Amos 4 Cross References - MSB

¹ Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.” ² The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. ³ You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,” declares the LORD. ⁴ “Go to Bethel and transgress; rebel even more at Gilgal! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. ⁵ Offer leavened bread as a thank offering, and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings. For that is what you children of Israel love to do,” declares the Lord GOD. ⁶ “I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ⁷ “I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered. ⁸ People staggered from city to city for water to drink, but they were not satisfied; yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ⁹ “I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ¹⁰ “I sent plagues among you like those of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ¹¹ “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ¹² “Therefore, that is what I will do to you, O Israel, and since I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! ¹³ For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”

²¹ You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt. ²² You must not mistreat any widow or orphan. ²³ If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to Me in distress, I will surely hear their cry. ²⁴ My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will become widows and your children will be fatherless. ²⁵ If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest.

⁹ Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand. ¹¹ For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.

³³ A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.

¹⁴ with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine. ¹⁵ But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

²⁴ He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city there, calling it Samaria after the name of Shemer, who had owned the hill.

¹⁹ For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; he has seized houses he did not build.

⁵ “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”

¹² Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

¹² I know that the LORD upholds justice for the poor and defends the cause of the needy.

²² Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate, ²³ for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them.

¹⁰ Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, ¹¹ for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.

¹ Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.

⁸ If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.” ¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land. ²⁰ But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. ²¹ See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers! ²² Your silver has become dross; your fine wine is diluted with water. ²³ Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them. ²⁴ Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies.

⁸ Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.

⁶ Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?

²⁶ For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men. ²⁷ Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich. ²⁸ They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy. ²⁹ Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

⁶ For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Cut down the trees and raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; there is nothing but oppression in her midst.

⁶ if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,

¹¹ “Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,

²⁷ Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come—the time of their punishment.

³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out.

⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

¹² In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.

²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.

¹⁸ You will eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls—all the fattened animals of Bashan.

³ They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

⁶ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. ⁷ They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name. ⁸ They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. And in the house of their God, they drink wine obtained through fines.

⁹ Proclaim to the citadels of Ashdod and to the citadels of Egypt: “Assemble on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest in the city and the acts of oppression in her midst.” ¹⁰ “For they know not how to do right,” declares the LORD. “They store up violence and destruction in their citadels.”

¹¹ Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.

¹ Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes.

⁴ Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land, ⁵ asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales. ⁶ Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

¹ Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands. ² They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance. ³ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.

¹ Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice? ² You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones. ³ You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’ ¹¹ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.

⁵ “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

¹ Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you. ² Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days. ⁴ Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. ⁵ You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts as in the day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and murdered the righteous, who did not resist you.

³⁵ Once and for all I have sworn by My holiness—I will not lie to David—

²⁹ Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’

¹⁶ But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.

⁴ On the mountains of Israel you will fall—you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to every kind of ravenous bird and wild beast. ⁵ You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.

⁸ The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself—the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

¹⁵ The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly. ¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet and burns incense to his fishing net, for by these things his portion is sumptuous and his food is rich.

⁷ Thus the Arameans had arisen and fled at twilight, abandoning their tents and horses and donkeys. The camp was intact, and they had run for their lives. ⁸ When the lepers reached the edge of the camp, they went into a tent to eat and drink. Then they carried off the silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid them. On returning, they entered another tent, carried off some items from there, and hid them.

¹⁵ And they tracked them as far as the Jordan, and indeed, the whole way was littered with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown off in haste. So the scouts returned and told the king.

⁴ Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,

²⁰ In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.

⁷ For on that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.

⁵ As they watch, dig through the wall and carry your belongings out through it.

¹² And at dusk the prince among them will lift his bags to his shoulder and go out. They will dig through the wall to bring him out. He will cover his face so he cannot see the land.

¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.

²⁶ What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

³ And tell them that this is the offering made by fire you are to present to the LORD as a regular burnt offering each day: two unblemished year-old male lambs. ⁴ Offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight,

²⁸ At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and lay it up within your gates. ²⁹ Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.

¹² When you have finished laying aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat and be filled within your gates.

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

³⁹ And as for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Lord GOD says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you. But afterward, you will surely listen to Me, and you will no longer defile My holy name with your gifts and idols.

¹⁵ Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel, may Judah avoid such guilt! Do not journey to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-aven, and do not swear on oath, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’

¹⁵ All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.

¹¹ Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war; rouse the mighty men; let all the men of war advance and attack! ¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’ ¹¹ Come quickly, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves. Bring down Your mighty ones, O LORD. ¹² Let the nations be roused and advance to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the nations on every side.

¹⁴ On the day I punish Israel for their transgressions, I will visit destruction on the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off, and they will fall to the ground.

⁵ Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

²¹ “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. ²² Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.

³² Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.

⁴⁵ Then He returned to His disciples and said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

⁵ Night and day in the mountains and in the tombs he kept crying out and cutting himself with stones.

⁴¹ When Jesus returned the third time, He said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? That is enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

¹² If he offers it in thanksgiving, then along with the sacrifice of thanksgiving he shall offer unleavened cakes mixed with olive oil, unleavened wafers coated with oil, and well-kneaded cakes of fine flour mixed with oil. ¹³ Along with his peace offering of thanksgiving he is to present an offering with cakes of leavened bread.

¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any foreign resident who presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, ¹⁹ must offer an unblemished male from the cattle, sheep, or goats in order for it to be accepted on your behalf. ²⁰ You must not present anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf. ²¹ When a man presents a peace offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without blemish or defect to be acceptable.

¹⁷ Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD.

⁶ To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

¹² So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

¹ Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

¹⁰ I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.

² So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.

⁹ They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

¹³ But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots. ¹⁴ Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

²³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

²⁸ Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

¹⁰ and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. ¹¹ For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, ¹² in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.

²⁶ When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

³⁸ You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.

¹ Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

² So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,

³⁸ When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”

²⁵ So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver. ²⁶ As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!” ²⁷ He answered, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?” ²⁸ Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’ ²⁹ So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”

¹ Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land.”

²² In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.

¹ For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,

¹³ But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts.

¹¹ O LORD, Your hand is upraised, but they do not see it. They will see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame. The fire set for Your enemies will consume them!

³ O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

⁵ Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. ⁶ I have listened and heard; they do not speak what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has pursued his own course like a horse charging into battle. ⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.

²⁷ Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct.

¹⁵ Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

¹⁴ They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me. ¹⁵ Although I trained and strengthened their arms, they plot evil against Me. ¹⁶ They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

¹² “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” ¹³ So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster. ¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.

⁸ People staggered from city to city for water to drink, but they were not satisfied; yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ⁹ “I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

¹⁷ I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.

³ So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’ ⁴ Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the LORD. ⁵ Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever? ⁶ But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”

²¹ Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.

²⁰ Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹ Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft.

¹⁰ And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men began to gnaw their tongues in anguish ¹¹ and curse the God of heaven for their pains and sores; yet they did not repent of their deeds.

²² But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where My people live; no swarms of flies will be found there. In this way you will know that I, the LORD, am in the land.

⁴ But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’”

²⁶ The only place where it did not hail was in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived.

²³ No one could see anyone else, and for three days no one left his place. Yet all the Israelites had light in their dwellings.

¹⁸ And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins. ¹⁹ I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, ²⁰ and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit. ²¹ If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

²³ And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me, ²⁴ then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

²⁷ But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me, ²⁸ then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

¹⁷ or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you.

²³ The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. ²⁴ The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

³⁷ then behold, I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that You are going to save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” ³⁸ And that is what happened. When Gideon arose the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water. ³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time let it be dry, and the ground covered with dew.” ⁴⁰ And that night God did so. Only the fleece was dry, and dew covered the ground.

³⁵ When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them, ³⁶ then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.

¹³ If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, ¹⁴ and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

⁶ I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”

³ Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.

²⁴ They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’ ²⁵ Your iniquities have diverted these from you; your sins have deprived you of My bounty.

⁴ The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

²² Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have done all these things.

¹⁰ The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. ¹¹ Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. ¹² The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up. ¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. ¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. ¹⁸ How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

²³ Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for He has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.

¹⁰ Therefore, on account of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth has withheld its crops. ¹¹ I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands.”

¹⁷ And should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, then the rain will not fall on them.

³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.

⁷ For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

¹⁷ Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

⁶ These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.

⁵ Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to every spring and every valley. Perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and mules alive so that we will not have to destroy any livestock.”

¹⁷ The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. ¹⁸ I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs.

⁷ I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.

³ The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; their jars return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads. ⁴ The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

¹⁶ Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure. ¹⁷ So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

¹⁰ Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God; despite all this, they do not seek Him.

⁶ “I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

⁹ “I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ¹⁰ “I sent plagues among you like those of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ¹¹ “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

¹⁴ You will eat but not be satisfied, and your hunger will remain with you. What you acquire, you will not preserve; and what you save, I will give to the sword.

⁶ You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”

²² The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.

⁴² Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

³⁷ When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

²⁸ When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

⁸ And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction, ⁹ then He tells them their deeds and how arrogantly they have transgressed. ¹⁰ He opens their ears to correction and commands that they turn from iniquity. ¹¹ If they obey and serve Him, then they end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness. ¹² But if they do not obey, then they perish by the sword and die without knowledge. ¹³ The godless in heart harbor resentment; even when He binds them, they do not cry for help.

⁵ Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.

²⁴ Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law. ²⁵ So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

¹⁰ Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.

⁴ What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.

⁷ It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.

²⁵ I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.

⁸ People staggered from city to city for water to drink, but they were not satisfied; yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

¹ This is what the Lord GOD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts just after the king’s harvest, as the late spring crop was coming up. ² And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”

¹⁹ “This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

³ then the hand of the LORD will bring a severe plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks. ⁴ But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’” ⁵ The LORD set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this in the land.” ⁶ And the next day the LORD did just that. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.

¹² But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said to Moses.

¹⁷ Still, you lord it over My people and do not allow them to go.

³⁴ When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart—he and his officials. ³⁵ So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.

³ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

²⁷ But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was unwilling to let them go.

²⁹ Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock. ³⁰ During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead.

⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. But I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So this is what the Israelites did.

²⁶ saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”

¹⁶ then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

²⁵ And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

¹⁵ And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.

²⁶ Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away. ²⁷ The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.

⁶⁰ He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you.

¹² “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”

³² In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory

³ So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them continually into the hands of Hazael king of Aram and his son Ben-hadad.

⁷ Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.

⁴⁹ He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity—a band of destroying angels. ⁵⁰ He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

¹¹ But I am full of the LORD’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old and the very old alike.

¹ “At that time,” declares the LORD, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. ² They will be exposed to the sun and moon, and to all the host of heaven which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up or buried, but will become like dung lying on the ground.

²² Declare that this is what the LORD says: “The corpses of men will fall like dung upon the open field, like newly cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather it.”

²² So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.

³ I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

⁴ “They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”

²¹ Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

¹⁵ Moab has been destroyed and its towns have been invaded; the best of its young men have gone down in the slaughter, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.

²⁰ The northern army I will drive away from you, banishing it to a barren and desolate land, its front ranks into the Eastern Sea, and its rear guard into the Western Sea. And its stench will rise; its foul odor will ascend. For He has done great things.

³ “In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

²⁴ Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. ²⁵ Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.

¹⁹ And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁸ All are hardened rebels, walking around as slanderers. They are bronze and iron; all of them are corrupt. ²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely, blasting away the lead with fire. The refining proceeds in vain, for the wicked are not purged. ³⁰ They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”

¹⁸ As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.

¹⁷ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because all of you have become dross, behold, I will gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to melt with a fiery blast, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, leave you there, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.’”

¹³ Because of the indecency of your uncleanness I tried to cleanse you, but you would not be purified from your filthiness. You will not be pure again until My wrath against you has subsided.

⁸ How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!

² And the LORD said to Satan: “The LORD rebukes you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you! Is not this man a firebrand snatched from the fire?”

¹⁵ If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.

⁶ if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;

⁷ In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

²³ save others with fear by snatching them from the fire, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

²⁰ Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

³ Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”

⁵ You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it would stand in the battle on the Day of the LORD.

³⁰ I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.

⁸ Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion, like a wild beast would tear them apart.

¹⁴ Escape will fail the swift, the strong will not prevail by his strength, and the mighty will not save his life.

² The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. ³ You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,” declares the LORD.

⁴ For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live! ⁵ Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing. ⁶ Seek the LORD and live, or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it. ⁷ There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground. ⁸ He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name— ⁹ He flashes destruction on the strong, so that fury comes upon the stronghold. ¹⁰ There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity. ¹¹ Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted. ¹² For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate. ¹³ Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil. ¹⁴ Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed. ¹⁵ Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

¹ I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the rest with the sword. None of those who flee will get away; none of the fugitives will escape. ² Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down. ³ Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them. ⁴ Though they are driven by their enemies into captivity, there I will command the sword to slay them. I will fix My eyes upon them for harm and not for good.”

²⁵ Reconcile quickly with your adversary, while you are still on the way to court. Otherwise, he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.

⁴⁴ For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.

³² No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on your guard, stay alert, and pray! For you do not know when the appointed time will come. ³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey who left his house, put each servant in charge of his own task, and instructed the doorkeeper to keep watch. ³⁵ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return—whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning. ³⁶ Otherwise, he may arrive without notice and find you sleeping. ³⁷ And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Keep watch!”

³¹ Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if he is unable, he will send a delegation while the other king is still far off, to ask for terms of peace.

³ “Truly I tell you,” He said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ For they all contributed to God out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.” ⁵ As some of the disciples were remarking how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and consecrated gifts, Jesus said, ⁶ “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” ⁷ “Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?” ⁸ Jesus answered, “See to it that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Therefore do not follow them. ⁹ When you hear of wars and rebellions, do not be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end is not imminent.” ¹⁰ Then He told them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹ There will be great earthquakes in various places, famines and pestilences, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven. ¹² But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors. ¹³ This will be your opportunity to serve as witnesses. ¹⁴ So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to contradict or resist. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents and relatives and friends and brothers, and some of you will be put to death. ¹⁷ And you will be hated by everyone because of My name. ¹⁸ Yet not even a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your patient endurance you will gain your souls. ²⁰ But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that her desolation is near. ²¹ Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country stay out of the city. ²² For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. ²³ How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people. ²⁴ They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. ²⁵ There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves. ²⁶ Men will faint from fear and anxiety over what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ When these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” ²⁹ Then Jesus told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. ³⁰ When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. ³¹ So also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. ³² Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. ³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. ³⁴ But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare. ³⁵ For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth. ³⁶ So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may be deemed worthy to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”

² For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ For while people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴ But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief.

¹ What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? ² You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. ⁴ You adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit who dwells in us yearns with envy? ⁶ But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

³ Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.

²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days.

²⁰ so that it came between the camps of Egypt and Israel. The cloud was there in the darkness, but it lit up the night. So all night long neither camp went near the other.

¹³ He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,

²⁹ Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”

⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone, ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ⁸ Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, ¹⁰ when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors, ¹¹ and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?

⁶ You formed the mountains by Your power, having girded Yourself with might.

⁷ He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

² You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar.

¹⁸ He sends forth His word and melts them; He unleashes His winds, and the waters flow.

³⁰ In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance?

⁴ Our Redeemer—the LORD of Hosts is His name—is the Holy One of Israel.

² who indeed call yourselves after the holy city and lean on the God of Israel; the LORD of Hosts is His name.

¹³ When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

¹⁶ The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance—the LORD of Hosts is His name.

¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

¹⁶ When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

¹⁹ The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, and of the tribe of His inheritance—the LORD of Hosts is His name.

²⁸ But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the latter days. Your dream and the visions that came into your mind as you lay on your bed were these:

¹³ Hear and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord GOD, the God of Hosts.

⁸ He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—

²⁷ Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.

⁹ And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.

⁶ He builds His upper rooms in the heavens and founds His vault upon the earth. He summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth. The LORD is His name.

³ For behold, the LORD comes forth from His dwelling place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

¹⁹ GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments.

¹ This is the burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, who forms the spirit of man within him:

⁴ But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Why do you harbor evil in your hearts?

³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who this is and what kind of woman is touching Him—for she is a sinner!” ⁴⁰ But Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, Teacher,” he said.

²⁵ He did not need any testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.

⁸ The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”