Old Testament Books

"For look, he it is who forges the mountains, creates the wind, who reveals his mind to humankind, changes the dawn into darkness and strides on the heights of the world: Yahweh, God Sabaoth, is his name."

"לָכֵ֕ן כֹּ֥ה אֶֽעֱשֶׂה־לְּךָ֖ יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל עֵקֶב כִּי־זֹ֣את אֶֽעֱשֶׂה־לָּ֔ךְ הִכּ֥וֹן לִקְרַאת־אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל"

"Seek good and not evil so that you may survive, and Yahweh, God Sabaoth, be with you as you claim he is. Hate evil, love good, let justice reign at the city gate: it may be that Yahweh."

"Will not the Day of Yahweh be darkness, not light, totally dark, without a ray of light?"

"וְלֹֽא־יָֽדְע֥וּ עֲשֽׂוֹת־נְכֹחָ֖ה נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה הָאֽוֹצְרִ֛ים חָמָ֥ס וָשֹׁ֖ד בְּאַרְמְנֽוֹתֵיהֶֽם"

"This is what he showed me: the Lord standing by a wall, with a plumb-line in his hand. 'What do you see, Amos?' Yahweh asked me. 'A plumb-line,' I said. Then the Lord said, 'Look, I am going to put a plumb-line in among my people Israel; never again will I overlook their offences."

"The days are coming- declares the Lord Yahweh- when I shall send a famine on the country, not hunger for food, not thirst for water, but famine for hearing Yahweh's word. People will stagger from sea to sea, will wander from the north to the east, searching for Yahweh's word, but will not find it."

"The days are coming- declares Yahweh- when the ploughman will tread on the heels of the reaper, and the trader of grapes on the heels of the sower of seed, and the mountains will run with new wine and the hills all flow with it. I shall restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, they will lay out gardens and eat their produce. And I shall plant them in their own soil and they will never be uprooted again from the country which I have given them, declares Yahweh, your God."

"אַרְיֵ֥ה שָׁאָ֖ג מִ֣י לֹ֣א יִירָ֑א אֲדֹנָ֚י יֱהֹוִה֙ דִּבֶּ֔ר מִ֖י לֹ֥א יִנָּבֵֽא"

"Just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually, they will drink, will drink greedily, but they will be as though they had never been!"

"I hate, I scorn your festivals, I take no pleasure in your solemn assemblies. When you bring me burnt offerings . . . your oblations, I do not accept them and I do not look at your communion sacrifices of fat cattle. Spare me the din of your chanting, let me hear none of your strumming on lyres, but let justice flow like water, and uprightness like a never-failing stream!"

"הֲיֵֽלְכ֥וּ שְׁנַ֖יִם יַחְדָּ֑ו בִּלְתִּ֖י אִם־נוֹעָֽדוּ"

"'For in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I shall gather all the nations together and take them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; there I shall put them on trial because of Israel, my people and my heritage, for having scattered them among the nations and having divided my land among themselves."

"The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the Day comes, that great and terrible Day. All who call on the name of Yahweh will be saved, for on Mount Zion will be those who have escaped, as Yahweh has said, and in Jerusalem a remnant whom Yahweh is calling."

"Land, do not be afraid; be glad, rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things."

"Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong."

"'Let the nations rouse themselves and march to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I shall sit in judgement on all the nations around."

"The people arose as one man."

"She cried, 'The Philistines are on you, Samson!' He awoke from sleep, thinking, 'I shall break free as I have done time after time and shake myself clear.' But he did not know that Yahweh had left him. The Philistines seized him, put out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. They fettered him with a double chain of bronze and he spent his time turning the mill in the prison."

"The next stage in Israelite history is the era of the judges, or tribal chiefs. The most famous of them, Samson, establishes his reputation by killing thirty men during his wedding feast because he needs their clothing to pay off a bet. Then, to avenge the killing of his wife and her father, he slaughters a thousand Philistines and sets fire to their crops; after escaping capture, he kills another thousand with the jawbone of an ass. When he is finally captured and his eyes are burned out, God gives him the strength for a 9/11-like suicide attack in which he implodes a large building, crushing the three thousand men and women who are worshipping inside it."

"So he said to them: Out of the eater came what is eaten, and out of the strong came what is sweet. But three days went by and they could not solve the riddle."

"He asked for water; she gave him milk; she offered him curds in a lordly dish. She reached her hand out to seize the peg, her right hand to seize the workman's mallet. She hammered Sisera, she crushed his head, she pierced his temple and shattered it. Between her feet, he crumpled, he fell, he lay; at her feet, he crumpled, he fell. Where he crumpled, there he fell, destroyed. At the window, she leans and watches, Sisera's mother, through the lattice, 'Why is his chariot so long coming? Why so delayed the hoof-beats from his chariot?'"

"If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle."

"What the nibbler has left, the grown locust has eaten, what the grown locust has left, the hopper has eaten, and what the hopper has left, the shearer has eaten."

"Multitude on multitude in the Valley of Decision! For the Day of Yahweh is near in the Valley of the Verdict!"

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions."

"'I will make up to you for the years devoured by grown locust and hopper, by shearer and young locust, my great army which I sent to invade you."

"When that Day comes, the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk, and all the stream-beds of Judah will run with water. A fountain will spring from Yahweh's Temple and water the Gorge of the Acacias."

"Loudly the cattle groan! The herds of oxen are bewildered because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep bear the punishment too. Yahweh, to you I cry: for fire has devoured the desert pastures, flame has burnt up all the trees in the countryside. Even the wild animals pant loudly for you, for the watercourses have run dry, and fire has devoured the desert pastures."

"But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent-peg and picked up a mallet; she crept up softly to him and drove the peg into his temple right through to the ground. He was lying fast asleep, worn out; and so he died."

"The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon."

"They then said, 'Very well, say Shibboleth.' If anyone said, "Sibboleth", because he could not pronounce it, then they would seize him and kill him by the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell on this occasion."

"He smote them hip and thigh."

"With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, wth the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men."

"And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life."

"In those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did as he saw fit."

"Then were the entrances of this world made narrow, full of sorrow and travail: they are but few and evil, full of perils, and very painful For the entrances of the elder world were wide and sure, and brought immortal fruit. If then they that live labour not to enter these strait and van things, they can never receive those that are laid up for them."

"You are not a better judge than the LORD, or wiser than the Most High!"

"When the Most High made the world and Adam and all who have come from him, he first prepared the judgment and the things that pertain to the judgment."

"For the world hath lost his youth, and the times begin to wax old."

"Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's."

"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars."

"And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead."

"For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."

"And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which she had brought unto the king."

"כי לא נחש ביעקב ולא קסם בישראל כעת יאמר ליעקב ולישראל מה פעל אל"

"לא איש אל ויכזב ובן אדם ויתנחם ההוא אמר ולא יעשה ודבר ולא יקימנה"

"וְנִסְכּוֹ֙ רְבִיעִ֣ת הַהִ֔ין לַכֶּ֖בֶשׂ הָאֶחָ֑ד בַּקֹּ֗דֶשׁ הַסֵּ֛ךְ נֶ֥סֶךְ שֵׁכָ֖ר לַיהוָֽה׃"

"ויעש משה נחש נחשת וישמהו על הנס והיה אם נשך הנחש את איש והביט אל נחש הנחשת וחי"

"ושם ראינו את הנפילים בני ענק מן הנפלים ונהי בעינינו כחגבים וכן היינו בעיניהם"