15 Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, d“Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
ethat the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
17 Is it not yet a very little while
until Lebanon shall be fturned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
18 In that day gthe deaf shall hear
the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
hthe eyes of the blind shall see.
19 The imeek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing
and the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender,
and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.
22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall jno more be ashamed,
no more shall his face grow pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will ksanctify my name;
they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
Do Not Go Down to Egypt
1 “Ah, stubborn lchildren,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance,1 but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
2 who set out to mgo down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3 nTherefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
4 For though his officials are at Zoan
and his envoys reach Hanes,
5 everyone comes to shame
through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
from where come the lioness and the lion,
the adder and the oflying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
7 Egypt’s help is worthless and empty;
therefore I have called her
p“Rahab who sits still.”
A Rebellious People
8 And now, go, qwrite it before them on a tablet
and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
as a witness forever.2
9 For they are a rrebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the Lord;
10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, s“Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
11 leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you tdespise this word
and trust in oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you
like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
14 and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
with which to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
Prologue
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants1 athe things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his bangel to his servant cJohn, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 dBlessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, efor the time is fnear.
Greeting to the Seven Churches
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him gwho is and who was and who is to come, and from hthe seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the ifaithful witness, jthe firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who kloves us land has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, mpriests to his God and Father, nto him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 oBehold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who ppierced him, and qall tribes of the earth will wail2 on account of him. Even so. Amen.
8 r“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Vision of the Son of Man
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was sin the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice tlike a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and usend it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw vseven golden wlampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands xone like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and ywith a golden sash around his chest. 14 zThe hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. aHis eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like bburnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was clike the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, dfrom his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and ehis face was like the sun shining in full strength.
17 When I saw him, I ffell at his feet as though dead. gBut he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, hI am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have ithe keys jof Death and Hades. 19 kWrite therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
