The One Year Bible TLB (265 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Never falsely accuse a man to his employer, lest he curse you for your sin.
December 19Subject: a message from the Lord.
To:
Zephaniah (son of Cushi, grandson of Gedaliah, great-grandson of Amariah, and great-great-grandson of Hezekiah).
When:
During the reign of Josiah (son of Amon) king of Judah.
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2
“I will sweep away everything in all your land,” says the Lord. “I will destroy it to the ground.
3
I will sweep away both men and animals alike. Mankind and all the idols that he worships—all will vanish. Even the birds of the air and the fish in the sea will perish.
4
I will crush Judah and Jerusalem with my fist and destroy every remnant of those who worship Baal; I will put an end to their idolatrous priests, so that even the memory of them will disappear.
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They go up on their roofs and bow to the sun, moon, and stars. They ‘follow the Lord,’ but worship Molech too! I will destroy them.
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And I will destroy those who formerly worshiped the Lord, but now no longer do, and those who never loved him and never wanted to.”
7
Stand in silence in the presence of the Lord. For the awesome Day of his Judgment has come; he has prepared a great slaughter of his people and has chosen their executioners.
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8
“On that Day of Judgment I will punish the leaders and princes of Judah and all others wearing heathen clothing.
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9
Yes, I will punish those who follow heathen customs and who rob and kill to fill their masters’ homes with evil gain of violence and fraud.
10
A cry of alarm will begin at the farthest gate of Jerusalem, coming closer and closer until the noise of the advancing army reaches the very top of the hill where the city is built.
11
“Wail in sorrow, you people of Jerusalem. All your greedy businessmen, all your loan sharks—all will die.
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“I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to find and punish those who sit contented in their sins, indifferent to God, thinking he will leave them alone.
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They are the very ones whose property will be plundered by the enemy, whose homes will be ransacked; they will never have a chance to live in the new homes they have built. They will never drink wine from the vineyards they have planted.
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“That terrible day is near. Swiftly it comes—a day when strong men will weep bitterly.
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It is a day of the wrath of God poured out; it is a day of terrible distress and anguish, a day of ruin and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, of clouds, blackness,
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trumpet calls, and battle cries; down go the walled cities and strongest battlements!
17
“I will make you as helpless as a blind man searching for a path because you have sinned against the Lord; therefore, your blood will be poured out into the dust and your bodies will lie there rotting on the ground.”
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Your silver and gold will be of no use to you in that day of the Lord’s wrath. You cannot ransom yourselves with it.
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For the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy. He will make a speedy riddance of all the people of Judah.
2:
1
Gather together and pray, you shameless nation,
2
while there still is time—before judgment begins and your opportunity is blown away like chaff; before the fierce anger of the Lord falls and the terrible day of his wrath begins.
3
Beg him to save you, all who are humble—all who have tried to obey.
Walk humbly and do what is right; perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you from his wrath in that day of doom.
4
Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron—these Philistine cities, too, will be rooted out and left in desolation.
5
And woe to you Philistines
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living on the coast and in the land of Canaan, for the judgment is against you too. The Lord will destroy you until not one of you is left.
6
The coastland will become a pasture, a place of shepherd camps and folds for sheep.
7
There the little remnant of the tribe of Judah will be pastured. They will lie down to rest in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon. For the Lord God will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again.
8
“I have heard the taunts of the people of Moab and Ammon, mocking my people and invading their land.
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Therefore as I live,” says the Lord Almighty, God of Israel, “Moab and Ammon will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and become a place of stinging nettles, salt pits, and eternal desolation; those of my people who are left will plunder and possess them.”
10
They will receive the wages of their pride, for they have scoffed at the people of the Lord Almighty.
11
The Lord will do terrible things to them. He will starve out all those gods of foreign powers, and everyone shall worship him, each in his own land throughout the world.
12
You Ethiopians, too, will be slain by his sword,
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and so will the lands of the north; he will destroy Assyria and make its great capital Nineveh a desolate wasteland like a wilderness.
14
That once proud city will become a pastureland for sheep. All sorts of wild animals will have their homes in her. Hedgehogs will burrow there; the vultures and the owls will live among the ruins of her palaces, hooting from the gaping windows; the ravens will croak from her doors. All her cedar paneling will lie open to the wind and weather.
15
This is the fate of that vast, prosperous city that lived in such security, that said to herself, “In all the world there is no city as great as I.” But now—see how she has become a place of utter ruins, a place for animals to live! Everyone passing that way will mock or shake his head in disbelief.
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3:
1
Woe to filthy, sinful Jerusalem, city of violence and crime.
2
In her pride she won’t listen even to the voice of God. No one can tell her anything; she refuses all correction. She does not trust the Lord nor seek for God.
3
Her leaders are like roaring lions hunting for their victims—out for everything that they can get. Her judges are like ravenous wolves at evening time, who by dawn have left no trace of their prey.
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Her “prophets” are liars seeking their own gain; her priests defile the Temple by their disobedience to God’s laws.
5
But the Lord is there within the city, and he does no wrong. Day by day his justice is more evident, but no one heeds—the wicked know no shame.
6
“I have cut off many nations, laying them waste to their farthest borders; I have left their streets in silent ruin and their cities deserted without a single survivor to remember what happened.
7
I thought, ‘Surely they will listen to me now—surely they will heed my warnings, so that I’ll not need to strike again.’ But no; however much I punish them, they continue all their evil ways from dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn.”
8
But the Lord says, “Be patient; the time is coming soon when I will stand up and accuse these evil nations. For it is my decision to gather together the kingdoms of the earth and pour out my fiercest anger and wrath upon them. All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
9
“At that time I will change the speech of my returning people to pure Hebrew
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so that all can worship the Lord together.
10
My scattered people who live in the Sudan,
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beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, will come with their offerings, asking me to be their God again.
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And then you will no longer need to be ashamed of yourselves, for you will no longer be rebels against me. I will remove all your proud and arrogant people from among you; there will be no pride or haughtiness on my holy mountain.
12
Those who are left will be the poor and the humble, and they will trust in the name of the Lord.
13
They will not be sinners, full of lies and deceit. They will live quietly, in peace, and lie down in safety, and no one will make them afraid.”
14
Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
15
For the Lord will remove his hand of judgment and disperse the armies of your enemy. And the Lord himself, the King of Israel, will live among you! At last your troubles will be over—you need fear no more.
16
On that day the announcement to Jerusalem will be, “Cheer up, don’t be afraid.
17-18
For the Lord your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty Savior. He will give you victory. He will rejoice over you with great gladness; he will love you and not accuse you.” Is that a joyous choir I hear? No, it is the Lord himself exulting over you in happy song.
“I have gathered your wounded and taken away your reproach.
19
And I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you. I will save the weak and helpless ones, and bring together those who were chased away. I will give glory to my former exiles, mocked and shamed.
20
“At that time, I will gather you together and bring you home again, and give you a good name, a name of distinction among all the peoples of the earth, and they will praise you when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord.
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face shone like the sun and his feet flashed with fire.
2
And he held open in his hand a small scroll. He set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth
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and gave a great shout—it was like the roar of a lion—and the seven thunders crashed their reply.
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I was about to write what the thunders said when a voice from heaven called to me, “Don’t do it. Their words are not to be revealed.”
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Then the mighty angel standing on the sea and land lifted his right hand to heaven
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and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it and the earth and all that it contains and the sea and its inhabitants, that there should be no more delay,
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but that when the seventh angel blew his trumpet, then God’s veiled plan—mysterious through the ages ever since it was announced by his servants the prophets—would be fulfilled.
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Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again, “Go and get the unrolled scroll from the mighty angel standing there upon the sea and land.”
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So I approached him and asked him to give me the scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “At first it will taste like honey, but when you swallow it, it will make your stomach sour!”
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So I took it from his hand, and ate it! And just as he had said, it was sweet in my mouth, but it gave me a stomachache when I swallowed it.
11
Then he told me, “You must prophesy further about many peoples, nations, tribes, and kings.”
Lord, with all my heart I thank you. I will sing your praises before the armies of angels.
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2
I face your Temple as I worship, giving thanks to you for all your loving-kindness and your faithfulness, for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.
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3
When I pray, you answer me and encourage me by giving me the strength I need.
4
Every king in all the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for all of them shall hear your voice.
5
Yes, they shall sing about Jehovah’s glorious ways, for his glory is very great.
6
Yet though he is so great, he respects the humble, but proud men must keep their distance.
7
Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will bring me safely through them. You will clench your fist against my angry enemies! Your power will save me.
8
The Lord will work out his plans for my life—for your loving-kindness, Lord, continues forever. Don’t abandon me—for you made me.
There are those who curse their father and mother and feel themselves faultless despite their many sins.
13-14
They are proud beyond description, arrogant, disdainful. They devour the poor with teeth as sharp as knives!