The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

Avoid it, and don’t pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on. For they don’t sleep unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.

“To the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write: “The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life says these things: “I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death. “To the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write: “He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things:

Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and by their deeds. Their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. Therefore I poured out my wrath on them for the blood which they had poured out on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. I judged them according to their way and according to their deeds. When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name, in that men said of them, ‘These are the LORD’s people, and have left his land.’ But I had respect for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.

“Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest. You will stumble in the day, and the prophet will also stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children. As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity. It will be like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.

The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They didn’t keep God’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law. They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them. He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap. In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire. He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me. But if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, put that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self besides). Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say. Also, prepare a guest room for me, for I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

The idols shall utterly pass away. Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily. In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily. Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?

“The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go into Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have testified to you today. For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.’ I have declared it to you today; but you have not obeyed the LORD your God’s voice in anything for which he has sent me to you. Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

The LORD says: “For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, and his anger raged continually, and he kept his wrath forever; but I will send a fire on Teman, and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah.” The LORD says: “For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border. But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour its palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a storm in the day of the whirlwind; and their king will go into captivity, he and his princes together,” says the LORD.

Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” says the Lord GOD. “I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who disobey me. I will bring them out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”