He has his winnowing shovel with him to thresh out all the grain. He will gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out."

while others grabbed the servants, beat them, and killed them.

The king was very angry; so he sent his soldiers, who killed those murderers and burned down their city.

As a result, the punishment for the murder of all innocent people will fall on you, from the murder of innocent Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar.

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me!

For the trouble at that time will be far more terrible than any there has ever been, from the beginning of the world to this very day. Nor will there ever be anything like it again.

But God has already reduced the number of days; had he not done so, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, God will reduce the days.

The LORD said, "If you will not obey my commands, you will be punished.

I will punish you. I will bring disaster on you---incurable diseases and fevers that will make you blind and cause your life to waste away. You will plant your crops, but it will do you no good, because your enemies will conquer you and eat what you have grown.

"If even after all of this you still do not obey me, I will increase your punishment seven times.

All your hard work will do you no good, because your land will not produce crops and the trees will not bear fruit.

I will send dangerous animals among you, and they will kill your children, destroy your livestock, and leave so few of you that your roads will be deserted.

then I will turn on you and punish you seven times harder than before.

I will cut off your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake all the bread they have. They will ration it out, and when you have eaten it all, you will still be hungry.

then in my anger I will turn on you and again make your punishment seven times worse than before.

I will destroy your places of worship on the hills, tear down your incense altars, and throw your dead bodies on your fallen idols. In utter disgust

I will destroy your land so completely that the enemies who occupy it will be shocked at the destruction.

Then the land will enjoy the years of complete rest that you would not give it; it will lie abandoned and get its rest while you are in exile in the land of your enemies.

"I will make those of you who are in exile so terrified that the sound of a leaf blowing in the wind will make you run. You will run as if you were being pursued in battle, and you will fall when there is no enemy near you.

You will die in exile, swallowed up by the land of your enemies.

"But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me,

I will remember my covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will renew my promise to give my people the land.

But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the LORD their God.

All these are the laws and commands that the LORD gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.

he will send on you and on your descendants incurable diseases and horrible epidemics that can never be stopped.

He will also send all kinds of diseases and epidemics that are not mentioned in this book of God's laws and teachings, and you will be destroyed.

Just as the LORD took delight in making you prosper and in making you increase in number, so he will take delight in destroying you and in bringing ruin on you. You will be uprooted from the land that you are about to occupy.

You will find no peace anywhere, no place to call your own; the LORD will overwhelm you with anxiety, hopelessness, and despair.

Your hearts will pound with fear at everything you see. Every morning you will wish for evening; every evening you will wish for morning.

From his throne in heaven the Lord laughs and mocks their feeble plans.

Then he warns them in anger and terrifies them with his fury.

You will break them with an iron rod; you will shatter them in pieces like a clay pot.' "

"Here is what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge around it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild animals eat it and trample it down.

Israel is the vineyard of the LORD Almighty; the people of Judah are the vines he planted. He expected them to do what was good, but instead they committed murder. He expected them to do what was right, but their victims cried out for justice.

And at the end of that time God's chosen leader will be killed unjustly. The city and the Temple will be destroyed by the invading army of a powerful ruler. The end will come like a flood, bringing the war and destruction which God has prepared.

I lost patience with three other shepherds, who hated me, and I got rid of them all in a single month.

Then I took the stick called "Favor" and broke it, to cancel the covenant which the LORD had made with all the nations.

Each family in the land will mourn by itself: the family descended from David, the family descended from Nathan, the family descended from Levi, the family descended from Shimei, and all the other families. Each family will mourn by itself, and the men of each family will mourn separately from the women.

and throughout the land two-thirds of the people will die.

The LORD will bring all the nations together to make war on Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half of the people will go into exile, but the rest of them will not be taken away from the city.

Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.

The LORD Almighty says, "The day is coming when all proud and evil people will burn like straw. On that day they will burn up, and there will be nothing left of them.

On the day when I act, you will overcome the wicked, and they will be like dust under your feet.

"But before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes, I will send you the prophet Elijah.

Remember Lot's wife!

On that night, I tell you, there will be two people sleeping in the same bed: one will be taken away, the other will be left behind.

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He came closer to the city, and when he saw it, he wept over it,

The time will come when your enemies will surround you with barricades, blockade you, and close in on you from every side.

For those will be 'The Days of Punishment,' to make come true all that the Scriptures say.

Some will be killed by the sword, and others will be taken as prisoners to all countries; and the heathen will trample over Jerusalem until their time is up.

They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's anger has at last come down on them!

How, then, shall we escape if we pay no attention to such a great salvation? The Lord himself first announced this salvation, and those who heard him proved to us that it is true.

Be careful, then, and do not refuse to hear him who speaks. Those who refused to hear the one who gave the divine message on earth did not escape. How much less shall we escape, then, if we turn away from the one who speaks from heaven!

"And so I tell you," added Jesus, "the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce the proper fruits."

I assure you that many will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of heaven.

Before I was born, the LORD appointed me; he made me his servant to bring back his people, to bring back the scattered people of Israel. The LORD gives me honor; he is the source of my strength.

Israel's holy God and savior says to the one who is deeply despised, who is hated by the nations and is the servant of rulers: "Kings will see you released and will rise to show their respect; princes also will see it, and they will bow low to honor you." This will happen because the LORD has chosen his servant; the holy God of Israel keeps his promises.

My chosen people will use your name as a curse. I, the Sovereign LORD, will put you to death. But I will give a new name to those who obey me.

and will know that I am the one who punishes them. "But I will spare some of them and send them to the nations and the distant lands that have not heard of my fame or seen my greatness and power: to Spain, Libya, and Lydia, with its skilled archers, and to Tubal and Greece. Among these nations they will proclaim my greatness.

I will make some of them priests and Levites.

How you will cry and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, while you are thrown out!

People will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God.

So the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the country roads and lanes and make people come in, so that my house will be full.

I tell you all that none of those who were invited will taste my dinner!' "

Some will be killed by the sword, and others will be taken as prisoners to all countries; and the heathen will trample over Jerusalem until their time is up.

But Paul and Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles.

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the Lord's message; and those who had been chosen for eternal life became believers.

After a long debate Peter stood up and said, "My friends, you know that a long time ago God chose me from among you to preach the Good News to the Gentiles, so that they could hear and believe.

When they opposed him and said evil things about him, he protested by shaking the dust from his clothes and saying to them, "If you are lost, you yourselves must take the blame for it! I am not responsible. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

Publius' father was in bed, sick with fever and dysentery. Paul went into his room, prayed, placed his hands on him, and healed him.

I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying

for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God's curse and separated from Christ.

they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever! Amen.

Nor are all of Abraham's descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, "It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you."

For God's promise was made in these words: "At the right time I will come back, and Sarah will have a son."

But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, "The older will serve the younger." He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God's choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done.

and to enable even the Gentiles to praise God for his mercy. As the scripture says, "And so I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to you."

And again, "Praise the Lord, all Gentiles; praise him, all peoples!"

May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But in this letter I have been quite bold about certain subjects of which I have reminded you. I have been bold because of the privilege God has given me

In union with Christ Jesus, then, I can be proud of my service for God.