20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves afor a little while
until the fury has passed by.
21 bFor behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of cthe earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
and will no more cover its slain.
The Redemption of Israel
1 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong dsword will punish eLeviathan the fleeing serpent, eLeviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay fthe dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day,
g“A pleasant vineyard,1 hsing of it!
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
4 I have no wrath.
iWould that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
5 Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”
6 jIn days to come2 Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 kHas he struck them las he struck those who struck them?
Or have they been slain mas their slayers were slain?
8 nMeasure by measure,3 by exile you contended with them;
ohe removed them with his fierce breath4 in the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this pthe guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:5
qwhen he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no rAsherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10 sFor the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
there it lies down and strips its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
tFor this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
he who formed them will show them no favor.
12 In that day ufrom the river Euphrates6 to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day va great trumpet will be blown, wand those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt xwill come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Test the Spirits
1 Beloved, tdo not believe every spirit, but utest the spirits to see whether they are from God, for vmany wfalse prophets xhave gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: yevery spirit that confesses that zJesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit athat does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and bnow is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for che who is in you is greater than dhe who is in the world. 5 eThey are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and fthe world listens to them. 6 We are from God. gWhoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know hthe Spirit of truth and ithe spirit of error.
God Is Love
7 Beloved, jlet us love one another, for love is from God, and kwhoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 lAnyone who does not love does not know God, because mGod is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that nGod sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, onot that we have loved God nbut that he loved us and sent his Son to be pthe propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 qNo one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and rhis love is perfected in us.
13 sBy this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And twe have seen and testify that uthe Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of vthe world. 15 wWhoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So xwe have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. yGod is love, and zwhoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this ais love perfected with us, so that bwe may have confidence for the day of judgment, because cas he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but dperfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not abeen perfected in love. 19 eWe love because he first loved us. 20 fIf anyone says, “I love God,” and ghates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot1 love God hwhom he has not seen. 21 And ithis commandment we have from him: jwhoever loves God must also love his brother.
