Micah 1–3; Revelation 11

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Micah 1–3

The word of the Lord that came to Micah aof Moresheth bin the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw cconcerning dSamaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction

eHear, you peoples, all of you;1

fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,

and glet the Lord God be a witness against you,

hthe Lord from his holy temple.

For behold, ithe Lord is coming out of jhis place,

and will come down and ktread upon the high places of the earth.

And lthe mountains will melt under him,

and the valleys will split open,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

All this is for mthe transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

nWhat is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not dSamaria?

And what is othe high place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

Therefore I will make dSamaria pa heap in the open country,

a place for planting vineyards,

and I will pour down her stones qinto the valley

and runcover her foundations.

All sher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,

tall her wages shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste,

for from tthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,

and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

uFor this I will lament and wail;

I will go vstripped and naked;

I will make lamentation wlike the jackals,

and mourning xlike the ostriches.

yFor her wound is incurable,

and it has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

10  zTell it not in aGath;

weep not at all;

in Beth-le-aphrah

broll yourselves in the dust.

11  Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir,

cin nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

do not come out;

the lamentation of Beth-ezel

shall take away from you its standing place.

12  For the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

because disaster has come down dfrom the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.

13  Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of eLachish;

it was the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

for in you were found

fthe transgressions of Israel.

14  Therefore you shall give parting gifts2

to gMoresheth-gath;

the houses of hAchzib shall be a deceitful thing

to the kings of Israel.

15  I will again bring ia conqueror to you,

inhabitants of hMareshah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to jAdullam.

16  kMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,

for the children of your delight;

kmake yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they shall go from you into exile.

Woe to the Oppressors

lWoe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil mon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

They covet fields and nseize them,

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

Therefore thus says the Lord:

behold, against othis family I am devising disaster,3

from which you cannot remove your necks,

and you pshall not walk haughtily,

qfor it will be a time of disaster.

In that day rthey shall take up a taunt song against you

and moan bitterly,

and say, We are utterly ruined;

she changes the portion of my people;

show he removes it from me!

tTo an apostate he allots our fields.

Therefore you will have none uto cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the Lord.

vDo not preachthus they preach

wone should not preach of such things;

xdisgrace will not overtake us.

Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

vHas the Lord grown impatient?4

Are these his deeds?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

But lately ymy people have risen up as an enemy;

you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.5

The women of my people you drive out

from their delightful houses;

from their young children you take away

my splendor forever.

10  zArise and go,

for this is no aplace to rest,

because of buncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

11  If a man should go about and cutter wind and lies,

saying, I will preach to you dof wine and strong drink,

he would be the preacher for this people!

12  I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;

eI will gather fthe remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

hlike a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

13  iHe who opens the breach goes up before them;

they break through and pass the gate,

jgoing out by it.

Their king passes on before them,

kthe Lord at their head.

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

And I said:

lHear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

mIs it not for you to know justice?

you nwho hate the good and love the evil,

owho tear the skin from off my people6

and their flesh from off their bones,

pwho eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces

and chop them up like meat in a pot,

like flesh in a cauldron.

qThen they will cry to the Lord,

but he will not answer them;

rhe will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have made their deeds evil.

Thus says the Lord concerning sthe prophets

who lead my people astray,

twho cry Peace

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

Therefore uit shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without divination.

vThe sun shall go down on the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

wthe seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

xthey shall all cover their lips,

for ythere is no answer from God.

But as for me, zI am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob ahis transgression

and to Israel his sin.

bHear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

cwho detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight,

10  dwho build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11  eIts heads give judgment for a bribe;

fits priests teach for a price;

gits prophets practice divination for money;

hyet they lean on the Lord and isay,

Is not the Lord in the midst of us?

jNo disaster shall come upon us.

12  Therefore because of you

kZion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem lshall become a heap of ruins,

and mthe mountain of the house na wooded height.


Revelation 11

The Two Witnesses

Then I was given ma measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure nthe court outside the temple; leave that out, for oit is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for pforty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for p1,260 days, qclothed in sackcloth.

These are rthe two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, sfire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, tthis is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power uto shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and vto strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, wthe beast that rises from xthe bottomless pit1 ywill make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically2 is called zSodom and aEgypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and brefuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and cthose who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and dexchange presents, because these two prophets ehad been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days fa breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, gCome up here! And hthey went up to heaven iin a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was ja great earthquake, and ka tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and lgave glory to mthe God of heaven.

14 nThe second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.

The Seventh Trumpet

15 Then othe seventh angel blew his trumpet, and pthere were loud voices in heaven, saying, qThe kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of rhis Christ, and she shall reign forever and ever. 16 And the twenty-four elders twho sit on their thrones before God ufell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying,

We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

vwho is and who was,

for you have taken your great power

and wbegun to reign.

18  The nations raged,

but xyour wrath came,

and ythe time for the dead to be judged,

and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,

and zthose who fear your name,

both small and great,

and afor destroying the destroyers of the earth.

19 Then bGod’s temple in heaven was opened, and cthe ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings,3 peals of thunder, an earthquake, and dheavy hail.