³ Holy `is' Israel to Jehovah, The first-fruit of His increase, All consuming him are guilty, Evil cometh in unto them, an affirmation of Jehovah.

¹⁸ having counselled, He did beget us with a word of truth, for our being a certain first-fruit of His creatures.

⁴ these are they who with women were not defiled, for they are virgin; these are they who are following the Lamb whithersoever he may go; these were bought from among men -- a first-fruit to God and to the Lamb --

⁷ All finding them have devoured them, And their adversaries have said: We are not guilty, Because that they sinned against Jehovah, The habitation of righteousness, And the hope of their fathers -- Jehovah.

¹¹ Lo, all those displeased with thee, They are ashamed and blush, They are as nothing, yea, perish Do the men who strive with thee.

⁶ for a holy people `art' thou to Jehovah thy God; on thee hath Jehovah thy God fixed, to be to Him for a peculiar people, out of all the peoples who `are' on the face of the ground.

⁵ `And now, if ye really hearken to My voice, then ye have kept My covenant, and been to Me a peculiar treasure more than all the peoples, for all the earth `is' Mine;

⁶ and ye -- ye are to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation: these `are' the words which thou dost speak unto the sons of Israel.'

² for a holy people `art' thou to Jehovah thy God, and on thee hath Jehovah fixed to be to Him for a people, a peculiar treasure, out of all the peoples who `are' on the face of the ground.

¹⁴ Thus said Jehovah concerning all my evil neighbours, who are striking against the inheritance that I caused my people -- Israel -- to inherit: `Lo, I am plucking them from off their ground, And the house of Judah I pluck out of their midst.

⁹ and ye `are' a choice race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired, that the excellences ye may shew forth of Him who out of darkness did call you to His wondrous light;

⁴ according as He did choose us in him before the foundation of the world, for our being holy and unblemished before Him, in love,

⁵ and the assembly at their house; salute Epaenetus, my beloved, who is first-fruit of Achaia to Christ.

¹⁶ and if the first-fruit `is' holy, the lump also; and if the root `is' holy, the branches also.

⁴ and having fallen upon the earth, he heard a voice saying to him, `Saul, Saul, why me dost thou persecute?'

⁵ And he said, `Who art thou, Lord?' and the Lord said, `I am Jesus whom thou dost persecute; hard for thee at the pricks to kick;'

²⁰ In that day there is on bells of the horse, `Holy to Jehovah,' And the pots in the house of Jehovah Have been as bowls before the altar.

²¹ And every pot in Jerusalem, and in Judah, Have been holy to Jehovah of Hosts, And all those sacrificing have come in, And have taken of them, and boiled in them, And there is no merchant any more in the house of Jehovah of Hosts in that day!

² Lo, I am making Jerusalem a cup of reeling To all the peoples round about, And also against Judah it is, In the siege against Jerusalem.

³ And it hath come to pass, in that day, I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples, All loading it are completely pressed down, And gathered against it have been all nations of the earth.

⁴ In that day -- an affirmation of Jehovah, I do smite every horse with astonishment, And its rider with madness, And on the house of Judah I open My eyes, And every horse of the peoples I smite with blindness.

⁸ For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: After honour He hath sent me unto the nations who are spoiling you, For he who is coming against you, Is coming against the daughter of His eye.

²⁹ `Thy fulness and thy liquids thou dost not delay; the first-born of thy sons thou dost give to Me;

¹⁶ and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of thy works which thou sowest in the field; and the Feast of the In-Gathering, in the outgoing of the year, in thy gathering thy works out of the field.

¹² all the best of the oil, and all the best of the new wine, and wheat -- their first-`fruits' which they give to Jehovah -- to thee I have given them.

¹⁹ so as to make thee uppermost above all the nations whom He hath made for a praise, and for a name, and for beauty, and for thy being a holy people to Jehovah thy God, as He hath spoken.

¹⁴ As a little thing their enemies I cause to bow, And against their adversaries I turn back My hand,

¹⁵ Those hating Jehovah feign obedience to Him, But their time is -- to the age.

¹⁴ He hath not suffered any to oppress them And He reproveth for their sakes kings.

¹⁵ `Strike not against Mine anointed, And to My prophets do not evil.'

²⁵ He turned their heart to hate His people, To conspire against His servants.

²⁶ He hath sent Moses His servant, Aaron whom He had fixed on.

²⁷ They have set among them the matters of His signs, And wonders in the land of Ham.

²⁸ He hath sent darkness, and it is dark, And they have not provoked His word.

²⁹ He hath turned their waters to blood, And putteth to death their fish.

³⁰ Teemed hath their land `with' frogs, In the inner chambers of their kings.

³¹ He hath said, and the beetle cometh, Lice into all their border.

³² He hath made their showers hail, A flaming fire `is' in their land.

³³ And He smiteth their vine and their fig, And shivereth the trees of their border.

³⁴ He hath said, and the locust cometh, And the cankerworm -- innumerable,

³⁵ And it consumeth every herb in their land, And it consumeth the fruit of their ground.

³⁶ And He smiteth every first-born in their land, The first-fruit of all their strength,

⁶ I have been wroth against My people, I have polluted Mine inheritance And I give them into thy hand, Thou hast not appointed for them mercies, On the aged thou hast made thy yoke very heavy,

¹⁶ Therefore all consuming thee are consumed, And all thine adversaries -- all of them -- Into captivity do go, And thy spoilers have been for a spoil, And all thy plunderers I give up to plunder.

³ Concerning it to your sons talk ye, And your sons to their sons, And their sons to another generation.

⁷ It hath made my vine become a desolation, And my fig-tree become a chip, It hath made it thoroughly bare, and hath cast down, Made white have been its branches.

⁸ Wail, as a virgin girdeth with sackcloth, For the husband of her youth.

¹ Wo `to' those secure in Zion, And those confident in the mount of Samaria, The marked of the chief of the nations, And come to them have the house of Israel.

¹⁵ And `with' great wrath I am wroth against the nations who are at ease, For I was a little wroth, and they assisted -- for evil.

²² and thou hast said unto Pharaoh, Thus said Jehovah, My son, My first-born `is' Israel,

²³ and I say unto thee, Send away My son, and he doth serve Me; and -- thou dost refuse to send him away -- lo, I am slaying thy son, thy first-born.'