Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
8 Now I will listen to what the Lord God says.
He will give peace to his people,
to those who serve him.
But they must not turn back
to do foolish things again.
9 Yes, God will soon rescue his people who serve him.
Then we will see his glory again in our land.
10 God will be faithful to us
and he will love us with his faithful love.
His justice and his peace will join together,
like dear friends.
11 Faithful truth will grow like a plant in the ground.
Justice will look down from the sky above.[a]
12 Yes! The Lord will bless us with many good things.
Plenty of food will grow in our land.
13 Justice will go before our God,
and it will make a way for him to walk on.
A message to the people in Israel
6 The Lord says, ‘The people in Israel have done more and more wrong things. So I will certainly punish them.
They sold people that did not do wrong things. They sold them for silver. And they sold poor people for only the price of shoes. 7 They are not kind to poor people and they do not help them. A father and his son have sex with the same woman. They do not respect the holy way that I want them to live. 8 When they lend money to poor people, they take the poor people's clothes.[a] They do not return the clothes each night, as they should do. Instead they sleep on the clothes themselves. They do that at the places where they worship their gods. The rich people take money from poor people. They use that money to buy wine for themselves. Then they drink the wine in the temples of their gods.
9 Remember the Amorites. They were big and strong. They were like the tallest cedar trees and the strongest oak trees. But I destroyed all of them. 10 I brought you out of Egypt. After that, I led you through the wilderness for 40 years. Then I took you to the land where the Amorites lived, so that it would belong to you. 11 I chose some men among you to be prophets, and some to be Nazirites.[b] You Israelites know that it is true.’ That is what the Lord says. 12 ‘But you told the Nazirites to drink wine, like everyone else. And you said to the prophets, “Do not speak messages from God.”
13 So I will punish you. A cart that has a heavy load pushes down on the ground. That is how I will push down on you. 14 You might try to run away. But nobody will get free. Even the fastest runner will not get free. The strong people will not be strong enough to stop me. The soldiers will not be able to save their lives. 15 Soldiers who shoot arrows will have to turn back. Fast runners will not save their lives. Soldiers who ride on horses will also die. 16 At that time, strong, brave soldiers will run away without their clothes.’ That is what the Lord says.
2 I want you to know that I am doing a difficult work on your behalf. I am also working to help the people at Laodicea and other people who have never met me. 2 I want all the believers to become strong in their spirits. I want them to help each other because they love one another. Then God will bless them very much, because they understand God's secret message very well. They will be completely sure of it. And they will know Christ himself, who is God's secret. 3 Christ is the one who holds everything that makes people wise. He helps people to know the true message that God had hidden.
4 I am telling you these things so that false teachers will not deceive you. They may teach ideas that seem good, but do not listen to them. 5 My body is not there with you, but I think about you a lot. I hear that you are living and working well together. I also hear that you continue to trust Christ strongly. That makes me very happy.
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