Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 If you will return, Yisra'el, says the LORD, if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed;
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"If you want to come back, O Israel, you must really come back to me. You must get rid of your stinking sin paraphernalia and not wander away from me anymore.
2 and you shall swear, As the LORD lives, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
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Then you can say words like, 'As God lives . . . ' and have them mean something true and just and right. And the godless nations will get caught up in the blessing and find something in Israel to write home about."
3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Yehudah and to Yerushalayim, Break up your fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns.
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Here's another Message from God to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: "Plow your unplowed fields, but then don't plant weeds in the soil!
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Yehudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
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Yes, circumcise your lives for God's sake. Plow your unplowed hearts, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem. Prevent fire - the fire of my anger - for once it starts it can't be put out. Your wicked ways are fuel for the fire. God's Sledgehammer Anger
5 Declare you in Yehudah, and publish in Yerushalayim; and say, Blow you the shofar in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.
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"Sound the alarm in Judah, broadcast the news in Jerusalem. Say, 'Blow the ram's horn trumpet through the land!' Shout out - a bullhorn bellow! - 'Close ranks! Run for your lives to the shelters!'
6 Set up a standard toward Tziyon: flee for safety, don't stay; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
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Send up a flare warning Zion: 'Not a minute to lose! Don't sit on your hands!' Disaster's descending from the north. I set it off! When it lands, it will shake the foundations.
7 A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
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Invaders have pounced like a lion from its cover, ready to rip nations to shreds, Leaving your land in wrack and ruin, your cities in rubble, abandoned.
8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD hasn't turned back from us.
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Dress in funereal black. Weep and wail, For God's sledgehammer anger has slammed into us head-on.
9 It shall happen at that day, says the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the Kohanim shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
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"When this happens" - God's Decree - "King and princes will lose heart; priests will be baffled and prophets stand dumbfounded."
10 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Yerushalayim, saying, You shall have shalom; whereas the sword reaches to the life.
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Then I said, "Alas, Master God! You've fed lies to this people, this Jerusalem. You assured them, 'All is well, don't worry,' at the very moment when the sword was at their throats."
11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Yerushalayim, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;
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At that time, this people, yes, this very Jerusalem, will be told in plain words: "The northern hordes are sweeping in from the desert steppes -
12 a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them.
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a gale-force wind. I ordered this wind. I'm pronouncing my hurricane judgment on my people." Your Evil Life Is Piercing Your Heart
13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are ruined.
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Look at them! Like banks of storm clouds, racing, tumbling, their chariots a tornado, Their horses faster than eagles! Woe to us! We're done for!
14 Yerushalayim, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
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Jerusalem! Scrub the evil from your lives so you'll be fit for salvation. How much longer will you harbor devious and malignant designs within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Efrayim:
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What's this? A messenger from Dan? Bad news from Ephraim's hills!
16 make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Yerushalayim, [that] watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Yehudah.
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Make the report public. Broadcast the news to Jerusalem: "Invaders from far off are raising war cries against Judah's towns.
17 As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD.
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They're all over her, like a dog on a bone. And why? Because she rebelled against me." God's Decree.
18 Your way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.
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"It's the way you've lived that's brought all this on you. The bitter taste is from your evil life. That's what's piercing your heart."
19 My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my shalom; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the shofar, the alarm of war.
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I'm doubled up with cramps in my belly - a poker burns in my gut. My insides are tearing me up, never a moment's peace. The ram's horn trumpet blast rings in my ears, the signal for all-out war.
20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.
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Disaster hard on the heels of disaster, the whole country in ruins! In one stroke my home is destroyed, the walls flattened in the blink of an eye.
21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the shofar?
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How long do I have to look at the warning flares, listen to the siren of danger? Experts at Evil
22 For my people are foolish, they don't know me; they are foolish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
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"What fools my people are! They have no idea who I am. A company of half-wits, dopes and donkeys all! Experts at evil but klutzes at good."
23 I saw the eretz, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
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I looked at the earth - it was back to pre-Genesis chaos and emptiness. I looked at the skies, and not a star to be seen.
24 I saw the mountains, and, behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.
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I looked at the mountains - they were trembling like aspen leaves, And all the hills rocking back and forth in the wind.
25 I saw, and, behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky were fled.
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I looked - what's this! Not a man or woman in sight, and not a bird to be seen in the skies.
26 I saw, and, behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities of it were broken down at the presence of the LORD, [and] before his fierce anger.
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I looked - this can't be! Every garden and orchard shriveled up. All the towns were ghost towns. And all this because of God, because of the blazing anger of God.
27 For thus says the LORD, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.
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Yes, this is God's Word on the matter: "The whole country will be laid waste - still it won't be the end of the world.
28 For this shall the eretz mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.
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The earth will mourn and the skies lament Because I've given my word and won't take it back. I've decided and won't change my mind." You're Not Going to Seduce Anyone
29 Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.
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Someone shouts, "Horsemen and archers!" and everybody runs for cover. They hide in ditches, they climb into caves. The cities are emptied, not a person left anywhere.
30 You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; [your] lovers despise you, they seek your life.
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And you, what do you think you're up to? Dressing up in party clothes, Decking yourselves out in jewelry, putting on lipstick and rouge and mascara! Your primping goes for nothing. You're not going to seduce anyone. They're out to kill you!
31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Tziyon, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, [saying], Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the murderers.
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And what's that I hear? The cry of a woman in labor, the screams of a mother giving birth to her firstborn. It's the cry of Daughter Zion, gasping for breath, reaching out for help: "Help, oh help me! I'm dying! The killers are on me!"
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.