The One Year Bible TLB (257 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Unless the Lord builds a house, the builders’ work is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, sentries do no good.
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It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing you will starve to death; for God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.
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Children are a gift from God; they are his reward.
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Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows to defend him.
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Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. That man shall have the help he needs when arguing with his enemies.
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Scolding and spanking a child helps him to learn. Left to himself, he brings shame to his mother.
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When rulers are wicked, their people are too; but good men will live to see the tyrant’s downfall.
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Discipline your son and he will give you happiness and peace of mind.
December 9This message came from the Lord to Joel, son of Pethuel:
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Listen, you aged men of Israel! Everyone, listen! In all your lifetime, yes, in all your history, have you ever heard of such a thing as I am going to tell you?
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In years to come, tell your children about it; pass the awful story down from generation to generation.
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After the cutter-locusts finish eating your crops, the swarmer-locusts will take what’s left! After them will come the hopper-locusts! And then the stripper-locusts too!
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Wake up and weep, you drunkards, for all the grapes are ruined, and all your wine is gone!
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A vast army of locusts
*
covers the land. It is a terrible army too numerous to count, with teeth as sharp as those of lions!
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They have ruined my vines and stripped the bark from the fig trees, leaving trunks and branches white and bare.
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Weep with sorrow, as a virgin weeps whose fiancé is dead.
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Gone are the offerings of grain and wine to bring to the Temple of the Lord; the priests are starving. Hear the crying of these ministers of God.
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The fields are bare of crops. Sorrow and sadness are everywhere. The grain, the grapes, the olive oil are gone.
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Well may you farmers stand so shocked and stricken; well may you vinedressers weep. Weep for the wheat and the barley, too, for they are gone.
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The grapevines are dead; the fig trees are dying; the pomegranates wither; the apples shrivel on the trees; all joy has withered with them.
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O priests, robe yourselves in sackcloth. O ministers of my God, lie all night before the altar, weeping. For there are no more offerings of grain and wine for you.
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Announce a fast; call a solemn meeting. Gather the elders and all the people into the Temple of the Lord your God, and weep before him there.
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Alas, this terrible day of punishment
*
is on the way. Destruction from the Almighty is almost here!
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Our food will disappear before our eyes; all joy and gladness will be ended in the Temple of our God.
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The seed rots in the ground; the barns and granaries are empty; the grain has dried up in the fields.
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The cattle groan with hunger; the herds stand perplexed, for there is no pasture for them; the sheep bleat in misery.
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Lord, help us! For the heat has withered the pastures and burned up all the trees.
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Even the wild animals cry to you for help, for there is no water for them. The creeks are dry, and the pastures are scorched.
2:
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Sound the alarm in Jerusalem! Let the blast of the warning trumpet be heard upon my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear, for the day of the Lord’s judgment approaches.
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It is a day of darkness and gloom, of black clouds and thick darkness. What a mighty army! It covers the mountains like night! How great, how powerful these “people” are! The likes of them have not been seen before, and never will again throughout the generations of the world!
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Fire goes before them and follows them on every side! Ahead of them the land lies fair as Eden’s Garden in all its beauty, but they destroy it to the ground; not one thing escapes.
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They look like tiny horses, and they run as fast.
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Look at them leaping along the tops of the mountain! Listen to the noise they make, like the rumbling of chariots, or the roar of fire sweeping across a field, and like a mighty army moving into battle.
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Fear grips the waiting people; their faces grow pale with fright.
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These “soldiers” charge like infantry; they scale the walls like picked and trained commandos. Straight forward they march, never breaking ranks.
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They never crowd each other. Each is right in place. No weapon can stop them.
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They swarm upon the city; they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, coming like thieves through the windows.
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The earth quakes before them and the heavens tremble. The sun and moon are obscured and the stars are hid.
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The Lord leads them with a shout. This is his mighty army, and they follow his orders. The day of the judgment of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can endure it?
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That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me all your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, mourning.
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Let your remorse tear at your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered; he is full of kindness and anxious not to punish you.
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Who knows? Perhaps even yet he will decide to leave you alone and give you a blessing instead of his terrible curse. Perhaps he will give you so much that you can offer your grain and wine to the Lord as before!
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Sound the trumpet in Zion! Call a fast and gather all the people together for a solemn meeting.
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Bring everyone—the elders, the children, and even the babies. Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her privacy.
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The priests, the ministers of God, will stand between the people and the altar, weeping; and they will pray, “Spare your people, O our God; don’t let the heathen rule them, for they belong to you. Don’t let them be disgraced by the taunts of the heathen who say, ‘Where is this God of theirs? How weak and helpless he must be!’”
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Then the Lord will pity his people and be indignant for the honor of his land!
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He will reply, “See, I am sending you much corn and wine and oil, to fully satisfy your need. No longer will I make you a laughingstock among the nations.
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I will remove these armies from the north and send them far away; I will turn them back into the parched wastelands where they will die; half shall be driven into the Dead Sea and the rest into the Mediterranean, and then their rotting stench will rise upon the land. The Lord has done a mighty miracle for you.”
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Fear not, my people; be glad now and rejoice, for he has done amazing things for you.
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Let the flocks and herds forget their hunger; the pastures will turn green again. The trees will bear their fruit; the fig trees and grapevines will flourish once more.
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Rejoice, O people of Jerusalem, rejoice in the Lord your God! For the rains he sends are tokens of forgiveness. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as those of spring.
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The threshing floors will pile high again with wheat, and the presses overflow with olive oil and wine.
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“And I will give you back the crops the locusts ate!—my great destroying army that I sent against you.
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Once again you will have all the food you want.
“Praise the Lord, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people experience disaster such as this.
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And you will know that I am here among my people Israel, and that I alone am the Lord your God. And my people shall never again be dealt a blow like this.
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“After I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all of you! Your sons and daughters will prophesy; your old men will dream dreams, and your young men see visions.
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And I will pour out my Spirit even on your slaves, men and women alike,
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and put strange symbols in the earth and sky—blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
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“The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible Day of the Lord shall come.
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“Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved; even in Jerusalem some will escape, just as the Lord has promised, for he has chosen some to survive.
3:
1
“At that time, when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem,” says the Lord,
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“I will gather the armies of the world into the ‘Valley Where Jehovah Judges’
*
and punish them there for harming my people, for scattering my inheritance among the nations and dividing up my land.
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“They divided up my people as their slaves; they traded a young lad for a prostitute, and a little girl for wine enough to get drunk.
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Tyre and Sidon, don’t you try to interfere! Are you trying to take revenge on me, you cities of Philistia? Beware, for I will strike back swiftly and return the harm to your own heads.
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“You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures and carried them off to your heathen temples.
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You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, who took them far from their own land.
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But I will bring them back again from all these places you have sold them to, and I will pay you back for all that you have done.
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I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans far away. This is a promise from the Lord.”
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Announce this far and wide: Get ready for war! Conscript your best soldiers; collect all your armies.
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Melt your plowshares into swords, and beat your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak be strong.
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Gather together and come, all nations everywhere. And now, O Lord, bring down your warriors!
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“Collect the nations; bring them to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to pronounce judgment on them all.
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Now let the sickle do its work; the harvest is ripe and waiting. Tread the winepress, for it is full to overflowing with the wickedness of these men.”
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Multitudes, multitudes waiting in the valley for the verdict of their doom! For the Day of the Lord is near, in the Valley of Judgment.
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The sun and moon will be darkened and the stars withdraw their light.
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The Lord shouts from his Temple in Jerusalem, and the earth and sky begin to shake. But to his people Israel, the Lord will be very gentle. He is their Refuge and Strength.
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“Then you shall know at last that I am the Lord your God in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem shall be mine forever; the time will come when no foreign armies will pass through her anymore.
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“Sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and the hills shall flow with milk. Water will fill the dry streambeds of Judah, and a fountain will burst forth from the Temple of the Lord to water Acacia Valley.
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Egypt will be destroyed, and Edom, too, because of their violence against the Jews, for they killed innocent people in those nations.
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“But Israel will prosper forever, and Jerusalem will thrive as generations pass.
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For I will avenge the blood of my people; I will not clear their oppressors of guilt. For my home is in Jerusalem with my people.”
This book unveils some of the future activities soon to occur in the life of Jesus Christ.
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God permitted him to reveal these things to his servant John in a vision; and then an angel was sent from heaven to explain the vision’s meaning.
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John wrote it all down—the words of God and Jesus Christ and everything he heard and saw.
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If you read this prophecy aloud to the church, you will receive a special blessing from the Lord. Those who listen to it being read and do what it says will also be blessed. For the time is near when these things will all come true.
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From:
John
To:
The seven churches in Turkey.
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Dear Friends:
May you have grace and peace from God who is, and was, and is to come; and from the sevenfold Spirit before his throne;
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and from Jesus Christ who faithfully reveals all truth to us. He was the first to rise from death, to die no more.
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He is far greater than any king in all the earth. All praise to him who always loves us and who set us free from our sins by pouring out his lifeblood for us.
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He has gathered us into his Kingdom and made us priests of God his Father. Give to him everlasting glory! He rules forever! Amen!
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See! He is arriving, surrounded by clouds; and every eye shall see him—yes, and those who pierced him.
*
And the nations will weep in sorrow and in terror when he comes. Yes! Amen! Let it be so!
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“I am the A and the Z,
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the Beginning and the Ending of all things,” says God, who is the Lord, the All Powerful One who is, and was, and is coming again!
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It is I, your brother John, a fellow sufferer for the Lord’s sake, who am writing this letter to you. I, too, have shared the patience Jesus gives, and we shall share his Kingdom!
I was on the island of Patmos, exiled there for preaching the Word of God and for telling what I knew about Jesus Christ.
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It was the Lord’s Day and I was worshiping, when suddenly I heard a loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a trumpet blast,
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saying,
“I am A and Z, the First and Last!”
And then I heard him say,
“Write down everything you see, and send your letter to the seven churches in Turkey:
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to the church in Ephesus, the one in Smyrna, and those in Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
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When I turned to see who was speaking, there behind me were seven candlesticks of gold.
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And standing among them was one who looked like Jesus, who called himself the Son of Man,
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wearing a long robe circled with a golden band across his chest.
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His hair was white as wool or snow,
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and his eyes penetrated like flames of fire.
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His feet gleamed like burnished bronze, and his voice thundered like the waves against the shore.
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He held seven stars in his right hand and a sharp, double-bladed sword in his mouth,
*
and his face shone like the power of the sun in unclouded brilliance.
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When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead; but he laid his right hand on me and said,
“Don’t be afraid! Though I am the First and Last, the Living One who died, who is now alive forevermore, who has the keys of hell and death—don’t be afraid!
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Write down what you have just seen and what will soon be shown to you.
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This is the meaning of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks: The seven stars are the leaders
*
of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the churches themselves.