December 15th - Day 349

Micah 1-4:13

Micah 1
1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

2 Hear, O peoples, all of you,

listen, O earth and all who are in it,

that the Sovereign LORD may witness against you,

the Lord from his holy temple.

Judgment Against Samaria and Jerusalem

3 Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling place;

he comes down and treads the high places of the earth.

4 The mountains melt beneath him

and the valleys split apart,

like wax before the fire,

like water rushing down a slope.

5 All this is because of Jacob's transgression,

because of the sins of the house of Israel.

What is Jacob's transgression?

Is it not Samaria?

What is Judah's high place?

Is it not Jerusalem?

6 "Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble,

a place for planting vineyards.

I will pour her stones into the valley

and lay bare her foundations.

7 All her idols will be broken to pieces;

all her temple gifts will be burned with fire;

I will destroy all her images.

Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes,

as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used."

Weeping and Mourning

8 Because of this I will weep and wail;

I will go about barefoot and naked.

I will howl like a jackal

and moan like an owl.

9 For her wound is incurable;

it has come to Judah.

It [a] has reached the very gate of my people,

even to Jerusalem itself.

10 Tell it not in Gath [b] ;

weep not at all. [c]

In Beth Ophrah [d]

roll in the dust.

11 Pass on in nakedness and shame,

you who live in Shaphir. [e]

Those who live in Zaanan [f]

will not come out.

Beth Ezel is in mourning;

its protection is taken from you.

12 Those who live in Maroth [g] writhe in pain,

waiting for relief,

because disaster has come from the LORD,

even to the gate of Jerusalem.

13 You who live in Lachish, [h]

harness the team to the chariot.

You were the beginning of sin

to the Daughter of Zion,

for the transgressions of Israel

were found in you.

14 Therefore you will give parting gifts

to Moresheth Gath.

The town of Aczib [i] will prove deceptive

to the kings of Israel.

15 I will bring a conqueror against you

who live in Mareshah. [j]

He who is the glory of Israel

will come to Adullam.

16 Shave your heads in mourning

for the children in whom you delight;

make yourselves as bald as the vulture,

for they will go from you into exile.

Micah 2

Man's Plans and God's

1 Woe to those who plan iniquity,

to those who plot evil on their beds!

At morning's light they carry it out

because it is in their power to do it.

2 They covet fields and seize them,

and houses, and take them.

They defraud a man of his home,

a fellowman of his inheritance.

3 Therefore, the LORD says:

"I am planning disaster against this people,

from which you cannot save yourselves.

You will no longer walk proudly,

for it will be a time of calamity.

4 In that day men will ridicule you;

they will taunt you with this mournful song:

'We are utterly ruined;

my people's possession is divided up.

He takes it from me!

He assigns our fields to traitors.' "

5 Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD

to divide the land by lot.

False Prophets

6 "Do not prophesy," their prophets say.

"Do not prophesy about these things;

disgrace will not overtake us."

7 Should it be said, O house of Jacob:

"Is the Spirit of the LORD angry?

Does he do such things?"

"Do not my words do good

to him whose ways are upright?

8 Lately my people have risen up

like an enemy.

You strip off the rich robe

from those who pass by without a care,

like men returning from battle.

9 You drive the women of my people

from their pleasant homes.

You take away my blessing

from their children forever.

10 Get up, go away!

For this is not your resting place,

because it is defiled,

it is ruined, beyond all remedy.

11 If a liar and deceiver comes and says,

'I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,'

he would be just the prophet for this people!

Deliverance Promised

12 "I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob;

I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.

I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,

like a flock in its pasture;

the place will throng with people.

13 One who breaks open the way will go up before them;

they will break through the gate and go out.

Their king will pass through before them,

the LORD at their head."

Micah 3

Leaders and Prophets Rebuked

1 Then I said,

"Listen, you leaders of Jacob,

you rulers of the house of Israel.

Should you not know justice,

2 you who hate good and love evil;

who tear the skin from my people

and the flesh from their bones;

3 who eat my people's flesh,

strip off their skin

and break their bones in pieces;

who chop them up like meat for the pan,

like flesh for the pot?"

4 Then they will cry out to the LORD,

but he will not answer them.

At that time he will hide his face from them

because of the evil they have done.

5 This is what the LORD says:

"As for the prophets

who lead my people astray,

if one feeds them,

they proclaim 'peace';

if he does not,

they prepare to wage war against him.

6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions,

and darkness, without divination.

The sun will set for the prophets,

and the day will go dark for them.

7 The seers will be ashamed

and the diviners disgraced.

They will all cover their faces

because there is no answer from God."

8 But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the LORD,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression,

to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob,

you rulers of the house of Israel,

who despise justice

and distort all that is right;

10 who build Zion with bloodshed,

and Jerusalem with wickedness.

11 Her leaders judge for a bribe,

her priests teach for a price,

and her prophets tell fortunes for money.

Yet they lean upon the LORD and say,

"Is not the LORD among us?

No disaster will come upon us."

12 Therefore because of you,

Zion will be plowed like a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,

the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

Micah 4

The Mountain of the LORD

1 In the last days

the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established

as chief among the mountains;

it will be raised above the hills,

and peoples will stream to it.

2 Many nations will come and say,

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

so that we may walk in his paths."

The law will go out from Zion,

the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 He will judge between many peoples

and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore.

4 Every man will sit under his own vine

and under his own fig tree,

and no one will make them afraid,

for the LORD Almighty has spoken.

5 All the nations may walk

in the name of their gods;

we will walk in the name of the LORD

our God for ever and ever.

The LORD's Plan

6 "In that day," declares the LORD,

"I will gather the lame;

I will assemble the exiles

and those I have brought to grief.

7 I will make the lame a remnant,

those driven away a strong nation.

The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion

from that day and forever.

8 As for you, O watchtower of the flock,

O stronghold [k] of the Daughter of Zion,

the former dominion will be restored to you;

kingship will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem."

9 Why do you now cry aloud—

have you no king?

Has your counselor perished,

that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?

10 Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion,

like a woman in labor,

for now you must leave the city

to camp in the open field.

You will go to Babylon;

there you will be rescued.

There the LORD will redeem you

out of the hand of your enemies.

11 But now many nations

are gathered against you.

They say, "Let her be defiled,

let our eyes gloat over Zion!"

12 But they do not know

the thoughts of the LORD;

they do not understand his plan,

he who gathers them like sheaves to the threshing floor.

13 "Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion,

for I will give you horns of iron;

I will give you hoofs of bronze

and you will break to pieces many nations."

You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the LORD,

their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

Footnotes:

1. Micah 1:9 Or He
   
2. Micah 1:10 Gath sounds like the Hebrew for tell .
   
3. Micah 1:10 Hebrew; Septuagint may suggest not in Acco . The Hebrew for in Acco sounds like the Hebrew for weep .
   
4. Micah 1:10 Beth Ophrah means house of dust .
   
5. Micah 1:11 Shaphir means pleasant .
   
6. Micah 1:11 Zaanan sounds like the Hebrew for come out .
   
7. Micah 1:12 Maroth sounds like the Hebrew for bitter .
   
8. Micah 1:13 Lachish sounds like the Hebrew for team .
   
9. Micah 1:14 Aczib means deception .
   
10. Micah 1:15 Mareshah sounds like the Hebrew for conqueror .
    
11. Micah 4:8 Or hill

Revelation 6:1-17



Revelation 6

The Seals

1I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" 2I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

3When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" 4Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.

5When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart[a] of wheat for a day's wages,[b] and three quarts of barley for a day's wages,[c] and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

7When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.

12I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

15Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

Footnotes:

1. Revelation 6:6 Greek a choinix (probably about a liter)
   
2. Revelation 6:6 Greek a denarius
   
3. Revelation 6:6 Greek a denarius

Psalm 134:1-3



Psalm 134

A song of ascents.

1 Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD

who minister by night in the house of the LORD.

2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary

and praise the LORD.

3 May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,

bless you from Zion.

Proverbs 30:1-4



Proverbs 30

Sayings of Agur

1 The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh—an oracle [a] :

This man declared to Ithiel,

to Ithiel and to Ucal: [b]

2 "I am the most ignorant of men;

I do not have a man's understanding.

3 I have not learned wisdom,

nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.

4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down?

Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands?

Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?

Who has established all the ends of the earth?

What is his name, and the name of his son?

Tell me if you know!

Footnotes:

1. Proverbs 30:1 Or Jakeh of Massa
   
2. Proverbs 30:1 Masoretic Text; with a different word division of the Hebrew declared, "I am weary, O God; / I am weary, O God, and faint.