The Berean Pursuit
An oracle. The word of Yahweh is against the land of Hadrach,
and Damascus is its resting place.
For to Yahweh belongs the eye of humankind,
and all the tribes of Israel,
and also Hamath, which borders on it;
Tyre and Sidon—yes, they are very wise!
Tyre has built a fortification for itself,
and it heaped up silver like dust,
and gold like the mud of the streets.
Look! The Lord will drive it out
and will hurl its outer ramparts into the sea,
and it will be consumed by fire.
Ashkelon will see and will be afraid,
and Gaza will writhe exceedingly,
and Ekron also, because its hope is ruined.
And the king from Gaza will perish,
and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.
A mongrel people will dwell in Ashdod,
and I will cut down the pride of the Philistines.
I will remove its blood from its mouth,
and its abominations from between its teeth.
And it too will be a remnant for our God;
and it will be like a tribal chief in Judah,
and Ekron will be like the Jebusite.
But I will encamp at my temple like a guard,
against those crossing through and returning;
no oppressor will cross through them again,
for now I have seen with my own eyes.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Look! Your king comes to you;
he is righteous and victorious,
humble and riding on a donkey,
and on a male donkey, the foal of a female donkey!
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusalem;
the battle bow will be cut down,
and he will announce peace to the nations.
His dominion will be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant,
I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.
Return to the fortress,
O prisoners of hope;
today I am declaring that I will repay you double.
For I have bent Judah as my bow;
I have set Ephraim as an arrow.
I will set in motion your sons, O Zion,
against your sons, O Javan.
I will wield you like the sword of a warrior.
Then Yahweh will appear over them,
and his arrow will go forth like lightning;
and my Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet,
and he shall go out in the storm winds of the south.
Yahweh of hosts will defend them,
and they will devour and subdue the slingstones;
they will drink, they will make noise like wine,
and they will be full like the sacrificial basin,
drenched like the corners of an altar.
And Yahweh their God will save them on that day,
as the flock of his people;
for they are like the stones of a diadem,
glittering on his land.
For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty!
Grain will make the young men thrive,
and new wine the young women.
Ask rain from Yahweh in the season of the spring rain—
Yahweh, who makes storm clouds,
and he gives showers of rain to them,
to everyone vegetation in the field.
Because the household gods speak deceit,
and those who practice divination see a lie,
and the dreamers of vanity speak in vain.
Therefore the people wander like sheep;
they are afflicted because there is no shepherd.
My anger burns against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders,
because Yahweh of hosts watches over his flock,
the house of Judah;
and he will make them like his majestic horse in war.
From them the cornerstone will go out,
from them the tent peg,
from them the battle bow,
from them every ruler,
all together.
And they will be like warriors,
trampling in the mud of the streets in the battle.
They will fight, because Yahweh is with them,
and they will put to shame the riders on horses.
And I will strengthen the house of Judah,
and the house of Joseph I will save.
And I will bring them back, because I have compassion on them,
and they will be as if I had not rejected them,
for I am Yahweh their God, and I will answer them.
And the people of Ephraim will be like a warrior,
and their heart will be glad as with wine.
And their children will see and rejoice;
their heart will shout in exultation in Yahweh.
I will whistle to them and gather them,
for I have redeemed them,
and they will become numerous as they have been numerous before.
Though I sow them among the nations,
in the distant places they will remember me,
and they will stay alive with their children, and they will return.
And I will bring them back from the land of Egypt,
and from Assyria I will gather them.
To the land of Gilead and Lebanon I will bring them,
until no room will be found for them there.
And he will pass through the sea of distress,
and he will strike the waves of the sea,
and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.
The pride of Assyria will be brought low,
and the scepter of Egypt will depart.
I will make them strong in Yahweh,
and in his name they will walk,
declares Yahweh.
Open your doors, O Lebanon,
so that fire will devour your cedars!
Wail, O juniper, for the cedar has fallen,
for the magnificent trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
for the impenetrable forest has come down!
Listen to the wailing of the shepherds,
for their splendor is ruined!
Listen to the roar of the young lions,
for the thickets of the Jordan are ruined!
Thus says Yahweh my God: "Shepherd the flock doomed to slaughter. The ones buying them kill them and go unpunished, and the ones selling them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I have become rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them. For I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land," declares Yahweh. "Look, I am going to cause humankind to fall, each into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; and they will devastate the land, and I will not deliver anyone from their hand."
And I shepherded the flock doomed to slaughter, even the afflicted of the flock. I took two staffs, one I called Kindness, and the other I called Unity, and I shepherded the flock. And I got rid of three shepherds in one month, for I grew impatient with them, and they also became tired of me. So I said, "I will not shepherd you! The one dying will die, and the one to be destroyed will be destroyed. And the ones remaining, let them devour the flesh of each other." And I took my staff Kindness and broke it, to break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. And it was broken on that day. Then the afflicted of the flock, the ones who were watching me, knew that it was the word of Yahweh. And I said to them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them." And they weighed out my wages, thirty silver shekels. And Yahweh said to me, "Throw it to the potter," this noble price at which I was valued by them!" So I took the thirty silver shekels and I threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh. Then I broke my second staff Unity to break the family ties between Judah and Israel.
And Yahweh said to me, "Take again the implements of a foolish shepherd. For look, I am raising up a shepherd in the land who will not attend to the ones that are perishing; he will not seek the young man, he will not heal the ones that are crushed and he will not sustain the healthy ones; he will devour the flesh of the fattened ones and tear apart even their hoofs.
"Woe, my worthless shepherd
who deserts the flock!
May a sword fall on his arm
and on his right eye!
May his arm wither completely
and his right eye be utterly blinded!"
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father also loves the child fathered by him. By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, because everyone who is fathered by God conquers the world.
And this is the victory which has conquered the world: our faith. Now who is the one who conquers the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement.
If we receive the testimony of people, the testimony of God is greater, because this is the testimony of God that he has testified concerning his Son. (The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning his Son.) And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.
And this is the confidence that we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him. If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he should ask, and he will grant life to him, to those who sin not leading to death. (There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should ask about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.)
We know that everyone who is fathered by God does not sin, but the one fathered by God, he protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, in order that we may know the one who is true, and we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.