The Skeptics Annotated Bible (690 page)

6 And
I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

(4.6)
“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”

7 And also
I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered
.

(4.7)
“I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.”

8
So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD
.

(4.8)
“So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”

9
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew
: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them:
yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

(4.9)
“I have smitten you with blasting and mildew … yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”

10
I have sent among you the pestilence
after the manner of Egypt:
your young men have I slain with the sword,
and have taken away your horses;
and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

(4.10)
“I have sent among you the pestilence … your young men have I slain with the sword … and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”

11
I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD
.

(4.11)
“I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”

12 Therefore
thus will I do unto thee,
O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee,
prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

(4.12)
“Thus will I do unto thee …Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”

13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

5
Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

(5.3-6) Seek God or he will kill you. (90% of you anyway)

3 For
thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten
, to the house of Israel.

(5.3)
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten.”

4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

5 But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.

6
Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it,
and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

(5.6) “Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it.”

7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

8
Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion
, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:

(5.8) “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.” Other translations have “Pleiades” instead of “seven stars.” The Pleiades is an open star cluster that contains thousands of stars, not just the “seven stars” that are easily visible from earth without a telescope. And the constellation Orion is a collection of stars that happens to form an interesting, but temporary, pattern when viewed from earth. It was not purposefully designed by anyone or anything.

9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins:
they afflict the just
, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

(5.12) “They afflict the just.”
33 Has the ever been a just person?

13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

(5.14-15) Do good; avoid evil.

14
Seek good, and not evil
, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

(5.14)
“Seek good, and not evil.”

15
Hate the evil, and love the good
, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

(5.15)
“Hate the evil, and love the good.”

(5.16-17) There will be wailing in the streets when God passes through.