The One Year Bible TLB (211 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
October 4O my people, listen to the words of God: Have I been unjust to Israel? Have I been to them a land of darkness and of evil? Why then do my people say, “At last we are free from God; we won’t have anything to do with him again!”
32
How can you disown your God like that?
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Can a girl forget her jewels? What bride will seek to hide her wedding dress? Yet for years on end my people have forgotten me—the most precious of their treasures.
33
How you plot and scheme to win your lovers. The most experienced harlot could learn a lot from you!
34
Your clothing is stained with the blood of the innocent and the poor. Brazenly you murder without a cause.
35
And yet you say, “I haven’t done a thing to anger God. I’m sure he isn’t angry!”
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I will punish you severely because you say, “I haven’t sinned!”
36
First here, then there, you flit about, going from one ally to another for their help; but it’s all no good—your new friends in Egypt will forsake you as Assyria did before.
37
You will be left in despair and cover your face with your hands, for the Lord has rejected the ones that you trust. You will not succeed despite their aid.
3:
1
There is a law
*
that if a man divorces a woman who then remarries, he is not to take her back again, for she has become corrupted. But though you have left me and married many lovers, yet I have invited you to come to me again, the Lord says.
2
Is there a single spot in all the land where you haven’t been defiled by your adulteries—your worshiping these other gods?
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You sit like a prostitute beside the road waiting for a client! You sit alone like a Bedouin in the desert. You have polluted the land with your vile prostitution.
3
That is why even the springtime rains have failed. For you are a prostitute and completely unashamed.
4-5
And yet you say to me, “O Father, you have always been my Friend; surely you won’t be angry about such a little thing! Surely you will just forget it?” So you talk and keep right on doing all the evil that you can.
6
This message from the Lord came to me during the reign of King Josiah:
Have you seen what Israel does? Like a wanton wife who gives herself to other men at every chance, so Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill, beneath every shady tree.
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I thought that someday she would return to me and once again be mine; but she didn’t come back. And her faithless sister Judah saw the continued rebellion of Israel.
8
Yet she paid no attention, even though she saw that I divorced faithless Israel. But now Judah too has left me and given herself to prostitution, for she has gone to other gods to worship them.
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She treated it all so lightly—to her it was nothing at all that she should worship idols made of wood and stone. And so the land was greatly polluted and defiled.
10
Then, afterwards, this faithless one “returned” to me, but her “sorrow” was only faked, the Lord God says.
11
In fact, faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah!
12
Therefore, go and say to Israel, O Israel, my sinful people, come home to me again, for I am merciful; I will not be forever angry with you.
13
Only acknowledge your guilt; admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every tree; confess that you refused to follow me.
14
O sinful children, come home, for I am your Master, and I will bring you again to the land of Israel—one from here and two from there, wherever you are scattered.
15
And I will give you leaders after my own heart, who will guide you with wisdom and understanding.
16
Then, when your land is once more filled with people, says the Lord, you will no longer wish for “the good old days of long ago” when you possessed the Ark of God’s covenant. Those days will not be missed or even thought about, and the Ark will not be reconstructed, for the Lord himself will be among you.
17
The whole city of Jerusalem will be known as the throne of the Lord; all nations will come to him there and no longer stubbornly follow their evil desires.
18
At that time the people of Judah and of Israel will return together from their exile in the north, to the land I gave their fathers as an inheritance forever.
19
And I thought how wonderful it would be for you to be here among my children. I planned to give you part of this beautiful land, the finest in the world. I looked forward to your calling me “Father” and thought that you would never turn away from me again.
20
But you have betrayed me; you have gone off and given yourself to a host of foreign gods; you have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband.
21
I hear a voice high upon the windswept mountains, crying, crying. It is the sons of Israel who have turned their backs on God and wandered far away.
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O my rebellious children, come back to me again and I will heal you from your sins.
And they reply, Yes, we will come, for you are the Lord our God.
23
We are weary of worshiping idols on the hills and of having orgies on the mountains. It is all a farce. Only in the Lord our God can Israel ever find her help and her salvation.
24
From our childhood we have seen everything our fathers had—flocks and herds and sons and daughters—squandered on priests and idols.
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We lie in shame and in dishonor, for we and our fathers have sinned from childhood against the Lord our God; we have not obeyed him.
4:
1
O Israel, if you will truly return to me and absolutely discard your idols,
2
and if you will swear by me alone, the living God, and begin to live good, honest, clean lives, then you will be a testimony to the nations of the world, and they will come to me and glorify my name.
3
The Lord is saying to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Plow up the hardness of your hearts; otherwise the good seed will be wasted among the thorns.
4
Cleanse your minds and hearts,
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not just your bodies, or else my anger will burn you to a crisp because of all your sins. And no one will be able to put the fire out.
5
Shout to Jerusalem and to all Judea, telling them to sound the alarm throughout the land. “Run for your lives! Flee to the fortified cities!”
6
Send a signal from Jerusalem: “Flee now, don’t delay!” For I the Lord am bringing vast destruction on you from the north.
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7
A lion—a destroyer of nations—stalks from his lair; and he is headed for your land. Your cities will lie in ruin without inhabitant.
8
Put on clothes of mourning and weep with broken hearts, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not stopped yet.
9
In that day, says the Lord, the king and the princes will tremble in fear; and the priests and the prophets will be stricken with horror.
10
(Then I said, “But Lord, the people have been deceived by what you said, for you promised great blessings on Jerusalem. Yet the sword is even now poised to strike them dead!”)
11-12
At that time he will send a burning wind from the desert upon them—not in little gusts but in a roaring blast—and he will pronounce their doom.
13
The enemy shall roll down upon us like a storm wind; his chariots are like a whirlwind; his steeds are swifter than eagles. Woe, woe upon us, for we are doomed.
14
O Jerusalem, cleanse your hearts while there is time. You can yet be saved by casting out your evil thoughts.
15
From Dan and from Mount Ephraim your doom has been announced.
16
Warn the other nations that the enemy is coming from a distant land, and they shout against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah.
17
They surround Jerusalem like shepherds moving in on some wild animal! For my people have rebelled against me, says the Lord.
18
Your ways have brought this down upon you; it is a bitter dose of your own medicine, striking deep within your hearts.
From:
Paul, chosen by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger, and from Brother Timothy.
2
To:
The faithful Christian brothers—God’s people—in the city of Colosse.
May God our Father shower you with blessings and fill you with his great peace.
3
Whenever we pray for you, we always begin by giving thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
4
for we have heard how much you trust the Lord, and how much you love his people.
5
And you are looking forward to the joys of heaven, and have been ever since the Gospel first was preached to you.
6
The same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world and changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard it and understood about God’s great kindness to sinners.
7
Epaphras, our much-loved fellow worker, was the one who brought you this Good News. He is Jesus Christ’s faithful slave, here to help us in your place.
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And he is the one who has told us about the great love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
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So ever since we first heard about you we have kept on praying and asking God to help you understand what he wants you to do; asking him to make you wise about spiritual things;
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and asking that the way you live will always please the Lord and honor him, so that you will always be doing good, kind things for others, while all the time you are learning to know God better and better.
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We are praying, too, that you will be filled with his mighty, glorious strength so that you can keep going no matter what happens—always full of the joy of the Lord,
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and always thankful to the Father who has made us fit to share all the wonderful things that belong to those who live in the Kingdom of light.
13
For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,
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who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.
15
Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all,
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and, in fact,
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Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can’t; the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities; all were made by Christ for his own use and glory.
17
He was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together.
God’s reputation is very great in Judah and in Israel.
2
His home is in Jerusalem. He lives upon Mount Zion.
3
There he breaks the weapons of our enemies.
4
The everlasting mountains cannot compare with you in glory!
5
The mightiest of our enemies are conquered. They lie before us in the sleep of death; not one can lift a hand against us.
6
When you rebuked them, God of Jacob, steeds and riders fell.
7
No wonder you are greatly feared! Who can stand before an angry God?
8
You pronounce sentence on them from heaven; the earth trembles and stands silently before you.
9
You stand up to punish the evildoers and to defend the meek of the earth.
10
Man’s futile wrath will bring you glory. You will use it as an ornament!
11
Fulfill all your vows that you have made to Jehovah your God. Let everyone bring him presents. He should be reverenced and feared,
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for he cuts down princes and does awesome things to the kings of the earth.
My son, watch your step before the Lord and the king, and don’t associate with radicals. For you will go down with them to sudden disaster, and who knows where it all will end?
October 5My heart, my heart—I writhe in pain; my heart pounds within me. I cannot be still because I have heard, O my soul, the blast of the enemies’ trumpets and the enemies’ battle cries.
20
Wave upon wave of destruction rolls over the land, until it lies in utter ruin; suddenly, in a moment, every house is crushed.
21
How long must this go on? How long must I see war and death surrounding me?
22
“Until my people leave their foolishness, for they refuse to listen to me; they are dull, retarded children who have no understanding. They are smart enough at doing wrong, but for doing right they have no talent, none at all.”
23
I looked down upon their land, and as far as I could see in all directions everything was ruins. And all the heavens were dark.
24
I looked at the mountains and saw that they trembled and shook.
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I looked, and mankind was gone, and the birds of the heavens had fled.
26
The fertile valleys were wilderness, and all the cities were broken down before the presence of the Lord, crushed by his fierce anger.
27
The Lord’s decree of desolation covers all the land.
“Yet,” he says, “there will be a little remnant of my people left.
28
The earth shall mourn, the heavens shall be draped with black, because of my decree against my people; I have made up my mind and will not change it.”
29
All the cities flee in terror at the noise of marching armies coming near. The people hide in the bushes and flee to the mountains. All the cities are abandoned—all have fled in terror.
30
Why do you put on your most beautiful clothing and jewelry and brighten your eyes with mascara? It will do you no good! Your allies despise you and will kill you.
31
I have heard great crying like that of a woman giving birth to her first child; it is the cry of my people gasping for breath, pleading for help, prostrate before their murderers.
5:
1
Run up and down through every street in all Jerusalem; search high and low and see if you can find even one person who is fair and honest! Search every square, and if you find just one, I’ll not destroy the city!
2
Even under oath, they all lie.
3
O Lord, you are looking for faithfulness. You have tried to get them to be honest, for you have punished them, but they won’t change! You have destroyed them, but they refuse to turn from their sins. They are determined, with faces hard as rock, not to repent.
4
Then I said, “But what can we expect from the poor and ignorant? They don’t know the ways of God. How can they obey him?”
5
I will go now to their leaders, the men of importance, and speak to them, for they know the ways of the Lord and the judgment that follows sin. But they too had utterly rejected their God.
6
So I will send upon them the wild fury of the “lion from the forest”; the “desert wolves” shall pounce upon them, and a “leopard” shall lurk around their cities so that all who go out shall be torn apart. For their sins are very many; their rebellion against me is great.
7
How can I pardon you? For even your children have turned away and worship gods that are not gods at all. I fed my people until they were fully satisfied, and their thanks was to commit adultery wholesale and to gang up at the city’s brothels.
8
They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s mate.
9
Shall I not punish them for this? Shall I not send my vengeance on such a nation as this?
10
Go down the rows of the vineyards and destroy them! But leave a scattered few to live. Strip the branches from each vine, for they are not the Lord’s.
11
For the people of Israel and Judah are full of treachery against me, says the Lord.
12
They have lied and said, “He won’t bother us! No evil will come upon us! There will be neither famine nor war!
13
God’s prophets,” they say, “are windbags full of words with no divine authority. Their claims of doom will fall upon themselves, not us!”
14
Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Hosts says to his prophets: Because of talk like this, I’ll take your words and prophecies and turn them into raging fire and burn up these people like kindling wood.
15
See, I will bring a distant nation against you, O Israel, says the Lord. It is a mighty nation, an ancient nation
*
whose language you don’t understand.
16
Their weapons are deadly; the men are all mighty.
17
And they shall eat your harvest and your children’s bread, your flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, yes, and your grapes and figs; and they shall sack your walled cities that you think are safe.
18
But I will not completely blot you out. So says the Lord.
19
And when your people ask, “Why is it that the Lord is doing this to us?” then you shall say, “You rejected him and gave yourselves to other gods while in your land; now you must be slaves to foreigners in their lands.”
20
Make this announcement to Judah and to Israel:
21
Listen, O foolish, senseless people—you with the eyes that do not see and the ears that do not listen—
22
have you no respect at all for me? the Lord God asks. How can it be that you don’t even tremble in my presence? I set the shorelines of the world by perpetual decrees, so that the oceans, though they toss and roar, can never pass those bounds. Isn’t such a God to be feared and worshiped?
23-24
But my people have rebellious hearts; they have turned against me and gone off into idolatry. Though I am the one who gives them rain each year in spring and fall and sends the harvesttimes, yet they have no respect or fear for me.
25
And so I have taken away these wondrous blessings from them. This sin has robbed them of all of these good things.
26
Among my people are wicked men who lurk for victims like a hunter hiding in a blind. They set their traps for men.
27
Like a coop full of chickens their homes are full of evil plots. And the result? Now they are great and rich,
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they are well fed and well groomed, and there is no limit to their wicked deeds. They refuse justice to orphans and the rights of the poor.
29
Should I sit back and act as though nothing is going on? the Lord God asks. Shouldn’t I punish a nation such as this?
30
A horrible thing has happened in this land—
31
the priests are ruled by false prophets, and my people like it so! But your doom is certain.
6:
1
Run, people of Benjamin, run for your lives! Flee from Jerusalem! Sound the alarm in Tekoa; send up a smoke signal at Beth-haccherem; warn everyone that a powerful army is on the way from the north, coming to destroy this nation!
2
Helpless as a girl, you are beautiful and delicate—and doomed.
3
Evil shepherds shall surround you. They shall set up camp around the city and divide your pastures for their flocks.
4
See them prepare for battle. At noon it has begun. All afternoon it rages until the evening shadows fall.
5
“Come,” they say. “Let us attack by night and destroy her palaces!”
6
For the Lord Almighty has said to them, Cut down her trees for battering rams; smash down the walls of Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, for she is vile through and through.
7
She spouts evil like a fountain! Her streets echo with the sounds of violence; her sickness and wounds are ever before me.
8
This is your last warning, O Jerusalem. If you don’t listen, I will empty the land.
9
Disaster on disaster shall befall you. Even the few who remain in Israel shall be gleaned again, the Lord Almighty has said; for as a grape-gatherer checks each vine to pick what he has missed, so the remnant of my people shall be destroyed again.
10
But who will listen when I warn them? Their ears are closed, and they refuse to hear. The word of God has angered them; they don’t want it at all.
11
For all this I am full of the wrath of God against them. I am weary of holding it in. I will pour it out over Jerusalem, even upon the children playing in the streets, upon the gatherings of young men, and on husbands and wives and grandparents.
12
Their enemies shall live in their homes and take their fields and wives. For I will punish the people of this land, the Lord has said.
13
They are swindlers and liars, from the least of them right to the top! Yes, even my prophets and priests!
14
You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there! Yet the priests and prophets give assurances of peace when all is war.
15
Were my people ashamed when they worshiped idols? No, not at all—they didn’t even blush. Therefore they shall lie among the slain. They shall die beneath my anger.
He is the Head of the body made up of his people—that is, his Church—which he began; and he is the Leader of all those who arise from the dead,
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so that he is first in everything;
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for God wanted all of himself to be in his Son.
20
It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him—all things in heaven and on earth—for Christ’s death on the cross has made peace with God for all by his blood.
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This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends.
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He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you—nothing left that he could even chide you for;
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the only condition is that you fully believe the Truth, standing in it steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, convinced of the Good News that Jesus died for you, and never shifting from trusting him to save you. This is the wonderful news that came to each of you and is now spreading all over the world. And I, Paul, have the joy of telling it to others.
24
But part of my work is to suffer for you; and I am glad, for I am helping to finish up the remainder of Christ’s sufferings for his body, the Church.
25
God has sent me to help his Church and to tell his secret plan to you Gentiles.
26-27
He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret:
Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.
28
So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them.
29
This is my work, and I can do it only because Christ’s mighty energy is at work within me.
2:
1
I wish you could know how much I have struggled in prayer for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for my many other friends who have never known me personally.
2
This is what I have asked of God for you: that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding.
For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself.
3
In him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4
I am saying this because I am afraid that someone may fool you with smooth talk.
5
For though I am far away from you my heart is with you, happy because you are getting along so well, happy because of your strong faith in Christ.
6
And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with him.
7
Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done.
I cry to the Lord; I call and call to him. Oh, that he would listen.
2
I am in deep trouble and I need his help so much. All night long I pray, lifting my hands to heaven, pleading. There can be no joy for me until he acts.
3
I think of God and moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help.
4
I cannot sleep until you act. I am too distressed even to pray!
5
I keep thinking of the good old days of the past, long since ended.
6
Then my nights were filled with joyous songs. I search my soul and meditate upon the difference now.
7
Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be favorable?
8
Is his loving-kindness gone forever? Has his promise failed?
9
Has he forgotten to be kind to one so undeserving? Has he slammed the door in anger on his love?
10
And I said: This is my fate, that the blessings of God have changed to hate.
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11
I recall the many miracles he did for me so long ago.
12
Those wonderful deeds are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about them.
13
O God, your ways are holy. Where is there any other as mighty as you?
14
You are the God of miracles and wonders! You still demonstrate your awesome power.
15
You have redeemed us who are the sons of Jacob and of Joseph by your might.
16
When the Red Sea saw you, how it feared! It trembled to its depths!
17
The clouds poured down their rain, the thunder rolled and crackled in the sky. Your lightning flashed.
18
There was thunder in the whirlwind; the lightning lighted up the world! The earth trembled and shook.
19
Your road led by a pathway through the sea—a pathway no one knew was there!
20
You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.