Bible Reading
December 18
The World English Bible
Dec.
18
Amos
5-9
Amo
5:1 Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you,
O house of Israel.
Amo
5:2 "The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more.
She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up."
Amo
5:3 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "The city that went forth a
thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one
hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."
Amo
5:4 For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and
you will live;
Amo
5:5 but don't seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don't pass to
Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel
shall come to nothing.
Amo
5:6 Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in
the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it
in Bethel.
Amo
5:7 You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to
the earth:
Amo
5:8 seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow
of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who
calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of
the earth, Yahweh is his name,
Amo
5:9 who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction
comes on the fortress.
Amo
5:10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who
speaks blamelessly.
Amo
5:11 Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes
from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will
not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall
not drink their wine.
Amo
5:12 For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your
sins-- you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside
the needy in the courts.
Amo
5:13 Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it
is an evil time.
Amo
5:14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the
God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.
Amo
5:15 Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It
may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the
remnant of Joseph."
Amo
5:16 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord:
"Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all
the streets, 'Alas! Alas!' and they will call the farmer to mourning,
and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
Amo
5:17 In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through
the midst of you," says Yahweh.
Amo
5:18 "Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long
for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.
Amo
5:19 As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went
into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.
Amo
5:20 Won't the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very
dark, and no brightness in it?
Amo
5:21 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand your solemn
assemblies.
Amo
5:22 Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal
offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace
offerings of your fat animals.
Amo
5:23 Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to
the music of your harps.
Amo
5:24 But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a
mighty stream.
Amo
5:25 "Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the
wilderness forty years, house of Israel?
Amo
5:26 You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your
images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
Amo
5:27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond
Damascus," says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.
Amo
6:1 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are
secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of
the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
Amo
6:2 Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines. are they better than these
kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border?
Amo
6:3 Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of
violence to come near;
Amo
6:4 Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their
couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of
the midst of the stall;
Amo
6:5 who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves
instruments of music, like David;
Amo
6:6 who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best
oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
Amo
6:7 Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go
captive; and the feasting and lounging will end.
Amo
6:8 "The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself," says Yahweh,
the God of Armies: "I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his
fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in
it.
Amo
6:9 It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they
shall die.
Amo
6:10 "When a man's relative carries him, even he who burns him,
to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the
innermost parts of the house, 'Is there yet any with you?' And he
says, 'No;' then he will say, 'Hush! Indeed we must not mention the
name of Yahweh.'
Amo
6:11 "For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be
smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits.
Amo
6:12 Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with
oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of
righteousness into bitterness;
Amo
6:13 you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, 'Haven't we
taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?'
Amo
6:14 For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of
Israel," says Yahweh, the God of Armies; "and they will
afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah."
Amo
7:1 Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in
the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it
was the latter growth after the king's harvest.
Amo
7:2 It happened that, when they made an end of eating the grass of
the land, then I said, "Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How
could Jacob stand? For he is small."
Amo
7:3 Yahweh relented concerning this. "It shall not be,"
says Yahweh.
Amo
7:4 Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and behold, the Lord Yahweh
called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and
would have devoured the land.
Amo
7:5 Then I said, "Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob
stand? For he is small."
Amo
7:6 Yahweh relented concerning this. "This also shall not be,"
says the Lord Yahweh.
Amo
7:7 Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made
by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.
Amo
7:8 Yahweh said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A
plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I will set a
plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass by
them any more.
Amo
7:9 The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of
Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of
Jeroboam with the sword."
Amo
7:10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of
Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of
the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.
Amo
7:11 For Amos says, 'Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel
shall surely be led away captive out of his land.' "
Amo
7:12 Amaziah also said to Amos, "You seer, go, flee away into
the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
Amo
7:13 but don't prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the
king's sanctuary, and it is a royal house!"
Amo
7:14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, neither was
I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore
figs;
Amo
7:15 and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to
me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'
Amo
7:16 Now therefore listen to the word of Yahweh: 'You say, Don't
prophesy against Israel, and don't preach against the house of
Isaac.'
Amo
7:17 Therefore thus says Yahweh: 'Your wife shall be a prostitute in
the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in
a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive
out of his land.' "
Amo
8:1 Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer
fruit.
Amo
8:2 He said, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A
basket of summer fruit." Then Yahweh said to me, "The end
has come on my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.
Amo
8:3 The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day," says
the Lord Yahweh. "The dead bodies will be many. In every place
they will throw them out with silence.
Amo
8:4 Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the
poor of the land to fail,
Amo
8:5 Saying, 'When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small,
and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
Amo
8:6 that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of
shoes, and sell the sweepings with the wheat?' "
Amo
8:7 Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Surely I will
never forget any of their works.
Amo
8:8 Won't the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells
in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be
stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
Amo
8:9 It will happen in that day," says the Lord Yahweh, "that
I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth
in the clear day.
Amo
8:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into
lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies,
and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an
only son, and its end like a bitter day.
Amo
8:11 Behold, the days come," says the Lord Yahweh, "that I
will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst
for water, but of hearing the words of Yahweh.
Amo
8:12 They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to
the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of Yahweh,
and will not find it.
Amo
8:13 In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint
for thirst.
Amo
8:14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, 'As your god,
Dan, lives;' and, 'As the way of Beersheba lives;' they will fall,
and never rise up again."
Amo
9:1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, "Strike
the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break
them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last
of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and
there shall not one of them escape.
Amo
9:2 Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and
though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down.
Amo
9:3 Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search
and take them out there; and though they be hid from my sight in the
bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite
them.
Amo
9:4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will
command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them
for evil, and not for good.
Amo
9:5 For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, is he who touches the land and
it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up
wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt.
Amo
9:6 It is he who builds his chambers in the heavens, and has founded
his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and
pours them out on the surface of the earth; Yahweh is his name.
Amo
9:7 Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children
of Israel?" says Yahweh. "Haven't I brought up Israel out
of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the
Syrians from Kir?
Amo
9:8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth; except that
I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," says Yahweh.
Amo
9:9 "For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of
Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not
the least kernel will fall on the earth.
Amo
9:10 All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say,
'Evil won't overtake nor meet us.'
Amo
9:11 In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen,
and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will
build it as in the days of old;
Amo
9:12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations
who are called by my name," says Yahweh who does this.
Amo
9:13 "Behold, the days come," says Yahweh, "that the
plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him
who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow
from the hills.
Amo
9:14 I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they
will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant
vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens,
and eat the fruit of them.
Amo
9:15 I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be
plucked up out of their land which I have given them," says
Yahweh your God.
Dec. 18
Jude
Jud 1:1 Jude, a servant
of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called,
sanctified by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
Jud 1:2 Mercy to you
and peace and love be multiplied.
Jud 1:3 Beloved, while
I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was
constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for
the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Jud 1:4 For there are
certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago
written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master, God, and
Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jud 1:5 Now I desire to
remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved
a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who
didn't believe.
Jud 1:6 Angels who
didn't keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling
place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the
judgment of the great day.
Jud 1:7 Even as Sodom
and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as
these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after
strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment
of eternal fire.
Jud 1:8 Yet in like
manner these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise
authority, and slander celestial beings.
Jud 1:9 But Michael,
the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the
body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation,
but said, "May the Lord rebuke you!"
Jud 1:10 But these
speak evil of whatever things they don't know. What they understand
naturally, like the creatures without reason, they are destroyed in
these things.
Jud 1:11 Woe to them!
For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of
Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah's rebellion.
Jud 1:12 These are
hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you,
shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water,
carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead,
plucked up by the roots;
Jud 1:13 wild waves of
the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the
blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
Jud 1:14 About these
also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold,
the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
Jud 1:15 to execute
judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of
ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the
hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
Jud 1:16 These are
murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts (and their
mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain
advantage.
Jud 1:17 But you,
beloved, remember the words which have been spoken before by the
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jud 1:18 They said to
you that "In the last time there will be mockers, walking after
their own ungodly lusts."
Jud 1:19 These are they
who cause divisions, and are sensual, not having the Spirit.
Jud 1:20 But you,
beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Spirit.
Jud 1:21 Keep
yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ to eternal life.
Jud 1:22 On some have
compassion, making a distinction,
Jud 1:23 and some save,
snatching them out of the fire with fear, hating even the clothing
stained by the flesh.
Jud 1:24 Now to him who
is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory in great joy,
Jud 1:25 to God our
Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. Amen.
