The One Year Bible TLB (194 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
September 14Here is God’s message to Moab: In one night your cities of Ar and Kir will be destroyed.
2
Your people in Dibon go mourning to their temples to weep for the fate of Nebo and Medeba; they shave their heads in sorrow and cut off their beards.
3
They wear sackcloth through the streets, and from every home comes the sound of weeping.
4
The cries from the cities of Heshbon and Elealeh are heard far away, even in Jahaz. The bravest warriors of Moab cry in utter terror.
5
My heart weeps for Moab! His people flee to Zoar and Eglath. Weeping, they climb the upward road to Luhith, and their crying will be heard all along the road to Horonaim.
6
Even Nimrim River is desolate! The grassy banks are dried up and the tender plants are gone.
7
The desperate refugees take only the possessions they can carry and flee across the Brook of Willows.
8
The whole land of Moab is a land of weeping from one end to the other.
9
The stream near Dibon will run red with blood, but I am not through with Dibon yet! Lions will hunt down the survivors, both those who escape and those who remain.
16:
1
Moab’s refugees at Sela send lambs as a token of alliance with the king of Judah.
2
The women of Moab are left at the fords of the Arnon River like homeless birds.
3
The ambassadors, who accompany the gift to Jerusalem
*
plead for advice and help. “Give us sanctuary. Protect us. Do not turn us over to our foes.
4-5
Let our outcasts stay among you; hide them from our enemies! God will reward you for your kindness to us. If you let Moab’s fugitives settle among you, then when the terror is past, God will establish David’s throne forever, and on that throne he will place a just and righteous King.”
6
Is this proud Moab, concerning which we heard so much? His arrogance and insolence are all gone now!
7
Therefore all Moab weeps. Yes, Moab, you will mourn for stricken Kir-hareseth,
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and for the abandoned farms of Heshbon and the vineyards at Sibmah. The enemy warlords have cut down the best of the grapevines; their armies spread out as far as Jazer in the deserts, and even down to the sea.
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So I wail and lament for Jazer and the vineyards of Sibmah. My tears shall flow for Heshbon and Elealeh, for destruction has come upon their summer fruits and harvests.
10
Gone now is the gladness, gone the joy of harvest. The happy singing in the vineyards will be heard no more; the treading out of the grapes in the winepresses has ceased forever. I have ended all their harvest joys.
11
I will weep, weep, weep, for Moab; and my sorrow for Kir-hareseth will be very great.
12
The people of Moab will pray in anguish to their idols at the tops of the hills, but it will do no good; they will cry to their gods in their idol temples, but none will come to save them.
13-14
All this concerning Moab has been said before; but now the Lord says that within three years, without fail, the glory of Moab shall be ended, and few of all its people will be left alive.
17:
1
This is God’s message to Damascus, capital of Syria:
Look, Damascus is gone! It is no longer a city—it has become a heap of ruins!
2
The cities of Aroer are deserted. Sheep pasture there, lying quiet and unafraid, with no one to chase them away.
3
The strength of Israel and the power of Damascus will end, and the remnant of Syria shall be destroyed. For as Israel’s glory departed, so theirs, too, will disappear, declares the Lord Almighty.
4
Yes, the glory of Israel will be very dim when poverty stalks the land.
5
Israel will be as abandoned as the harvested grain fields in the valley of Rephaim.
6
Oh, a very few of her people will be left, just as a few stray olives are left on the trees when the harvest is ended, two or three in the highest branches, four or five out on the tips of the limbs. That is how it will be in Damascus and Israel—stripped bare of people except for a few of the poor who remain.
7
Then at last they will think of God their Creator and have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
8
They will no longer ask their idols for help in that day, neither will they worship what their hands have made! They will no longer have respect for the images of Ashtaroth and the sun idols.
9
Their largest cities will be as deserted as the distant wooded hills and mountaintops and become like the abandoned cities of the Amorites, deserted when the Israelites approached (so long ago).
*
10
Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you—the Rock who can hide you; therefore, even though you plant a wonderful, rare crop of greatest value,
11
and though it grows so well that it will blossom on the very morning that you plant it, yet you will never harvest it—your only harvest will be a pile of grief and incurable pain.
12
Look, see the armies thundering toward God’s land.
13
But though they roar like breakers rolling upon a beach, God will silence them. They will flee, scattered like chaff by the wind, like whirling dust before a storm.
14
In the evening Israel waits in terror, but by dawn her enemies are dead. This is the just reward of those who plunder and destroy the people of God.
18:
1
Ah, land beyond the upper reaches of the Nile,
*
where winged sailboats glide along the river!
2
Land that sends ambassadors in fast boats down the Nile! Let swift messengers return to you, O strong and supple nation feared far and wide, a conquering, destroying nation whose land the upper Nile divides.
*
And this is the message sent to you:
3
When I raise my battle flag upon the mountain, let all the world take notice! When I blow the trumpet, listen!
4
For the Lord has told me this: Let your mighty army now advance against the land of Israel.
*
God will watch quietly from his Temple in Jerusalem—serene as on a pleasant summer day or a lovely autumn morning during harvesttime.
5
But before you have begun the attack, and while your plans are ripening like grapes, he will cut you off as though with pruning shears. He will snip the spreading tendrils.
6
Your mighty army will be left dead on the field for the mountain birds and wild animals to eat; the vultures will tear bodies all summer, and the wild animals will gnaw bones all winter.
7
But the time will come when that strong and mighty nation, a terror to all both far and near, that conquering, destroying nation whose land the rivers divide, will bring gifts to the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem, where he has placed his name.
From:
Paul the missionary and all the other Christians here.
To:
The churches of Galatia.
*
I was not called to be a missionary by any group or agency. My call is from Jesus Christ himself and from God the Father who raised him from the dead.
3
May peace and blessing be yours from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
4
He died for our sins just as God our Father planned, and rescued us from this evil world in which we live.
5
All glory to God through all the ages of eternity. Amen.
6
I am amazed that you are turning away so soon from God who, in his love and mercy, invited you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ; you are already following a different “way to heaven,” which really doesn’t go to heaven at all.
7
For there is no other way than the one we showed you; you are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ.
8
Let God’s curses fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other way to be saved than the one we told you about; yes, if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, let him be forever cursed.
9
I will say it again: if anyone preaches any other gospel than the one you welcomed, let God’s curse fall upon him.
10
You can see that I am not trying to please you by sweet talk and flattery; no, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please men I could not be Christ’s servant.
11
Dear friends, I solemnly swear that the way to heaven that I preach is not based on some mere human whim or dream.
12
For my message comes from no less a person than Jesus Christ himself, who told me what to say. No one else has taught me.
13
You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I went after the Christians mercilessly, hunting them down and doing my best to get rid of them all.
14
I was one of the most religious Jews of my own age in the whole country and tried as hard as I possibly could to follow all the old, traditional rules of my religion.
15
But then something happened! For even before I was born, God had chosen me to be his and called me—what kindness and grace—
16
to reveal his Son within me so that I could go to the Gentiles and show them the Good News about Jesus.
When all this happened to me I didn’t go at once and talk it over with anyone else;
17
I didn’t go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. No, I went away into the deserts of Arabia and then came back to the city of Damascus.
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It was not until three years later that I finally went to Jerusalem for a visit with Peter and stayed there with him for fifteen days.
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And the only other apostle I met at that time was James, our Lord’s brother.
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(Listen to what I am saying, for I am telling you this in the very presence of God. This is exactly what happened—I am not lying to you.)
21
Then after this visit I went to Syria and Cilicia.
22
And still the Christians in Judea didn’t even know what I looked like.
23
All they knew was what people were saying, that “our former enemy is now preaching the very faith he tried to wreck.”
24
And they gave glory to God because of me.
Justice? You high and mighty politicians don’t even know the meaning of the word! Fairness? Which of you has any left? Not one! All your dealings are crooked: you give “justice” in exchange for bribes.
*
3
These men are born sinners, lying from their earliest words!
4-5
They are poisonous as deadly snakes, cobras that close their ears to the most expert of charmers.
6
O God, break off their fangs. Tear out the teeth of these young lions, Lord.
7
Let them disappear like water into thirsty ground. Make their weapons useless in their hands.
*
8
Let them be as snails that dissolve into slime and as those who die at birth, who never see the sun.
9
God will sweep away both old and young. He will destroy them more quickly than a cooking pot can feel the blazing fire of thorns beneath it.
10
The godly shall rejoice in the triumph of right;
*
they shall walk the bloodstained fields of slaughtered, wicked men.
11
Then at last everyone will know that good is rewarded, and that there is a God who judges justly here on earth.
Don’t refuse to accept criticism; get all the help
*
you can.
September 15This is God’s message concerning Egypt:
Look, the Lord is coming against Egypt, riding on a swift cloud; the idols of Egypt tremble; the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.
2
I will set them to fighting against each other—brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, province against province.
3
Her wise counselors are all at their wits’ end to know what to do; they plead with their idols for wisdom and call upon mediums, wizards, and witches to show them what to do.
4
I will hand over Egypt to a hard, cruel master, to a vicious king, says the Lord Almighty.
5
And the waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields; the ditches will be parched and dry,
6
their channels fouled with rotting reeds.
7
All green things along the riverbank will wither and blow away. All crops will perish; everything will die.
8
The fishermen will weep for lack of work; those who fish with hooks and those who use the nets will all be unemployed.
9
The weavers will have no flax or cotton, for the crops will fail.
10
Great men and small—all will be crushed and broken.
11
What fools the counselors of Zoan are! Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is utterly stupid and wrong. Will they still boast of their wisdom? Will they dare tell Pharaoh about the long line of wise men they have come from?
12
What has happened to your “wise counselors,” O Pharaoh? Where has their wisdom gone? If they are wise, let them tell you what the Lord is going to do to Egypt.
13
The “wise men” from Zoan are also fools, and those from Memphis are utterly deluded. They are the best you can find, but they have ruined Egypt with their foolish counsel.
14
The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them, so that all their suggestions are wrong; they make Egypt stagger like a sick drunkard.
15
Egypt cannot be saved by anything or anybody—no one can show her the way.
16
In that day the Egyptians will be as weak as women, cowering in fear beneath the upraised fist of God.
17
Just to speak the name of Israel will strike deep terror in their hearts, for the Lord Almighty has laid his plans against them.
18
At that time five of the cities of Egypt will follow the Lord Almighty and will begin to speak the Hebrew language.
*
One of these will be Heliopolis, “The City of the Sun.”
19
And there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt in those days and a monument to the Lord at its border.
20
This will be for a sign of loyalty to the Lord Almighty; then when they cry to the Lord for help against those who oppress them, he will send them a savior—and he shall deliver them.
21
In that day the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians. Yes, they will know the Lord and give their sacrifices and offerings to him; they will make promises to God and keep them.
22
The Lord will smite Egypt and then restore her! For the Egyptians will turn to the Lord and he will listen to their plea and heal them.
23
In that day Egypt and Iraq
*
will be connected by a highway, and the Egyptians and the Iraqis will move freely back and forth between their lands, and they shall worship the same God.
24
And Israel will be their ally; the three will be together, and Israel will be a blessing to them.
25
For the Lord will bless Egypt and Iraq because of their friendship
*
with Israel. He will say, “Blessed be Egypt, my people; blessed be Iraq, the land I have made; blessed be Israel, my inheritance!”
20:
1
In the year when Sargon, king of Assyria, sent the commander-in-chief of his army against the Philistine city of Ashdod and captured it,
2
the Lord told Isaiah, the son of Amoz, to take off his clothing, including his shoes, and to walk around naked and barefoot. And Isaiah did as he was told.
3
Then the Lord said, My servant Isaiah, who has been walking naked and barefoot for the last three years, is a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia.
4
For the king of Assyria will take away the Egyptians and Ethiopians as prisoners, making them walk naked and barefoot, both young and old, their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5-6
Then how dismayed the Philistines
*
will be, who counted on “Ethiopia’s power” and their “glorious ally,” Egypt! And they will say, “If this can happen to Egypt, what chance have we?”
21:
1
This is God’s message concerning Babylon:
*
Disaster is roaring down upon you from the terrible desert, like a whirlwind sweeping from the Negeb.
2
I see an awesome vision: oh, the horror of it all! God is telling me what he is going to do. I see you plundered and destroyed. Elamites and Medes will take part in the siege. Babylon will fall, and the groaning of all the nations she enslaved will end.
3
My stomach constricts and burns with pain; sharp pangs of horror are upon me, like the pangs of a woman giving birth to a child. I faint when I hear what God is planning; I am terrified, blinded with dismay.
4
My mind reels; my heart races; I am gripped by awful fear. All rest at night—so pleasant once—is gone; I lie awake, trembling.
5
Look! They are preparing a great banquet! They load the tables with food; they pull up their chairs
*
to eat. . . . Quick, quick, grab your shields and prepare for battle! You are being attacked!
6-7
Meanwhile (in my vision)
*
the Lord had told me, “Put a watchman on the city wall to shout out what he sees. When he sees riders in pairs on donkeys and camels, tell him, ‘This is it!’”
8-9
So I put the watchman on the wall, and at last he shouted, “Sir, day after day and night after night I have been here at my post. Now at last—look! Here come riders in pairs!”
Then I heard a voice shout out, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the idols of Babylon lie broken on the ground.”
10
O my people, threshed and winnowed, I have told you all that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said.
11
This is God’s message to Edom:
*
Someone from among you keeps calling, calling to me: “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? How much time is left?”
12
The watchman replies, “Your judgment day is dawning now. Turn again to God, so that I can give you better news. Seek for him, then come and ask again!”
13
This is God’s message concerning Arabia:
O caravans from Dedan, you will hide in the deserts of Arabia.
14
O people of Tema, bring food and water to these weary fugitives!
15
They have fled from drawn swords and sharp arrows and the terrors of war!
16
“But a long year from now,”
*
says the Lord, “the great power of their enemy, the mighty tribe of Kedar, will end.
17
Only a few of its stalwart archers will survive.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.
Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along too.
2
I went there with definite orders from God to confer with the brothers there about the message I was preaching to the Gentiles. I talked privately to the leaders of the church so that they would all understand just what I had been teaching and, I hoped, agree that it was right.
3
And they did agree; they did not even demand that Titus, my companion, should be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.
4
Even that question wouldn’t have come up except for some so-called “Christians” there—false ones, really—who came to spy on us and see what freedom we enjoyed in Christ Jesus, as to whether we obeyed the Jewish laws or not. They tried to get us all tied up in their rules, like slaves in chains.
5
But we did not listen to them for a single moment, for we did not want to confuse you into thinking that salvation can be earned by being circumcised and by obeying Jewish laws.
6
And the great leaders of the church who were there had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their being great leaders made no difference to me, for all are the same to God.)
7-9
In fact, when Peter, James, and John, who were known as the pillars of the church, saw how greatly God had used me in winning the Gentiles, just as Peter had been blessed so greatly in his preaching to the Jews—for the same God gave us each our special gifts—they shook hands with Barnabas and me and encouraged us to keep right on with our preaching to the Gentiles while they continued their work with the Jews.
10
The only thing they did suggest was that we must always remember to help the poor, and I, too, was eager for that.
11
But when Peter came to Antioch I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing, for it was very wrong.
12
For when he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians who don’t bother with circumcision and the many other Jewish laws.
*
But afterwards, when some Jewish friends of James came, he wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these Jewish legalists, who insisted that circumcision was necessary for salvation, would say;
13
and then all the other Jewish Christians and even Barnabas became hypocrites too, following Peter’s example, though they certainly knew better.
14
When I saw what was happening and that they weren’t being honest about what they really believed and weren’t following the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Though you are a Jew by birth, you have long since discarded the Jewish laws; so why, all of a sudden, are you trying to make these Gentiles obey them?
15
You and I are Jews by birth, not mere Gentile sinners,
16
and yet we Jewish Christians know very well that we cannot become right with God by obeying our Jewish laws but only by faith in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And so we, too, have trusted Jesus Christ, that we might be accepted by God because of faith—and not because we have obeyed the Jewish laws. For no one will ever be saved by obeying them.”
Written by David at the time King Saul set guards at his home to capture and kill him. (1 Samuel 19:11)
O my God, save me from my enemies. Protect me from these who have come to destroy me.
2
Preserve me from these criminals, these murderers.
3
They lurk in ambush for my life. Strong men are out there waiting. And not, O Lord, because I’ve done them wrong.
4
Yet they prepare to kill me. Lord, waken! See what is happening! Help me!
5
(And O Jehovah, God of heaven’s armies, God of Israel, arise and punish the heathen nations surrounding us.) Do not spare these evil, treacherous men.
6
At evening they come to spy, slinking around like dogs that prowl the city.
7
I hear them shouting insults and cursing God, for “No one will hear us,” they think.
8
Lord, laugh at them! (And scoff at these surrounding nations too.)
9
O God my Strength! I will sing your praises, for you are my place of safety.
10
My God is changeless in his love for me, and he will come and help me. He will let me see my wish come true upon my enemies.
11
Don’t kill them—for my people soon forget such lessons—but stagger them with your power and bring them to their knees. Bring them to the dust, O Lord our shield.
12-13
They are proud, cursing liars. Angrily destroy them. Wipe them out. (And let the nations find out, too, that God rules in Israel and will reign throughout the world.)
14-15
Let these evil men slink back at evening and prowl the city all night before they are satisfied, howling like dogs and searching for food.
16
But as for me, I will sing each morning about your power and mercy. For you have been my high tower of refuge, a place of safety in the day of my distress.
17
O my Strength, to you I sing my praises; for you are my high tower of safety, my God of mercy.
Don’t fail to correct your children; discipline won’t hurt them! They won’t die if you use a stick on them! Punishment will keep them out of hell.