Tena,
He is there, and he knows!

New English Bible

Second  Book of Esdras

These are the words of the Lord Almighty: When you were in the desert, suffering thirst by the bitter water and cursing

me, I did

not bring down fire upon you for your blasphemy; I cast a tree into the stream and made the water sweet. What am I to

do with

you, Jacob? Judah, you have refused to obey me. I will turn to other nations; I will give them my name, and they will keep

my

statutes. Because you have deserted me, I will desert you; when you cry for mercy, I will show you none; when you pray

to me, I

will not listen. You have stained your hands with blood; you run hot-foot to commit murder. It is not I whom you have

deserted,

but yourselves , says the Lord.

These are the words of the Lord Almighty; Have I not pleaded with you as a father with his sons, as a mother with her

daughters

or a nurse with her children? Have I not said, 'Be my people, and I will by your God; be my sons, and I will be your father? I

gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. But now what am I to do with you? I will toss you away.

When

you offer me sacrifice, I will turn from you; I have rejected your feasts, your new moons, and your circumcisions. I sent you

my

servants the prophets, but you took them and killed them, and mutililated their dead bodies. For their murder I will call

you to

account, says the Lord.

These are the words of the Lord Almighty: Your house is abandoned. I will toss you  away like straw before the wind.

Your

children shall have no posterity, because like you they have ignored my commandments and done what I have

condemned. I will

hand over your home to a people soon to come; a people who trust me, though they have not known me; who will do

my

bidding, though I gave them no signs; who never saw the prophets, and yet will keep in mind what the prophets taught

of old. I

vow that this people yet to come shall have my favor. Their little ones shall jump for joy. They have not seen me with their

eyes,

but they shall perceive by the spirit and believe all I have said.

Now, father Ezra, look with triumph at the nation coming from the east. The leaders I shall give them are Abraham, Isaac,

and

Jacob, Hosea and Amos, Micah and Joel, Obadiah and Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, Haggai and

Zechariah, and

Makachi, who is also called the Lord's Messenger.

These are the words of the Lord: I freed this people from slavery, and gave them commandments through my servants

the

prophets; but they shut their ears to the prophets, and let my precepts become a dead letter. The mother who bore them

says to

them: Go, my sons; I am widowed and deserted.

AMOS

Chapter 5

HEAR ye this word which I take up against you , even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2 The virgin of Israel has is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

3 For thus sayeth the Lord GOD; The city that went out by the thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went

forth by

a hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

A CALL TO REPENTENCE

4 For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

5 But seek not Beth-el nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not into Beersheba:  for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and

Beth-el shall

come to naught.

6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to

quench

it in Bethel.

7 Ye who turn judgement into wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth.

8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the

day

dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his

name:

11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses

of

hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink of hem.

12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your might sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside

the

poor in the gate from their right.

13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not

light.

19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a

serpent

bit him.

20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark and no brightness in it?

PREDICTION OF COMING CAPTIVITY

I hate , I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies

22 Though ye offer me burnt  offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

24 But let judgement run down as waters, and rightousness as a mighty stream.

25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

26 But ye have borne  the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to

yourselves.

27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.