Jerusalem in Affliction

How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
(A)How like a widow is she,
Who was great among the nations!
The (B)princess among the provinces
Has become a [a]slave!

She (C)weeps bitterly in the (D)night,
Her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers
She has none to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

(E)Judah has gone into captivity,
Under affliction and hard servitude;
(F)She dwells among the [b]nations,
She finds no (G)rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

The roads to Zion mourn
Because no one comes to the [c]set feasts.
All her gates are (H)desolate;
Her priests sigh,
Her virgins are afflicted,
And she is in bitterness.

Her adversaries (I)have become [d]the master,
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has afflicted her
(J)Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her (K)children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

And from the daughter of Zion
All her splendor has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
That find no pasture,
That [e]flee without strength
Before the pursuer.

In the days of her affliction and roaming,
Jerusalem (L)remembers all her pleasant things
That she had in the days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
With no one to help her,
The adversaries saw her
And mocked at her [f]downfall.

(M)Jerusalem has sinned gravely,
Therefore she has become [g]vile.
All who honored her despise her
Because (N)they have seen her nakedness;
Yes, she sighs and turns away.

Her uncleanness is in her skirts;
She (O)did not consider her destiny;
Therefore her collapse was awesome;
She had no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
For the enemy is exalted!”

10 The adversary has spread his hand
Over all her [h]pleasant things;
For she has seen (P)the nations enter her [i]sanctuary,
Those whom You commanded
(Q)Not to enter Your assembly.

11 All her people sigh,
(R)They [j]seek bread;
They have given their [k]valuables for food to restore life.
“See, O Lord, and consider,
For I am scorned.”

12 Is it nothing to you, all you who [l]pass by?
Behold and see
(S)If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
Which has been brought on me,
Which the Lord has inflicted
In the day of His fierce anger.

13 “From above He has sent fire into my bones,
And it overpowered them;
He has (T)spread a net for my feet
And turned me back;
He has made me desolate
And faint all the day.

14 “The(U) yoke of my transgressions was [m]bound;
They were woven together by His hands,
And thrust upon my neck.
He made my strength fail;
The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.

15 “The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst;
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
(V)The Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.

16 “For these things I weep;
My eye, (W)my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.”

17 (X)Zion [n]spreads out her hands,
But no one comforts her;
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
That those (Y)around him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

18 “The Lord is (Z)righteous,
For I (AA)rebelled against His [o]commandment.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my sorrow;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

19 “I called for my lovers,
But they deceived me;
My priests and my elders
Breathed their last in the city,
While they sought food
To restore their life.

20 “See, O Lord, that I am in distress;
My (AB)soul[p] is troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
(AC)Outside the sword bereaves,
At home it is like death.

21 “They have heard that I sigh,
But no one comforts me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
They are (AD)glad that You have done it.
Bring on (AE)the day You have [q]announced,
That they may become like me.

22 “Let(AF) all their wickedness come before You,
And do to them as You have done to me
For all my transgressions;
For my sighs are many,
And my heart is faint.”

God’s Anger with Jerusalem

How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a (AG)cloud in His anger!
(AH)He cast down from heaven to the earth
(AI)The beauty of Israel,
And did not remember (AJ)His footstool
In the day of His anger.

The Lord has swallowed up and has (AK)not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
(AL)He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

He has cut off in fierce anger
Every [r]horn of Israel;
(AM)He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
(AN)He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.

(AO)Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain (AP)all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.

(AQ)The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
(AR)He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.

He has done violence (AS)to His [s]tabernacle,
(AT)As if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The Lord has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has (AU)spurned the king and the priest.

The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has (AV)abandoned His sanctuary;
He has [t]given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
(AW)They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of a set feast.

The Lord has [u]purposed to destroy
The (AX)wall of the daughter of Zion.
(AY)He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.

Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and (AZ)broken her bars.
(BA)Her king and her princes are among the [v]nations;
(BB)The Law is no more,
And her (BC)prophets find no [w]vision from the Lord.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
(BD)Sit on the ground and keep silence;
[x]They (BE)throw dust on their heads
And (BF)gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.

11 (BG)My eyes fail with tears,
My [y]heart is troubled;
(BH)My [z]bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because (BI)the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.

13 How shall I (BJ)console[aa] you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?

14 Your (BK)prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not (BL)uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false (BM)prophecies and delusions.

15 All who [ab]pass by (BN)clap their hands at you;
They hiss (BO)and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
Is this the city that is called
(BP)‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”

16 (BQ)All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, (BR)“We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the (BS)day we have waited for;
We have found it, (BT)we have seen it!

17 The Lord has done what He (BU)purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to (BV)rejoice over you;
He has exalted the [ac]horn of your adversaries.

18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
(BW)Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give [ad]your eyes no rest.

19 “Arise, (BX)cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
(BY)Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger (BZ)at the head of every street.”

20 “See, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
(CA)Should the women eat their offspring,
The children [ae]they have cuddled?
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 “Young(CB) and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the (CC)sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.

22 “You have invited as to a feast day
(CD)The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
(CE)Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have (CF)destroyed.”

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 1:1 Lit. forced laborer
  2. Lamentations 1:3 Gentiles
  3. Lamentations 1:4 appointed
  4. Lamentations 1:5 Lit. her head
  5. Lamentations 1:6 Lit. are gone
  6. Lamentations 1:7 Vg. Sabbaths
  7. Lamentations 1:8 LXX, Vg. moved or removed
  8. Lamentations 1:10 desirable
  9. Lamentations 1:10 holy place, the temple
  10. Lamentations 1:11 hunt food
  11. Lamentations 1:11 desirable things
  12. Lamentations 1:12 Lit. pass by this way
  13. Lamentations 1:14 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. watched over
  14. Lamentations 1:17 Prays
  15. Lamentations 1:18 Lit. mouth
  16. Lamentations 1:20 Lit. inward parts
  17. Lamentations 1:21 proclaimed
  18. Lamentations 2:3 Strength
  19. Lamentations 2:6 Lit. booth
  20. Lamentations 2:7 delivered
  21. Lamentations 2:8 determined
  22. Lamentations 2:9 Gentiles
  23. Lamentations 2:9 Prophetic revelation
  24. Lamentations 2:10 A sign of mourning
  25. Lamentations 2:11 Lit. inward parts
  26. Lamentations 2:11 Lit. liver
  27. Lamentations 2:13 Or bear witness to
  28. Lamentations 2:15 Lit. pass by this way
  29. Lamentations 2:17 Strength
  30. Lamentations 2:18 Lit. the daughter of your eye
  31. Lamentations 2:20 Vg. a span long

The Coming Judgment on Edom

The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God (A)concerning Edom
(B)(We have heard a report from the Lord,
And a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying,
“Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle”):

“Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You shall be greatly despised.
The (C)pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
(D)You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
(E)Though you ascend as high as the eagle,
And though you (F)set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down,” says the Lord.

“If (G)thieves had come to you,
If robbers by night—
Oh, how you will be cut off!—
Would they not have stolen till they had enough?
If grape-gatherers had come to you,
(H)Would they not have left some gleanings?

“Oh, how Esau shall be searched out!
How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!
All the men in your confederacy
Shall force you to the border;
(I)The men at peace with you
Shall deceive you and prevail against you.
Those who eat your bread shall lay a [a]trap for you.
(J)No[b] one is aware of it.

“Will(K) I not in that day,” says the Lord,
“Even destroy the wise men from Edom,
And understanding from the mountains of Esau?
Then your (L)mighty men, O (M)Teman, shall be dismayed,
To the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau
May be cut off by slaughter.

Edom Mistreated His Brother

10 “For (N)violence against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you,
And (O)you shall be cut off forever.
11 In the day that you (P)stood on the other side—
In the day that strangers carried captive his forces,
When foreigners entered his gates
And (Q)cast lots for Jerusalem—
Even you were as one of them.

12 “But you should not have (R)gazed[c] on the day of your brother
[d]In the day of his captivity;
Nor should you have (S)rejoiced over the children of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Nor should you have spoken proudly
In the day of distress.
13 You should not have entered the gate of My people
In the day of their calamity.
Indeed, you should not have [e]gazed on their affliction
In the day of their calamity,
Nor laid hands on their substance
In the day of their calamity.
14 You should not have stood at the crossroads
To cut off those among them who escaped;
Nor should you have [f]delivered up those among them who remained
In the day of distress.

15 “For(T) the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near;
(U)As you have done, it shall be done to you;
Your [g]reprisal shall return upon your own head.
16 (V)For as you drank on My holy mountain,
So shall all the nations drink continually;
Yes, they shall drink, and swallow,
And they shall be as though they had never been.

Israel’s Final Triumph

17 “But on Mount Zion there (W)shall be [h]deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph (X)a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.

19 The [i]South (Y)shall possess the mountains of Esau,
(Z)And the Lowland shall possess Philistia.
They shall possess the fields of Ephraim
And the fields of Samaria.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20 And the captives of this host of the children of Israel
Shall possess the land of the Canaanites
As (AA)far as Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
(AB)Shall possess the cities of the [j]South.
21 Then (AC)saviors[k] shall come to Mount Zion
To judge the mountains of Esau,
And the (AD)kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

Footnotes

  1. Obadiah 1:7 Or wound or plot
  2. Obadiah 1:7 Or There is no understanding in him
  3. Obadiah 1:12 Gloated over
  4. Obadiah 1:12 Lit. On the day he became a foreigner
  5. Obadiah 1:13 Gloated over
  6. Obadiah 1:14 Handed over to the enemy
  7. Obadiah 1:15 Or reward
  8. Obadiah 1:17 Or salvation
  9. Obadiah 1:19 Heb. Negev
  10. Obadiah 1:20 Heb. Negev
  11. Obadiah 1:21 deliverers

The Lamb and the 144,000

14 Then I looked, and behold, [a]a (A)Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him (B)one hundred and forty-four thousand, [b]having His Father’s name (C)written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, (D)like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of (E)harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song (F)except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, (G)for they are virgins. These are the ones (H)who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These (I)were [c]redeemed from among men, (J)being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And (K)in their mouth was found no [d]deceit, for (L)they are without fault [e]before the throne of God.

The Proclamations of Three Angels

Then I saw another angel (M)flying in the midst of heaven, (N)having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—(O)to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— saying with a loud voice, (P)“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; (Q)and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

And another angel followed, saying, (R)“Babylon[f] is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because (S)she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, (T)“If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his (U)mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he himself (V)shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is (W)poured out full strength into (X)the cup of His indignation. (Y)He shall be tormented with (Z)fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And (AA)the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

12 (AB)Here is the [g]patience of the saints; (AC)here[h] are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying [i]to me, “Write: (AD)‘Blessed are the dead (AE)who die in the Lord from now on.’ ”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, (AF)“that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow (AG)them.”

Reaping the Earth’s Harvest

14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel (AH)came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, (AI)“Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come [j]for You to reap, for the harvest (AJ)of the earth is ripe.” 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Reaping the Grapes of Wrath

17 Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

18 And another angel came out from the altar, (AK)who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, (AL)“Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” 19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into (AM)the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And (AN)the winepress was trampled (AO)outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, (AP)up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred [k]furlongs.

Footnotes

  1. Revelation 14:1 NU, M the
  2. Revelation 14:1 NU, M add His name and
  3. Revelation 14:4 M adds by Jesus
  4. Revelation 14:5 NU, M falsehood
  5. Revelation 14:5 NU, M omit the rest of v. 5.
  6. Revelation 14:8 NU Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, which has made; M Babylon the great is fallen. She has made
  7. Revelation 14:12 steadfastness, perseverance
  8. Revelation 14:12 NU, M omit here are those
  9. Revelation 14:13 NU, M omit to me
  10. Revelation 14:15 NU, M omit for You
  11. Revelation 14:20 Lit. stadia, about 184 miles in all

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