15 verses
7Therefore I command you, saying, "set apart three cities for yourselves." 8If Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers; 9and if you keep all these commandments, which I command you today, and do them: to love Yahweh your God, and to always walk in his ways, then you'll add three more cities for yourselves, in addition to these [first] three. 10[This is so that] innocent blood won't be shed among your land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance, leaving blood [guilt] on you. 11But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; 12then the elders of his city are to send and get him [from] there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, so he may die. 13Your eye mustn't pity him, but you must purge the innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you. 14Don't remove your neighbor's landmark, which they set long ago, in your inheritance which you'll inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you to possess.
15One witness mustn't rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. A matter must be established at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses. 16If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17then both the men, between whom there's a controversy, are to stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges [who are in office] at that time; 18and the judges are to make diligent inquiry; and look, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother, 19then you are to do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. In this way you'll remove the evil from among you. 20Those who remain will hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you. 21Your eyes must not pity. Life for life. Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth. Hand for hand. Foot for foot.
26 verses
1Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, "Bring us drinks!" 2LordOfMine Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that behold, "The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks. 3You will go out at the breaks in the wall, everyone straight before her; and you will throw yourselves into Harmon," says Yahweh. 4"Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days, 5offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of what is leavened, and proclaim free will offerings and brag about them: for this pleases you, you children of Israel," says LordOfMine Yahweh. 6"I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. 7"I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn't rain withered. 8So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. 9"I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards; and your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured: yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. 10"I sent plagues among you as was done in Egypt. I have slaughtered your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you have not returned to me," says Yahweh. 11"I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh. 12"Therefore thus I will do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel. 13For, behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the Earth: Yahweh, the God of Armies, is his name."
1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel. 2"The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is thrown down on her land; there is no one to raise her up."
3For thus says LordOfMine Yahweh: "The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and what went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."
4For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live; 5but don't seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don't pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. 6Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. 7You who turn justice to wormwood, and throw righteousness down to the earth: 8seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the death-shadow into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name, 9who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress. 10They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. 11Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. 12For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins - you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts. 13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
14 verses
15LordOfMine has rejected all mighty men in my midst.
He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men.
LordOfMine has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah in a winepress. 16"For these things I weep.
My eye, my eye runs down with water,
because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me.
My children are desolate,
because the enemy has prevailed." 17Zion spreads out her hands.
There is no one to comfort her.
Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob,
that those who are around him should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing. 18"Yahweh is righteous,
for I have rebelled against his commandment.
Please hear all you peoples,
and see my sorrow.
My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. 19"I called for my lovers,
but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city,
while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls. 20"Look, Yahweh; for I am in distress.
My heart is troubled.
My heart turns over within me,
for I have grievously rebelled.
Abroad, the sword bereaves.
At home, it is like death. 21"They have heard that I sigh.
There is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble.
They are glad that you have done it.
You will bring the day that you have proclaimed,
and they will be like me. 22"Let all their wickedness come before you.
Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions.
For my sighs are many,
and my heart is faint.
1How LordOfMine has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!
He has thrown down the beauty of Israel from heaven to earth,
and hasn't remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. 2LordOfMine has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob
without pity.
He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah.
He has brought them down to the ground.
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes. 3He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger.
He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy.
He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire,
which devours all around. 4He has bent his bow like an enemy.
He has stood with his right hand as an adversary.
He has killed all that were pleasant to the eye.
In the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his wrath like fire. 5LordOfMine has become like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces.
He has destroyed his strongholds.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah. 6He has violently taken away his tabernacle,
as if it were a garden.
He has destroyed his place of assembly.
Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion.
In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest.
24 verses
1See how great a selfless-love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn't know us, because it didn't know him. 2Dear-ones, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. 5You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and no sin is in him. 6Whoever remains in him doesn't fall-short. Whoever falls-short hasn't seen him and doesn't know him.
7Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8He who falls-short is of the devil, for the devil has been falling-short from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the actions of the devil. 9Whoever is born of God doesn't [continue to] fall-short, because his seed remains in him; and he can't [continue to] fall-short, because he is born of God. 10In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn't do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn't selflessly-love his brother. 11For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should selflessly-love one another; 12unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his actions were evil, and his brother's righteous.
13Don't be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we selflessly-love the brothers. He who doesn't selflessly-love his brother remains in death. 15Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
16By this we know selfless-love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God's selfless-love remain in him?
18My little children, let's not selflessly-love in word or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. 19And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him, 20because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21Dear-ones, if our hearts don't condemn us, we have boldness toward God; 22so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. 23This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus AnointedOne, and selflessly-love one another, just as he gave commandment to us. 24He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.
