Bible in one year

December 19

Micah 1:1-16
1. During the time that Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, the word of the Lord came to Micah. Micah was from Moresheth. He saw these visions about Samaria and Jerusalem.
2. Listen, all you people! Earth and everyone on it, listen! The Lord God will come from his holy temple. The Lord will come as a witness against you.
3. See, the Lord is coming out of his place. He is coming down to walk on the high places of the earth.
4. The mountains will melt under him like wax before a fire. The valleys will split open and flow like water down a steep hill.
5. This will happen because of Jacob's sin, because of the sins of the nation of Israel. What caused Jacob to sin? It was Samaria. Where is the high place in Judah? It is Jerusalem.
6. So I will change Samaria into a pile of rocks in the field, a place ready for planting grapes. I will push Samaria's stones down into the valley, leaving nothing but the foundations.
7. All her idols will be broken into pieces. Her prostitute's wages (idols) will be burned in fire. I will destroy all her statues of false gods, because Samaria got her riches by being unfaithful to me. So those things will be taken by people who are not faithful to me.
8. I will be very sad about what will happen. I will go without sandals and clothes. I will cry like a dog. I will mourn like a bird.
9. Samaria's wound cannot be healed. Her disease has spread to Judah. It has reached the city gate of my people; it has spread all the way to Jerusalem.
10. Don't tell it in Gath. Don't cry in Acco. Roll yourself in the dust at Beth Ophrah.
11. You people living in Shaphir, pass on your way, naked and ashamed. The people living in Zaanan will not come out. The people in Beth Ezel will cry and take their support from you.
12. The people living in Maroth have become weak waiting for something good to happen, because trouble came down from the Lord and has reached the city gate of Jerusalem.
13. Lady of Lachish, tie a fast horse to the chariot. Lachish, you are the first to be sacrificed for Daughter Zion because you followed in Israel's sins.
14. So you must give goodbye gifts to Moresheth in Gath. The houses in Aczib will trick the kings of Israel.
15. You people who live in Mareshah, I will bring someone against you who will take the things you own. The Glory of Israel will come into Adullam.
16. So cut off your hair, make yourself bald, because you will cry for the children you love. Make yourself bald like an eagle and show your sadness, because your children will be taken away from you.

Micah 2:1-13
1. Trouble will come to those who make plans to sin. They lie on their beds making their evil plans. Then when the morning light comes, they do what they planned, because they have the power to do what they want.
2. They want fields, so they take them. They want houses, so they take them. They cheat a man and take his house and his land.
3. That is why the Lord says: "Look, I am planning trouble against this family. You will not be able to save yourselves. You will stop being proud, because bad times are coming.
4. Then people will sing songs about you. They will sing this sad song: 'We are ruined! The Lord took away our land and gave it to other people. Yes, he took my land away from me. He has divided our fields {among our enemies}.
5. So we will not be able to measure the land and divide it among the Lord's people.'"
6. The people say, "Don't prophesy to us. Don't say those bad things about us. Nothing bad will happen to us."
7. But people of Jacob, I must say these things. The Lord is losing his patience because of the bad things you did. If you lived right, then I could say nice words to you.
8. But you attack my people like enemies. You steal the clothes off the backs of people walking by. They think they are safe, but you are there to treat them like prisoners of war.
9. You have taken nice houses away from the women of my people. You have taken my wealth away from their small children forever.
10. Get up and leave! This will not be your place of rest, because you ruined it. You made it unclean, so it will be destroyed! It will be a terrible destruction!
11. These people don't want to listen to me. But if a man comes telling lies, then they will accept him. They would accept a false prophet if he comes and says, "There will be good times in the future, with plenty of wine and beer."
12. Yes, people of Jacob, I will bring all of you together. I will bring together all those in Israel who are still living. I will put them together like sheep in the sheep pen, like a flock in its pasture. Then the place will be filled with the noise of many people.
13. Then the "Crasher" will push through and walk to the front of his people. They will break through the gates and leave that city. They will leave with their king marching before them— with the Lord at the front of his people.

Micah 3:1-12
1. Then I said, "Listen, leaders of Jacob and officers of the nation of Israel! You should know what justice is.
2. But you hate good and love evil. You tear the skin off the people and tear the flesh off their bones.
3. You are destroying my people. You take their skin off them and break their bones. You chop their bones up like meat to put in the pot!
4. Then you will pray to the Lord, but he will not answer you. No, he will hide his face from you, because what you do is evil."
5. Some false prophets are telling lies to the Lord's people. This is what the Lord says about them: "These prophets are led by their stomachs. They promise peace for those who give them food, but they promise war to those who do not give them food.
6. "This is why it is like night for you, and you don't have visions. You cannot see what will happen in the future, so it is like darkness to you. The sun has gone down on the prophets. They cannot see what will happen in the future, so it is like darkness to them.
7. The seers are ashamed. The fortunetellers are embarrassed. They all will not say anything because God will not speak to them."
8. But the Lord's Spirit has filled me with power, goodness, and strength. So I can tell Jacob about his crimes, and so I can tell Israel about his sins!
9. Leaders of Jacob and rulers of Israel, listen to me! You hate the right way of living! If something is straight, then you make it crooked!
10. You build Zion by murdering people. You build Jerusalem by cheating people!
11. The judges in Jerusalem accept bribes to help them decide who wins in court. The priests in Jerusalem must be paid before they will teach the people. People must pay the prophets before they will look into the future. Then those leaders expect the Lord to help them. They say, "The Lord lives here with us, so nothing bad will happen to us."
12. Leaders, because of you, Zion will be destroyed. It will become a plowed field. Jerusalem will become a pile of rocks. Temple Mount will be an empty hill overgrown with bushes.

Psalms 144:9-15
9. God, I will sing a new song for you. I will play a ten-stringed harp and sing praise to you.
10. You are the one who gives victory to kings. You saved your servant David from the sword of his enemy.
11. Save me from these foreigners. They are all liars, even when they swear to tell the truth.
12. Save us so that our sons will be as strong as trees, and our daughters as beautiful as the carved columns of a palace.
13. Save us so that our barns will be filled with crops, and there will be thousands of sheep in our fields.
14. Then our soldiers will be safe, and no enemy will try to break in. Then we will not go to war, and people will not be screaming in our streets.
15. How wonderful to have such blessings! Yes, what blessings there are for those who have the Lord as their God.

Proverbs 30:10-10
10. Never say bad things about a slave to his master. If you do, he will curse you, and you will suffer for it.

Revelation 9:1-21
1. The fifth angel blew his trumpet. Then I saw a star fall from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the deep hole that leads down to the bottomless pit.
2. Then the star opened the hole leading to the pit. Smoke came up from the hole like smoke from a big furnace. The sun and sky became dark because of the smoke from the hole.
3. Then locusts came out of the smoke and went down to the earth. They were given the power to sting like scorpions.
4. They were told not to damage the fields of grass or any plant or tree. They were to hurt only those who did not have God's mark on their foreheads.
5. They were not given the power to kill them but only to cause them pain for five months—pain like a person feels when stung by a scorpion.
6. During those days people will look for a way to die, but they will not find it. They will want to die, but death will hide from them.
7. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something that looked like a gold crown. Their faces looked like human faces.
8. Their hair was like women's hair. Their teeth were like lions' teeth.
9. Their chests looked like iron breastplates. The sound their wings made was like the noise of many horses and chariots hurrying into battle.
10. The locusts had tails with stingers like scorpions. The power they had to give people pain for five months was in their tails.
11. They had a ruler, who was the angel of the bottomless pit. (His name in Hebrew is Abaddon. In Greek it is Apollyon. )
12. (The first terror is now past. There are still two other terrors to come.)
13. The sixth angel blew his trumpet. Then I heard a voice coming from the horns on the four corners of the golden altar that is before God.
14. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Free the four angels who are tied at the great river Euphrates."
15. These four angels had been kept ready for this hour and day and month and year. The angels were set free to kill a third of all the people on the earth.
16. I heard how many troops on horses were in their army. There were 200,000,000.
17. In my vision, I saw the horses and the riders on the horses. They looked like this: They had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow like sulfur. The heads of the horses looked like heads of lions. The horses had fire, smoke, and sulfur coming out of their mouths.
18. A third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues coming out of the horses' mouths: the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur.
19. The horses' power was in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails were like snakes that have heads to bite and hurt people.
21. They did not change their hearts and turn away from killing other people or from their evil magic, their sexual sins, and their stealing.