Today's Reading

¹Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!

²Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.

³The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.

⁴The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.

⁵In that day, the Lord of hosts will become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people;

⁶and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.

⁸For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.

⁹Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?

¹⁰For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.

¹¹But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and a strange language;

¹²to whom he said, "This is the resting place. Give rest to weary;" and "This is the refreshing;" yet they would not hear.

¹³Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:

¹⁵"Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'"

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not be in fear.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.

¹⁹As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message."

²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.

²¹For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.

²²Now therefore do not be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of hosts, on the whole earth.

²³Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!

²⁴Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?

²⁵When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?

²⁶For his God instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him.

²⁷For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.

²⁸Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it.

²⁹This also comes forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

¹Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;

²then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.

³I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you.

⁴You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.

⁶She will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire.

⁷The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

⁸It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn't satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

⁹Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

¹⁰For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and he has covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed:"

¹²and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read."

¹³The Lord said, "Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, but in vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.

¹⁴Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden."

¹⁵Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from the Lord, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?" and "Who knows us?"

¹⁶You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, "He did not make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"

¹⁷Isn't it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?

¹⁸In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

¹⁹The humble also will increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off-

²¹who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale.

²³But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction."

¹"Woe to the rebellious children," says the Lord, "who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,

²who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!

³Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

⁴For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.

⁵They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach."

⁶The oracle of the animals of the Negev. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.

⁷For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still.

⁸Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.

⁹For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord;

¹⁰who tell the seers, "Do not see!" and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.

¹¹Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it;

¹³therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.

¹⁴He will break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won't be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."

¹⁵For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, "You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence." You refused,

¹⁶but you said, "No, for we will flee on horses;" therefore you will flee; and, "We will ride on the swift;" therefore those who pursue you will be swift.

¹⁷One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

¹⁸Therefore the Lord will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.

¹⁹For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.

²⁰Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore, but your eyes will see your teachers;

²¹and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."

²²You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, "Go away!"

²³He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.

²⁴The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

²⁵There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

²⁶Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.

²⁷Behold, the name of the Lord comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.

²⁸His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.

²⁹You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the Lord's mountain, to Israel's Rock.

³⁰The Lord will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.

³¹For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod.

³²Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which the Lord will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.

³³For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is made ready. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. The Lord's breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

¹If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

²make my joy full, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;

³doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;

⁴each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

⁵Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

⁶who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

¹¹and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and disputes,

¹⁵that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,

¹⁶holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

¹⁷Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸In the same way, you also rejoice, and rejoice with me.

¹⁹But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered up when I know how you are doing.

²⁰For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.

²¹For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

²²But you know the proof of him, that, as a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.

²³Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it will go with me.

²⁴But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

²⁵But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need;

²⁶since he longed for you all, and was very troubled, because you had heard that he was sick.

²⁷For indeed he was sick, nearly to death, but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.

²⁸I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such in honor,

³⁰because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

¹The king's heart is in the Lord's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.

²Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

³To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

⁴A high look, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.

⁵The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit; and everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty.

⁶Getting treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor for those who seek death.

⁷The violence of the wicked will drive them away, because they refuse to do what is right.

⁸The way of the guilty is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.

⁹It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than to share a house with a contentious woman.

¹⁰The soul of the wicked desires evil; his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.

¹¹When the mocker is punished, the simple gains wisdom. When the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.

¹²The Righteous One considers the house of the wicked, and brings the wicked to ruin.

¹³Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.

¹⁴A gift in secret pacifies anger; and a bribe in the cloak, strong wrath.

¹⁵It is joy to the righteous to do justice; but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

¹⁶The man who wanders out of the way of understanding shall rest in the assembly of the dead.

¹⁷He who loves pleasure shall be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil shall not be rich.

¹⁸The wicked is a ransom for the righteous; the treacherous for the upright.

¹⁹It is better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and fretful woman.

²⁰There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man swallows it up.

²¹He who follows after righteousness and kindness finds life, righteousness, and honor.

²²A wise man scales the city of the mighty, and brings down the strength of its confidence.

²³Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

²⁴The proud and haughty man, "scoffer" is his name; he works in the arrogance of pride.

²⁵The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

²⁶There are those who covet greedily all day long; but the righteous give and do not withhold.

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination: how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

²⁸A false witness will perish, and a man who listens speaks to eternity.

²⁹A wicked man hardens his face; but as for the upright, he establishes his ways.

³⁰There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.

³¹The horse is prepared for the day of battle; but victory is with the Lord.