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When an olive grove is harvested, three or four olives may be left on each tree.
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When grapes in a vineyard are picked, a few bunches may be left even by those who look carefully.
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That is how it will be in those days. Three or four will be missed by the soldiers who search through the houses to kill everyone.
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The land will be left empty; the fields will be overgrown with briers; the roads and paths will be covered with weeds and thorns because there will be no sheep to graze along them.
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Young women will be in mourning because there is no one to marry them; wives will be in mourning because they have lost their husbands; daughters will be in mourning because there is no one to help them.
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All the young men will be killed in the war, and all the married men will die in the famine.
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Now listen to my message, you people who serve the Lord.
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It is the Lord's message, so receive it and believe what he says.
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The disasters are approaching rapidly, and they will not be delayed.
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A woman in the ninth month of pregnancy may suffer labor pains for several hours, but when the time comes for the baby to be born, there is no longer any delay.
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In the same way, the disasters that are coming on the earth will not be delayed, and the world will groan when it is caught in its labor pains.
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Listen to my message, my people, and get ready for the battle. When the disasters come, you must live as people whose home is not in this world.
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Merchants must not expect to make a profit from what they sell; they must be ready to run for their lives. Their customers must expect to lose whatever they buy. Whoever builds a house should not plan to live in it.
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Farmers should not expect to harvest their crops or pick their grapes.
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Those who marry must not expect to have children, and those who don't marry must live as if they had been widowed.
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Anything that is done will be useless.
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Foreigners will harvest the crops, seize the wealth, tear down the houses, and carry off the children as slaves. Anyone who has children will be bringing them up to be slaves or to die of starvation.
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Anyone who makes money will do so only to see it violently taken away. The more possessions people gather, the more they spend on their cities and houses, the more attention they give to their personal appearance,
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the more angry the Lord will become with them because of their sin. This is what the Lord says.
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Just as a respectable woman despises a prostitute,
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so righteousness despises sinfulness, no matter how attractive it may look. Righteousness will expose every sin in the world and condemn it face-to-face when her Defender comes.
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So do not imitate sinfulness or what it does,
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for in a very short time sinfulness will be swept out of the world and righteousness will rule among us.
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Sinners must not deny their sins. Those who say that they have not sinned against God and his majesty are only bringing fiery shame upon themselves.
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The Lord certainly knows everything that people do; he knows their plans and innermost thoughts.
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When the Lord said, "Let the world be created," it was done! When he said, "Let the sky be created," that was done too.
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He set the stars in place by his command, and he knows how many of them there are.
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He knows what is in the deepest part of the sea and the treasures that are there. He has measured the sea and everything that is in it.
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By his word he confined the sea to its place and put the land on top of the water.
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The Lord stretched out the sky and fixed it firmly over the water like a dome.