Old/New Testament
Days of Retribution Are Near
9 Do not rejoice, Israel, with excessive celebration like the nations,
because you act promiscuously against your God.
You love the wages you can earn as a prostitute at every threshing floor for grain.
2 The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them,
and the new wine will fail for them.
3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land.
Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord.
Their sacrifices will not be pleasing to him.
For them, their bread will become like the bread eaten by mourners.
Everyone who eats it will be unclean.
This bread will only serve their own appetite.
It will not enter the House of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festivals
and on the feast days of the Lord?
6 Know this! Even if they flee from destruction,
Egypt will gather them up.
Memphis will bury them.
Thistles will overgrow their silver treasures.
Thorns will grow inside their tents.
7 The days of reckoning have come.
The days of retribution have come.
Israel should know this!
Israel Rejects the Prophets
The prophet is treated like a fool,
and the man of the Spirit is called crazy,
because your guilt is enormous,
and because your hostility is so great.
8 A prophet is to be a watchman over Ephraim for my God,
but a fowler’s snare is laid for him on all of Ephraim’s paths,
and he encounters hostility in the house of his God.[a]
9 They have become extremely corrupt,
as they were in the days of Gibeah.
God will remember their guilt.
He will punish them for their sins.
Fertility Worship Brings No Fertility
10 I regarded Israel like grapes found in the wilderness.
I regarded your forefathers like the first ripe fruit on a fig tree in its first season,
but they went to Baal Peor, and they devoted themselves to a shameful thing,
and they became as disgusting as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Even if they bring up their children,
I will deprive them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
13 I have seen Ephraim planted in a pleasant place like Tyre,
but Ephraim will bring its children out to the executioner.
14 Give to them, Lord—but what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal,
I hated them there.
Because of their evil deeds,
I will drive them out of my house!
I will love them no more.
All their officials are rebels.
16 Ephraim has been struck down.
Their root has dried up.
They will bear no fruit.
Even if they give birth,
I will put their precious offspring to death.
17 My God will reject them, because they have not obeyed him.
They will be wanderers among the nations.
10 Israel was a spreading[b] vine.
He produced fruit for himself.
The more fruit he produced, the more altars he made.
The richer the land became, the richer he made his sacred memorial stones.
2 Their hearts are insincere,[c]
so now they will suffer for their guilt.
The Lord will break down their altars
and destroy their sacred memorial stones.
Kings Cannot Save You
3 Certainly now they will say, “We have no king
because we did not fear the Lord,
but what could such a king do for us anyway?”
4 They speak empty words.
With empty oaths, they make agreements.
That is why disputes sprout like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria will be terrified because of the calf[d] of Beth Aven.
Yes, its people will mourn over it,
and its idolatrous priests will cry out over it,
over its lost glory, because it has gone into exile.
6 It will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the Great King.[e]
Ephraim will be gripped with shame,
and Israel will be ashamed of its own idol.[f]
7 Samaria, like her king, will be carried off
like a twig on the surface of the water.
8 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will become unusable.
Thorns and thistles will grow on their altars.
They will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
Learn the Lesson of Gibeah
9 Israel, you have sinned ever since the days of Gibeah,
where the evildoers took their stand.
The war against the evildoers caught up with them at Gibeah, did it not?
10 When I see fit, I will discipline them.[g]
Peoples will be gathered against them
to bind them for their double guilt.[h]
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh.
I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck.[i]
I will harness Ephraim.
Judah will plow.
Jacob will break up the ground.
12 Sow righteousness for yourselves,
and reap mercy.
Break up your fallow ground.
It is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes and rains righteousness on you.
13 You have plowed wickedness.
You have reaped injustice.
You have eaten the fruit of your lies,
because you trusted in your own way,
in the large number of your strong warriors.
14 Therefore the roar of battle will rise against your people,
and all your fortresses will be destroyed,
as Shalman[j] devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle.
Mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.
15 This is what will be done to you, Bethel,
because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.
God’s Love for Israel
11 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called to them,
the more they went away from me.[k]
They kept sacrificing to the Baals
and burning incense to idols.
3 Yet I was the one who taught Ephraim to walk.
I took them in my arms,[l]
but they did not realize that it was I who healed them.
4 I drew them with cords suitable for a man,[m] with ropes of love.
For them I became like someone who lifts a yoke off their neck,
and I bent down to feed them.
5 They will not[n] return into the land of Egypt.
Instead, an Assyrian will be their king,
because they refused to repent.
6 The sword will slash against their cities.
It will destroy the bars of their gates,
and it will devour them because of their plans.
7 My people are determined to turn away from me.
Though they call him the Most High, he certainly will not exalt them.
8 How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?[o]
My heart is changed inside me.
All my compassion is stirred up.
9 I will not carry out my burning anger.
I will not destroy Ephraim again,
because I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you.
I will not enter a city.[p]
10 They will follow the Lord.
He will roar like a lion.
Yes, he will roar, and his children will come trembling from the west.
11 They will come trembling like a bird from Egypt,
and like a dove from the land of Assyria.
I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord.
Israel Must Repent
Letter to the Church in Sardis
3 To the messenger of the church in Sardis write:
The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this:
I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what is left, which is about to die, for I have found that your works are not complete in the sight of my God. 3 Therefore remember what you received and heard. Hold on to it and repent! If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come upon you.
4 Yet you have a few names in Sardis, people who have not defiled their clothes. They will walk with me in white clothing, for they are worthy.
5 The one who is victorious in this way[a] will be clothed in white clothing. I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
6 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
7 To the messenger of the church in Philadelphia write:
The Holy One, the one who is true, the one who has the key of David, the one who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one can open, says this:
8 I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Look, I will make those who are from the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not but are lying—look, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them realize that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will also keep you from the hour of testing, which is about to come over the whole inhabited world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one takes your crown.
12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never leave it again. I will also write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God—and my new name.
13 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Letter to the Church in Laodicea
14 To the messenger of the church in Laodicea write:
The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation, says this:
15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. If only you were cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm and not hot or cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, “I am rich. I have become very wealthy and need nothing.” But you do not know that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not become public, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
19 I rebuke and discipline those whom I love. So take this seriously and repent.
20 Look, I stand at the door and I am knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in with him and dine with him, and he with me. 21 To the one who is victorious I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.