“Yet You Have Not Returned to Me”

1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria,

Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,

Who say to your husbands, “Bring now, that we may drink!”

2The Lord God has sworn by His holiness,

“Behold, the days are coming upon you

When they will take you away with meat hooks,

And the last of you with fish hooks.

3You will go out through breaches in the walls,

Each one straight before her,

And you will be cast to Harmon,” declares the Lord.

4“Enter Bethel and transgress;

In Gilgal multiply transgression!

Bring your sacrifices every morning,

Your tithes every three days.

5Offer a thank offering also from that which is leavened,

And proclaim freewill offerings, make them known.

For so you love to do, you sons of Israel,”

Declares the Lord God.

6“But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities

And lack of bread in all your places,

Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.

7“Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you

While there were still three months until harvest.

Then I would send rain on one city

And on another city I would not send rain;

One part would be rained on,

While the part not rained on would dry up.

8So two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water,

But would not be satisfied;

Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.

9“I smote you with scorching wind and mildew;

And the caterpillar was devouring

Your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees;

Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.

10“I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt;

I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses,

And I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils;

Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.

11“I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

And you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze;

Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.

12“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

Because I will do this to you,

Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”

13For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind

And declares to man what are His thoughts,

He who makes dawn into darkness

And treads on the high places of the earth,

The Lord God of hosts is His name.

“Seek Me that You May Live”

1Hear this word which I take up for you as a dirge, O house of Israel:

2She has fallen, she will not rise again—

The virgin Israel.

She lies neglected on her land;

There is none to raise her up.

3For thus says the Lord God,

“The city which goes forth a thousand strong

Will have a hundred left,

And the one which goes forth a hundred strong

Will have ten left to the house of Israel.”

4For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel,

“Seek Me that you may live.

5But do not resort to Bethel

And do not come to Gilgal,

Nor cross over to Beersheba;

For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity

And Bethel will come to trouble.

6Seek the Lord that you may live,

Or He will break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph,

And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel,

7For those who turn justice into wormwood

And cast righteousness down to the earth.”

8He who made the Pleiades and Orion

And changes deep darkness into morning,

Who also darkens day into night,

Who calls for the waters of the sea

And pours them out on the surface of the earth,

The Lord is His name.

9It is He who flashes forth with destruction upon the strong,

So that destruction comes upon the fortress.

10They hate him who reproves in the gate,

And they abhor him who speaks with integrity.

11Therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor

And exact a tribute of grain from them,

Though you have built houses of well-hewn stone,

Yet you will not live in them;

You have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine.

12For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great,

You who distress the righteous and accept bribes

And turn aside the poor in the gate.

13Therefore at such a time the prudent person keeps silent, for it is an evil time.

14Seek good and not evil, that you may live;

And thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you,

Just as you have said!

15Hate evil, love good,

And establish justice in the gate!

Perhaps the Lord God of hosts

May be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

16Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord,

“There is wailing in all the plazas,

And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’

They also call the farmer to mourning

And professional mourners to lamentation.

17And in all the vineyards there is wailing,

Because I will pass through the midst of you,” says the Lord.

18Alas, you who are longing for the day of the Lord,

For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?

It will be darkness and not light;

19As when a man flees from a lion

And a bear meets him,

Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall

And a snake bites him.

20Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light,

Even gloom with no brightness in it?

21“I hate, I reject your festivals,

Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.

22Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings.

23Take away from Me the noise of your songs;

I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.

24But let justice roll down like waters

And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

25“Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? 26You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. 27Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

“Those at Ease in Zion”

1Woe to those who are at ease in Zion

And to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria,

The distinguished men of the foremost of nations,

To whom the house of Israel comes.

2Go over to Calneh and look,

And go from there to Hamath the great,

Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.

Are they better than these kingdoms,

Or is their territory greater than yours?

3Do you put off the day of calamity,

And would you bring near the seat of violence?

4Those who recline on beds of ivory

And sprawl on their couches,

And eat lambs from the flock

And calves from the midst of the stall,

5Who improvise to the sound of the harp,

And like David have composed songs for themselves,

6Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls

While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils,

Yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.

7Therefore, they will now go into exile at the head of the exiles,

And the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away.

8The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts has declared:

“I loathe the arrogance of Jacob,

And detest his citadels;

Therefore I will deliver up the city and all it contains.”

9And it will be, if ten men are left in one house, they will die. 10Then one’s uncle, or his undertaker, will lift him up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” And that one will say, “No one.” Then he will answer, “Keep quiet. For the name of the Lord is not to be mentioned.” 11For behold, the Lord is going to command that the great house be smashed to pieces and the small house to fragments.

12Do horses run on rocks?

Or does one plow them with oxen?

Yet you have turned justice into poison

And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,

13You who rejoice in Lodebar,

And say, “Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?”

14“For behold, I am going to raise up a nation against you,

O house of Israel,” declares the Lord God of hosts,

“And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath

To the brook of the Arabah.”

Message to Thyatira

18“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:

19‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. 20But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. 23And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. 24But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you. 25Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. 26He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; 27and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; 28and I will give him the morning star. 29He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Message to Sardis

1“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. 3So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. 4But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

PSALM 130

Hope in the Lord’s Forgiving Love.

A Song of Ascents.

1Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord.

2Lord, hear my voice!

Let Your ears be attentive

To the voice of my supplications.

3If You, Lord, should mark iniquities,

O Lord, who could stand?

4But there is forgiveness with You,

That You may be feared.

5I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait,

And in His word do I hope.

6My soul waits for the Lord

More than the watchmen for the morning;

Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.

7O Israel, hope in the Lord;

For with the Lord there is lovingkindness,

And with Him is abundant redemption.

8And He will redeem Israel

From all his iniquities.

21He who pampers his slave from childhood

Will in the end find him to be a son.

22An angry man stirs up strife,

And a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.