The Living Bible (225 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Look! The Lord is overturning the land of Judah and making it a vast wasteland of destruction. See how he is emptying out all its people and scattering them over the face of the earth.
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Priests and people, servants and masters, slave girls and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared.
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The land will be completely emptied and looted. The Lord has spoken.
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The land suffers for the sins of its people. The earth languishes, the crops wither, the skies refuse their rain. The land is defiled by crime; the people have twisted the laws of God and broken his everlasting commands.
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Therefore the curse of God is upon them; they are left desolate, destroyed by the drought. Few will be left alive.
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All the joys of life will go: the grape harvest will fail, the wine will be gone, the merrymakers will sigh and mourn.
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The melodious chords of the harp and timbrel are heard no more; the happy days are ended.
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No more are the joys of wine and song; strong drink turns bitter in the mouth.
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The city lies in chaos; every home and shop is locked up tight to keep out looters.
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Mobs form in the streets, crying for wine; joy has reached its lowest ebb; gladness has been banished from the land.
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The city is left in ruins; its gates are battered down.
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Throughout the land
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the story is the same—only a remnant is left.
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But all who are left will shout and sing for joy; those in the west will praise the majesty of God,
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and those in the east will respond with praise. Hear them singing to the Lord from the ends of the earth, singing glory to the Righteous One!
But my heart is heavy with grief, for evil still prevails and treachery is everywhere.
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Terror and the captivity of hell are still your lot, O men of the world.
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When you flee in terror, you will fall into a pit, and if you escape from the pit, you will step into a trap, for destruction falls from the heavens upon you; the world is shaken beneath you.
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The earth has broken down in utter collapse; everything is lost, abandoned, and confused.
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The world staggers like a drunkard; it shakes like a tent in a storm. It falls and will not rise again, for the sins of the earth are very great.
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On that day the Lord will punish the fallen angels in the heavens and the proud rulers of the nations on earth.
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They will be rounded up like prisoners and imprisoned in a dungeon until they are tried and condemned.
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Then the Lord of heaven’s armies will mount his throne in Zion and rule gloriously in Jerusalem, in the sight of all the elders of his people. Such glory there will be that all the brightness of the sun and moon will seem to fade away.
O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God; you do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them, just as you said!
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You turn mighty cities into heaps of ruins. The strongest forts are turned to rubble. Beautiful palaces in distant lands disappear and will never be rebuilt.
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Therefore strong nations will shake with fear before you; ruthless nations will obey and glorify your name.
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But to the poor, O Lord, you are a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, a shelter from merciless men who are like a driving rain that melts down an earthen wall.
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As a hot, dry land is cooled by clouds, you will cool the pride of ruthless nations.
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Here on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the Lord Almighty will spread a wondrous feast for everyone around the world—a delicious feast of good food, with clear, well-aged wine and choice beef.
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At that time he will remove the cloud of gloom, the pall of death that hangs over the earth;
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he will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away all tears and take away forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken—he will surely do it!
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In that day the people will proclaim, “This is our God in whom we trust, for whom we waited. Now at last he is here.” What a day of rejoicing!
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For the Lord’s good hand will rest upon Jerusalem, and Moab will be crushed as straw beneath his feet and left to rot.
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God will push them down just as a swimmer pushes down the water with his hands. He will end their pride and all their evil works.
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The high walls of Moab will be demolished and brought to dust.
Listen to them singing! In that day the whole land of Judah will sing this song:
“Our city is strong! We are surrounded by the walls of his salvation!”
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Open the gates to everyone, for all may enter in who love the Lord.
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He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!
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Trust in the Lord God always, for in the Lord Jehovah is your everlasting strength.
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He humbles the proud and brings the haughty city to the dust; its walls come crashing down.
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He presents it to the poor and needy for their use.
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But for good men the path is not uphill and rough! God does not give them a rough and treacherous path, but smooths the road before them.
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O Lord, we love to do your will! Our hearts’ desire is to glorify your name.
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All night long I search for you; earnestly I seek for God; for only when you come in judgment on the earth to punish it will people turn away from wickedness and do what is right.
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Your kindness to the wicked doesn’t make them good; they keep on doing wrong and take no notice of your majesty.
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They do not listen when you threaten; they will not look to see your upraised fist. Show them how much you love your people. Perhaps then they will be ashamed! Yes, let them be burned up by the fire reserved for your enemies.
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Lord, grant us peace; for all we have and are has come from you.
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O Lord our God, once we worshiped other gods; but now we worship you alone.
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Those we served before are dead and gone; never again will they return. You came against them and destroyed them, and they are long forgotten.
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O praise the Lord! He has made our nation very great. He has widened the boundaries of our land!
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Lord, in their distress they sought for you. When your punishment was on them, they poured forth a whispered prayer.
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How we missed your presence, Lord! We suffered as a woman giving birth who cries and writhes in pain.
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We too have writhed in agony, but all to no avail. No deliverance has come from all our efforts.
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Yet we have this assurance: Those who belong to God shall live again. Their bodies shall rise again! Those who dwell in the dust shall awake and sing for joy! For God’s light of life will fall like dew upon them!
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Go home, my people, and lock the doors! Hide for a little while until the Lord’s wrath against your enemies has passed.
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Look! The Lord is coming from the heavens to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will no longer hide the murderers. The guilty will be found.
In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish leviathan, the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent, the dragon of the sea.
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In that day of Israel’s freedom
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let this anthem be their song:
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Israel
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is my vineyard; I, the Lord, will tend the fruitful vines; every day I’ll water them, and day and night I’ll watch to keep all enemies away.
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My anger against Israel
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is gone. If I find thorns and briars bothering her, I will burn them up, unless these enemies of mine surrender and beg for peace and my protection.
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The time will come when Israel will take root and bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with her fruit!
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Has God punished Israel as much as he has punished her enemies? No, for he has devastated her enemies,
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while he has punished Israel but a little, exiling her far from her own land as though blown away in a storm from the east.
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And why did God do it? It was to purge away
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her sins, to rid her of all her idol altars and her idols. They will never be worshiped again.
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Her walled cities will be silent and empty, houses abandoned, streets grown up with grass, cows grazing through the city munching on twigs and branches.
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My people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used to burn beneath the pots. They are a foolish nation, a witless, stupid people, for they turn away from God. Therefore, he who made them will not have pity on them or show them his mercy.
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Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together one by one like hand-picked grain, selecting them here and there from his great threshing floor that reaches all the way from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian boundary.
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In that day the great trumpet will be blown, and many about to perish among their enemies, Assyria and Egypt, will be rescued and brought back to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in his holy mountain.