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A message about Damascus
23 The Lord gave this message about Damascus:[a]
‘The people of Hamath and Arpad will hear bad news.
It will cause them to be upset.
They will no longer feel brave.
They will not be able to rest because they are afraid.
24 The people of Damascus will become weak.
They will try to run away.
They will become confused because of their fear.
They will feel pain like a woman who is giving birth.
25 Damascus was a famous city.
The people who lived in it were very happy.
But now it will become empty.
26 Its young men will die in its streets.
All its soldiers will be dead.
27 I will burn down the city walls of Damascus.
Fire will destroy the palaces of King Ben-Hadad.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
Punishment for Kedar and Hazor
28 The Lord gave this message about Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked:
‘March to Kedar and attack the city![b]
Destroy those people who live east of Judah.
29 Take away their tents and their sheep.
Take their curtains and the other things in their tents.
Carry those things away with their camels.
Cause the people to shout,
“Terror is everywhere around us!” ’[c]
30 The Lord says,
‘You people who live in Hazor, run away quickly!
Go and find somewhere safe to hide!
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has decided to attack you.
He knows how he will destroy you.’
31 The Lord says to King Nebuchadnezzar,
‘Go and attack that nation.
They think that they are strong and safe.
But their city has no gates or walls to protect them.
They live far away from other people.
32 Take their camels and their farm animals for yourselves.
I will chase away those people who live in the desert and who cut their hair short.
I will send them away in every direction.
And I will bring terrible trouble from every direction to hurt them.
33 Hazor will become as empty as a desert.
Only wild animals will live there.
It will always be a place where no people live.’
Punishment for Elam
34 Soon after Zedekiah became king of Judah, the Lord gave this message about Elam to the prophet Jeremiah. 35 The Lord Almighty said,
‘Listen to me! Elam's army makes them a strong nation.
They have soldiers who can shoot arrows well.
But I will destroy those soldiers.
36 I will cause enemies to attack Elam,
like winds that blow from every direction.
I will chase Elam's people away in every direction.
They will run away to live in every other nation of the world.
37 I will make them very afraid of their enemies who want to kill them.
I will cause them to have terrible trouble,
because I am very angry with them.’
That is what the Lord says.
‘I will send soldiers to attack them,
until I have completely destroyed them.
38 I will destroy their kings and their leaders.
I will be the king who rules over Elam.’
That is what the Lord says.
39 ‘But at a future time,
I will make Elam strong again.’
That is what the Lord says.
Punishment for Babylon
50 The Lord gave this message to the prophet Jeremiah about Babylon city and the people of Babylonia:
2 ‘Tell this news to the nations!
Wave a flag to make sure that people listen!
Do not try to hide anything. Say this:
“Enemies will take Babylon.
Bel will become ashamed.
Yes, Marduk will be afraid.[d]
All Babylon's disgusting idols will be ashamed.”
3 A nation from the north will attack Babylon.
They will destroy the whole land.
People and animals will all run away,
so that nobody lives there.’
4 The Lord says, ‘When that happens,
the people of Israel and Judah will return to their land.
They will weep because of their sins.
They will want to worship the Lord their God.
5 They will ask people to show them the way to Zion.
They will travel in that direction.
They will promise to serve the Lord.
They will make a covenant with him that will continue for ever.
Nobody will ever forget that covenant.[e]
6 My people have been like sheep that are lost.
Their leaders should have taken care of them like shepherds.
Instead, they have let my people become lost,
like sheep that have gone into the mountains.
They go from one hill to another hill,
and they have forgotten where their home is.
7 Anyone who found them killed them.
Their enemies said, “We are not guilty for their death.
They deserved to die because they turned against the Lord.
He is their true home where they are safe.
But they turned against the Lord,
the God that their ancestors trusted.” ’
8 ‘People of Judah, escape quickly from Babylon!
Leave the land of Babylonia!
Be the first people to leave.
Lead the other people away,
like a male goat that leads the other goats.
9 I will call a group of strong nations from the north.
They will join together to fight against Babylon.
They will get ready to attack.
They will come from the north
and they will take power over Babylon.
Their arrows will be like brave soldiers.
They will kill everyone that they want to kill.
10 The people of Babylonia will lose all their things.
Enemy soldiers will take everything that they want for themselves.’
That is what the Lord says.
11 ‘You people of Babylon are very happy,
because you have robbed my people.
You dance like young cows that have fresh grass to eat.
You make a happy noise, like a strong male horse.
12 Babylon is like your mother who gave you life,
but she will become ashamed.
Yes, she will become the least important of all nations.
The country will be dry and empty, like a desert.
13 Nobody will live in Babylon,
because I, the Lord, am very angry with it.
It will be only a heap of stones.
Everyone who goes that way will see that it is a disgusting place.
They will insult Babylon,
because of the terrible troubles that have happened to it.’
14 ‘Get ready to fight, all you soldiers who have bows and arrows.
Stand in your places around Babylon.
Shoot your arrows into the city! Shoot all of them!
Punish Babylon, because its people have turned against the Lord.
15 Shout as you attack the city from all sides.
Its people are ready to stop fighting.
Its strong towers will fall down.
You will knock down its walls.
The Lord is punishing Babylon,
so punish the people for their sins!
Do the same thing to them that they have done to other people.
16 Remove from Babylon all the farmers who plant crops.
Remove all the people who cut the crops at harvest time.
The foreigners must return to their own homes.
They must run away to escape from the enemy army.’
17 ‘Israel's enemies have chased them away to many different places.
They are like sheep that hungry lions have chased away.
The first to catch them was the king of Assyria.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed them,
like a lion that broke their bones.’[f]
18 So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this:
‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his country,
as I punished the king of Assyria.
19 But I will bring Israel's people back to their own land.
They will grow their crops on Carmel and in Bashan.
They will have plenty of food to eat
on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
20 At that time, I will forgive the sins of my people.
I have let a few people of Israel and Judah remain.
And they will no longer be guilty of any sins.’
That is what the Lord says.
21 The Lord says,
‘Attack the land of Merathaim.
Attack the people who live in Pekod.[g]
Run after them! Kill them! Completely destroy them!
Do everything that I have commanded you to do.
22 There is a noise of war in the land of Babylonia.
The enemy is destroying everything!
23 Babylon attacked other nations of the world,
like a hammer that breaks things into pieces.
But now that hammer has broken into pieces.
Now the other nations see that Babylon is a disgusting place.
24 Babylon, I put a trap to catch you,
and you did not know about it.
Now I have caught you in my trap,
because you fought against me.
25 I have taken out my weapons from the place where I had stored them.
I will use those weapons to punish the people of Babylonia,
because I am very angry with them.[h]
I am the Lord God Almighty.
I have work to do in the land of Babylonia.
26 Now come from far away to attack Babylonia!
Break open the store rooms and take out the grain.
Knock down their buildings and break them into pieces.
Completely destroy everything.
Do not let anything remain!
27 Kill all their strong soldiers.
Let them go to their place of death!
Terrible trouble has come to the people of Babylon.
The time of their punishment has arrived!’
28 Listen! People have run away from the war in Babylon. Now they are arriving in Jerusalem. They will tell the news in Zion about how the Lord is punishing Babylon. He is punishing the people of Babylon because they destroyed his temple.
29 ‘Bring all the soldiers with bows and arrows to attack Babylon.
They must make their camp all around the city.
Do not let anyone escape.
Punish the people for the things that they have done.
Do the same thing to them that they have done to others.
Those people have insulted me, Israel's holy God.
30 So Babylon's young men will die in its streets.
All its soldiers will die in battle on that day.’
That is what the Lord says.
31 The Lord God Almighty says this:
‘You people of Babylon are very proud,
so I will fight against you.
Now the day has come
when I will punish you for your sins.
32 You are proud but you will fall to the ground.
Nobody will help you to get up.
I will burn Babylonia's towns with fire,
and it will destroy everything that is around them.’
33 The Lord Almighty says,
‘People have been cruel to the people of Israel and Judah.
Enemies have taken them away as prisoners.
They have refused to let my people go free.
34 But my name is the Lord Almighty.
I am strong and I will rescue my people.
I will fight hard to save them.
I will bring peace to their land.
But the people of Babylonia will only have trouble.’
35 The Lord says,
‘I am sending an army to fight against Babylon.
They will attack the people of Babylonia,
its leaders and its wise men.
36 They will attack its false prophets,
and people will see that the prophets are fools.
They will attack the soldiers of Babylonia,
and those soldiers will be very afraid.
37 They will attack Babylonia's horses and chariots,
and the foreign soldiers who belong to its army.
They will become as weak as women.
The enemy soldiers will take Babylon's valuable things.
They will take them away for themselves.
38 There will be no rain on the land
so that the rivers and streams become dry.
I will send all this trouble because
their whole land is full of idols.
The people become crazy
because they are afraid of their idols.
39 Hyenas and other wild animals will live there.
Ostriches will live there, too.
But people will never live there again.
It will remain as empty as a desert.
40 Babylonia will become a heap of stones where nobody lives.
The same thing happened to Sodom and Gomorrah
and the towns near to them.
Nobody will live there any more.’
That is what the Lord says.
41 ‘Look! An army is coming from the north.
A great nation and many kings are preparing to attack.
They are coming from a place that is far away.
42 Its soldiers carry bows and spears as their weapons.
They are always cruel and they are never kind.
They ride into the battle on their horses,
and it sounds like the noise of the sea.
They are ready to attack you, people of Babylon!
43 The king of Babylon has heard news about them,
and he is very afraid.
He feels too weak to fight.
He feels pain like a woman who is giving birth.
44 I will attack the people of Babylonia,
and I will chase them out of their land.
I will do that like a lion that has been hiding in the forest.
It attacks the sheep in the fields beside the Jordan River.
Like that lion, I will suddenly chase Babylonia's people out of their country.
Then I will choose a leader to rule that nation.
There is nobody who is like me.
Nobody can accuse me of anything.
No ruler can stand against me.
45 So listen to me, the Lord!
This is what I have decided to do to Babylon.
Yes, this is the trouble that I will bring to the people of Babylonia.
Soldiers will catch their children and take them away,
like little lambs that they take from their mothers.
I will completely destroy their homes.
46 When the enemy takes power over Babylon,
the noise will cause the whole earth to shake.
The other nations will hear Babylon's people shout with pain.’
Paul says ‘Hello’ to Titus
1 This letter is from me, Paul. I am God's servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. God has sent me to help the people that he has chosen. I teach them to understand his true message and to trust him. As a result they will live in a way that pleases God. 2 They will also be sure that they will live with God for ever. Before the world began, God promised that his people would have life with him. And God never tells lies. 3 God is the one who saves us. Now, at the proper time, he has made his message clear. He has given his message to me so that I can tell it to people. That is what he has told me to do.
4 I am writing to you, Titus. I told you the message about Jesus and now we both believe in him. So you are like my own child.
I pray that God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Saviour, will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your mind.
Titus's work in Crete
5 I left you in Crete so that you could finish certain things. You should make right some things that were wrong. And you should choose leaders of the believers in every town, as I told you.
6 This is what a leader in the church must be like. Nobody should have a reason to say that he has done something wrong. He must be the husband of only one wife. He must have children who respect him. Nobody should say that they enjoy bad things or that they do not obey their parents.[a] 7 A leader in the church serves the believers on God's behalf. Because of that, nobody should have a reason to say that the leader has done anything wrong. A leader must not be proud. He must not become angry easily. He should not like to drink too much wine. He must not be someone who likes to fight. He must not want to get a lot of money for himself. 8 Instead, he must be happy to have visitors in his home. He must want to do good things. He must be careful in how he lives. He must do what is right. He must want to serve God well. He must control himself well.
9 A leader in the church must continue to believe the true message very well. That is the message which we have taught. Then he will be able to teach people what is true and right. He will also show that people who speak against the true message are wrong.
10 I say this because there are many people who refuse to obey their leaders. They speak about useless things and they deceive people. Many of them want the believers to obey all the Jewish rules.[b] 11 You must stop those people from teaching false things like that. They are causing whole families to believe their lies. They teach things that they should not teach. They deceive people because they want people to give them money. 12 Many years ago, there was a certain man who lived on Crete. The people there called him their prophet. Even he said, ‘People who live on Crete are always telling lies and doing wicked things. They are lazy and they eat too much food.’
13 What that man said is true. So you must warn the people there. Help them to believe the true message about Jesus more and more. 14 They must not listen to Jewish stories that are not true, or to human rules. Those things are the ideas of people who refuse to obey God's true message.
15 If someone is clean and good inside, everything is clean and good for them to enjoy. But if someone is not a believer and has an unclean mind, nothing is clean or good for that person. Their minds no longer think properly. They no longer feel guilty when they do something wrong. 16 People like that say that they know God. But they do disgusting things. This shows that they do not know him. They are completely bad. They refuse to obey God. They are not able to do anything good.
The Lord rules as king![a]
97 The Lord rules as king!
Everyone on earth should be happy!
The people who live on the shore of the seas
should sing with joy!
2 Dark clouds are all round the Lord.
He rules with justice,
and he is fair to everyone.
3 Fire goes in front of him.
It burns up his enemies on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the whole world.
The earth sees it and it shakes with fear.
5 The mountains melt like butter
in front of the Lord,
when they see the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The sky itself tells us that he is righteous
People from every nation see his glory.
7 Everyone who worships idols should be ashamed.
They should not boast about useless idols!
All gods like that will fall down in front of the Lord.
8 When Zion's people hear about it,
they will be happy.
Yes, the people of Judah will be very happy!
They will be happy, Lord,
because you bring justice.
9 You, Lord, are the Most High God
who rules over all the earth.
You are much greater than any other god![b]
10 If you love the Lord,
then hate anything that is evil.
The Lord protects the lives of those who serve him.
He keeps them safe from the power of wicked people.
11 God's light shines on righteous people.
Good, honest people will be very happy.
12 All you righteous people,
be happy because of what the Lord has done.
Thank him because he is holy.
God rules the world[c]
98 Sing a new song to praise the Lord.
He has done great things.
He has used his own power and his holy strength
to win against his enemies.
2 The Lord has shown everybody
that he has the power to save.
All the nations of the world
can see that he does what is right.
3 He has kept his promise
that he made to the people of Israel.
He has continued to take care of them
with his faithful love.
Everyone who lives everywhere on the earth can see
that God has the power to save people.
4 All people on the earth should shout aloud
to praise the Lord![d]
Sing happy songs to praise him!
5 Make music on your harps to praise him!
Make beautiful music!
6 Make a happy sound with trumpets and horns!
Shout aloud to praise the Lord, your king!
7 The sea and everything that is in it
should shout to praise the Lord!
The earth and all those who live in it
should shout as well!
8 The rivers should clap their hands,
and the mountains should all sing together,
9 to praise the Lord.
He is coming to judge the earth.[e]
He is a fair judge.
He will judge all the people of the world honestly.
13 A lazy person does not go out of his house.
He says, ‘There is a lion outside in the street!’
14 A lazy person turns over in his bed,
like a door that continues to open and close.
15 A lazy person pushes his hand into his bowl of food.
But then he is too tired to lift his hand up to his mouth.
16 A lazy person thinks that he is very wise.
He thinks that he is wiser than seven people who can answer questions well.
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