
There Will Be Few Israelites Left Alive
9 At that time ten people in one house might survive, but they too will die. 10 And when someone dies, a relative will come to get the body so that it can be taken out and burned.[y] Relatives will come to take away the bones. They will call to anyone who might be hiding back in the house, “Are there any other dead bodies in there with you?”
That person will answer, “No, ….”[z]
But the relative will interrupt and say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 Look, the Lord will give the command,
and the large houses will be broken to pieces,
and the small houses will be broken to small pieces.
12 Do horses run over loose rocks?
No, and people don’t use cows for plowing.
But you turned everything upside down.
You changed justice and goodness to bitter poison.
13 You are so excited about defeating Lo Debar.[aa]
And you boast, “We have taken Karnaim[ab] by our own strength.”
14 “But Israel, I will bring a nation against you that will bring troubles to your whole country from Lebo Hamath to Arabah Brook.” This is what the Lord God All-Powerful said.
The 144,000 People of Israel
7 After this happened I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. The angels were holding the four winds of the earth. They were stopping the wind from blowing on the land or the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming from the east. This angel had the seal of the living God. The angel called out in a loud voice to the four angels. These were the four angels that God had given the power to hurt the earth and the sea. The angel said to them, 3 “Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees before we mark the foreheads of those who serve our God.”
4 Then I heard how many people had God’s mark on their foreheads. There were 144,000. They were from every tribe of the people of Israel:
5 from the tribe of Judah 12,000
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000
from the tribe of Gad 12,000
6 from the tribe of Asher 12,000
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000
7 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000
from the tribe of Levi 12,000
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000
8 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000
The Great Crowd
9 Then I looked, and there was a large crowd of people. There were so many people that no one could count them all. They were from every nation, tribe, race of people, and language of the earth. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They all wore white robes and had palm branches in their hands. 10 They shouted loudly, “Victory belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
11 The elders and the four living beings were there. All the angels were standing around them and the throne. The angels bowed down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God. 12 They said, “Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power, and strength belong to our God forever and ever. Amen!”
13 Then one of the elders asked me, “Who are these people in white robes? Where did they come from?”
14 I answered, “You know who they are, sir.”
And the elder said, “These are the ones who have come out of the great suffering. They have washed their robes[a] with the blood of the Lamb, and they are clean and white. 15 So now these people are before the throne of God. They worship God day and night in his temple. And the one who sits on the throne will protect them. 16 They will never be hungry again. They will never be thirsty again. The sun will not hurt them. No heat will burn them. 17 The Lamb in front of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of water that give life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International