The days of punishment have come;
the days of retribution have come.
Let Israel recognize it!
The prophet is a fool,
and the inspired man is insane,
because of the magnitude
of your guilt and hostility.

All their evil appears at Gilgal,
for there I came to hate them.
I will drive them from My house
because of their evil, wicked actions.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.

My God will reject them
because they have not listened to Him;
they will become wanderers among the nations.

You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice;
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your own way
and in your large number of soldiers,

So it will be done to you, Bethel,
because of your extreme evil.
At dawn the king of Israel will be totally destroyed.

Israel will not return to the land of Egypt
and Assyria will be his king,
because they refused to repent.

A sword will whirl through his cities;
it will destroy and devour the bars of his gates,
because of their schemes.

Samaria will bear her guilt
because she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword;
their little ones will be dashed to pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open.

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep;
wail, all you wine drinkers,
because of the sweet wine,
for it has been taken from your mouth.

Be ashamed, you farmers,
wail, you vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.

Dress in sackcloth and lament, you priests;
wail, you ministers of the altar.
Come and spend the night in sackcloth,
you ministers of my God,
because grain and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.

Woe because of that day!
For the Day of the Lord is near
and will come as devastation from the Almighty.

The seeds lie shriveled in their casings.
The storehouses are in ruin,
and the granaries are broken down,
because the grain has withered away.

Children of Zion, rejoice and be glad
in the Lord your God,
because He gives you the autumn rain
for your vindication.
He sends showers for you,
both autumn and spring rain as before.

I will gather all the nations
and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
I will enter into judgment with them there
because of My people, My inheritance Israel.
The nations have scattered the Israelites
in foreign countries
and divided up My land.

Swing the sickle
because the harvest is ripe.
Come and trample the grapes
because the winepress is full;
the wine vats overflow
because the wickedness of the nations is great.

Egypt will become desolate,
and Edom a desert wasteland,
because of the violence done to the people of Judah
in whose land they shed innocent blood.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Damascus
for three crimes, even four,
because they threshed Gilead with iron sledges.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Gaza
for three crimes, even four,
because they exiled a whole community,
handing them over to Edom.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Tyre
for three crimes, even four,
because they handed over
a whole community of exiles to Edom
and broke a treaty of brotherhood.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Edom
for three crimes, even four,
because he pursued his brother with the sword.
He stifled his compassion,
his anger tore at them continually,
and he harbored his rage incessantly.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing the Ammonites
for three crimes, even four,
because they ripped open
the pregnant women of Gilead
in order to enlarge their territory.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Moab
for three crimes, even four,
because he burned the bones
of the king of Edom to lime.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Judah
for three crimes, even four,
because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord
and have not kept His statutes.
The lies that their ancestors followed
have led them astray.

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Israel
for three crimes, even four,
because they sell a righteous person for silver
and a needy person for a pair of sandals.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and exact a grain tax from him,
you will never live in the houses of cut stone
you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards
you have planted.

A close relative and burner will remove his corpse from the house. He will call to someone in the inner recesses of the house, “Any more with you?”

That person will reply, “None.”

Then he will say, “Silence, because Yahweh’s name must not be invoked.”

Because of this, won’t the land quake
and all who dwell in it mourn?
All of it will rise like the Nile;
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.

You will be covered with shame
and destroyed forever
because of violence done to your brother Jacob.

“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted Me.”

Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What is this you’ve done?” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presence, because he had told them.

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more.

So they called out to the Lord: “Please, Yahweh, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For You, Yahweh, have done just as You pleased.”

All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion
and the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the rebellion of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Isn’t it Jerusalem?

Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will walk barefoot and naked.
I will howl like the jackals
and mourn like ostriches.

Harness the horses to the chariot,
you residents of Lachish.
This was the beginning of sin for Daughter Zion,
because Israel’s acts of rebellion can be traced to you.

Woe to those who dream up wickedness
and prepare evil plans on their beds!
At morning light they accomplish it
because the power is in their hands.

Therefore, the Lord says:

I am now planning a disaster
against this nation;
you cannot free your necks from it.
Then you will not walk so proudly
because it will be an evil time.

Get up and leave,
for this is not your place of rest,
because defilement brings destruction—
a grievous destruction!

Then they will cry out to the Lord,
but He will not answer them.
He will hide His face from them at that time
because of the crimes they have committed.

Then the seers will be ashamed
and the diviners disappointed.
They will all cover their mouths
because there will be no answer from God.

Therefore, because of you,
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become ruins,
and the hill of the temple mount
will be a thicket.

Listen to the Lord’s lawsuit,
you mountains and enduring foundations of the earth,
because the Lord has a case against His people,
and He will argue it against Israel.

“As a result, I have begun to strike you severely,
bringing desolation because of your sins.

Because I have sinned against Him,
I must endure the Lord’s rage
until He argues my case
and establishes justice for me.
He will bring me into the light;
I will see His salvation.

Then the earth will become a wasteland
because of its inhabitants
and as a result of their actions.

Who is a God like You,
removing iniquity and passing over rebellion
for the remnant of His inheritance?
He does not hold on to His anger forever,
because He delights in faithful love.

Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute,
the attractive mistress of sorcery,
who betrays nations by her prostitution
and clans by her witchcraft,

There is no remedy for your injury;
your wound is severe.
All who hear the news about you
will clap their hands because of you,
for who has not experienced
your constant cruelty?

Since you have plundered many nations,
all the peoples who remain will plunder you—
because of human bloodshed
and violence against lands, cities,
and all who live in them.

For your violence against Lebanon
will overwhelm you;
the destruction of animals will terrify you
because of your human bloodshed and violence
against lands, cities, and all who live in them.

I will bring distress on mankind,
and they will walk like the blind
because they have sinned against the Lord.
Their blood will be poured out like dust
and their flesh like dung.

This is what they get for their pride,
because they have taunted and acted arrogantly
against the people of the Lord of Hosts.

On that day you will not be put to shame
because of everything you have done
in rebelling against Me.
For then I will remove
your proud, arrogant people from among you,
and you will never again be haughty
on My holy mountain.

“You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. “Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord.

He said to him, “Run and tell this young man: Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the number of people and livestock in it.”

The Lord of Hosts says this: “Old men and women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of advanced age.

As for you,
because of the blood of your covenant,
I will release your prisoners
from the waterless cistern.

For the idols speak falsehood,
and the diviners see illusions;
they relate empty dreams
and offer empty comfort.
Therefore the people wander like sheep;
they suffer affliction because there is no shepherd.

they will be like warriors in battle
trampling down the mud of the streets.
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
and they will put horsemen to shame.

I will strengthen the house of Judah
and deliver the house of Joseph.
I will restore them
because I have compassion on them,
and they will be
as though I had never rejected them.
For I am Yahweh their God,
and I will answer them.

I will whistle and gather them
because I have redeemed them;
they will be as numerous as they once were.

Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished. Those who sell them say: Praise the Lord because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

If a man still prophesies, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him: You cannot remain alive because you have spoken falsely in the name of Yahweh. When he prophesies, his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through.

“For My name will be great among the nations, from the rising of the sun to its setting. Incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name in every place because My name will be great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Hosts.

If you don’t listen, and if you don’t take it to heart to honor My name,” says Yahweh of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.

For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.”

And this is another thing you do: you cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer respects your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

Yet you ask, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have acted treacherously against her, though she was your marriage partner and your wife by covenant.

“Because I, Yahweh, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

“In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet:

And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the leaders of Judah:
because out of you will come a leader
who will shepherd My people Israel.”

A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
and she refused to be consoled,
because they were no more.

saying, “Get up! Take the child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, because those who sought the child’s life are dead.”

and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him to be baptized.

From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

“The poor in spirit are blessed,
for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Those who mourn are blessed,
for they will be comforted.

The gentle are blessed,
for they will inherit the earth.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed,
for they will be filled.

The merciful are blessed,
for they will be shown mercy.

The pure in heart are blessed,
for they will see God.

The peacemakers are blessed,
for they will be called sons of God.

Those who are persecuted for righteousness are blessed,
for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

“You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me.

Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

But I tell you, don’t take an oath at all: either by heaven, because it is God’s throne;

or by the earth, because it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King.

Neither should you swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black.

“Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward!

Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.

Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

because He was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes.

No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse.