The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 Cursed are those who make evil decisions, and the writers who make the records of their cruel acts:
1
You are doomed! You make unjust laws that oppress my people.
2 Who do wrong to the poor in their cause, and take away the right of the crushed among my people, so that they may have the property of widows, and get under their power those who have no father.
2
That is how you keep the poor from having their rights and from getting justice. That is how you take the property that belongs to widows and orphans.
3 And what will you do in the day of punishment, and in the destruction which is coming from far? to whom will you go for help, and what will become of your glory?
3
What will you do when God punishes you? What will you do when he brings disaster on you from a distant country? Where will you run to find help? Where will you hide your wealth?
4 ... For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
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You will be killed in battle or dragged off as prisoners. Yet even so the Lord's anger will not be ended; his hand will still be stretched out to punish.
5 Ho! Assyrian, the rod of my wrath, the instrument of my punishment!
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The Lord said, "Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry.
6 I will send him against a nation of wrongdoers, and against the people of my wrath I will give him orders, to take their wealth in war, crushing them down like the dust in the streets.
6
I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets."
7 But this is not what is in his mind, and this is not his design; but his purpose is destruction, and the cutting off of more and more nations.
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But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations.
8 For he says, Are not all my captains kings?
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He boasts, "Every one of my commanders is a king!
9 Will not the fate of Calno be like that of Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
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I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus.
10 As my hand has come on the kingdoms of the images, whose pictured images were more in number than those of Jerusalem and Samaria;
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I reached out to punish those kingdoms that worship idols, idols more numerous than those of Jerusalem and Samaria.
11 So, as I have done to Samaria and her images, I will do to Jerusalem and her images.
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I have destroyed Samaria and all its idols, and I will do the same to Jerusalem and the images that are worshiped there."
12 For this cause it will be that, when the purpose of the Lord against Mount Zion and Jerusalem is complete, I will send punishment on the pride of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of his uplifted eyes.
12
But the Lord says, "When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride."
13 For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my knowledge, for I am wise: and I have taken away the limits of the peoples' lands, and the stores of their wealth have become mine; and I have made towns low in the dust, sending destruction on those living in them;
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The emperor of Assyria boasts, "I have done it all myself. I am strong and wise and clever. I wiped out the boundaries between nations and took the supplies they had stored. Like a bull I have trampled the people who live there.
14 And I have put my hands on the wealth of the peoples, as on the place where a bird has put her eggs; and as a man may take the eggs from which a bird has gone, so I have taken all the earth for myself: and not a wing was moved, and not a mouth gave out a sound.
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The nations of the world were like a bird's nest, and I gathered their wealth as easily as gathering eggs. Not a wing fluttered to scare me off; no beak opened to scream at me!"
15 Will the axe say high-sounding words against him who is using it, or the blade be full of pride against him who is cutting with it? As if a rod had the power of shaking him who is using it, or as if a stick might take up him who is not wood.
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But the Lord says, "Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn't lift up a person; a person lifts up a club."
16 For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, will make his fat become wasted; and in his inner parts a fire will be lighted like a burning flame.
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The Lord Almighty is going to send disease to punish those who are now well-fed. In their bodies there will be a fire that burns and burns.
17 And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: wasting and burning up his thorns in one day.
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God, the light of Israel, will become a fire. Israel's holy God will become a flame, which in a single day will burn up everything, even the thorns and thistles.
18 And he will put an end to the glory of his woods and of his planted fields, soul and body together; and it will be as when a man is wasted by disease.
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The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys someone.
19 And the rest of the trees of his wood will be small in number, so that a child may put them down in writing.
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There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.
20 And it will be in that day that the rest of Israel, and those of Jacob who have come safely through these troubles, will no longer go for help to him whose rod was on their back, but their faith will be in the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
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A time is coming when the people of Israel who have survived will not rely any more on the nation that almost destroyed them. They will truly put their trust in the Lord, Israel's holy God.
21 The rest, even the rest of Jacob, will come back to the Strong God.
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A few of the people of Israel will come back to their mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel, are as the sand of the sea, only a small number will come back: for the destruction is fixed, overflowing in righteousness.
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Even though now there are as many people of Israel as there are grains of sand by the sea, only a few will come back. Destruction is in store for the people, and it is fully deserved.
23 For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to make destruction complete in all the land.
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Yes, throughout the whole country the Sovereign Lord Almighty will bring destruction, as he said he would.
24 For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, says, O my people living in Zion, have no fear of the Assyrian, even if his rod comes on your back, and his stick is lifted up as in Egypt.
24
The Sovereign Lord Almighty says to his people who live in Zion, "Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, even though they oppress you as the Egyptians used to do.
25 For in a very short time my passion will be over, and my wrath will be turned to their destruction.
25
In only a little while I will finish punishing you, and then I will destroy them.
26 And the Lord of armies will be shaking a whip against him, as when he overcame Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod will be lifted up against them as it was against the Egyptians.
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I, the Lord Almighty, will beat them with my whip as I did the people of Midian at Oreb Rock. I will punish Assyria as I punished Egypt.
27 And in that day the weight which he put on your back will be taken away, and his yoke broken from off your neck.
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When that time comes, I will free you from the power of Assyria, and their yoke will no longer be a burden on your shoulders."
28 He has gone up from Pene-Rimmon, he has come to Aiath; he has gone past Migron, at Michmash he puts his forces in order.
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The enemy army has captured the city of Ai! They have passed through Migron! They left their supplies at Michmash!
29 They have gone across the mountain; Geba will be our resting-place tonight, they say: Ramah is shaking with fear; Gibeah of Saul has gone in flight.
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They have crossed the pass and are spending the night at Geba! The people in the town of Ramah are terrified, and the people in King Saul's hometown of Gibeah have run away.
30 Give a loud cry, daughter of Gallim; let Laishah give ear; let Anathoth give answer to her.
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Shout, people of Gallim! Listen, people of Laishah! Answer, people of Anathoth!
31 Madmenah has gone; the men of Gebim are putting their goods in a safe place.
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The people of Madmenah and Gebim are running for their lives.
32 This very day he is stopping at Nob; he is shaking his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
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Today the enemy are in the town of Nob, and there they are shaking their fists at Mount Zion, at the city of Jerusalem.
33 See, the Lord, the Lord of armies, is cutting off his branches with a great noise, and his strong ones are falling and his high ones are coming down.
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The Lord Almighty will bring them crashing down like branches cut off a tree. The proudest and highest of them will be cut down and humiliated.
34 And he is cutting down the thick places of the wood with an axe, and Lebanon with its tall trees is coming down.
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The Lord will cut them down as trees in the heart of the forest are cut down with an ax, as even the finest trees of Lebanon fall!
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.