Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 q“If you rlove me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will sgive you another tHelper,1 to be with you forever, 17 even the uSpirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be2 in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 vYet a little while and wthe world will see me no more, but you will see me. xBecause I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and yyou in me, and zI in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And ahe who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
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.
1 “Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty,
and why do those who know him never see his fdays?
2 Some gmove landmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4 They hthrust the poor off the road;
the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5 Behold, like iwild donkeys in the desert
the poor1 go out to their toil, seeking game;
the wasteland yields food for their children.
6 They gather their2 fodder in the field,
and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
7 jThey lie all night naked, without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains
and cling to the rock for lack of shelter.
9 (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,
and they take a pledge against the poor.)
10 They go about naked, without clothing;
hungry, they carry the sheaves;
11 among the olive rows of the wicked3 they make oil;
kthey tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
12 From out of the city the dying4 groan,
and the soul of the wounded cries for help;
yet God charges no one with wrong.
13 “There are those who rebel against the light,
who are not acquainted with its ways,
and do not stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises before it is light,
that he may kill the poor and needy,
and in the night he is like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer also waits for the ltwilight,
saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
and he veils his face.
16 In the dark they dig through houses;
by day they shut themselves up;
they do not know the light.
17 For deep darkness is morning to all of them;
for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
18 “You say, ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters;
their portion is cursed in the land;
no treader turns toward their vineyards.
19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;
so does Sheol those who have sinned.
20 The womb forgets them;
the worm finds them sweet;
mthey are no longer remembered,
so wickedness is broken like a tree.’
21 “They wrong the barren, childless woman,
and do no good to the widow.
22 Yet God5 prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
they rise up when they despair of life.
23 He gives them security, and they are supported,
and nhis eyes are upon their ways.
24 oThey are exalted a little while, and then are gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are cut off like the heads of grain.
25 If it is not so, pwho will prove me a liar
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
The Lord Accuses Israel
1 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
for wthe Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no xknowledge of God in the land;
2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land mourns,
and all who dwell in it languish,
and also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens,
and even the yfish of the sea are taken away.
4 Yet let no one contend,
and let none accuse,
for with you is my contention, O zpriest.1
5 You shall stumble by day;
the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
and I will destroy ayour mother.
6 My people are destroyed bfor lack of knowledge;
because you have rejected knowledge,
I reject you from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
7 cThe more they increased,
the more they sinned against me;
I will change their glory into dshame.
8 They feed on the sin2 of my people;
they are greedy for their iniquity.
9 eAnd it shall be like people, like priest;
I will punish them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
10 fThey shall eat, but not be satisfied;
they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,
which take away the understanding.
12 My people inquire of a piece of wood,
and their walking staff gives them oracles.
For a gspirit of whoredom has led them astray,
and they have left their God to play the whore.
13 They sacrifice hon the tops of the mountains
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the whore,
and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
nor your brides when they commit adultery;
for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
and sacrifice with cult prostitutes,
and a people iwithout understanding shall come to ruin.
15 Though you play the whore, O Israel,
let not Judah become guilty.
Enter not into jGilgal,
nor go up to kBeth-aven,
and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”
16 Like a stubborn heifer,
Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
like a lamb in a broad pasture?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols;
leave him alone.
18 When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;
their rulers3 dearly love shame.
19 A wind has wrapped them4 in its wings,
and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah
1 Hear this, O lpriests!
Pay attention, O house of Israel!
Give ear, O house of the king!
For the judgment is for you;
for you have been a snare at Mizpah
and a net spread upon Tabor.
2 And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter,
but I will discipline all of them.
3 I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For the mspirit of whoredom is within them,
and nthey know not the Lord.
5 oThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;5
Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt;
Judah also shall stumble with them.
6 With their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the Lord,
pbut they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
7 They have qdealt faithlessly with the Lord;
for they have borne alien children.
Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
8 rBlow the horn in Gibeah,
the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;
we follow you,6 O Benjamin!
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I make known what is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become
like those who smove the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is toppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after filth.7
12 But I am like a moth to Ephraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
But he is not able to cure you
or heal your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
15 I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and vseek my face,
and in their distress wearnestly seek me.
Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant
1 “Come, xlet us return to the Lord;
for he has ytorn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will zbind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us;
aon the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
3 Let us know; let us press on to bknow the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”
4 cWhat shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is dlike a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light.
6 For eI desire steadfast love9 and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God frather than burnt offerings.
7 But glike Adam they transgressed the covenant;
there they hdealt faithlessly with me.
8 iGilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for a man,
so the jpriests band together;
they murder on the way to Shechem;
they commit villainy.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a khorrible thing;
lEphraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.
11 For you also, O Judah, a mharvest is appointed.
When I nrestore the fortunes of my people,
