Amos 7–9; Psalm 120; 2 John; 3 John; Jude

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Amos 7–9

Warning Visions

aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, bhe was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

O Lord God, please forgive!

cHow can Jacob stand?

He is so small!

dThe Lord relented concerning this:

It shall not be, said the Lord.

aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling efor a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said,

O Lord God, please cease!

cHow can Jacob stand?

He is so small!

dThe Lord relented concerning this:

This also shall not be, said the Lord God.

aThis is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with fa plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, gAmos, what do you see? And I said, A plumb line. Then the Lord said,

Behold, I am setting fa plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

gI will never again pass by them;

hthe high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

and I will rise against ithe house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Amos Accused

10 Then Amaziah jthe priest of Bethel sent to kJeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has lconspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,

Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and mIsrael must go into exile

away from his land.

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, nO seer, go, flee away oto the land of Judah, and peat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but qnever again prophesy at Bethel, for rit is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.

14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, sI was1 no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but tI was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 uBut the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. 16 vNow therefore hear the word of the Lord.

You say, nDo not prophesy against Israel,

and wdo not preach against the house of xIsaac.

17 yTherefore thus says the Lord:

Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

and your land zshall be divided up with a measuring line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

and mIsrael shall surely go into exile away from its land.

The Coming Day of Bitter Mourning

aThis is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, bAmos, what do you see? And I said, cA basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me,

dThe end2 has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them.

eThe songs of the temple3 fshall become wailings4 in that day,

declares the Lord God.

gSo many dead bodies!

They are thrown everywhere!

hSilence!

Hear this, iyou who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

saying, When will jthe new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And kthe Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make lthe ephah small and the shekel5 great

and deal deceitfully with false balances,

that we may buy the poor for msilver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?

The Lord has sworn by nthe pride of Jacob:

Surely oI will never forget any of their deeds.

pShall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

qand all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about rand sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

And on that day, declares the Lord God,

sI will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10  tI will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation;

uI will bring sackcloth on every waist

uand baldness on every head;

vI will make it like the mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

11  Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God,

when wI will send a famine on the land

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

xbut of hearing the words of the Lord.

12  xThey shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,

ybut they shall not find it.

13  zIn that day the lovely virgins and the young men

shall afaint for thirst.

14  Those who swear by bthe Guilt of Samaria,

and say, As your god lives, O Dan,

and, As cthe Way of dBeersheba lives,

they shall fall, and never rise again.

The Destruction of Israel

I saw the Lord standing beside6 the altar, and he said:

eStrike the capitals until ethe thresholds fshake,

gand shatter them on the heads of all the people;7

and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;

hnot one of them shall flee away;

not one of them shall escape.

iIf they dig into Sheol,

from there shall my hand take them;

iif they climb up to heaven,

from there I will bring them down.

If they hide themselves on jthe top of Carmel,

from there I will search them out and take them;

kand if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,

there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.

lAnd if they go into captivity before their enemies,

there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them;

mand I will fix my eyes upon them

for evil and not for good.

The Lord God of hosts,

he who touches the earth and nit melts,

and all who dwell in it mourn,

oand all of it rises like the Nile,

oand sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;

pwho builds his upper chambers in the heavens

and founds his vault upon the earth;

qwho calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out upon the surface of the earth

rthe Lord is his name.

Are you not like sthe Cushites to me,

O people of Israel? declares the Lord.

tDid I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,

and uthe Philistines from vCaphtor and the Syrians from wKir?

Behold, xthe eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,

and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,

yexcept that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,

declares the Lord.

For behold, I will command,

zand shake the house of Israel among all the nations

as one shakes with a sieve,

but no pebble shall fall to the earth.

10  All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,

who say, aDisaster shall not overtake or meet us.

The Restoration of Israel

11  In that day bI will raise up

the booth of David that is fallen

and repair its breaches,

and raise up its ruins

and rebuild it as in the days of old,

12  cthat they may possess the remnant of Edom

and dall the nations who are called by my name,8

declares the Lord who does this.

13  Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,

ewhen the plowman shall overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

fthe mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it.

14  gI will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and hthey shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;

ithey shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

15  jI will plant them on their land,

kand they shall never again be uprooted

out of the land lthat I have given them,

says the Lord your God.


Psalm 120

Deliver Me, O Lord

A Song of mAscents.

In my distress I called to the Lord,

and he answered me.

Deliver me, O Lord,

from lying lips,

from a deceitful tongue.

What shall be given to you,

nand what more shall be done to you,

you deceitful tongue?

oA warrior’s psharp arrows,

with glowing qcoals of the broom tree!

Woe to me, that I sojourn in rMeshech,

that I dwell among sthe tents of tKedar!

Too long have I had my dwelling

among those who hate peace.

uI am for peace,

but when I speak, they are for war!


2 John

Greeting

aThe elder to the elect lady and her children, bwhom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who cknow dthe truth, ebecause of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

fGrace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.

Walking in Truth and Love

gI rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear ladyhnot as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginningithat we love one another. And jthis is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just kas you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. For lmany deceivers mhave gone out into the world, nthose who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, oso that you may not lose what we1 have worked for, but pmay win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, qdoes not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching qhas both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, rdo not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him stakes part in his wicked works.

Final Greetings

12 tThough I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. uInstead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, vso that our joy may be complete.

13 The children of your elect sister greet you.


3 John

Greeting

aThe elder to the beloved Gaius, bwhom I love in truth.

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. For cI rejoiced greatly when the brothers1 came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that dmy children are walking in the truth.

Support and Opposition

Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for ethese brothers, fstrangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner gworthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of hthe name, iaccepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

11 Beloved, jdo not imitate evil but imitate good. kWhoever does good is from God; lwhoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius mhas received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and nyou know that our testimony is true.

Final Greetings

13 oI had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, peach by name.


Jude

Greeting

Jude, a servant1 of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

aTo those who are called, bbeloved in God the Father and ckept for2 Jesus Christ:

May dmercy, epeace, and love be multiplied to you.

Judgment on False Teachers

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our fcommon salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you gto contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For hcertain people ihave crept in unnoticed jwho long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert kthe grace of our God into sensuality and ldeny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now I want mto remind you, although you once fully knew it, that nJesus, who saved3 a people out of the land of Egypt, oafterward destroyed those who did not believe. And pthe angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day just as qSodom and Gomorrah and rthe surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and spursued unnatural desire,4 serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and tblaspheme the glorious ones. But when uthe archangel vMichael, contending with the devil, was disputing wabout the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, xThe Lord rebuke you. 10 yBut these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in zthe way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain ato Balaam’s error and bperished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs5 cat your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, dshepherds feeding themselves; ewaterless clouds, fswept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, guprooted; 13 hwild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of itheir own shame; jwandering stars, kfor whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

14 It was also about these that Enoch, lthe seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, mBehold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 nto execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have ocommitted in such an ungodly way, and of all pthe harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, qfollowing their own sinful desires; rthey are loud-mouthed boasters, sshowing favoritism to gain advantage.

A Call to Persevere

17 But you must tremember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They6 said to you, uIn the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, vdevoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, wbuilding yourselves up in your most holy faith and xpraying in the Holy Spirit, 21 ykeep yourselves in the love of God, zwaiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by asnatching them out of bthe fire; to others show mercy cwith fear, hating even dthe garment7 stained by the flesh.

Doxology

24 eNow to him who is able fto keep you from stumbling and gto present you hblameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to ithe only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, jbe glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time8 and now and forever. Amen.