Amos 4:1-6:14 1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan
who live on Mount Samaria! You
oppress the poor; you crush the needy. You say to your
husbands, “Bring us more to drink!”
2 The sovereign
Lord confirms this oath by his own holy character:
“Certainly the time is approaching
when you will be carried away
in baskets,
every last one of you
in fishermen’s pots.
3 Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls;
you will be thrown out
toward Harmon.”
The
Lord is speaking!
4 “Go to Bethel
and rebel!
At Gilgal
rebel some more! Bring your sacrifices in
the morning, your tithes on
the third day!
5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast!
Make a public display of your voluntary offerings!
For you love to do this, you Israelites.” The sovereign
Lord is speaking!
6 “But surely I gave
you no food to eat in any of your cities; you lacked food everywhere you live.
Still you did not come back to me.” The
Lord is speaking!
7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest.
I gave rain to one city, but not to another. One field
would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.
8 People from
two or three cities staggered into one city to get
water, but remained thirsty.
Still you did not come back to me.” The
Lord is speaking!
9 “I destroyed your crops
with blight and disease. Locusts kept
devouring your orchards,
vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees. Still you did not come back to me.” The
Lord is speaking!
10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues.
I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses
rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The
Lord is speaking!
11 “I overthrew some of you the way God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick
snatched from the flames. Still you did not come back to me.” The
Lord is speaking!
12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel. Because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel!
13 For here he is! He
formed the mountains and created the wind. He reveals
his plans
to men. He turns the dawn into darkness
and marches on the heights of the earth. The
Lord, the God who commands armies,
is his name!”
1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you,
family
of Israel:
2 “The virgin
Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up.”
3 The sovereign
Lord says this: “The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers
will have only a hundred left; the town
that marches out with a hundred soldiers
will have only ten left for the family of Israel.”
4 The
Lord says this to the family
of Israel: “Seek me
so you can live!
5 Do not seek Bethel!
Do not visit Gilgal! Do not journey down
to Beer Sheba! For the people of Gilgal
will certainly be carried into exile;
and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.”
6 Seek the
Lord so you can live! Otherwise he will break out
like fire against Joseph’s
family;
the fire
will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel.
7 The Israelites
turn justice into bitterness;
they throw what is fair and right
to the ground.
8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight
into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The
Lord is his name!
9 He flashes
destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms
the fortified places.)
10 The Israelites
hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate;
they despise anyone who speaks honestly.
11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops
and exact a grain tax from them, you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone, nor will you drink the wine from the fine
vineyards you planted.
12 Certainly
I am aware of
your many rebellious acts
and your numerous sins. You
torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to
the needy at the city gate.
13 For this reason whoever is smart
keeps quiet
in such a time, for it is an evil
time.
14 Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the
Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is.
15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right! Promote
justice at the city gate!
Maybe the
Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on
those who are left from
Joseph.
16 Because of Israel’s sins
this is what the
Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One,
says: “In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead.
They will tell the field workers
to lament and the professional mourners
to wail.
17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through
your midst,” says the
Lord.
18 Woe
to those who wish for the day of the
Lord! Why do you want the
Lord’s day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light.
19 Disaster will be inescapable,
as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear, then escaped
into a house, leaned his hand against the wall, and was bitten by a poisonous snake.
20 Don’t you realize the
Lord’s day of judgment will bring
darkness, not light – gloomy blackness, not bright light?
21 “I absolutely despise
your festivals! I get no pleasure
from your religious assemblies!
22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings,
I will not be satisfied; I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves.
23 Take away from me your
noisy songs; I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments.
24 Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions
like a stream that never dries up.
25 You did not bring me
sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family
of Israel.
26 You will pick up your images
of Sikkuth,
your king,
and Kiyyun,
your star god, which you made for yourselves,
27 and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the
Lord. He is called the God who commands armies!
1 Woe
to those who live in ease in Zion,
to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. They think of themselves as
the elite class of the best nation. The family
of Israel looks to them for leadership.
2 They say to the people:
“Journey over to Calneh and look at it! Then go from there to Hamath-Rabbah!
Then go down to Gath of the Philistines! Are they superior to our two
kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?”
3 You refuse to believe a day of disaster will come,
but you establish a reign of violence.
4 They lie around on beds decorated with ivory,
and sprawl out on their couches. They eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the middle of the pen.
5 They sing
to the tune of
stringed instruments;
like David they invent
musical instruments.
6 They drink wine from sacrificial bowls,
and pour the very best oils on themselves.
Yet they are not concerned over
the ruin
of Joseph.
7 Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile,
and the religious banquets
where they sprawl on couches
will end.
8 The sovereign
Lord confirms this oath by his very own life.
The
Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking: “I despise Jacob’s arrogance; I hate their
fortresses. I will hand over to their enemies
the city of Samaria
and everything in it.”
9 If ten men are left in one house, they too will die.
10 When their close relatives, the ones who will burn the corpses,
pick up their bodies to remove the bones from the house, they will say to anyone who is in the inner rooms of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” He will respond, “Be quiet! Don’t invoke the
Lord’s name!”
11 Indeed, look! The
Lord is giving the command.
He will smash the large house to bits, and the small house into little pieces.
12 Can horses run on rocky cliffs? Can one plow the sea with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant, and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant.
13 You are happy because you conquered Lo-Debar.
You say, “Did we not conquer Karnaim
by our own power?”
14 “Look! I am about to bring
a nation against you, family
of Israel.” The
Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. “They will oppress
you all the way from Lebo-Hamath
to the Stream of the Arabah.”
Context (NET) Revelation 2:18-3:6 18 “To
the angel of the church in Thyatira write the following:
“This is the solemn pronouncement of
the Son of God, the one who has eyes like a fiery flame
and whose feet are like polished bronze:
19 ‘I know your deeds: your love, faith,
service, and steadfast endurance.
In fact,
your more recent deeds are greater than your earlier ones.
20 But I have this against you: You tolerate that
woman
Jezebel,
who calls herself a prophetess, and by her teaching deceives
my servants
to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
21 I
have given her time to repent, but
she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality.
22 Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness,
and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering,
unless they repent of her deeds.
23 Furthermore, I will strike her followers
with a deadly disease,
and then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will repay
each one of you
what your deeds deserve.
24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, all who do not hold to this teaching
(who have not learned the so-called “deep secrets
of Satan”), to you I say: I do not put any additional burden on you.
25 However, hold on to what you have until I come.
26 And to the one who conquers
and who continues in
my deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations
–
27 he will rule them with an iron rod and like clay jars he will break them to pieces,
28 just as I have received the right to rule
from my Father – and I will give him the morning star.
29 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
1 “To
the angel of the church in Sardis write the following:
“This is the solemn pronouncement of
the one who holds
the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation
that you are alive, but
in reality
you are dead.
2 Wake up then, and strengthen what remains that was about
to die, because I have not found your deeds complete
in the sight
of my God.
3 Therefore, remember what you received and heard,
and obey it,
and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will never
know at what hour I will come against
you.
4 But you have a few individuals
in Sardis who have not stained
their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed
in white, because they are worthy.
5 The one who conquers
will be dressed like them
in white clothing,
and I will never
erase
his name from the book of life, but
will declare
his name before my Father and before his angels.
6 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Context (NET) Psalm 130:1-8 1 A song of ascents.
From the deep water
I cry out to you, O
Lord.
2 O Lord, listen to me!
Pay attention to
my plea for mercy!
3 If you, O
Lord, were to keep track of
sins, O Lord, who could stand before you?
4 But
you are willing to forgive,
so that you might
be honored.
5 I rely on
the
Lord, I rely on him with my whole being;
I wait for his assuring word.
6 I yearn for the Lord,
more than watchmen do for the morning, yes, more than watchmen do for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the
Lord, for the
Lord exhibits loyal love,
and is more than willing to deliver.
8 He will deliver
Israel from all the consequences of their sins.
Context (NET) Proverbs 29:21-22 21 If
someone pampers his servant from youth, he will be a weakling
in the end.
22 An angry person
stirs up dissension, and a wrathful person
is abounding in transgression.
Context (NET)
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