The Living Bible (283 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
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.
“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’
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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.”
Amos was a herdsman living in the village of Tekoa. All day long he sat on the hillsides watching the sheep, keeping them from straying.
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One day, in a vision, God told him some of the things that were going to happen to his nation, Israel. This vision came to him at the time Uzziah was king of Judah and while Jeroboam (son of Joash) was king of Israel—two years before the earthquake.
This is his report of what he saw and heard: The Lord roared—like a ferocious lion from his lair—from his Temple on Mount Zion. And suddenly the lush pastures of Mount Carmel withered and dried, and all the shepherds mourned.
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The Lord says, “The people of Damascus have sinned again and again, and I will not forget it. I will not leave her unpunished anymore. For they have threshed my people in Gilead as grain is threshed with iron rods.
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So I will set fire to King Hazael’s palace, destroying the strong fortress of Ben-hadad.
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I will snap the bars that locked the gates of Damascus and kill her people as far away as the plain of Aven, and the people of Syria shall return to Kir
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as slaves.” The Lord has spoken.
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The Lord says, “Gaza has sinned again and again, and I will not forget it. I will not leave her unpunished anymore. For she sent my people into exile, selling them as slaves in Edom.
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So I will set fire to the walls of Gaza, and all her forts shall be destroyed.
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I will kill the people of Ashdod and destroy Ekron and the king of Ashkelon; all Philistines left will perish.” The Lord has spoken.
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The Lord says, “The people of Tyre have sinned again and again, and I will not forget it. I will not leave them unpunished anymore. For they broke their treaty with their brother, Israel; they attacked and conquered him, and led him into slavery to Edom.
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So I will set fire to the walls of Tyre, and it will burn down all his forts and palaces.”
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The Lord says, “Edom has sinned again and again, and I will not forget it. I will not leave him unpunished anymore. For he chased his brother, Israel, with the sword; he was pitiless in unrelenting anger.
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So I will set fire to Teman, and it will burn down all the forts of Bozrah.”
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The Lord says, “The people of Ammon have sinned again and again, and I will not forget it. I will not leave them unpunished anymore. For in their wars in Gilead to enlarge their borders they committed cruel crimes, ripping open pregnant women with their swords.
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“So I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah, and it will burn down their forts and palaces; there will be wild shouts of battle like a whirlwind in a mighty storm.
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And their king and his princes will go into exile together.” The Lord has spoken.