The Siege of Jerusalem
1 Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David encamped!
Add year to year;
let the feasts run their round.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel,
and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
and she shall be to me like an Ariel.1
3 And I will encamp against you all around,
and will besiege you with towers
and I will raise siegeworks against you.
4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,
and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;
your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,
and from the dust your speech shall whisper.
5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust,
and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.
And in an instant, suddenly,
6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the wflame of a devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,
and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,
or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking,
and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,
so shall the multitude of all the nations be
that fight against Mount Zion.
9 Astonish yourselves2 and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk,3 xbut not with wine;
stagger,4 but not with strong drink!
10 For ythe Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has zclosed your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).
11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is asealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
13 And the Lord said:
“Because bthis people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
14 therefore, behold, I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and cthe wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
Greeting
1 Jude, a servant1 of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
To those who are acalled, bbeloved in God the Father and kept for2 Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy, peace, and love be cmultiplied to you.
Judgment on False Teachers
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our dcommon salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have ecrept in unnoticed who flong ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into gsensuality and hdeny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, iwho saved3 a people out of the land of Egypt, jafterward destroyed kthose who did not believe. 6 lAnd the 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— 7 mjust as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise nindulged in sexual immorality and pursued ounnatural desire,4 serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, preject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the qarchangel rMichael, contending with the devil, was disputing about sthe body of Moses, he tdid not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, u“The Lord rebuke you.” 10 vBut these people blaspheme all that wthey do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in xthe way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to yBalaam’s zerror and perished in aKorah’s rebellion. 12 bThese are hidden reefs5 at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, cshepherds feeding themselves; dwaterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 ewild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these that fEnoch, gthe seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with hten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are iloud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
A Call to Persevere
17 But jyou must remember, beloved, the predictions of the kapostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They6 said to you, l“In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who mcause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, nbuilding yourselves up in your most holy faith and opraying in the Holy Spirit, 21 pkeep yourselves in the love of God, qwaiting 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 snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even rthe garment7 stained by the flesh.
Doxology
24 sNow to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you tblameless ubefore the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, vbe glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time8 and now and forever. Amen.
