The Living Bible (288 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
But in the last days Mount Zion will be the most renowned of all the mountains of the world, praised by all nations; people from all over the world will make pilgrimages there.
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“Come,” they will say to one another, “let us visit the mountain of the Lord, and see the Temple of the God of Israel; he will tell us what to do, and we will do it.” For in those days the whole world will be ruled by the Lord from Jerusalem! He will issue his laws and announce his decrees from there.
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He will arbitrate among the nations and dictate to strong nations far away. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall no longer fight each other, for all war will end. There will be universal peace, and all the military academies and training camps will be closed down.
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Everyone will live quietly in his own home in peace and prosperity, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord himself has promised this.
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(Therefore we will follow the Lord our God forever and ever, even though all the nations around us worship idols!)
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In that coming day, the Lord says that he will bring back his punished people—sick and lame and dispossessed—
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and make them strong again in their own land, a mighty nation, and the Lord himself shall be their King from Mount Zion forever.
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O Jerusalem—the Watchtower of God’s people—your royal might and power will come back to you again, just as before.
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But for now, you scream in terror. Where is your king to lead you? He is dead! Where are your wise men? All are gone! Pain has gripped you like a woman in labor.
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Writhe and groan in your terrible pain, O people of Zion, for you must leave this city and live in the fields; you will be sent far away into exile in Babylon. But there I will rescue you and free you from the grip of your enemies.
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True, many nations have gathered together against you, calling for your blood, eager to destroy you.
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But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord nor understand his plan, for the time will come when the Lord will gather together the enemies of his people like sheaves upon the threshing floor, helpless before Israel.
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Rise, thresh, O daughter of Zion; I will give you horns of iron and hoofs of brass; you will trample to pieces many people, and you will give their wealth as offerings to the Lord, the Lord of all the earth.
Mobilize! The enemy lays siege to Jerusalem! With a rod they shall strike the Judge of Israel on the face.
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“O Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!”
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God will abandon his people to their enemies until she who is to give birth has her son; then at last his fellow countrymen—the exile remnants of Israel—will rejoin their brethren in their own land.
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And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and his people shall remain there undisturbed, for he will be greatly honored all around the world.
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He will be our Peace. And when the Assyrian
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invades our land and marches across our hills, he will appoint seven shepherds to watch over us, eight princes to lead us.
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They will rule Assyria with drawn swords and enter the gates of the land of Nimrod. He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land.
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Then the nation of Israel will refresh the world like a gentle dew or the welcome showers of rain,
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and Israel will be as strong as a lion. The nations will be like helpless sheep before her!
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She will stand up to her foes; all her enemies will be wiped out.
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“At that same time,” says the Lord, “I will destroy all the weapons you depend on,
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tear down your walls, and demolish the defenses of your cities.
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I will put an end to all witchcraft—there will be no more fortune-tellers to consult—
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and destroy all your idols. Never again will you worship what you have made,
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for I will abolish the heathen shrines from among you, and destroy the cities where your idol temples stand.
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“I will pour out my vengeance upon the nations who refuse to obey me.”
Listen to what the Lord is saying to his people:
“Stand up and state your case against me. Let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaint.
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“And now, O mountains, listen to the Lord’s complaint! For he has a case against his people Israel! He will prosecute them to the full.
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O my people, what have I done that makes you turn away from me? Tell me why your patience is exhausted! Answer me!
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For I brought you out of Egypt and cut your chains of slavery. I gave you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you.
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“Don’t you remember, O my people, how Balak, king of Moab, tried to destroy you through the curse of Balaam, son of Beor, but I made him bless you instead? That is the kindness I showed you again and again. Have you no memory at all of what happened at Acacia and Gilgal and how I blessed you there?”
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“How can we make up to you for what we’ve done?” you ask. “Shall we bow before the Lord with offerings of yearling calves?”
Oh no!
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For if you offered him thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of olive oil—would that please him? Would he be satisfied? If you sacrificed your oldest child, would that make him glad? Then would he forgive your sins? Of course not!
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No, he has told you what he wants, and this is all it is:
to be fair, just, merciful, and to walk humbly with your God.
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The Lord’s voice calls out to all Jerusalem—listen to the Lord if you are wise! “The armies of destruction are coming; the Lord is sending them.
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For your sins are very great—is there to be no end of getting rich by cheating? The homes of the wicked are full of ungodly treasures and lying scales.
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Shall I say ‘Good!’ to all your merchants with their bags of false, deceitful weights? How could God be just while saying that?
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Your rich men are wealthy through extortion and violence; your citizens are so used to lying that their tongues can’t tell the truth!
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“Therefore I will wound you! I will make your hearts miserable for all your sins.
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You will eat but never have enough; hunger pangs and emptiness will still remain. And though you try and try to save your money, it will come to nothing at the end, and what little you succeed in storing up I’ll give to those who conquer you!
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You will plant crops but not harvest them; you will press out the oil from the olives and not get enough to anoint yourself! You will trample the grapes but get no juice to make your wine.
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“The only commands you keep are those of Omri; the only example you follow is that of Ahab! Therefore, I will make an awesome example of you—I will destroy you. I will make you the laughingstock of the world; all who see you will snicker and sneer!”
Woe is me! It is as hard to find an honest man as grapes and figs when harvest days are over. Not a cluster to eat, not a single early fig, however much I long for it! The good men have disappeared from the earth; not one fair-minded man is left. They are all murderers, turning against even their own brothers.
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They go at their evil deeds with both hands, and how skilled they are in using them! The governor and judge alike demand bribes. The rich man pays them off and tells them whom to ruin. Justice is twisted between them.
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Even the best of them are prickly as briars; the straightest is more crooked than a hedge of thorns. But your judgment day is coming swiftly now; your time of punishment is almost here; confusion, destruction, and terror will be yours.
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Don’t trust anyone, not your best friend—not even your wife!
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For the son despises his father; the daughter defies her mother; the bride curses her mother-in-law. Yes, a man’s enemies will be found in his own home.
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As for me, I look to the Lord for his help; I wait for God to save me; he will hear me.
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Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy, for though I fall, I will rise again! When I sit in darkness, the Lord himself will be my Light.
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I will be patient while the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him; then he will defend me from my enemies and punish them for all the evil they have done to me. God will bring me out of my darkness into the light, and I will see his goodness.
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Then my enemy will see that God is for me and be ashamed for taunting, “Where is that God of yours?” Now with my own eyes I see them trampled down like mud in the street.
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Your cities, people of God, will be rebuilt, much larger and more prosperous than before.
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Citizens of many lands will come and honor you—from Assyria to Egypt, and from Egypt to the Euphrates, from sea to sea and from distant hills and mountains.
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But first comes terrible destruction to Israel
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for the great wickedness of her people.
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O Lord, come and rule your people; lead your flock; make them live in peace and prosperity; let them enjoy the fertile pastures of Bashan and Gilead as they did long ago.
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“Yes,” replies the Lord, “I will do mighty miracles for you, like those when I brought you out of slavery in Egypt.
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All the world will stand amazed at what I will do for you and be embarrassed at their puny might. They will stand in silent awe, deaf to all around them.”
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They will see what snakes they are, lowly as worms crawling from their holes. They will come trembling out from their fortresses to meet the Lord our God. They will fear him; they will stand in awe.
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Where is another God like you, who pardons the sins of the survivors among his people? You cannot stay angry with your people, for you love to be merciful.
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Once again you will have compassion on us. You will tread our sins beneath your feet; you will throw them into the depths of the ocean!
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You will bless us as you promised Jacob long ago. You will set your love upon us, as you promised our father Abraham!
