Old/New Testament
A Warning to the Northern Kingdom
28
Woe to drunken Ephraim’s proud crown,
to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
on the peak that overlooks a fertile valley.
Woe to those who are overcome with wine!
2 Look, the Lord has someone who is strong and mighty.
Like a hailstorm,
like a destructive windstorm,
like a hurricane that drives surging waters,
he will throw them down to the earth with his own hand.
3 Drunken Ephraim’s proud crown will be trampled underfoot.
4 The fading flower of its glorious beauty, on the peak overlooking
a fertile valley,
will be like the early figs before summer,
which someone picks and swallows as soon as he sees them.
5 On that day the Lord of Armies will become a glorious crown
and a beautifully braided headband for the remnant of his people.
6 He will provide a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment,
and strength for those who turn back the battle at the gate.
The Drunken Prophets and Priests
7 They stagger into error because of wine,
and they stumble off the way because of beer.
The priests and prophets stagger with beer,
and they are dizzy from wine.
They stumble from beer.
They stagger when they see visions.
They reel when they render judgment.
8 All their tables are covered with vomit.
There is not a spot without filth.
9 They[a] say:
Who is he trying to teach?
Who needs his instruction?
A baby who has just been weaned from milk?
An infant just taken from the breast?
10 They say:
Law by law, law by law,
rule by rule, rule by rule,[b]
a little here, a little there.
11 So the Lord will speak to this people
with barbarous lips and in a foreign tongue.
12 He said to them,
“This is the resting place.
Let the weary rest.
This is the place to be refreshed,”
but they would not listen.
13 That is why to them the word of the Lord will be:
Law by law, law by law,
rule by rule, rule by rule,[c]
a little here, a little there.
As a result they will try to walk,
but they will fall backwards.
They will be hurt, trapped, and taken.
A Covenant With Death
14 So now, hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers,
who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 You said:
We have made a covenant with death,
an agreement with the grave.[d]
When the punishing whip[e] comes, it will not touch us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
and we have hidden ourselves behind falsehood.
A Cornerstone for Zion
16 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says:
Look, I am laying a stone in Zion as a foundation,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone to provide a sure foundation.
Whoever believes will not be put to shame.[f]
17 I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line.
A hailstorm will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and floodwaters will wash away your shelter.
18 Your covenant with death will be canceled,
and your agreement with the grave will not stand.
When the punishing whip comes,
you will be beaten down by it.
19 Every time it comes, it will carry you away.
It could come any morning, any day, any night.
If you understand this message, you will be utterly terrified:
20 The bed is too short to lie on,
and the blanket is too narrow to cover you.
21 For the Lord will rise up as he did on Mount Perazim.
He will be enraged, as he was in the valley of Gibeon,
to do his work, his strange work,
and to accomplish his task, his foreign task.
22 Now stop your scornful attitude, or your chains
will be made stronger,
because I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord,
the Lord of Armies,
against the whole earth.
A Parable
23 Listen! Hear my voice.
Pay attention to what I say.
24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day in order to plant?
Does he keep tilling the soil and turning over the dirt?
25 When he has leveled the surface,
doesn’t he plant the dill
and scatter cumin seed?
He plants the wheat in one place,
barley in another field,
and spelt along the edge.
26 His God instructs him
and teaches him good judgment.
27 Of course he does not thresh the dill with a threshing sledge,
nor does he roll the wheel of a cart over the cumin.
No, he beats the dill with a stick
and strikes the cumin with a staff.
28 Flour for bread needs to be ground,
so he does not thresh endlessly.
He drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it
and even his team of horses,
but he does not pulverize it.
29 This also springs forth from the Lord of Armies.
He gives amazing advice.
He provides great guidance.
Woe to the City of David
29
Woe to Ariel![g] Ariel, the city where David made his camp.
Add one year to another.
Let your cycle of festivals roll on.
2 But then I will bring distress to Ariel,
and there will be mourning and lamentation.
Then she will become an altar hearth[h] to me.
3 I will encamp against you on all sides,
and I will lay siege against you with towers.[i]
I will raise siege works against you.
4 You will be brought so low
that you will speak from the ground.
You will murmur from the dust.
Your voice will be like a ghost from a pit in the ground,
and your speech will whisper from the dust.
5 But your many foes will become like fine dust,
and the ruthless hordes like blowing chaff.
This will take place suddenly, in an instant.
6 You will be visited by the Lord of Armies
with thunder, earthquake, and a loud noise,
with a strong wind and a storm,
and with the flames of a devouring fire.
7 The hordes of nations that fight against Ariel,
all who fight against her and her stronghold,
all who besiege her—
all of them will be like a dream,
like a vision in the night.
8 They will be like a hungry man who dreams and sees himself eating,
but then he wakes up, and his hunger is not satisfied.
They will be like a thirsty man who dreams and sees himself drinking,
but then he wakes up and, sure enough, he is weak with thirst.
That is how it will be with the hordes of nations
that fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be stunned! Be amazed!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine.
They stagger, but not from beer.[j]
10 For the Lord has poured out a spirit of deep sleep over you.
He has closed your eyes—the prophets.
He has covered your heads—the seers.
11 For you this whole vision has become like the words of a sealed scroll. If you give it to someone who can read, and you say, “Read this, please,” he will say, “I can’t. It is sealed.” 12 And if you give it to someone who cannot read, and you say, “Read this, please,” he will say, “I can’t read.”
13 The Lord says:
These people approach me with their words,
and they honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is nothing but commandments taught by men.[k]
14 So watch how I will continue to amaze these people
with amazing, extraordinary things.
The wisdom of the wise will perish,
and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.
Hope for the Future
15 Woe to those who try to hide their plans from the Lord.
Their deeds are done in darkness,
and they think that no one sees them
or knows what they are doing.
16 You turn things upside down!
Should the potter be treated like clay?
Should the thing that was made say to its maker,
“You didn’t make me”?
Should the creation say to the creator,
“You know nothing”?
17 Isn’t it true that in a very short time
Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field,
and the fertile field will seem like a forest?
18 On that day, the deaf will hear the words from a book,
and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The humble will rejoice in the Lord once again,
and the poor will delight in the Holy One of Israel.
20 But the ruthless will come to nothing.
Those who mock will be no more,
and all those who plan evil will be cut off—
21 all those who slander others with a word,
all those who argue cases at the city gate,
all those who use false testimony to deprive the innocent of justice.
22 Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham,
says about the house of Jacob:
Jacob will not be ashamed anymore.
His face will not grow pale.
23 But when his children see what I do among them,
they will honor my name.
They will honor the Holy One of Jacob.
They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who are confused will come to understand,
and those who complain will gladly receive instruction.
True Righteousness
3 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things again to you, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evildoers. Beware of the mutilation.[a] [b] 3 For we are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God,[c] who are confident in Christ Jesus, and who place no confidence in the flesh, 4 even though I have grounds for confidence also in the flesh. If anyone else thinks that he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 in regard to zeal, persecuting the church; in regard to the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
7 But, whatever things were a profit for me, these things I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. 8 But even more than that, I consider everything to be a loss because of what is worth far more: knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have lost all things and consider them rubbish, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, which comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God by faith. 10 I do this so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 in the hope that in some way I may arrive at the resurrection from the dead.
Press On
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus also took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet, but there is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore, let all of us who are mature continue to think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you too. 16 Only let us think the same thing and[d] walk in line with what we already have attained.
17 Brothers, join together in imitating me and in paying attention to those who are walking according to the pattern we gave you. 18 To be sure, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. I told you about them often, and now I am saying it while weeping. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite,[e] and their glory is in their shame. They are thinking only about earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.