Today's Reading

¹I said, "Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn't it for you to know justice?

²You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;

³who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

⁴Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil."

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, "Peace!" and whoever doesn't provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:

⁶"Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them.

⁷The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God."

⁸But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin.

⁹Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

¹⁰They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

¹¹Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on the Lord, and say, "Isn't the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster will come on us."

¹²Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

¹But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it.

²Many nations will go and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;

³and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.

⁴But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one will make them afraid: For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

⁵Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

⁶"In that day," says the Lord, "I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted;

⁷and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever."

⁸You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

⁹Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?

¹⁰Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go forth out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

¹¹Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, "Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion."

¹²But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, neither do they understand his counsel; for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor.

¹³Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you will beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain to the Lord, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.

¹Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

²But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

³Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.

⁴He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God: and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.

⁵He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land, and when he marches through our fortresses, then we will raise against him seven shepherds, and eight leaders of men.

⁶They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its gates. He will deliver us from the Assyrian, when he invades our land, and when he marches within our border.

⁷The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples, like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, that do not wait for man, nor wait for the sons of men.

⁸The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is no one to deliver.

⁹Let your hand be lifted up above your adversaries, and let all of your enemies be cut off.

¹⁰"It will happen in that day," says the Lord, "That I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and will destroy your chariots.

¹¹I will cut off the cities of your land, and will tear down all your strongholds.

¹²I will destroy witchcraft from your hand; and you shall have no soothsayers.

¹³I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out of your midst; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.

¹⁴I will uproot your Asherim out of your midst; and I will destroy your cities.

¹⁵I will execute vengeance in anger, and wrath on the nations that did not listen."

¹This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,

²who testified to God's word, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.

³Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is near.

⁴John, to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne;

⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood;

⁶and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

⁷Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen.

⁸"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

⁹I John, your brother and partner with you in persecution, Kingdom, and patient endurance in Jesus, was on the island that is called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet

¹¹saying, "What you see, write in a scroll and send to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."

¹²I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

¹³And among the lampstands was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.

¹⁴His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

¹⁵His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters.

¹⁶He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,

¹⁸and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of Death and of hell.

¹⁹Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter;

²⁰the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. The seven lampstands are seven churches.

¹A good name is more desirable than great riches, and loving favor is better than silver and gold.

²The rich and the poor have this in common: The Lord is the maker of them all.

³A prudent man sees danger, and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

⁴The result of humility and the fear of the Lord is wealth, honor, and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked: whoever guards his soul stays from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

⁷The rich rule over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender.

⁸He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.

⁹He who has a generous eye will be blessed; for he shares his food with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out the mocker, and strife will go out; yes, quarrels and insults will stop.

¹¹He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully is the king's friend.

¹²The eyes of the Lord watch over knowledge; but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.

¹³The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!"

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit: he who is under the Lord's wrath will fall into it.

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child: the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

¹⁶Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.

¹⁷Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching.

¹⁸For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips.

¹⁹That your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you.

²⁰Haven't I written to you thirty excellent things of counsel and knowledge,

²¹To teach you truth, reliable words, to give sound answers to the ones who sent you?

²²Do not exploit the poor, because he is poor; and do not crush the needy in court;

²³for the Lord will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them.

²⁴Do not befriend a hot-tempered man, and do not associate with one who harbors anger:

²⁵lest you learn his ways, and ensnare your soul.

²⁶Do not be one of those who strike hands, of those who are collateral for debts.

²⁷If you do not have means to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?

²⁸Do not move the ancient boundary stone, which your fathers have set up.

²⁹Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings. He won't serve obscure men.