The Bible in Basic English BBE
New International Version NIV
18 Sorrow to you who are looking for the day of the Lord! what is the day of the Lord to you? it is dark and not light.
18
Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light.
19 As if a man, running away from a lion, came face to face with a bear; or went into the house and put his hand on the wall and got a bite from a snake.
19
It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.
20 Will not the day of the Lord be dark and not light? even very dark, with no light shining in it?
20
Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
21 Your feasts are disgusting to me, I will have nothing to do with them; I will take no delight in your holy meetings.
21
“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.
22 Even if you give me your burned offerings and your meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: I will have nothing to do with the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.
22
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; my ears are shut to the melody of your instruments.
23
Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let the right go rolling on like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
24
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
25 Did you come to me with offerings of beasts and meal offerings in the waste land for forty years, O Israel?
25
“Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
26 Truly, you will take up Saccuth your king and Kaiwan your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
26
You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god — which you made for yourselves.
27 And I will send you away as prisoners farther than Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies.
27
Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.