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Judgement on Arrogance and Oppression

⁸ The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
   and it fell on Israel;
⁹ and all the people knew it—
   Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
   but in pride and arrogance of heart they said:
¹⁰ ‘The bricks have fallen,
   but we will build with dressed stones;
the sycomores have been cut down,
   but we will put cedars in their place.’
¹¹ So the Lord raised adversaries^* against them,
   and stirred up their enemies,
¹² the Arameans in the east and the Philistines in the west,
   and they devoured Israel with open mouth.
For all this, his anger has not turned away;
   his hand is stretched out still.

¹³ The people did not turn to him who struck them,
   or seek the Lord of hosts.
¹⁴ So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail,
   palm branch and reed in one day—
¹⁵ elders and dignitaries are the head,
   and prophets who teach lies are the tail;
¹⁶ for those who led this people led them astray,
   and those who were led by them were left in confusion.
¹⁷ That is why the Lord did not have pity on^* their young people,
   or compassion on their orphans and widows;
for everyone was godless and an evildoer,
   and every mouth spoke folly.
For all this, his anger has not turned away;
   his hand is stretched out still.

False Prophets and Their Punishment

2But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ²Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers^* the way of truth will be maligned. ³And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell^* and committed them to chains^* of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgement; ⁵and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; ⁶and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction^* and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;^{* 7}and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless ⁸(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), ⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement ¹⁰—especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority.

Bold and wilful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,^*

The Gospel According to

Mark

The Proclamation of John the Baptist

1The beginning of the good news^* of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.^*

2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,^*
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,^*
   who will prepare your way;
³ the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
   “Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make his paths straight” ’,
⁴John the baptizer appeared^* in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸I have baptized you with^* water; but he will baptize you with^* the Holy Spirit.’