Today's Reading

¹Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

²For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

³Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the midst of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Do not betray the fugitive!

⁴Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

⁵A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.

⁷Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.

⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.

¹⁰Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.

¹¹Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.

¹²It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in time past.

¹⁴But now the Lord has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble."

¹The burden of Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.

²The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

³The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel," says the Lord of hosts.

⁴"It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

⁵It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim.

⁶Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree," says the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

⁸They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the incense altars.

⁹In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation.

¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.

¹¹In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

¹²Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!

¹³The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters: but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.

¹⁴At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

¹Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;

²that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, "Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!"

³All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!

⁴For the Lord said to me, "I will be still, and I will see from my dwelling place, like the clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches.

⁶They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will summer on them, and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.

⁷In that time, a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, Mount Zion.

¹I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

²with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love;

³being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

⁴There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling;

⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

⁷But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

⁸Therefore he says, "When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."

⁹Now this, "He ascended," what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?

¹⁰He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

¹¹He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;

¹²for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;

¹³until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

¹⁴that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;

¹⁵but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ;

¹⁶from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

¹⁷This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,

¹⁸being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts;

¹⁹who having become callous gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

²⁰But you did not learn Christ that way;

²¹if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:

²²that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit;

²³and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

²⁴and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.

²⁵Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.

²⁶"Be angry, and do not sin." Do not let the sun go down on your wrath,

²⁷neither give place to the devil.

²⁸Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.

²⁹Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for building up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.

³⁰Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

³¹Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice.

³²And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.

¹Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have a part in the inheritance among the brothers.

³The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.

⁴An evildoer heeds wicked lips. A liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.

⁶Children's children are the crown of old men; the glory of children are their parents.

⁷Arrogant speech isn't fitting for a fool, much less do lying lips fit a prince.

⁸A bribe is a precious stone in the eyes of him who gives it; wherever he turns, he prospers.

⁹He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best friends.

¹⁰A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred lashes into a fool.

¹¹An evil man seeks only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

¹²Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

¹³Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like breaching a dam, therefore stop contention before quarreling breaks out.

¹⁵He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.

¹⁶Why is there money in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, seeing he has no understanding?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity.

¹⁸A man void of understanding strikes hands, and becomes collateral in the presence of his neighbor.

¹⁹He who loves disobedience loves strife. One who builds a high gate seeks destruction.

²⁰One who has a perverse heart doesn't find prosperity, and one who has a deceitful tongue falls into trouble.

²¹He who becomes the father of a fool grieves. The father of a fool has no joy.

²²A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

²³A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴Wisdom is before the face of one who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son brings grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him.

²⁶Also to punish the righteous is not good, nor to flog officials for their integrity.

²⁷He who spares his words has knowledge. He who is even tempered is a man of understanding.

²⁸Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise. When he shuts his lips, he is thought to be discerning.