May their banquets cause their ruin; may their sacred feasts cause their downfall.

Pour out your anger on them; let your indignation overtake them.

They persecute those whom you have punished; they talk about the sufferings of those you have wounded.

May their names be erased from the book of the living; may they not be included in the list of your people.

It will be your fate to die a violent death, because you did not answer when I called you or listen when I spoke. You chose to disobey me and do evil.

They will sing for joy, but you will cry with a broken heart.

Anyone in the land who asks for a blessing will ask to be blessed by the faithful God. Whoever takes an oath will swear by the name of the faithful God. The troubles of the past will be gone and forgotten."

The LORD will come with fire. He will ride on the wings of a storm to punish those he is angry with.

By fire and sword he will punish all the people of the world whom he finds guilty---and many will be put to death.

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.

The angel wearing linen clothes said, "At that time the great angel Michael, who guards your people, will appear. Then there will be a time of troubles, the worst since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, all the people of your nation whose names are written in God's book will be saved.

Pay attention, you older people; everyone in Judah, listen. Has anything like this ever happened in your time or the time of your ancestors?

It will be a dark and gloomy day, a black and cloudy day. The great army of locusts advances like darkness spreading over the mountains. There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again.

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

Then I said to the flock, "I will not be your shepherd any longer. Let those die who are to die. Let those be destroyed who are to be destroyed. Those who are left will destroy one another."

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.

"You yourselves must watch out. You will be arrested and taken to court. You will be beaten in the synagogues; you will stand before rulers and kings for my sake to tell them the Good News.

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

They will completely destroy you and the people within your walls; not a single stone will they leave in its place, because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you!"

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!

For there is no longer any sacrifice that will take away sins if we purposely go on sinning after the truth has been made known to us.

Anyone who disobeys the Law of Moses is put to death without any mercy when judged guilty from the evidence of two or more witnesses.