Chapter 4

1 In that day seven women

will take hold of one man

and say, “We will eat our own food

and provide our own clothes;

only let us be called by your name.

Take away our disgrace!”

The Branch of the Lord

2 In 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 the survivors in Israel.

3 Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. 4 The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.

5 Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. 6 It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

Chapter 5

The Song of the Vineyard

1 I will sing for the one I love

a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard

on a fertile hillside.

2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones

and planted it with the choicest vines.

He built a watchtower in it

and cut out a winepress as well.

Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,

but it yielded only bad fruit.

3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could have been done for my vineyard

than I have done for it?

When I looked for good grapes,

why did it yield only bad?

5 Now I will tell you

what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,

and it will be destroyed;

I will break down its wall,

and it will be trampled.

6 I will make it a wasteland,

neither pruned nor cultivated,

and briers and thorns will grow there.

I will command the clouds

not to rain on it.”

7 The vineyard of the Lord Almighty

is the nation of Israel,

and the people of Judah

are the vines he delighted in.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Woes and Judgments

8 Woe to you who add house to house

and join field to field

till no space is left

and you live alone in the land.

9 The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing:

“Surely the great houses will become desolate,

the fine mansions left without occupants.

10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine;

a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning

to run after their drinks,

who stay up late at night

till they are inflamed with wine.

12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets,

pipes and timbrels and wine,

but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,

no respect for the work of his hands.

13 Therefore my people will go into exile

for lack of understanding;

those of high rank will die of hunger

and the common people will be parched with thirst.

14 Therefore Death expands its jaws,

opening wide its mouth;

into it will descend their nobles and masses

with all their brawlers and revelers.

15 So people will be brought low

and everyone humbled,

the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

16 But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice,

and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.

17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;

lambs will feed5:17 Septuagint; Hebrew / strangers will eat among the ruins of the rich.

18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,

and wickedness as with cart ropes,

19 to those who say, “Let God hurry;

let him hasten his work

so we may see it.

The plan of the Holy One of Israel—

let it approach, let it come into view,

so we may know it.”

20 Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who put darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter.

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

and clever in their own sight.

22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine

and champions at mixing drinks,

23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,

but deny justice to the innocent.

24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw

and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,

so their roots will decay

and their flowers blow away like dust;

for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty

and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people;

his hand is raised and he strikes them down.

The mountains shake,

and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

his hand is still upraised.

26 He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,

he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.

Here they come,

swiftly and speedily!

27 Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,

not one slumbers or sleeps;

not a belt is loosened at the waist,

not a sandal strap is broken.

28 Their arrows are sharp,

all their bows are strung;

their horses’ hooves seem like flint,

their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

29 Their roar is like that of the lion,

they roar like young lions;

they growl as they seize their prey

and carry it off with no one to rescue.

30 In that day they will roar over it

like the roaring of the sea.

And if one looks at the land,

there is only darkness and distress;

even the sun will be darkened by clouds.

Psalm 115

1 Not to us, Lord, not to us

but to your name be the glory,

because of your love and faithfulness.

2 Why do the nations say,

“Where is their God?”

3 Our God is in heaven;

he does whatever pleases him.

4 But their idols are silver and gold,

made by human hands.

5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,

eyes, but cannot see.

6 They have ears, but cannot hear,

noses, but cannot smell.

7 They have hands, but cannot feel,

feet, but cannot walk,

nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

8 Those who make them will be like them,

and so will all who trust in them.

9 All you Israelites, trust in the Lord—

he is their help and shield.

10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord—

he is their help and shield.

11 You who fear him, trust in the Lord—

he is their help and shield.

12 The Lord remembers us and will bless us:

He will bless his people Israel,

he will bless the house of Aaron,

13 he will bless those who fear the Lord—

small and great alike.

14 May the Lord cause you to flourish,

both you and your children.

15 May you be blessed by the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

16 The highest heavens belong to the Lord,

but the earth he has given to mankind.

17 It is not the dead who praise the Lord,

those who go down to the place of silence;

18 it is we who extol the Lord,

both now and forevermore.

Psalm 116

1 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;

he heard my cry for mercy.

2 Because he turned his ear to me,

I will call on him as long as I live.

3 The cords of death entangled me,

the anguish of the grave came over me;

I was overcome by distress and sorrow.

4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:

“Lord, save me!”

5 The Lord is gracious and righteous;

our God is full of compassion.

6 The Lord protects the unwary;

when I was brought low, he saved me.

7 Return to your rest, my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you.

8 For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling,

9 that I may walk before the Lord

in the land of the living.

10 I trusted in the Lord when I said,

“I am greatly afflicted”;

11 in my alarm I said,

“Everyone is a liar.”

12 What shall I return to the Lord

for all his goodness to me?

13 I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the Lord.

14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people.

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord

is the death of his faithful servants.

16 Truly I am your servant, Lord;

I serve you just as my mother did;

you have freed me from my chains.

17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you

and call on the name of the Lord.

18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people,

19 in the courts of the house of the Lord—

in your midst, Jerusalem.

Jude

1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from

the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Doxology

24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.