Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people,

a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests."

Do this because you belong to the LORD your God. From all the peoples on earth he chose you to be his own special people.

But the LORD's love for your ancestors was so strong that he chose you instead of any other people, and you are still his chosen people.

Today the LORD has accepted you as his own people, as he promised you; and he commands you to obey all his laws.

but Jacob's descendants he chose for himself.

He gives his message to his people, his instructions and laws to Israel.

You treat us as though you had never been our ruler, as though we had never been your people.

All these peoples are the descendants of Noah, nation by nation, according to their different lines of descent. After the flood all the nations of the earth were descended from the sons of Noah.

because I am calling all the nations in the north to come. Their kings will set up their thrones at the gates of Jerusalem and around its walls and also around the other cities of Judah.

Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you and on the people who reject you. They have killed your people; they have destroyed us completely and left our country in ruins.

Nineveh the whore is being punished. Attractive and full of deadly charms, she enchanted nations and enslaved them.

If any nation refuses to go and worship the LORD Almighty as king, then rain will not fall on their land.

If the Egyptians refuse to celebrate the Festival of Shelters, then they will be struck by the same disease that the LORD will send on every nation that refuses to go.

From one human being he created all races of people and made them live throughout the whole earth. He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live.

Kill the old men, young men, young women, mothers, and children. But don't touch anyone who has the mark on his forehead. Start here at my Temple." So they began with the leaders who were standing there at the Temple.

I will now condemn you just as I condemned your ancestors in the Sinai Desert," says the Sovereign LORD.

I will take away from among you those who are rebellious and sinful. I will take them out of the lands where they are living now, but I will not let them return to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD."

You did what you said you would do to us and our rulers. You punished Jerusalem more severely than any other city on earth,

The people in the towns where Jesus had performed most of his miracles did not turn from their sins, so he reproached those towns.

I assure you that on the Judgment Day God will show more mercy to the people of Tyre and Sidon than to you!

You can be sure that on the Judgment Day God will show more mercy to Sodom than to you!"

"The servant who knows what his master wants him to do, but does not get himself ready and do it, will be punished with a heavy whipping.

But the servant who does not know what his master wants, and yet does something for which he deserves a whipping, will be punished with a light whipping. Much is required from the person to whom much is given; much more is required from the person to whom much more is given.

There will be suffering and pain for all those who do what is evil, for the Jews first and also for the Gentiles.

The time has come for judgment to begin, and God's own people are the first to be judged. If it starts with us, how will it end with those who do not believe the Good News from God?

The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will punish the people of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and the desert people, who have their hair cut short. All these people are circumcised, but have not kept the covenant it symbolizes. None of these people and none of the people of Israel have kept my covenant."

So the LORD Almighty said, "I will punish them! Their young men will be killed in war; their children will die of starvation.

What will you say when people you thought were your friends conquer you and rule over you? You will be in pain like a woman giving birth.

I will punish her for the times that she forgot me, when she burned incense to Baal and put on her jewelry to go chasing after her lovers. The LORD has spoken.

They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of the sacrifices. But I, the LORD, am not pleased with them, and now I will remember their sin and punish them for it; I will send them back to Egypt!

They are hopelessly evil in what they do, just as they were at Gibeah. God will remember their sin and punish them for it.