One Year Bible.

A Remnant in Zion

¹In that day seven women

will take hold of one man and say,

“We will eat our own bread

and provide our own clothes.

Just let us be called by your name.

Take away our disgrace!”

²On that day the Branch of the LORD

will be beautiful and glorious,

and the fruit of the land

will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

³Whoever remains in Zion

and whoever is left in Jerusalem

will be called holy—

all in Jerusalem who are recorded among the living—

⁴when the Lord has washed away

the filth of the daughters of Zion

and cleansed the bloodstains from the heart of Jerusalem

by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.

⁵Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion

and over her assemblies

a cloud of smoke by day

and a glowing flame of fire by night.

For over all the glory

there will be a canopy,

⁶a shelter to give shade

from the heat by day,

and a refuge and hiding place

from the storm and the rain.

The Song of the Vineyard

¹I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

on a very fertile hill.

²He dug it up and cleared the stones

and planted the finest vines.

He built a watchtower in the middle

and dug out a winepress as well.

He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes,

but the fruit it produced was sour!

³“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem

and men of Judah,

I exhort you to judge

between Me and My vineyard.

⁴What more could have been done for My vineyard

than I have done for it?

Why, when I expected sweet grapes,

did it bring forth sour fruit?

⁵Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,

and it will be consumed;

I will tear down its wall,

and it will be trampled.

⁶I will make it a wasteland,

neither pruned nor cultivated,

and thorns and briers will grow up.

I will command the clouds

that rain shall not fall on it.”

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are the plant of His delight.

He looked for justice,

but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness,

but heard a cry of distress.

Woes to the Wicked

⁸Woe to you who add house to house

and join field to field

until no place is left

and you live alone in the land.

⁹I heard the LORD of Hosts declare:

“Surely many houses will become desolate,

great mansions left unoccupied.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard

will yield but a bath of wine,

and a homer of seed

only an ephah of grain.”

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning

in pursuit of strong drink,

who linger into the evening,

to be inflamed by wine.

¹²At their feasts are the lyre and harp,

tambourines and flutes and wine.

They disregard the actions of the LORD

and fail to see the work of His hands.

¹³Therefore My people will go into exile

for their lack of understanding;

their dignitaries are starving

and their masses are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat

and opens wide its enormous jaws,

and down go Zion’s nobles and masses,

her revelers and carousers!

¹⁵So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled;

the arrogant will lower their eyes.

¹⁶But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice,

and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

¹⁷Lambs will graze as in their own pastures,

and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit

and pull sin along with cart ropes,

¹⁹to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work

so that we may see it!

Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come

so that we may know it!”

²⁰Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who turn darkness to light

and light to darkness,

who replace bitter with sweet

and sweet with bitter.

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

and clever in their own sight.

²²Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine

and champions in mixing strong drink,

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe

and deprive the innocent of justice.

²⁴Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw,

and as dry grass shrivels in the flame,

so their roots will decay

and their blossoms will blow away like dust;

for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts

and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore the anger of the LORD burns against His people;

His hand is raised against them to strike them down.

The mountains quake,

and the corpses lie like refuse in the streets.

Despite all this, His anger is not turned away;

His hand is still upraised.

²⁶He lifts a banner for the distant nations

and whistles for those at the ends of the earth.

Behold— how speedily and swiftly they come!

²⁷None of them grows weary or stumbles;

no one slumbers or sleeps.

No belt is loose

and no sandal strap is broken.

²⁸Their arrows are sharpened,

and all their bows are strung.

The hooves of their horses are like flint;

their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

²⁹Their roaring is like that of a lion;

they roar like young lions.

They growl and seize their prey;

they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.

³⁰In that day they will roar over it,

like the roaring of the sea.

If one looks over the land,

he will see darkness and distress;

even the light will be obscured by clouds.

Babylon Is Fallen

¹After this I saw another angel descending from heaven with great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his glory. ²And he cried out in a mighty voice:

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!

She has become a lair for demons

and a haunt for every unclean spirit,

every unclean bird,

and every detestable beast.

³All the nations have drunk the wine

of the passion of her immorality.

The kings of the earth were immoral with her,

and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy

from the extravagance of her luxury.”

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

“Come out of her, My people,

so that you will not share in her sins

or contract any of her plagues.

⁵For her sins are piled up to heaven,

and God has remembered her iniquities.

⁶Give back to her as she has done to others;

pay her back double for what she has done;

mix her a double portion in her own cup.

⁷As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury,

give her the same measure of torment and grief.

In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen;

I am not a widow and will never see grief.’

⁸Therefore her plagues will come in one day —

death and grief and famine —

and she will be consumed by fire,

for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

Lament over Babylon

⁹Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. ¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out:

“Woe, woe to the great city,

the mighty city of Babylon!

For in a single hour

your judgment has come.”

¹¹And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because there is no one left to buy their cargo — ¹²cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; ¹³of cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; of wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; of cattle, sheep, horses, and carriages; of bodies and souls of slaves. ¹⁴And they will say:

“The fruit of your soul’s desire

has departed from you;

all your luxury and splendor have vanished,

never to be seen again.”

¹⁵The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand at a distance, in fear of her torment. They will weep and mourn, ¹⁶saying:

“Woe, woe to the great city,

clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet,

adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!

¹⁷For in a single hour

such fabulous wealth has been destroyed!”

Every shipmaster, passenger, and sailor, and all who make their living from the sea, will stand at a distance ¹⁸and cry out at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. “What city was ever like this great city?” they will exclaim.

¹⁹Then they will throw dust on their heads as they weep and mourn and cry out:

“Woe, woe to the great city,

where all who had ships on the sea

were enriched by her wealth!

For in a single hour

she has been destroyed.”

²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven,

and you saints and apostles and prophets,

because God has pronounced for you

His judgment against her.

The Doom of Babylon

²¹Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying:

“With such violence

the great city of Babylon will be cast down,

never to be seen again.

²²And the sound of harpists and musicians,

of flute players and trumpeters,

will never ring out in you again.

Nor will any craftsmen of any trade

be found in you again,

nor the sound of a millstone

be heard in you again.

²³The light of a lamp

will never shine in you again,

and the voices of a bride and bridegroom

will never call out in you again.

For your merchants were the great ones of the earth,

because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”

²⁴And there was found in her the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who had been slain on the earth.