Bible in 90 Days

The cruel king who ruled us is finished;
    his angry rule is finished!
⁵ The Lord has broken the scepter of evil rulers
    and taken away their power.
⁶ The king of Babylon struck people in anger
    again and again.
He ruled nations in anger
    and continued to hurt them.
⁷ But now, the whole world rests and is quiet.
    Now the people begin to sing.
⁸ Even the pine trees are happy,
    and the cedar trees of Lebanon rejoice.
They say, “The king has fallen,
    so no one will ever cut us down again.”

⁹ The place of the dead is excited
    to meet you when you come.
It wakes the spirits of the dead,
    the leaders of the world.
It makes kings of all nations
    stand up from their thrones to greet you.
¹⁰ All these leaders will make fun of you
    and will say,
“Now you are weak, as we are.
    Now you are just like us.”
¹¹ Your pride has been sent down to the place of the dead.
    The music from your harps goes with it.
Flies are spread out like your bed beneath you,
    and worms cover your body like a blanket.
¹² King of Babylon, morning star, you have fallen from heaven,
    even though you were as bright as the rising sun!
In the past all the nations on earth bowed down before you,
    but now you have been cut down.
¹³ You told yourself,
    “I will go up to heaven.
I will put my throne
    above God’s stars.
I will sit on the mountain of the gods,
    on the slopes of the sacred mountain.
¹⁴ I will go up above the tops of the clouds.
    I will be like God Most High.”
¹⁵ But you were brought down to the grave,
    to the deep places where the dead are.

¹⁶ Those who see you stare at you.
    They think about what has happened to you
and say, “Is this the same man who caused great fear on earth,
    who shook the kingdoms,
¹⁷ who turned the world into a desert,
    who destroyed its cities,
who captured people in war
    and would not let them go home?”

¹⁸ Every king of the earth has been buried with honor,
    each in his own grave.
¹⁹ But you are thrown out of your grave,
    like an unwanted branch.
You are covered by bodies
    that died in battle,
by bodies to be buried in a rocky pit.
    You are like a dead body other soldiers walk on.
²⁰ You will not be buried with those bodies,
because you ruined your own country
    and killed your own people.
The children of evil people
    will never be mentioned again.

²¹ Prepare to kill his children,
    because their father is guilty.
They will never again take control of the earth;
    they will never again fill the world with their cities.

²² The Lord All-Powerful says this:
    “I will fight against those people;
I will destroy Babylon and its people,
    its children and their descendants,” says the Lord.
²³ “I will make Babylon fit only for owls
    and for swamps.
I will sweep Babylon as with a broom of destruction,”
    says the Lord All-Powerful.

“These things will happen exactly as I planned them;
    they will happen exactly as I set them up.
²⁵ I will destroy the king of Assyria in my country;
    I will trample him on my mountains.
He placed a heavy load on my people,
    but that weight will be removed.

²⁶ “This is what I plan to do for all the earth.
    And this is the hand that I have raised over all nations.”

²⁷ When the Lord All-Powerful makes a plan,
    no one can stop it.
When the Lord raises his hand to punish people,
    no one can stop it.

²⁹ Country of Philistia, don’t be happy
    that the king who struck you is now dead.
He is like a snake that will give birth to another dangerous snake.
    The new king will be like a quick, dangerous snake to bite you.
³⁰ Even the poorest of my people will be able to eat safely,
    and people in need will be able to lie down in safety.
But I will kill your family with hunger,
    and all your people who are left will die.

³¹ People near the city gates, cry out!
    Philistines, be frightened,
because a cloud of dust comes from the north.
    It is an army, full of men ready to fight.
³² What shall we tell the messengers from Philistia?
    Say that the Lord has made Jerusalem strong
    and that his poor people will go there for safety.

In one night armies took the wealth from Ar in Moab,
    and it was destroyed.
In one night armies took the wealth from Kir in Moab,
    and it was destroyed.
² The people of Dibon go to the places of worship to cry.
    The people of Moab cry for the cities of Nebo and Medeba.
Every head and beard has been shaved to show how sad Moab is.
³ In the streets they wear rough cloth to show their sadness.
    On the roofs^[a] and in the public squares,
they are crying loudly.
⁴ People in the cities Heshbon and Elealeh cry out loud.
    You can hear their voices far away in the city Jahaz.
Even the soldiers are frightened;
    they are shaking with fear.

⁵ My heart cries with sorrow for Moab.
    Its people run away to Zoar for safety;
    they run to Eglath Shelishiyah.
People are going up the mountain road to Luhith,
    crying as they go.
People are going on the road to Horonaim,
    crying over their destruction.
⁶ But the water of Nimrim has dried up.
    The grass has dried up,
and all the plants are dead;
    nothing green is left.
⁷ So the people gather up what they have saved
    and carry it across the Ravine of the Poplars.
⁸ Crying is heard everywhere in Moab.
    Their crying is heard as far away as the city Eglaim;
    it is heard as far away as Beer Elim.
⁹ The water of the city Dibon is full of blood,
    and I, the Lord, will bring even more troubles to Dibon.
A few people living in Moab have escaped the enemy,
    but I will send lions to kill them.

16 Send the king of the land
    the payment he demands.
Send a lamb from Sela through the desert
    to the mountain of Jerusalem.
² The women of Moab
    try to cross the river Arnon
like little birds
    that have fallen from their nest.

³ They say: “Help us.
    Tell us what to do.
Protect us from our enemies
    as shade protects us from the noon sun.
Hide us, because we are running for safety!
    Don’t give us to our enemies.
⁴ Let those of us who were forced out of Moab live in your land.
    Hide us from our enemies.”

The robbing of Moab will stop.
    The enemy will be defeated;
    those who hurt others will disappear from the land.
⁵ Then a new loyal king will come;
    this faithful king will be from the family of David.
He will judge fairly
    and do what is right.

⁶ We have heard that the people of Moab are proud
    and very conceited.
They are very proud and angry,
    but their bragging means nothing.
⁷ So the people of Moab will cry;
    they will all be sad.
They will moan and groan
    for the raisin cakes they had in Kir Hareseth.
⁸ But the fields of Heshbon and the vines of Sibmah cannot grow grapes;
    foreign rulers have destroyed the grapevines.
The grapevines once spread as far as the city of Jazer and into the desert;
    they had spread as far as the sea.
⁹ I cry with the people of Jazer
    for the grapevines of Sibmah.
I will cry with the people of Heshbon and Elealeh.
There will be no shouts of joy,
    because there will be no harvest or ripe fruit.
¹⁰ There will be no joy and happiness in the orchards
    and no songs or shouts of joy in the vineyards.
No one makes wine in the winepresses,
    because I have put an end to shouts of joy.
¹¹ My heart cries for Moab like a harp playing a funeral song;
    I am very sad for Kir Hareseth.
¹² The people of Moab will go to their places of worship
    and will try to pray.
But when they go to their temple to pray,
    they will not be able.

“The city of Damascus will be destroyed;
    only ruins will remain.
² People will leave the cities of Aroer.
    Flocks will wander freely in those empty towns,
    and there will be no one to bother them.
³ The strong, walled cities of Israel will be destroyed.
    The government in Damascus will end.
Those left alive of Aram will be
    like the glory of Israel,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

⁴ “At that time Israel’s wealth will all be gone.
    Israel will be like someone who has lost much weight from sickness.
⁵ That time will be like the grain harvest in the Valley of Rephaim.
    The workers cut the wheat.
    Then they cut the heads of grain from the plants
    and collect the grain.
⁶ That time will also be like the olive harvest,
    when a few olives are left.
Two or three olives are left in the top branches.
    Four or five olives are left on full branches,” says the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷ At that time people will look to God, their Maker;
    their eyes will see the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ They will not trust the altars they have made,
    nor will they trust what their hands have made,
not even the Asherah idols and altars.

¹⁰ You have forgotten the God who saves you;
    you have not remembered that God is your place of safety.
You plant the finest grapevines
    and grapevines from faraway places.
¹¹ You plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow,
    and the next day you make them blossom.
But at harvest time everything will be dead;
    a sickness will kill all the plants.

¹² Listen to the many people!
    Their crying is like the noise from the sea.
Listen to the nations!
    Their crying is like the crashing of great waves.
¹³ The people roar like the waves,
    but when God speaks harshly to them, they will run away.
They will be like chaff on the hills being blown by the wind,
    or like tumbleweeds blown away by a storm.
¹⁴ At night the people will be very frightened.
    Before morning, no one will be left.
So our enemies will come to our land,
    but they will become nothing.

Go, quick messengers,
    to a people who are tall and smooth-skinned,
    who are feared everywhere.
They are a powerful nation that defeats other nations.
    Their land is divided by rivers.

³ All you people of the world, look!
    Everyone who lives in the world, look!
You will see a banner raised on a mountain.
    You will hear a trumpet sound.
⁴ The Lord said to me,
    “I will quietly watch from where I live,
like heat in the sunshine,
    like the dew in the heat of harvest time.”
⁵ The time will come, after the flowers have bloomed and before the harvest,
    when new grapes will be budding and growing.
The enemy will cut the plants with knives;
    he will cut down the vines and take them away.
⁶ They will be left for the birds of the mountains
    and for the wild animals.
Birds will feed on them all summer,
    and wild animals will eat them that winter.”

⁷ At that time a gift will be brought to the Lord All-Powerful
    from the people who are tall and smooth-skinned,
    who are feared everywhere.
They are a powerful nation that defeats other nations.
    Their land is divided by rivers.
These gifts will be brought to the place of the Lord All-Powerful,
    to Mount Zion.

Look, the Lord is coming on a fast cloud
    to enter Egypt.
The idols of Egypt will tremble before him,
    and Egypt’s courage will melt away.

² The Lord says, “I will cause the Egyptians to fight against themselves.
    People will fight with their relatives;
    neighbors will fight neighbors;
    cities will fight cities;
    kingdoms will fight kingdoms.
³ The Egyptians will be afraid,
    and I will ruin their plans.
They will ask advice from their idols and spirits of the dead,
    from their mediums and fortune-tellers.”
⁴ The Lord God All-Powerful says,
“I will hand Egypt over to a hard master,
    and a powerful king will rule over them.”

⁵ The sea will become dry,
    and the water will disappear from the Nile River.
⁶ The canals will stink;
    the streams of Egypt will decrease and dry up.
All the water plants will rot;
⁷ all the plants along the banks of the Nile will die.
Even the planted fields by the Nile
    will dry up, blow away, and disappear.
⁸ The fishermen, all those who catch fish from the Nile,
    will groan and cry;
those who fish in the Nile will be sad.
⁹ All the people who make cloth from flax will be sad,
    and those who weave linen will lose hope.
¹⁰ Those who weave cloth will be broken.
    All those who work for money will be sad.

¹¹ The officers of the city of Zoan are fools;
    the wise men who advise the king of Egypt give wrong advice.
How can you say to him, ‘I am wise’?
    How can you say, ‘I am from the old family of the kings’?
¹² Egypt, where are your wise men?
    Let them show you
what the Lord All-Powerful has planned for Egypt.
¹³ The officers of Zoan have been fooled;
    the leaders of Memphis have believed false things.
So the leaders of Egypt
    lead that nation the wrong way.
¹⁴ The Lord has made the leaders confused.
    They have led Egypt to wander in the wrong ways,
    like drunk people stumbling in their own vomit.
¹⁵ There is nothing Egypt can do;
    no one there can help.

Disaster is coming from the desert
    like wind blowing in the south.
    It is coming from a terrible country.
² I have seen a terrible vision.
    I see traitors turning against you
    and people taking your wealth.

Elam, attack the people!
    Media, surround the city and attack it!
    I will bring an end to the pain the city causes.

³ I saw those terrible things, and now I am in pain;
    my pains are like the pains of giving birth.
What I hear makes me very afraid;
    what I see causes me to shake with fear.
⁴ I am worried,
    and I am shaking with fear.
My pleasant evening
    has become a night of fear.

⁵ They set the table;
    they spread the rugs;
    they eat and drink.
Leaders, stand up.
    Prepare the shields for battle!

⁶ The Lord said to me,
“Go, place a lookout for the city
    and have him report what he sees.
⁷ If he sees chariots and teams of horses,
    donkeys, or camels,
he should pay very close attention.”

⁸ Then the lookout called out,
“My master, each day I stand in the watchtower watching;
    every night I have been on guard.
⁹ Look, I see a man coming in a chariot
    with a team of horses.”
The man gives back the answer,
    “Babylon has fallen. It has fallen!
All the statues of her gods
    lie broken on the ground.”
¹⁰ My people are crushed like grain on the threshing floor.
    My people, I tell you what I have heard
from the Lord All-Powerful,
    from the God of Israel.

Someone calls to me from Edom,
    “Watchman, how much of the night is left?
    Watchman, how much longer will it be night?”
¹² The watchman answers,
    “Morning is coming, but then night will come again.
If you have something to ask,
    then come back and ask.”

A group of traders from Dedan
    spent the night near some trees in Arabia.
¹⁴ They gave water to thirsty travelers;
the people of Tema gave food
    to those who were escaping.
¹⁵ They were running from swords,
    from swords ready to kill,
from bows ready to shoot,
    from a hard battle.

What is wrong with you people?
    Why are you on your roofs?^[e]
2 This city was a very busy city,
    full of noise and wild parties.
Now your people have been killed,
    but not with swords,
    nor did they die in battle.
³ All your leaders ran away together,
    but they have been captured without using a bow.
All you who were captured
    tried to run away before the enemy came.
⁴ So I say, “Don’t look at me.
    Let me cry loudly.
Don’t hurry to comfort me
    about the destruction of Jerusalem.”
⁵ The Lord God All-Powerful has chosen a special day
    of riots and confusion.
    People will trample each other in the Valley of Vision.
The city walls will be knocked down,
    and the people will cry out to the mountain.
⁶ The soldiers from Elam will gather their arrows
    and their chariots and men on horses.
    Kir will prepare their shields.
⁷ Your nicest valleys will be filled with chariots.
    Horsemen will be ordered to guard the gates of the city.
⁸ The walls protecting Judah will fall.

At that time the people of Jerusalem depended on
    the weapons kept at the Palace of the Forest.
⁹ You saw that the walls of Jerusalem
    had many cracks that needed repairing.
    You stored up water in the lower pool.
¹⁰ You counted the houses of Jerusalem,
    and you tore down houses to repair the walls with their stones.
¹¹ You made a pool between the two walls
    to save water from the old pool,
but you did not trust the God who made these things;
    you did not respect the One who planned them long ago.

¹² The Lord God All-Powerful told the people
    to cry and be sad,
    to shave their heads and wear rough cloth.
¹³ But look, the people are happy
    and are having wild parties.
They kill the cattle and the sheep;
    they eat the food and drink the wine.
They say, “Let us eat and drink,
    because tomorrow we will die.”

“Go to this servant Shebna,
    the manager of the palace.
¹⁶ Say to him, ‘What are you doing here?
    Who said you could cut out a tomb for yourself here?
Why are you preparing your tomb in a high place?
    Why are you carving out a tomb from the rock?
¹⁷ Look, mighty one! The Lord will throw you away.
    He will take firm hold of you
¹⁸ and roll you tightly into a ball
    and throw you into another country.
There you will die,
    and there your fine chariots will remain.
    You are a disgrace to your master’s house.
¹⁹ I will force you out of your important job,
    and you will be thrown down from your important place.’

You trading ships, cry!
    The houses and harbor of Tyre are destroyed.
This news came to the ships
    from the land of Cyprus.
² Be silent, you who live on the island of Tyre;
    you merchants of Sidon, be silent.
    Sailors have made you rich.
³ They traveled the sea to bring grain from Egypt;
    the sailors of Tyre brought grain from the Nile Valley
    and sold it to other nations.

⁴ Sidon, be ashamed.
    Strong city of the sea, be ashamed, because the sea says:
“I have not felt the pain of giving birth;
    I have not reared young men or women.”
⁵ Egypt will hear the news about Tyre,
    and it will make Egypt hurt with sorrow.

⁶ You ships should return to Tarshish.
    You people living near the sea should be sad.
⁷ Look at your once happy city!
    Look at your old, old city!
People from that city have traveled
    far away to live.
⁸ Who planned Tyre’s destruction?
    Tyre made others rich.
Its merchants were treated like princes,
    and its traders were greatly respected.
⁹ It was the Lord All-Powerful who planned this.
    He decided to make these proud people unimportant;
    he decided to disgrace those who were greatly respected.
¹⁰ Go through your land, people of Tarshish,
    like the Nile goes through Egypt.
    There is no harbor for you now!
¹¹ The Lord has stretched his hand over the sea
    and made its kingdoms tremble.
He commands that Canaan’s
    strong, walled cities be destroyed.
¹² He said, “Sidon, you will not rejoice any longer,
    because you are destroyed.
Even if you cross the sea to Cyprus,
    you will not find a place to rest.”
¹³ Look at the land of the Babylonians;
    it is not a country now.
Assyria has made it a place for wild animals.
    Assyria built towers to attack it;
the soldiers took all the treasures from its cities,
    and they turned it into ruins.
¹⁴ So be sad, you trading ships,
    because your strong city is destroyed.

¹⁶ “Oh woman, you are forgotten.
    Take your harp and walk through the city.
Play your harp well. Sing your song often.
    Then people will remember you.”

¹⁴ The people shout for joy.
    From the west they praise the greatness of the Lord.
¹⁵ People in the east, praise the Lord.
    People in the islands of the sea,
    praise the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
¹⁶ We hear songs from every part of the earth
    praising God, the Righteous One.

But I said, “I am dying! I am dying!
    How terrible it will be for me!
Traitors turn against people;
    with their dishonesty, they turn against people.”
¹⁷ There are terrors, holes, and traps
    for the people of the earth.
¹⁸ Anyone who tries to escape from the sound of terror
    will fall into a hole.
Anyone who climbs out of the hole
    will be caught in a trap.
The clouds in the sky will pour out rain,
    and the foundations of the earth will shake.
¹⁹ The earth will be broken up;
    the earth will split open;
    the earth will shake violently.
²⁰ The earth will stumble around like someone who is drunk;
    it will shake like a hut in a storm.
Its sin is like a heavy weight on its back;
    it will fall and never rise again.

²¹ At that time the Lord will punish
    the powers in the sky above
    and the rulers on earth below.
²² They will be gathered together
    like prisoners thrown into a dungeon;
they will be shut up in prison.
    After much time they will be punished.
²³ The moon will be embarrassed,
    and the sun will be ashamed,
because the Lord All-Powerful will rule as king
    on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
    Jerusalem’s leaders will see his greatness.

⁹ At that time people will say,
    “Our God is doing this!
We have waited for him, and he has come to save us.
    This is the Lord. We waited for him,
so we will rejoice and be happy when he saves us.”
¹⁰ The Lord will protect Jerusalem,
    but he will crush our enemy Moab
like straw that is trampled down in the manure.
¹¹ They will spread their arms in it
    like a person who is swimming.
But God will bring down their pride,
    and all the clever things they have made will mean nothing.
¹² Moab’s high walls protect them,
    but God will destroy these walls.
He will throw them down to the ground,
    even to the dust.

We have a strong city.
    God protects us with its strong walls and defenses.
² Open the gates,
    and the good people will enter,
    those who follow God.
³ You, Lord, give true peace
    to those who depend on you,
    because they trust you.
⁴ So, trust the Lord always,
    because he is our Rock forever.
⁵ He will destroy the proud city,
    and he will punish the people living there.
He will bring that high city down to the ground
    and throw it down into the dust.
⁶ Then those who were hurt by the city will walk on its ruins;
    those who were made poor by the city will trample it under their feet.

⁷ The path of life is level for those who are right with God;
    Lord, you make the way of life smooth for those people.
⁸ But, Lord, we are waiting
    for your way of justice.
Our souls want to remember
    you and your name.
⁹ My soul wants to be with you at night,
    and my spirit wants to be with you at the dawn of every day.
When your way of justice comes to the land,
    people of the world will learn the right way of living.
¹⁰ Evil people will not learn to do good
    even if you show them kindness.
They will continue doing evil, even if they live in a good world;
    they never see the Lord’s greatness.
¹¹ Lord, you are ready to punish those people,
    but they do not see that.
Show them your strong love for your people.
    Then those who are evil will be ashamed.
Burn them in the fire
    you have prepared for your enemies.
¹² Lord, all our success is because of what you have done,
    so give us peace.
¹³ Lord, our God, other masters besides you have ruled us,
    but we honor only you.
¹⁴ Those masters are now dead;
    their ghosts will not rise from death.
You punished and destroyed them
    and erased any memory of them.
¹⁵ Lord, you multiplied the number of your people;
    you multiplied them and brought honor to yourself.
You made the borders of the land wide.
¹⁶ Lord, people remember you when they are in trouble;
    they say quiet prayers to you when you punish them.
¹⁷ Lord, when we are with you,
    we are like a woman giving birth to a baby;
    she cries and has pain from the birth.
¹⁸ In the same way, we had pain.
    We gave birth, but only to wind.
We don’t bring salvation to the land
    or make new people for the world.
¹⁹ Your people have died, but they will live again;
    their bodies will rise from death.
You who lie in the ground,
    wake up and be happy!
The dew covering you is like the dew of a new day;
    the ground will give birth to the dead.

⁵ At that time the Lord All-Powerful
    will be like a beautiful crown,
like a wonderful crown of flowers
    for his people who are left alive.
⁶ Then he will give wisdom to the judges who must decide cases
    and strength to those who battle at the city gate.
⁷ But now those leaders are drunk with wine;
    they stumble from drinking too much beer.
The priests and prophets are drunk with beer
    and are filled with wine.
They stumble from too much beer.
    The prophets are drunk when they see their visions;
    the judges stumble when they make their decisions.
⁸ Every table is covered with vomit,
    so there is not a clean place anywhere.

⁹ The Lord is trying to teach the people a lesson;
    he is trying to make them understand his teachings.
But the people are like babies too old for breast milk,
    like those who no longer nurse at their mother’s breast.
¹⁰ So they make fun of the Lord’s prophet and say:
    “A command here, a command there.
    A rule here, a rule there.
    A little lesson here, a little lesson there.”
¹¹ So the Lord will use strange words and foreign languages
    to speak to these people.
¹² God said to them,
“Here is a place of rest;
    let the tired people come and rest.
This is the place of peace.”
    But the people would not listen.
¹³ So the words of the Lord will be,
“A command here, a command there.
    A rule here, a rule there.
    A little lesson here, a little lesson there.”
They will fall back and be defeated;
    they will be trapped and captured.

¹⁴ So listen to the Lord’s message, you who brag,
    you leaders in Jerusalem.
¹⁵ You say, “We have made an agreement with death;
    we have a contract with death.
When terrible punishment passes by,
    it won’t hurt us.
Our lies will keep us safe,
    and our tricks will hide us.”

“I will put a stone in the ground in Jerusalem,
    a tested stone.
Everything will be built on this important and precious rock.
    Anyone who trusts in it will never be disappointed.
¹⁷ I will use justice as a measuring line
    and goodness as the standard.
The lies you hide behind will be destroyed as if by hail.
    They will be washed away as if in a flood.
¹⁸ Your agreement with death will be erased;
    your contract with death will not help you.
When terrible punishment comes,
    you will be crushed by it.
¹⁹ Whenever punishment comes, it will take you away.
    It will come morning after morning;
    it will defeat you by day and by night.
Those who understand this punishment will be terrified.”
²⁰ You will be like the person who tried to sleep
    on a bed that was too short
and with a blanket that was too narrow
    to wrap around himself.
²¹ The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim.
    He will be angry as he was in the Valley of Gibeon.
He will do his work, his strange work.
    He will finish his job, his strange job.
²² Now, you must not make fun of these things,
    or the ropes around you will become tighter.
The Lord God All-Powerful has told me
    how the whole earth will be destroyed.