One Year Bible.

The LORD Judges the Nations

¹“Yes, in those days and at that time,

when I restore Judah and Jerusalem from captivity,

²I will gather all the nations

and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

There I will enter into judgment against them

concerning My people, My inheritance, Israel,

whom they have scattered among the nations

as they divided up My land.

³They cast lots for My people;

they bartered a boy for a prostitute

and sold a girl for wine to drink.

⁴Now what do you have against Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering against Me a recompense? If you retaliate against Me, I will swiftly and speedily return your recompense upon your heads. ⁵For you took My silver and gold and carried off My finest treasures to your temples. ⁶You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, to send them far from their homeland.

⁷Behold, I will rouse them from the places to which you sold them; I will return your recompense upon your heads. ⁸I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans — to a distant nation.”

Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for war;

rouse the mighty men;

let all the men of war

advance and attack!

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords

and your pruning hooks into spears.

Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’

¹¹Come quickly, all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves.

Bring down Your mighty ones,

O LORD.

¹²Let the nations be roused

and advance to the Valley of Jehoshaphat,

for there I will sit down

to judge all the nations on every side.

¹³Swing the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Come, trample the grapes,

for the winepress is full;

the wine vats overflow

because their wickedness is great.

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes

in the valley of decision!

For the Day of the LORD is near

in the valley of decision.

¹⁵The sun and moon will grow dark,

and the stars will no longer shine.

¹⁶The LORD will roar from Zion

and raise His voice from Jerusalem;

heaven and earth will tremble.

But the LORD will be a refuge for His people,

a stronghold for the people of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

¹⁷Then you will know that I am the LORD your God,

who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain.

Jerusalem will be holy,

never again to be overrun by foreigners.

¹⁸And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,

and the hills will flow with milk.

All the streams of Judah will run with water,

and a spring will flow from the house of the LORD

to water the Valley of Acacias.

¹⁹Egypt 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.

²⁰But Judah will be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹For I will avenge their blood,

which I have not yet avenged.”

For the LORD dwells in Zion.

Paul’s Greeting to Timothy

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,

²To Timothy, my beloved child:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Faithfulness under Persecution

³I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as did my forefathers, as I constantly remember you night and day in my prayers. ⁴Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

⁵I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced is in you as well.

⁶For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

⁸So do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me, His prisoner. Instead, join me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. ⁹He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began. ¹⁰And now He has revealed this grace through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the gospel, ¹¹to which I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher.

¹²For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.

Holding to Sound Teaching

¹³Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

¹⁵You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he has often refreshed me and was unashamed of my chains. ¹⁷Indeed, when he arrived in Rome, he searched diligently until he found me.

¹⁸May the Lord grant Onesiphorus His mercy on that day. You know very well how much he ministered to me in Ephesus.

144,000 Sealed

¹After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree. ²And I saw another angel ascending from the east, with the seal of the living God. And he called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: ³“Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have placed a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

⁴And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel:

⁵From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,

from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,

from the tribe of Gad 12,000,

⁶from the tribe of Asher 12,000,

from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,

from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,

⁷from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,

from the tribe of Levi 12,000,

from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,

⁸from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,

from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,

and from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.

Praise from the Great Multitude

⁹After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb!”

¹¹And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

¹³Then one of the elders addressed me: “These in white robes,” he asked, “who are they, and where have they come from?”

¹⁴“Sir,” I answered, “you know.”

So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵For this reason,

they are before the throne of God

and serve Him day and night in His temple;

and the One seated on the throne

will spread His tabernacle over them.

¹⁶‘Never again will they hunger,

and never will they thirst;

nor will the sun beat down upon them,

nor any scorching heat.’

¹⁷For the Lamb in the center of the throne

will be their shepherd.

‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’

and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”