Punishment for Israel’s Sin
9 Do not rejoice, O Israel!
Do not exult[a] as other nations do;
for you have played the whore, departing from your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s pay
on all threshing floors.
2
Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
3
They shall not remain in the land of the Lord;
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food.
4
They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
and their sacrifices shall not please him.
Such sacrifices shall be like mourners’ bread;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
it shall not come to the house of the Lord.
5
What will you do on the day of appointed festival,
and on the day of the festival of the Lord?
6
For even if they escape destruction,
Egypt shall gather them,
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;[b]
thorns shall be in their tents.
7
The days of punishment have come,
the days of recompense have come;
Israel cries,[c]
“The prophet is a fool,
the man of the spirit is mad!”
Because of your great iniquity,
your hostility is great.
8
The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim,
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hostility in the house of his God.
9
They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah;
he will remember their iniquity,
he will punish their sins.
10
Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree,
in its first season,
I saw your ancestors.
But they came to Baal-peor,
and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame,
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
11
Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12
Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them until no one is left.
Woe to them indeed
when I depart from them!
13
Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow,[d]
but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter.
14
Give them, O Lord—
what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15
Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal;
there I came to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all their officials are rebels.
16
Ephraim is stricken,
their root is dried up,
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.
17
Because they have not listened to him,
my God will reject them;
they shall become wanderers among the nations.
Israel’s Sin and Captivity
10 Israel is a luxuriant vine
that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased
the more altars he built;
as his country improved,
he improved his pillars.
2
Their heart is false;
now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord[e] will break down their altars,
and destroy their pillars.
3
For now they will say:
“We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord,
and a king—what could he do for us?”
4
They utter mere words;
with empty oaths they make covenants;
so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds
in the furrows of the field.
5
The inhabitants of Samaria tremble
for the calf[f] of Beth-aven.
Its people shall mourn for it,
and its idolatrous priests shall wail[g] over it,
over its glory that has departed from it.
6
The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria
as tribute to the great king.[h]
Ephraim shall be put to shame,
and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.[i]
7
Samaria’s king shall perish
like a chip on the face of the waters.
8
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
shall be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle shall grow up
on their altars.
They shall say to the mountains, Cover us,
and to the hills, Fall on us.
9
Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;
there they have continued.
Shall not war overtake them in Gibeah?
10
I will come[j] against the wayward people to punish them;
and nations shall be gathered against them
when they are punished[k] for their double iniquity.
11
Ephraim was a trained heifer
that loved to thresh,
and I spared her fair neck;
but I will make Ephraim break the ground;
Judah must plow;
Jacob must harrow for himself.
12
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
13
You have plowed wickedness,
you have reaped injustice,
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your power
and in the multitude of your warriors,
14
therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people,
and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,
as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle
when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
15
Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,
because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
shall be utterly cut off.
God’s Compassion Despite Israel’s Ingratitude
11 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2
The more I[l] called them,
the more they went from me;[m]
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.
3
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my[n] arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
4
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.[o]
I bent down to them and fed them.
5
They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
6
The sword rages in their cities,
it consumes their oracle-priests,
and devours because of their schemes.
7
My people are bent on turning away from me.
To the Most High they call,
but he does not raise them up at all.[p]
8
How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9
I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.[q]
10
They shall go after the Lord,
who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west.
11
They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria;
and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.
12
[r] Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
and the house of Israel with deceit;
but Judah still walks[s] with God,
and is faithful to the Holy One.
The Splendor of the Sun
43 The pride of the higher realms is the clear vault of the sky,
as glorious to behold as the sight of the heavens.
2
The sun, when it appears, proclaims as it rises
what a marvelous instrument it is, the work of the Most High.
3
At noon it parches the land,
and who can withstand its burning heat?
4
A man tending[a] a furnace works in burning heat,
but three times as hot is the sun scorching the mountains;
it breathes out fiery vapors,
and its bright rays blind the eyes.
5
Great is the Lord who made it;
at his orders it hurries on its course.
The Splendor of the Moon
6
It is the moon that marks the changing seasons,[b]
governing the times, their everlasting sign.
7
From the moon comes the sign for festal days,
a light that wanes when it completes its course.
8
The new moon, as its name suggests, renews itself;[c]
how marvelous it is in this change,
a beacon to the hosts on high,
shining in the vault of the heavens!
The Glory of the Stars and the Rainbow
9
The glory of the stars is the beauty of heaven,
a glittering array in the heights of the Lord.
10
On the orders of the Holy One they stand in their appointed places;
they never relax in their watches.
11
Look at the rainbow, and praise him who made it;
it is exceedingly beautiful in its brightness.
12
It encircles the sky with its glorious arc;
the hands of the Most High have stretched it out.
The Fall of Babylon
18 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendor. 2 He called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
It has become a dwelling place of demons,
a haunt of every foul spirit,
a haunt of every foul bird,
a haunt of every foul and hateful beast.[a]
3
For all the nations have drunk[b]
of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her,
and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power[c] of her luxury.”
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,
so that you do not take part in her sins,
and so that you do not share in her plagues;
5
for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.
6
Render to her as she herself has rendered,
and repay her double for her deeds;
mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed.
7
As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously,
so give her a like measure of torment and grief.
Since in her heart she says,
‘I rule as a queen;
I am no widow,
and I will never see grief,’
8
therefore her plagues will come in a single day—
pestilence and mourning and famine—
and she will be burned with fire;
for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”
9 And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning; 10 they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,
“Alas, alas, the great city,
Babylon, the mighty city!
For in one hour your judgment has come.”
11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves—and human lives.[d]
14
“The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your dainties and your splendor
are lost to you,
never to be found again!”
15 The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
16
“Alas, alas, the great city,
clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold,
with jewels, and with pearls!
17
For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!”
And all shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
“What city was like the great city?”
19 And they threw dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out,
“Alas, alas, the great city,
where all who had ships at sea
grew rich by her wealth!
For in one hour she has been laid waste.”
20 Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets! For God has given judgment for you against her.
21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“With such violence Babylon the great city
will be thrown down,
and will be found no more;
22
and the sound of harpists and minstrels and of flutists and trumpeters
will be heard in you no more;
and an artisan of any trade
will be found in you no more;
and the sound of the millstone
will be heard in you no more;
23
and the light of a lamp
will shine in you no more;
and the voice of bridegroom and bride
will be heard in you no more;
for your merchants were the magnates of the earth,
and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24
And in you[e] was found the blood of prophets and of saints,
and of all who have been slaughtered on earth.”