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LORD, you are my God; I will honor you and praise your name. You have done amazing things; you have faithfully carried out the plans you made long ago.
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You have turned cities into ruins and destroyed their fortifications. The palaces which our enemies built are gone forever.
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The people of powerful nations will praise you; you will be feared in the cities of cruel nations.
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The poor and the helpless have fled to you and have been safe in times of trouble. You give them shelter from storms and shade from the burning heat. Cruel enemies attack like a winter storm,
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like drought in a dry land. But you, LORD, have silenced our enemies; you silence the shouts of cruel people, as a cloud cools a hot day.
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Here on Mount Zion the LORD Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world---a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine.
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Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations.
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The Sovereign LORD will destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The LORD himself has spoken.
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When it happens, everyone will say, "He is our God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us. He is the LORD! We have put our trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful because he has saved us."
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The LORD will protect Mount Zion, but the people of Moab will be trampled down the way straw is trampled in manure.
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They will reach out their hands as if they were trying to swim, but God will humiliate them, and their hands will sink helplessly.
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He will destroy the fortresses of Moab with their high walls and bring them tumbling down into the dust.
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A day is coming when the people will sing this song in the land of Judah: Our city is strong! God himself defends its walls!
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Open the city gates and let the faithful nation enter, the nation whose people do what is right.
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You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.
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Trust in the LORD forever; he will always protect us.
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He has humbled those who were proud; he destroyed the strong city they lived in, and sent its walls crashing into the dust.
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Those who were oppressed walk over it now and trample it under their feet.
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LORD, you make the path smooth for good people; the road they travel is level.
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We follow your will and put our hope in you; you are all that we desire.
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At night I long for you with all my heart; when you judge the earth and its people, they will all learn what justice is.
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Even though you are kind to the wicked, they never learn to do what is right. Even here in a land of righteous people they still do wrong; they refuse to recognize your greatness.
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Your enemies do not know that you will punish them. LORD, put them to shame and let them suffer; let them suffer the punishment you have prepared. Show them how much you love your people.
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You will give us prosperity, LORD; everything that we achieve is the result of what you do.
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LORD our God, we have been ruled by others, but you alone are our LORD.
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Now they are dead and will not live again; their ghosts will not rise, for you have punished them and destroyed them. No one remembers them any more.
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LORD, you have made our nation grow, enlarging its territory on every side; and this has brought you honor.
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You punished your people, LORD, and in anguish they prayed to you.
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You, LORD, have made us cry out, as a woman in labor cries out in pain.
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We were in pain and agony, but we gave birth to nothing. We have won no victory for our land; we have accomplished nothing.
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Those of our people who have died will live again! Their bodies will come back to life. All those sleeping in their graves will wake up and sing for joy. As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth, so the LORD will revive those who have long been dead.
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Go into your houses, my people, and shut the door behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until God's anger is over.
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The LORD is coming from his heavenly dwelling place to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The murders that were secretly committed on the earth will be revealed, and the ground will no longer hide those who have been killed.
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On that day the LORD will use his powerful and deadly sword to punish Leviathan, that wriggling, twisting dragon, and to kill the monster that lives in the sea.
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On that day the LORD will say of his pleasant vineyard,
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"I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it.
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I am no longer angry with the vineyard. If there were thorns and briers to fight against, I would burn them up completely.
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But if the enemies of my people want my protection, let them make peace with me. Yes, let them make peace with me."
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In the days to come the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, will take root like a tree, and they will blossom and bud. The earth will be covered with the fruit they produce.
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Israel has not been punished by the LORD as severely as its enemies nor lost as many people.
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The LORD punished his people by sending them into exile. He took them away with a cruel wind from the east.
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But Israel's sins will be forgiven only when the stones of pagan altars are ground up like chalk, and no more incense altars or symbols of the goddess Asherah are left.
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The fortified city lies in ruins. It is deserted like an empty wilderness. It has become a pasture for cattle, where they can rest and graze.
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The branches of the trees are withered and broken, and women gather them for firewood. Because the people have understood nothing, God their Creator will not pity them or show them any mercy.
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On that day, from the Euphrates to the Egyptian border, the LORD will gather his people one by one, as threshing separates the wheat from the chaff.
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When that day comes, a trumpet will be blown to call back from Assyria and Egypt all the Israelites who are in exile there. They will come and worship the LORD in Jerusalem, on his sacred hill.
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The kingdom of Israel is doomed! Its glory is fading like the crowns of flowers on the heads of its drunken leaders. Their proud heads are well perfumed, but there they lie, dead drunk.
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The Lord has someone strong and powerful ready to attack them, someone who will come like a hailstorm, like a torrent of rain, like a rushing, overpowering flood, and will overwhelm the land.
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The pride of those drunken leaders will be trampled underfoot.
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The fading glory of those proud leaders will disappear like the first figs of the season, picked and eaten as soon as they are ripe.
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A day is coming when the LORD Almighty will be like a glorious crown of flowers for his people who survive.
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He will give a sense of justice to those who serve as judges, and courage to those who defend the city gates from attack.
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Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them.
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The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left.
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They complain about me. They say, "Who does that man think he's teaching? Who needs his message? It's only good for babies that have just stopped nursing!
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He is trying to teach us letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson."
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If you won't listen to me, then God will use foreigners speaking some strange-sounding language to teach you a lesson.
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He offered rest and comfort to all of you, but you refused to listen to him.
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That is why the LORD is going to teach you letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson. Then you will stumble with every step you take. You will be wounded, trapped, and taken prisoner.
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Now you arrogant leaders who rule here in Jerusalem over this people, listen to what the LORD is saying.
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You boast that you have made a treaty with death and reached an agreement with the world of the dead. You are certain that disaster will spare you when it comes, because you depend on lies and deceit to keep you safe.
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This, now, is what the Sovereign LORD says: "I am placing in Zion a foundation that is firm and strong. In it I am putting a solid cornerstone on which are written the words, 'Faith that is firm is also patient.'
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Justice will be the measuring line for the foundation, and honesty will be its plumb line." Hailstorms will sweep away all the lies you depend on, and floods will destroy your security.
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The treaty you have made with death will be abolished, and your agreement with the world of the dead will be canceled. When disaster sweeps down, you will be overcome.
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It will strike you again and again, morning after morning. You will have to bear it day and night. Each new message from God will bring new terror!
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You will be like the person in the proverb, who tries to sleep in a bed too short to stretch out on, with a blanket too narrow to wrap himself in.
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The LORD will fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do---strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work.
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Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the LORD Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country.
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Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you.
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Farmers don't constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting.
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Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley, and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain.
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They know how to do their work, because God has taught them.
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They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size.
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They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains.
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All this wisdom comes from the LORD Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.
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Keep on loving one another as Christians.
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Remember to welcome strangers in your homes. There were some who did that and welcomed angels without knowing it.
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Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering, as though you were suffering as they are.
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Marriage is to be honored by all, and husbands and wives must be faithful to each other. God will judge those who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
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Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, "I will never leave you; I will never abandon you."
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Let us be bold, then, and say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"
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Remember your former leaders, who spoke God's message to you. Think back on how they lived and died, and imitate their faith.
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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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Do not let all kinds of strange teachings lead you from the right way. It is good to receive inner strength from God's grace, and not by obeying rules about foods; those who obey these rules have not been helped by them.
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The priests who serve in the Jewish place of worship have no right to eat any of the sacrifice on our altar.
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The Jewish high priest brings the blood of the animals into the Most Holy Place to offer it as a sacrifice for sins; but the bodies of the animals are burned outside the camp.
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For this reason Jesus also died outside the city, in order to purify the people from sin with his own blood.
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Let us, then, go to him outside the camp and share his shame.
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For there is no permanent city for us here on earth; we are looking for the city which is to come.
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Let us, then, always offer praise to God as our sacrifice through Jesus, which is the offering presented by lips that confess him as Lord.
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Do not forget to do good and to help one another, because these are the sacrifices that please God.
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Obey your leaders and follow their orders. They watch over your souls without resting, since they must give to God an account of their service. If you obey them, they will do their work gladly; if not, they will do it with sadness, and that would be of no help to you.
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Keep on praying for us. We are sure we have a clear conscience, because we want to do the right thing at all times.
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And I beg you even more earnestly to pray that God will send me back to you soon.
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God has raised from death our Lord Jesus, who is the Great Shepherd of the sheep as the result of his blood, by which the eternal covenant is sealed. May the God of peace provide you with every good thing you need in order to do his will, and may he, through Jesus Christ, do in us what pleases him. And to Christ be the glory forever and ever! Amen.
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I beg you, my friends, to listen patiently to this message of encouragement; for this letter I have written you is not very long.
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I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been let out of prison. If he comes soon enough, I will have him with me when I see you.
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Give our greetings to all your leaders and to all God's people. The believers from Italy send you their greetings.
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May God's grace be with you all.
