Today's Reading

¹Listen now to what the Lord says: "Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.

²Hear, you mountains, the Lord's controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

³My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me!

⁴For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

⁵My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord."

⁶How shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

⁷Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

⁹The Lord's voice calls to the city, and wisdom sees your name: "Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it.

¹⁰Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed?

¹¹Shall I be pure with dishonest scales, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

¹²Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.

¹³Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.

¹⁴You shall eat, but not be satisfied. Your humiliation will be in your midst. You will store up, but not save; and that which you save I will give up to the sword.

¹⁵You will sow, but won't reap. You will tread the olives, but won't anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won't drink the wine.

¹⁶For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab. You walk in their counsels, that I may make you a ruin, and her inhabitants a hissing; And you will bear the reproach of my people."

¹Misery is mine! Indeed, I am like one who gathers the summer fruits, as gleanings of the vineyard: There is no cluster of grapes to eat. My soul desires to eat the early fig.

²The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.

³Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.

⁴The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion.

⁵Do not trust in a neighbor. Do not put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!

⁶For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

⁸Do not rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

⁹I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light. I will see his righteousness.

¹⁰Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is the Lord your God? Then my enemy will see me and will cover her shame. Now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets.

¹¹A day to build your walls- In that day, he will extend your boundary.

¹²In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain.

¹³Yet the land will be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the midst of fertile pasture land, let them feed; in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

¹⁵"As in the days of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things."

¹⁶The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf.

¹⁷They will lick the dust like a serpent. Like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their dens. They will come with fear to the Lord our God, and will be afraid because of you.

¹⁸Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn't retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness.

¹⁹He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

²⁰You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

¹An oracle about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

²The Lord is a jealous God and avenges. The Lord avenges and is full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.

³The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

⁴He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes.

⁵The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.

⁶Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.

⁷The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.

⁸But with an overflowing flood, he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

⁹What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a full end. Affliction won't rise up the second time.

¹⁰For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.

¹¹There is one gone forth out of you, who devises evil against the Lord, who counsels wickedness.

¹²Thus says the Lord: "Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

¹³Now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart."

¹⁴The Lord has commanded concerning you: "No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile."

¹⁵Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.

¹"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: "He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lampstands says these things:

²"I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.

³You have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake, and have not grown weary.

⁴But I have this against you, that you left your first love.

⁵Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you, and will move your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.

⁶But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.

⁸"To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: "The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life says these things:

⁹"I know your afflictions and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰Do not be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.

¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes won't be harmed by the second death.

¹²"To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: "He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things:

¹³"I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and did not deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

¹⁴But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

¹⁵So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans likewise.

¹⁶Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.

¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: "The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:

¹⁹"I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.

²⁰But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

²¹I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

²²Behold, I will throw her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of their works.

²³I will kill her children with Death, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

²⁴But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as do not have this teaching, who do not know what some call 'the deep things of Satan,' to you I say, I am not putting any other burden on you.

²⁵Nevertheless, hold that which you have firmly until I come.

²⁶He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.

²⁷He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father:

²⁸and I will give him the morning star.

²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

¹When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;

²put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite.

³Do not be desirous of his dainties, seeing they are deceitful food.

⁴Do not weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.

⁵Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

⁶Do not eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and do not crave his delicacies:

⁷for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.

⁹Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move the ancient boundary stone. Do not encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine:

¹⁶yes, my heart will rejoice, when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners; but rather fear the Lord all the day long.

¹⁸Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!

²⁰Do not be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat:

²¹for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy the truth, and do not sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!

²⁶My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

²⁸Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine.

³¹Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

³²In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

³⁴Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

³⁵"They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I do not feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another."