Old/New Testament
Punishment for Israel
9 “Don’t celebrate, Israel, like other nations would rejoice,
because you left your God by committing fornication,
loving the profit you gained on all of the threshing floors.
2 Neither threshing floor nor winepress will sustain them,
and the new wine will disappoint her.
3 They will not live in the Lord’s land—
Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They won’t present wine offerings to the Lord,
nor will they please him.
Their sacrifices will seem like food for mourners—
everyone who eats them will become unclean;
none of them will enter the Temple of the Lord.
5 “What will you do on the designated holiday,
when the Lord’s festival comes?
6 Look! They have gone away because of the destruction—
Egypt will gather them up,
and Memphis[a] will bury them.
Weeds will overgrow their inheritance,[b]
and thorns will grow[c] in their tents.
7 The time for your judgment has now come;
payday is here—
and Israel knows it.
The prophet is a fool,
and the spiritual man is insane.
Because of your great sin,
the hatred against you[d] is great.
8 While Ephraim stands watch with my God,
the prophet has snares set that will trap his ways,
and hostility lodges in the Temple of his God.
9 They have corrupted themselves deeply,
as did Gibeah[e] in its day.
Therefore God[f] will remember their lawlessness,
and he will pay them back for their sins.
10 “I found Israel,
as one finds[g] grapes in the wilderness;
Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit
gleaned from a fig tree’s first harvest.
When they went to Baal-peor,[h]
they devoted themselves to that filth,
and they became loathsome,
like what they loved.
11 The glory of Ephraim will fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, not even a conception.
12 Even if they rear their children,
I will, in turn, make them childless—
in fact, woe to them
when I turn away from them!
13 Ephraim, as I see it, is like Tyre,
planted in a comfortable place;
Ephraim will bear children
but they will be executed.”
14 Give them, Lord—
What will you give?
You will give them a womb that miscarries and dry breasts.
15 “All of their wickedness started[i] in Gilgal,
because I began to hate them there.
Because of the wickedness of their behavior,
I will drive them from my Temple.
I will not love them anymore;
all their leaders are rebels.
16 Ephraim is blighted;[j]
its roots shriveled.
It can bear no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will kill their cherished offspring.
17 “My God will reject them,
because they did not obey him,
and they will become wanderers among the nations.”
The Coming Destruction
10 “Israel, the overgrown[k] vine, bears fruit like itself;
the more fruitful they become,
the more altars they build.
The better the land,
the more ornate the stone idols.[l]
2 Their hearts are divided;
from now on they are to be found guilty.
God[m] will tear down their altars,
he will destroy their stone idols.[n]
3 From now on they will say,
‘We have no king,
because we did not fear the Lord—
and what would a king do for us?’
4 Their word is falsely given
as they make their agreements;[o]
so judgment springs up
like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.[p]
5 “The residents of Samaria will be terrified
because of the cows[q] of Beth-aven.
Its people will mourn over Beth-aven,[r]
along with the priests who will mourn its glory,
because that glory has departed.[s]
6 Indeed, that glory[t] will be carried to Assyria—
it will become a present for an avenging king.[u]
Ephraim will be disgraced,
and Israel will become ashamed of its decision.
7 Samaria’s king will float away
like driftwood on the surface of water.
8 Destroyed will be the high places of Aven,
that are the sin of Israel.
Both thorn and thistle will grow up over their altars.
They will call out to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’
and to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’
9 “From the time of Gibeah,
you have sinned, Israel;
There they took their stand;
the battle at Gibeah could not subdue the lawless.
10 When I’m ready, I will chasten them;
and the people will gather against them,
to imprison them for their two unrighteous acts.”[v]
Israel Urged to Sow in Righteousness
11 “Ephraim, the well-trained heifer,
loves to thresh grain,
so I will spare her neck.
I will turn Ephraim into a pack animal.
Judah will pull the plow,
and Jacob will turn up the fallow ground.
12 Sow in righteousness in your own interest,
reap in gracious love,
break up your own unprepared ground;
It is now time to inquire of[w] the Lord,
until he comes to pour out righteousness for you.
13 You have plowed[x] evil;
you have reaped unrighteousness;
you have eaten the fruit of hypocrisy;
because you trusted in your own direction,
and in the number of your mighty forces.
14 Therefore a disaster will come upon your people,
and all of your fortresses will be ruined.
As Shalman[y] destroyed Beth-arbel in wartime,
mothers were[z] dashed to pieces
along with their children.
15 The same will happen to you, Bethel,
because of your great evil—
early one morning the king of Israel will be totally silenced.”
God Loves Israel
11 “When Israel was a young child I loved him,
and from Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called out to them,
the farther they fled from me;[aa]
they sacrificed to Baals,[ab]
burning incense to carved images.
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
supporting them by their arms,
but they never knew that I was healing them.
4 I guided them with human kindness,
with loving reins.
I acted toward them
like one who removes a yoke from their neck;
I bent down and fed them.
5 “They will not return to the land of Egypt;
instead, the Assyrian will be their king,
because they kept refusing to repent.
6 The sword will fall on their cities,
consuming and devouring their fortified gates,[ac]
despite their planning.
7 My people are determined to turn away from me;
though they call to the Most High,
no one is worshiping.
8 “How can I give up on you, Ephraim?
I will deliver you, will I not, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
I can’t make you like Zeboim,[ad] can I?
My heart stirs within me;
my compassion also fans into flame!
9 I will not act in my anger;
I will not return to destroy Ephraim,
For I am God,
and not a human—
the Holy One among you—
so I will not enter the city in anger.[ae]
10 They will go after the Lord,
who will roar like a lion;
and when he roars,
the children will come trembling from the west.
11 Trembling like a bird, they will come out of Egypt,
and as a dove from the land of Assyria;
and I will settle them in their houses,”
declares the Lord.
The Letter to the Church in Sardis
3 “To the messenger[a] of the church in Sardis, write:
‘The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this:
‘I know what you’ve been doing. You are known for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Be alert, and strengthen the things that are left, which are about to die. I note that your actions are incomplete before my God. 3 So remember what you received and heard. Obey it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you won’t know the time when I will come to you. 4 But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me in white clothes because they are worthy. 5 The person who overcomes[b] in this way will wear white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the Book of Life. I will acknowledge his name in the presence of my Father and his angels.
6 ‘Let everyone[c] listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
7 “To the messenger[d] of the church in Philadelphia, write:
‘The one who is holy, who is true,
who has the key of David,
who opens a door that[e] no one can shut,
and who shuts a door that[f] no one can open,
‘says this:
8 ‘I know what you’ve been doing. Look! I have put in front of you an open door that no one can shut. You have only a little strength, but you have obeyed my word and have not denied my name. 9 I will make those who belong to the synagogue of Satan—those who claim to be Jews and aren’t, but are lying—come and bow down at your feet. Then they will realize that I have loved you. 10 Because you have obeyed my command to endure,[g] I will keep you from the hour of testing that is coming to the whole world to test those living on the earth. 11 I am coming soon! Hold on to what you have so that no one takes your victor’s crown. 12 I will make the one who overcomes[h] to become a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, and he will never go out of it again. I will write on him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God), and my own new name.
13 ‘Let everyone[i] listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
The Letter to the Church in Laodicea
14 “To the messenger[j] of the church in Laodicea, write:
‘The Amen, the witness who is faithful and true, the originator of God’s creation, says this:
15 ‘I know your actions, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. 16 Since you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, “I am rich. I have become wealthy. I don’t need anything.” Yet you don’t realize that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 Therefore, I advise you to buy from me gold purified in fire so you may be rich, white clothes to wear so your shameful nakedness won’t show, and ointment to put on your eyes so you may see. 19 I correct and discipline those whom I love, so be serious and repent! 20 Look! I am standing at the door and knocking. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat[k] with me. 21 I will give a place to sit with me on my throne to the one who overcomes,[l] just as I have overcome[m] and have sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 ‘Let everyone[n] listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
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