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Deuteronomy 33

The Majesty of God
1 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death.
2 He said,

 “The LORD came from Sinai
 and dawned from Seir upon us;
 he shone forth from Mount Paran;
he came from the ten thousands of holy ones,
 with flaming fire at his right hand.
3 Yes, he loved his people,
 all his holy ones were in his hand;
so they followed in your steps,
 receiving direction from you,
4 when Moses commanded us a law,
 as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.
5 Thus the LORD became king in Jeshurun,
 when the heads of the people were gathered,
 all the tribes of Israel together.
The Blessings of the Twelve Tribes

6 “Let Reuben live, and not die,
 but let his men be few.”

7 And this he said of Judah:

 “Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah,
 and bring him in to his people.
With your hands contend for him,
 and be a help against his adversaries.”

8 And of Levi he said,

 “Give to Levi your Thummim,
 and your Urim to your godly one,
whom you tested at Massah,
 with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah;
9 who said of his father and mother,
 ‘I regard them not’;
he disowned his brothers
 and ignored his children.
For they observed your word
 and kept your covenant.
10 They shall teach Jacob your rules
 and Israel your law;
they shall put incense before you
 and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
11 Bless, O LORD, his substance,
 and accept the work of his hands;
crush the loins of his adversaries,
 of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”

12 Of Benjamin he said,

 “The beloved of the LORD dwells in safety.
The High God surrounds him all day long,
 and dwells between his shoulders.”

13 And of Joseph he said,

 “Blessed by the LORD be his land,
 with the choicest gifts of heaven above,
 and of the deep that crouches beneath,
14 with the choicest fruits of the sun
 and the rich yield of the months,
15 with the finest produce of the ancient mountains
 and the abundance of the everlasting hills,
16 with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness
 and the favor of him who dwells in the bush.
May these rest on the head of Joseph,
 on the pate of him who is prince among his brothers.
17 A firstborn bull—he has majesty,
 and his horns are the horns of a wild ox;
with them he shall gore the peoples,
 all of them, to the ends of the earth;
they are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
 and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

18 And of Zebulun he said,

 “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,
 and Issachar, in your tents.
19 They shall call peoples to their mountain;
 there they offer right sacrifices;
for they draw from the abundance of the seas
 and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

20 And of Gad he said,

 “Blessed be he who enlarges Gad!
 Gad crouches like a lion;
 he tears off arm and scalp.
21 He chose the best of the land for himself,
 for there a commander's portion was reserved;
and he came with the heads of the people,
 with Israel he executed the justice of the LORD,
 and his judgments for Israel.”

22 And of Dan he said,

 “Dan is a lion's cub
 that leaps from Bashan.”

23 And of Naphtali he said,

 “O Naphtali, sated with favor,
 and full of the blessing of the LORD,
 possess the lake and the south.”

24 And of Asher he said,

 “Most blessed of sons be Asher;
 let him be the favorite of his brothers,
 and let him dip his foot in oil.
25 Your bars shall be iron and bronze,
 and as your days, so shall your strength be.
The Excellence of Israel

26 “There is none like God, O Jeshurun,
 who rides through the heavens to your help,
 through the skies in his majesty.
27 The eternal God is your dwelling place,
 and underneath are the everlasting arms.
And he thrust out the enemy before you
 and said, ‘Destroy.’
28 So Israel lived in safety,
 Jacob lived alone,
in a land of grain and wine,
 whose heavens drop down dew.
29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you,
 a people saved by the LORD,
the shield of your help,
 and the sword of your triumph!
Your enemies shall come fawning to you,
 and you shall tread upon their backs.”

Zechariah 11

The Doomed Flock

1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,
 that the fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
 for the glorious trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
 for the thick forest has been felled!
3 The sound of the wail of the shepherds,
 for their glory is ruined!
The sound of the roar of the lions,
 for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
4 Thus said the LORD my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.
5 Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them.
6 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”

7 So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep.
8 In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.”
Thirty Pieces of Silver
10 And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
11 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12 Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.
13 Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.
14 Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the LORD said to me, “Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd.
16 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

17 “Woe to my worthless shepherd,
 who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
 and his right eye!
Let his arm be wholly withered,
 his right eye utterly blinded!”

Zechariah 12

The Coming Deliverance of Jerusalem
1 The oracle of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:
2 “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah.
3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. 4 On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
5 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
7 “And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah.
8 On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. 9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Mourning the One They Pierced
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.

2 Chronicles 33

Manasseh's Idolatrous Reign in Judah
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. 7 And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, 8 and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.” 9 Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
Manasseh's Repentance and Restoration
10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.
11 Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. 12 And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
14 Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah.
15 And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. 16 He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel. 17 Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God.
18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
19 And his prayer, and how God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Asherim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers. 20 So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.
Amon's Evil Reign in Judah
21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.
22 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them. 23 And he did not humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more. 24 And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house. 25 But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

Revelation 19

Rejoicing in Heaven
1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,

 “Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2  for his judgments are true and just;
for he has judged the great prostitute
 who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

3 Once more they cried out,

 “Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”

4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
5 And from the throne came a voice saying,

 “Praise our God,
 all you his servants,
you who fear him,
 small and great.”

The Marriage of the Lamb
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

 “Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
 the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
 and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
 and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
 with fine linen, bright and pure”


for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
The Rider on the White Horse
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Defeat of the Beast and False Prophet
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God,
18 to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.” 19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. 20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. 21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.