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1-4Take my side, God—I’m getting kicked around,stomped on every day.Not a day goes bybut somebody beats me up;They make it their dutyto beat me up.When I get really afraidI come to you in trust.I’m proud to praise God;fearless now, I trust in God.What can mere mortals do?
7Pay them back in evil!Get angry, God!Down with these people!
10,11I’m proud to praise God,proud to praise God.Fearless now, I trust in God;what can mere mortals do to me?
1You walked off and left us, and never looked back.God, how could you do that?We’re your very own sheep;how can you stomp off in anger?
9-17There’s not a sign or symbol of God in sight,nor anyone to speak in his name,no one who knows what’s going on.How long, God, will barbarians blaspheme,enemies curse and get by with it?Why don’t you do something? How long are you goingto sit there with your hands folded in your lap?God is my King from the very start;he works salvation in the womb of the earth.With one blow you split the sea in two,you made mincemeat of the dragon Tannin.You lopped off the heads of Leviathan,then served them up in a stew for the animals.With your finger you opened up springs and creeks,and dried up the wild floodwaters.You own the day, you own the night;you put stars and sun in place.You laid out the four corners of earth,shaped the seasons of summer and winter.
22,23On your feet, O God—stand up for yourself!Do you hear what they’re saying about you,all the vile obscenities?Don’t tune out their malicious filth,the brawling invective that never lets up.
9"‘When that happens, I’ll send out messengers by ship to sound the alarm among the easygoing Ethiopians. They’ll be terrorized. Egypt’s doomed! Judgment’s coming!
20In the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month, God’s Message came to me:
22-26"Therefore, God, the Master, says, I am dead set against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will go ahead and break his other arm—both arms broken! There’s no way he’ll ever swing a sword again. I’ll scatter Egyptians all over the world. I’ll make the arms of the king of Babylon strong and put my sword in his hand, but I’ll break the arms of Pharaoh and he’ll groan like one who is mortally wounded. I’ll make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, but the arms of Pharaoh shall go limp. The Egyptians will realize that I am God when I place my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon. He’ll wield it against Egypt and I’ll scatter Egyptians all over the world. Then they’ll realize that I am God."
9The Jews joined in: "Hear, hear! That’s right!"
14,15"But I do freely admit this: In regard to the Way, which they malign as a dead-end street, I serve and worship the very same God served and worshiped by all our ancestors and embrace everything written in all our Scriptures. And I admit to living in hopeful anticipation that God will raise the dead, both the good and the bad. If that’s my crime, my accusers are just as guilty as I am.
16-19"Believe me, I do my level best to keep a clear conscience before God and my neighbors in everything I do. I’ve been out of the country for a number of years and now I’m back. While I was away, I took up a collection for the poor and brought that with me, along with offerings for the Temple. It was while making those offerings that they found me quietly at my prayers in the Temple. There was no crowd, there was no disturbance. It was some Jews from around Ephesus who started all this trouble. And you’ll notice they’re not here today. They’re cowards, too cowardly to accuse me in front of you.
17-19"‘And as for you, my dear flock, I’m stepping in and judging between one sheep and another, between rams and goats. Aren’t you satisfied to feed in good pasture without taking over the whole place? Can’t you be satisfied to drink from the clear stream without muddying the water with your feet? Why do the rest of my sheep have to make do with grass that’s trampled down and water that’s been muddied?
25-27"‘I’ll make a covenant of peace with them. I’ll banish fierce animals from the country so the sheep can live safely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest. I’ll make them and everything around my hill a blessing. I’ll send down plenty of rain in season—showers of blessing! The trees in the orchards will bear fruit, the ground will produce, they’ll feel content and safe on their land, and they’ll realize that I am God when I break them out of their slavery and rescue them from their slave masters.
30,31"‘They’ll know, beyond doubting, that I, God, am their God, that I’m with them and that they, the people Israel, are my people. Decree of God, the Master:You are my dear flock,the flock of my pasture, my human flock,And I am your God.Decree of God, the Master.’"
1-6"Human life is a struggle, isn’t it?It’s a life sentence to hard labor.Like field hands longing for quitting timeand working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,I’m given a life that meanders and goes nowhere—months of aimlessness, nights of misery!I go to bed and think, ‘How long till I can get up?’I toss and turn as the night drags on—and I’m fed up!I’m covered with maggots and scabs.My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles,and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!
7-10"God, don’t forget that I’m only a wisp of air!These eyes have had their last look at goodness.And your eyes have seen the last of me;even while you’re looking, there’ll be nothing left to look at.When a cloud evaporates, it’s gone for good;those who go to the grave never come back.They don’t return to visit their families;never again will friends drop in for coffee.
17-21"What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them,that you even give them the time of day?That you check up on them every morning,looking in on them to see how they’re doing?Let up on me, will you?Can’t you even let me spit in peace?Even suppose I’d sinned—how would that hurt you?You’re responsible for every human being.Don’t you have better things to do than pick on me?Why make a federal case out of me?Why don’t you just forgive my sinsand start me off with a clean slate?The way things are going, I’ll soon be dead.You’ll look high and low, but I won’t be around."
2-4God, treat us kindly. You’re our only hope.First thing in the morning, be there for us!When things go bad, help us out!You spoke in thunder and everyone ran.You showed up and nations scattered.Your people, for a change, got in on the loot,picking the field clean of the enemy spoils.
13,14"If you’re far away,get the reports on what I’ve done,And if you’re in the neighborhood,pay attention to my record.The sinners in Zion are rightly terrified;the godless are at their wit’s end:‘Who among us can survive this firestorm?Who of us can get out of this purge with our lives?’"
17-19Oh, you’ll see the king—a beautiful sight!And you’ll take in the wide vistas of land.In your mind you’ll go over the old terrors:"What happened to that Assyrian inspector who condemned and confiscated?And the one who gouged us of taxes?And that cheating moneychanger?"Gone! Out of sight forever! Their insolencenothing now but a fading stain on the carpet!No more putting up with a language you can’t understand,no more sounds of gibberish in your ears.
4-8"From the time of my youth, my life has been lived among my own people in Jerusalem. Practically every Jew in town who watched me grow up—and if they were willing to stick their necks out they’d tell you in person—knows that I lived as a strict Pharisee, the most demanding branch of our religion. It’s because I believed it and took it seriously, committed myself heart and soul to what God promised my ancestors—the identical hope, mind you, that the twelve tribes have lived for night and day all these centuries—it’s because I have held on to this tested and tried hope that I’m being called on the carpet by the Jews. They should be the ones standing trial here, not me! For the life of me, I can’t see why it’s a criminal offense to believe that God raises the dead.
12-14"One day on my way to Damascus, armed as always with papers from the high priests authorizing my action, right in the middle of the day a blaze of light, light outshining the sun, poured out of the sky on me and my companions. Oh, King, it was so bright! We fell flat on our faces. Then I heard a voice in Hebrew: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me? Why do you insist on going against the grain?’
17,18"‘I’m sending you off to open the eyes of the outsiders so they can see the difference between dark and light, and choose light, see the difference between Satan and God, and choose God. I’m sending you off to present my offer of sins forgiven, and a place in the family, inviting them into the company of those who begin real living by believing in me.’
4They did it. They got rid of the gods and goddesses, the images of Baal and Ashtoreth, and gave their exclusive attention and service to God.
8They pleaded with Samuel, "Pray with all your might! And don’t let up! Pray to God, our God, that he’ll save us from the boot of the Philistines."
9Samuel took a young lamb not yet weaned and offered it whole as a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God. He prayed fervently to God, interceding for Israel. And God answered.
10-12And God said, "As of right now, I’m making a covenant with you: In full sight of your people I will work wonders that have never been created in all the Earth, in any nation. Then all the people with whom you’re living will see how tremendous God’s work is, the work I’ll do for you. Take careful note of all I command you today. I’m clearing your way by driving out Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Stay vigilant. Don’t let down your guard lest you make covenant with the people who live in the land that you are entering and they trip you up.
18"Keep the Feast of Unraised Bread. Eat only unraised bread for seven days in the month of Abib—it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.
26"Bring the finest of the firstfruits of your produce to the house of your God."Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk."
1,2On your feet now—applaud God!Bring a gift of laughter,sing yourselves into his presence.
3Know this: God is God, and God, God.He made us; we didn’t make him.We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.
4Enter with the password: "Thank you!"Make yourselves at home, talking praise.Thank him. Worship him.
11-13"Count on it: Everyone who had it in for youwill end up out in the cold—real losers.Those who worked against youwill end up empty-handed—nothing to show for their lives.When you go out looking for your old adversariesyou won’t find them—Not a trace of your old enemies,not even a memory.That’s right. Because I, your God,have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go.I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic.I’m right here to help you.’
14-16"Do you feel like a lowly worm, Jacob?Don’t be afraid.Feel like a fragile insect, Israel?I’ll help you.I, God, want to reassure you.The God who buys you back, The Holy of Israel.I’m transforming you from worm to harrow,from insect to iron.As a sharp-toothed harrow you’ll smooth out the mountains,turn those tough old hills into loamy soil.You’ll open the rough ground to the weather,to the blasts of sun and wind and rain.But you’ll be confident and exuberant,expansive in The Holy of Israel!
17-20"The poor and homeless are desperate for water,their tongues parched and no water to be found.But I’m there to be found, I’m there for them,and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty.I’ll open up rivers for them on the barren hills,spout fountains in the valleys.I’ll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond,the waterless waste into splashing creeks.I’ll plant the red cedar in that treeless wasteland,also acacia, myrtle, and olive.I’ll place the cypress in the desert,with plenty of oaks and pines.Everyone will see this. No one can miss it—unavoidable, indisputable evidenceThat I, God, personally did this.It’s created and signed by The Holy of Israel.
1-3Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
4-11In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,but don’t be crushed by it either.It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;the child he embraces, he also corrects.God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off big-time, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
28,29Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire!
2Listen, people—all of you.Listen, earth, and everyone in it:The Master, God, takes the witness stand against you,the Master from his Holy Temple.* * *
6,7"I’m turning Samaria into a heap of rubble,a vacant lot littered with garbage.I’ll dump the stones from her buildings in the valleyand leave her abandoned foundations exposed.All her carved and cast gods and goddesseswill be sold for stove wood and scrap metal,All her sacred fertility grovesburned to the ground,All the sticks and stones she worshiped as gods,destroyed.These were her earnings from her life as a whore.This is what happens to the fees of a whore."* * *
8,9This is why I lament and mourn.This is why I go around in rags and barefoot.This is why I howl like a pack of coyotes,and moan like a mournful owl in the night.God has inflicted punishing wounds;Judah has been wounded with no healing in sight.Judgment has marched through the city gates.Jerusalem must face the charges.* * *
1-5Keep and live out the entire commandment that I’m commanding you today so that you’ll live and prosper and enter and own the land that God promised to your ancestors. Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God’s mouth. Your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.
6-9So it’s paramount that you keep the commandments of God, your God, walk down the roads he shows you and reverently respect him. God is about to bring you into a good land, a land with brooks and rivers, springs and lakes, streams out of the hills and through the valleys. It’s a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olives, oil, and honey. It’s land where you’ll never go hungry—always food on the table and a roof over your head. It’s a land where you’ll get iron out of rocks and mine copper from the hills.
19,20If you forget, forget God, your God, and start taking up with other gods, serving and worshiping them, I’m on record right now as giving you firm warning: that will be the end of you; I mean it—destruction. You’ll go to your doom—the same as the nations God is destroying before you; doom because you wouldn’t obey the Voice of God, your God.* * *
8-16"If I were in your shoes, I’d go straight to God,I’d throw myself on the mercy of God.After all, he’s famous for great and unexpected acts;there’s no end to his surprises.He gives rain, for instance, across the wide earth,sends water to irrigate the fields.He raises up the down-and-out,gives firm footing to those sinking in grief.He aborts the schemes of conniving crooks,so that none of their plots come to term.He catches the know-it-alls in their conspiracies—all that intricate intrigue swept out with the trash!Suddenly they’re disoriented, plunged into darkness;they can’t see to put one foot in front of the other.But the downtrodden are saved by God,saved from the murderous plots, saved from the iron fist.And so the poor continue to hope,while injustice is bound and gagged.
17-19"So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!Mind you, don’t despise the discipline of Almighty God!True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound;the same hand that hurts you, heals you.From one disaster after another he delivers you;no matter what the calamity, the evil can’t touch you—
20-26"In famine, he’ll keep you from starving,in war, from being gutted by the sword.You’ll be protected from vicious gossipand live fearless through any catastrophe.You’ll shrug off disaster and famine,and stroll fearlessly among wild animals.You’ll be on good terms with rocks and mountains;wild animals will become your good friends.You’ll know that your place on earth is safe,you’ll look over your goods and find nothing amiss.You’ll see your children grow up,your family lovely and graceful as orchard grass.You’ll arrive at your grave ripe with many good years,like sheaves of golden grain at harvest.
5,6Ezra opened the book. Every eye was on him (he was standing on the raised platform) and as he opened the book everyone stood. Then Ezra praised God, the great God, and all the people responded, "Oh Yes! Yes!" with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.
10He continued, "Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don’t have anything: This day is holy to God. Don’t feel bad. The joy of God is your strength!"
12So the people went off to feast, eating and drinking and including the poor in a great celebration. Now they got it; they understood the reading that had been given to them.* * *
8Eat unraised bread for six days. Set aside the seventh day as a holiday; don’t do any work.
9-11Starting from the day you put the sickle to the ripe grain, count out seven weeks. Celebrate the Feast-of-Weeks to God, your God, by bringing your Freewill-Offering—give as generously as God, your God, has blessed you. Rejoice in the Presence of God, your God: you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, the Levite who lives in your neighborhood, the foreigner, the orphan and widow among you; rejoice at the place God, your God, will set aside to be worshiped.
13-15Observe the Feast-of-Booths for seven days when you gather the harvest from your threshing-floor and your wine-vat. Rejoice at your festival: you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, the Levite, the foreigner, and the orphans and widows who live in your neighborhood. Celebrate the Feast to God, your God, for seven days at the place God designates. God, your God, has been blessing you in your harvest and in all your work, so make a day of it—really celebrate!
18-20Early the next morning Jesus was returning to the city. He was hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree alongside the road, he approached it anticipating a breakfast of figs. When he got to the tree, there was nothing but fig leaves. He said, "No more figs from this tree—ever!" The fig tree withered on the spot, a dry stick. The disciples saw it happen. They rubbed their eyes, saying, "Did we really see this? A leafy tree one minute, a dry stick the next?"
21,22But Jesus was matter-of-fact: "Yes—and if you embrace this kingdom life and don’t doubt God, you’ll not only do minor feats like I did to the fig tree, but also triumph over huge obstacles. This mountain, for instance, you’ll tell, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it will jump. Absolutely everything, ranging from small to large, as you make it a part of your believing prayer, gets included as you lay hold of God."
31,32"Which of the two sons did what the father asked?"They said, "The first."Jesus said, "Yes, and I tell you that crooks and whores are going to precede you into God’s kingdom. John came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and whores believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn’t care enough to change and believe him.