The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

A good name is more desirable than great riches, and loving favor is better than silver and gold. The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is the maker of them all. A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it. The result of humility and the fear of the LORD is wealth, honor, and life. Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked; whoever guards his soul stays far from them.

For this cause we also thank God without ceasing that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, God’s word, which also works in you who believe. For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

I saw a mighty angel coming down out of the sky, clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. He had in his hand a little open book. He set his right foot on the sea, and his left on the land. He cried with a loud voice, as a lion roars. When he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. When the seven thunders sounded, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from the sky saying, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders said, and don’t write them.”

The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. He said: “The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither.” The LORD says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad. I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir,” says the LORD.

“‘Make chains, for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong to cease. Their holy places will be profaned. Destruction comes! They will seek peace, and there will be none. Mischief will come on mischief, and rumor will be on rumor. They will seek a vision of the prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with desolation. The hands of the people of the land will be troubled. I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

“Yet you have not listened to me,” says the LORD, “that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.” Therefore the LORD of Armies says: “Because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says the LORD, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

“Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn’t overtake them in Gibeah. When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the nations will be gathered against them when they are bound to their two transgressions. Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh, so I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck. I will set a rider on Ephraim. Judah will plow. Jacob will break his clods. Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.

Be silent at the presence of the Lord GOD, for the day of the LORD is at hand. For the LORD has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his guests. It will happen in the day of the LORD’s sacrifice that I will punish the princes, the king’s sons, and all those who are clothed with foreign clothing. In that day, I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit.

Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah. You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape. My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, LORD. I have spread out my hands to you. Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah. Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction? Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

Then the LORD’s word came to Isaiah, saying, “Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘The LORD, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken. Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.”’” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.