51 "Listen to this, priests! Attention, people of Israel! Royal family - all ears! You're in charge of justice around here. But what have you done? Exploited people at Mizpah, ripped them off on Tabor, 2 Victimized them at Shittim. I'm going to punish the lot of you. 3 "I know you, Ephraim, inside and out. Yes, Israel, I see right through you! Ephraim, you've played your sex-and-religion games long enough. All Israel is thoroughly polluted. 4 They couldn't turn to God if they wanted to. Their evil life is a bad habit. Every breath they take is a whore's breath. They wouldn't recognize God if they saw me. 5 "Bloated by arrogance, big as a house, they're a public disgrace, The lot of them - Israel, Ephraim, Judah - lurching and weaving down their guilty streets. 6 When they decide to get their lives together and go off looking for God once again, They'll find it's too late. I, God, will be long gone. 7 They've played fast and loose with me for too long, filling the country with their bastard offspring. A plague of locusts will devastate their violated land.
8 "Blow the ram's horn shofar in Gibeah, the bugle in Ramah! Signal the invasion of Sin City! Scare the daylights out of Benjamin! 9 Ephraim will be left wasted, a lifeless moonscape. I'm telling it straight, the unvarnished truth, to the tribes of Israel. 10 "Israel's rulers are crooks and thieves, cheating the people of their land, And I'm angry, good and angry. Every inch of their bodies is going to feel my anger. 11 "Brutal Ephraim is himself brutalized - a taste of his own medicine! He was so determined to do it his own worthless way. 12 Therefore I'm pus to Ephraim, dry rot in the house of Judah. 13 "When Ephraim saw he was sick and Judah saw his pus-filled sores, Ephraim went running to Assyria, went for help to the big king. But he can't heal you. He can't cure your oozing sores. 14 "I'm a grizzly charging Ephraim, a grizzly with cubs charging Judah. I'll rip them to pieces - yes, I will! No one can stop me now. I'll drag them off. No one can help them.
15 Then I'll go back to where I came from until they come to their senses. When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they'll come looking for me."
61 "Come on, let's go back to God. He hurt us, but he'll heal us. He hit us hard, but he'll put us right again. 2 In a couple of days we'll feel better. By the third day he'll have made us brand-new, Alive and on our feet, fit to face him. 3 We're ready to study God, eager for God-knowledge. As sure as dawn breaks, so sure is his daily arrival. He comes as rain comes, as spring rain refreshing the ground."
4 "What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What do I make of you, Judah? Your declarations of love last no longer than morning mist and predawn dew. 5 That's why I use prophets to shake you to attention, why my words cut you to the quick: To wake you up to my judgment blazing like light. 6 I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings. 7 You broke the covenant - just like Adam! You broke faith with me - ungrateful wretches! 8 "Gilead has become Crime City - blood on the sidewalks, blood on the streets. 9 It used to be robbers who mugged pedestrians. Now it's gangs of priests Assaulting worshipers on their way to Shechem. Nothing is sacred to them. 10 "I saw a shocking thing in the country of Israel: Ephraim worshiping in a religious whorehouse, and Israel in the mud right there with him. 11 "You're as bad as the worst of them, Judah. You've been sowing wild oats. Now it's harvest time.
71 "Every time I gave Israel a fresh start, wiped the slate clean and got them going again, Ephraim soon filled the slate with new sins, the treachery of Samaria written out in bold print. Two-faced and double-tongued, they steal you blind, pick you clean. 2 It never crosses their mind that I keep account of their every crime. They're mud-spattered head to toe with the residue of sin. I see who they are and what they've done. 3 "They entertain the king with their evil circus, delight the princes with their acrobatic lies. 4 They're a bunch of overheated adulterers, like an oven that holds its heat From the kneading of the dough to the rising of the bread. 5 On the royal holiday the princes get drunk on wine and the frenzy of the mocking mob. 6 They're like wood stoves, red-hot with lust. Through the night their passion is banked; in the morning it blazes up, flames hungrily licking. 7 Murderous and volcanic, they incinerate their rulers. Their kings fall one by one, and no one pays any attention to me.
8 "Ephraim mingles with the pagans, dissipating himself. Ephraim is half-baked. 9 Strangers suck him dry but he doesn't even notice. His hair has turned gray - he doesn't notice. 10 Bloated by arrogance, big as a house, Israel's a public disgrace. Israel lumbers along oblivious to God, despite all the signs, ignoring God. 11 "Ephraim is bird-brained, mindless, clueless, First chirping after Egypt, then fluttering after Assyria. 12 I'll throw my net over them. I'll clip their wings. I'll teach them to mind me! 13 Doom! They've run away from home. Now they're really in trouble! They've defied me. And I'm supposed to help them while they feed me a line of lies? 14 Instead of crying out to me in heartfelt prayer, they whoop it up in bed with their whores, Gash themselves bloody in their sex-and-religion orgies, but turn their backs on me. 15 I'm the one who gave them good minds and healthy bodies, and how am I repaid? With evil scheming! 16 They turn, but not to me - turn here, then there, like a weather vane. Their rulers will be cut down, murdered - just deserts for their mocking blasphemies. And the final sentence? Ridicule in the court of world opinion.
81 "Blow the trumpet! Sound the alarm! Vultures are circling over God's people Who have broken my covenant and defied my revelation. 2 Predictably, Israel cries out, 'My God! We know you!' But they don't act like it. 3 Israel will have nothing to do with what's good, and now the enemy is after them. 4 "They crown kings, but without asking me. They set up princes but don't let me in on it. Instead, they make idols, using silver and gold, idols that will be their ruin. 5 Throw that gold calf-god on the trash heap, Samaria! I'm seething with anger against that rubbish! How long before they shape up? 6 And they're Israelites! A sculptor made that thing - it's not God. That Samaritan calf will be broken to bits. 7 Look at them! Planting wind-seeds, they'll harvest tornadoes. Wheat with no head produces no flour. And even if it did, strangers would gulp it down.
8 Israel is swallowed up and spit out. Among the pagans they're a piece of junk. 9 They trotted off to Assyria: Why, even wild donkeys stick to their own kind, but donkey-Ephraim goes out and pays to get lovers. 10 Now, because of their whoring life among the pagans, I'm going to gather them together and confront them. They're going to reap the consequences soon, feel what it's like to be oppressed by the big king. 11 "Ephraim has built a lot of altars, and then uses them for sinning. Can you believe it? Altars for sinning! 12 I write out my revelation for them in detail and they pretend they can't read it. 13 They offer sacrifices to me and then they feast on the meat. God is not pleased! I'm fed up - I'll keep remembering their guilt. I'll punish their sins and send them back to Egypt. 14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and gotten busy making palaces. Judah has gone in for a lot of fortress cities. I'm sending fire on their cities to burn down their fortifications."
21 Write this to Ephesus, to the Angel of the church. The One with Seven Stars in his right-fist grip, striding through the golden seven-lights' circle, speaks: 2 "I see what you've done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can't stomach evil, that you weed out apostolic pretenders. 3 I know your persistence, your courage in my cause, that you never wear out. 4 "But you walked away from your first love - why? What's going on with you, anyway? 5 Do you have any idea how far you've fallen? A Lucifer fall! "Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I'm well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle. 6 "You do have this to your credit: You hate the Nicolaitan business. I hate it, too. 7 "Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I'm about to call each conqueror to dinner. I'm spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God's orchard."
8 Write this to Smyrna, to the Angel of the church. The Beginning and Ending, the First and Final One, the Once Dead and Then Come Alive, speaks: 9 "I can see your pain and poverty - constant pain, dire poverty - but I also see your wealth. And I hear the lie in the claims of those who pretend to be good Jews, who in fact belong to Satan's crowd. 10 "Fear nothing in the things you're about to suffer - but stay on guard! Fear nothing! The Devil is about to throw you in jail for a time of testing - ten days. It won't last forever. "Don't quit, even if it costs you your life. Stay there believing. I have a Life-Crown sized and ready for you. 11 "Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. Christ-conquerors are safe from Devil-death."
12 Write this to Pergamum, to the Angel of the church. The One with the sharp-biting sword draws from the sheath of his mouth - out come the sword words: 13 "I see where you live, right under the shadow of Satan's throne. But you continue boldly in my Name; you never once denied my Name, even when the pressure was worst, when they martyred Antipas, my witness who stayed faithful to me on Satan's turf. 14 "But why do you indulge that Balaam crowd? Don't you remember that Balaam was an enemy agent, seducing Balak and sabotaging Israel's holy pilgrimage by throwing unholy parties? 15 And why do you put up with the Nicolaitans, who do the same thing? 16 "Enough! Don't give in to them; I'll be with you soon. I'm fed up and about to cut them to pieces with my sword-sharp words. 17 "Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I'll give the sacred manna to every conqueror; I'll also give a clear, smooth stone inscribed with your new name, your secret new name."
18 Write this to Thyatira, to the Angel of the church. God's Son, eyes pouring fire-blaze, standing on feet of furnace-fired bronze, says this: 19 "I see everything you're doing for me. Impressive! The love and the faith, the service and persistence. Yes, very impressive! You get better at it every day. 20 "But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into Cross-denying, self-indulging religion? 21 I gave her a chance to change her ways, but she has no intention of giving up a career in the god-business. 22 I'm about to lay her low, along with her partners, as they play their sex-and-religion games. 23 The bastard offspring of their idol-whoring I'll kill. Then every church will know that appearances don't impress me. I x-ray every motive and make sure you get what's coming to you. 24 "The rest of you Thyatirans, who have nothing to do with this outrage, who scorn this playing around with the Devil that gets paraded as profundity, be assured I'll not make life any harder for you than it already is. 25 Hold on to the truth you have until I get there. 26 "Here's the reward I have for every conqueror, everyone who keeps at it, refusing to give up: You'll rule the nations, 27 your Shepherd-King rule as firm as an iron staff, their resistance fragile as clay pots. This was the gift my Father gave me; I pass it along to you - 28 and with it, the Morning Star! 29 "Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches."
