Old/New Testament
4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria; who oppress the poor, destroy the needy; and they say to their masters, “Bring, and let us drink!”
2 The LORD God has sworn by His holiness, “Lo, the days shall come upon you in which He will take you away with thorns, and your posterity with fishhooks.
3 “And you shall go out at the wall’s breaches, everyone forward. And you shall cast yourselves out of the palace,” says the LORD.
4 “Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression. And bring your sacrifices in the morning; and your riches after three years.
5 “And offer a thanksgiving of leaven; publish and proclaim the free offerings. For this you love, O children of Israel,” says the LORD God.
6 “Also, I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and scarceness of bread in all your places. Yet, you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
7 “And also, I have withheld the rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. And I caused it to rain upon one city and have not caused it to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon. And the piece whereupon it did not rain, withered.
8 “So, two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water. But they were not satisfied. Still, you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
9 “I have struck you with blight and mildew. Your great gardens and your vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured. Still, you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
10 “I have sent pestilence among you after the manner of Egypt. Your young men I have killed with the sword; and have taken away your horses. And I have made the stink of your tents to come up into your nostrils. Still, you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
11 “I have overthrown you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. And you were as a firebrand, plucked out of the burning. Still, you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
12 “Therefore, I will do this to you, O Israel. And because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”
13 For lo, He Who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is His thought; Who makes the morning darkness, and walks upon the high places of the Earth. The LORD God of Hosts is His Name. A lamentation for the captivity of Israel.
5 Hear this Word which I lift up upon you; a lamentation of the House of Israel.
2 The virgin Israel has fallen and shall rise no more. She is left upon her land, and there is none to raise her up.
3 For thus says the LORD God: “The city which went out by a thousand, shall leave a hundred. And that which went forth by a hundred, shall leave ten to the House of Israel.”
4 For thus says the LORD to the House of Israel: “Seek Me, and you shall live.”
5 But do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal. And do not go to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to naught.
6 Seek the LORD, and you shall live, lest He break out like fire in the House of Joseph and devour it; and there are none to quench it in Bethel.
7 They turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness in the Earth.
8 He makes Pleiades and Orion; and He turns the shadow of death into the morning; and He makes the day dark as night. He calls the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the open earth. The LORD is His Name.
9 He strengthens the destroyer against the mighty. And the destroyer shall come against the fortress.
10 They have hated him who rebukes in the gate. And they abhorred him who speaks uprightly.
11 Forasmuch, then, as your treading is upon the poor—and you take from him burdens of wheat—you have built houses of hewn stone. But you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them.
12 For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins. They afflict the just. They take rewards. And they oppress the poor in the gate.
13 Therefore, the prudent shall keep silence in that time. For it is an evil time.
14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live. And the LORD God of Hosts shall be with you, as you have spoken.
15 Hate the evil and love the good. And establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the LORD God of Hosts will be merciful to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore, the LORD God of Hosts, the LORD, says this, “Mourning shall be in all streets. And they shall say in all the high ways, ‘Alas, alas.’ And they shall call the farmer to lamentation; and such as can mourn, to mourning.
17 “And in all the vines shall be lamentation. For I will pass through you,” says the LORD.
18 Woe to you who desire the Day of the LORD! What have you to do with it? The Day of the LORD is darkness and not light.
19 As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him.
20 Shall not the Day of the LORD be darkness, and not light; even darkness and no light in it?
21 “I hate and abhor your feast days. And I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22 “Though you offer Me burnt offerings and meat offerings, I will not accept them. Nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23 “Take away from Me the multitude of your songs (for I will not hear the melody of your viols.)
24 “And let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty river.
25 “Have you offered to Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O House of Israel?
26 “But you have born Sikkuth, your king, and Chiun, your images, and the star of your gods which you made to yourselves.
27 “Therefore, will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose Name is the God of Hosts. Against the princes of Israel living in pleasure.
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria; who were famous at the beginning of the nations. And the House of Israel came to them.
2 Go to Calneh and see. And from there go to Hamath the Great. Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Or is the border of their land greater than your border,
3 you who put far away the evil day, and approach the seat of iniquity?
4 They lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their beds; and eat the lambs of the flock and the calves out of the stall.
5 They sing to the sound of the viol. They invent to themselves instruments of music, like David.
6 They drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments but are not sorry for the affliction of Joseph.
7 Therefore, they shall now go captive with the first who go captive. And the sorrow of those who stretched themselves is at hand.
8 “The LORD God has sworn by Himself,” says the LORD God of Hosts, “I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces. Therefore, I will deliver up the city with all that is therein.
9 “And if there remain ten men in one house, they shall die.
10 “And his uncle shall take him up and burn him—to carry out the bones out of the house—and shall say to him who is by the sides of the house, ‘Is there still anyone with you?’ And he shall say, ‘None.’ Then he shall say, ‘Hold your tongue. For we may not remember the Name of the LORD.’”
11 For behold, the LORD commands. And He will strike the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.
12 Shall horses run upon the rock? Or will one plow there with oxen? For you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.
13 Yet, you rejoice over nothing. You say, “Have we not gotten horns by our own strength?”
14 “But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O House of Israel,” says the LORD God of Hosts. “And they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the river of the wilderness.”
7 And after that, I saw four angels stand on the four corners of the Earth, holding the four winds of the Earth, so that the winds would not blow on the Earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel come up from the east, who had the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom power was given to hurt the Earth and the sea, saying,
3 “Do not hurt the Earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”
4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. And there were sealed 144 thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
5 Out of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
6 Of the tribe of Asher were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Naphtali were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasseh were sealed twelve thousand.
7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zebulun were sealed twelve thousand.
8 Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
9 After these things I looked. And lo, a great multitude (which no man could number) of all nations and tribes and people and tongues stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with long white robes and palms in their hands.
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation comes from our God Who sits upon the throne, and from the Lamb.”
11 And all the angels stood around the throne, and around the elders, and the four beasts. And they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
12 Saying, “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might be to our God for evermore! Amen!”
13 And one of the elders spoke, saying to me, “Who are these who are clothed in long white robes? And from where have they come?”
14 And I said to him, “Lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are those who came out of great tribulation and have washed their long robes and have made their long robes white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 Therefore, they are in the presence of the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His Temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
16 They shall hunger no more, nor thirst anymore, nor shall the Sun fall upon them, nor any heat.
17 For the Lamb, Who is in the midst of the throne, shall govern them and shall lead them to the lively fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
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