Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan ¹  who live on Mount Samaria! You ²  oppress the poor; you crush the needy. You say to your ³  husbands, “Bring us more to drink!” ⁴ 

“But surely I gave ¹  you no food to eat in any of your cities; you lacked food everywhere you live. ²  Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Seek the Lord so you can live! Otherwise he will break out ¹  like fire against Joseph’s ²  family; ³  the fire ⁴  will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. ⁵ 

Woe ¹  to those who live in ease in Zion, ²  to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. They think of themselves as ³  the elite class of the best nation. The family ⁴  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ⁵ 

Because of this the earth ¹  will quake, ²  and all who live in it will mourn. The whole earth ³  will rise like the River Nile, ⁴  it will surge upward ⁵  and then grow calm, ⁶  like the Nile in Egypt. ⁷ 

The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this. ¹  He touches the earth and it dissolves; ²  all who live on it mourn. The whole earth ³  rises like the River Nile, ⁴  and then grows calm ⁵  like the Nile in Egypt. ⁶ 

When the sun began to shine, God sent ¹  a hot ²  east wind. So the sun beat down ³  on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life, ⁴  and said, “I would rather die than live!” ⁵ 

He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord really wants from you: ¹  He wants you to ²  promote ³  justice, to be faithful, ⁴  and to live obediently before ⁵  your God.

Because you robbed many countries, ¹  all who are left among the nations ²  will rob you. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, ³  and those who live in them.

“I will attack ¹  Judah and all who live in Jerusalem. ²  I will remove ³  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ⁴  as well as the very memory ⁵  of the pagan priests. ⁶ 

Their wealth will be stolen and their houses ruined! They will not live in the houses they have built, nor will they drink the wine from the vineyards they have planted.

Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ¹  are as good as dead. ²  The Lord has decreed your downfall, ³  Canaan, land of the Philistines: “I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ⁴ 

The Lord says, ‘I have returned to Zion and will live within Jerusalem. ¹  Now Jerusalem will be called “truthful city,” “mountain of the Lord who rules over all,” “holy mountain.”’

Moreover, the Lord who rules over all says, ‘Old men and women will once more live in the plazas of Jerusalem, each one leaning on a cane because of advanced age.

As he was saying these things, a ruler came, bowed low before him, and said, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.”

Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so ¹  the last state of that person ²  is worse than the first.” ³ 

Or those eighteen who were killed ¹  when the tower in Siloam fell on them, ²  do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem? ³ 

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  a time ²  is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread ¹  that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This ¹  is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ²  ate, but then later died. ³  The one who eats ⁴  this bread will live forever.”