I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them. Soon their foot will slip, because their day of trouble is near, and their punishment will come quickly.”
Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice! You wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. I killed a man for wounding me, a young man for hitting me.
You must destroy the family of Ahab your master. I will punish Jezebel for the deaths of my servants the prophets and for all the Lord’s servants who were murdered.
They say, “Let God hurry; let him do his work soon so we may see it. Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel happen soon so that we will know what it is.”
The smallest family will grow to a thousand. The least important of you will become a powerful nation. I am the Lord, and when it is time, I will make these things happen quickly.”
Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness and before you slip and fall on the dark hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it into thick darkness; he will change it into deep gloom.
But the Lord is with me like a strong warrior, so those who are chasing me will trip and fall; they will not defeat me. They will be ashamed because they have failed, and their shame will never be forgotten.
“So they will be in danger. They will be forced into darkness where they will be defeated. I will bring disaster on them in the year I punish them,” says the Lord.
The army has come to destroy Babylon. Her soldiers have been captured, and their bows are broken, because the Lord is a God who punishes people for the evil they do. He gives them the full punishment they deserve.
So this is what the Lord says: “I will put problems in front of Judah. Fathers and sons will stumble over them together. Neighbors and friends will die.”
They should be ashamed of the terrible way they act, but they are not ashamed at all. They don’t even know how to blush about their sins. So they will fall, along with everyone else. They will be thrown to the ground when I punish them, says the Lord.
The Lord is a jealous God who punishes; the Lord punishes and is filled with anger. The Lord punishes those who are against him, and he stays angry with his enemies.
It is not yet time for the message to come true, but that time is coming soon; the message will come true. It may seem like a long time, but be patient and wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not be delayed.
My friends, do not try to punish others when they wrong you, but wait for God to punish them with his anger. It is written: “I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them,” says the Lord.
The ruler is God’s servant to help you. But if you do wrong, then be afraid. He has the power to punish; he is God’s servant to punish those who do wrong.
Be happy, nations, with his people, because he will repay you for the blood of his servants. He will punish his enemies, and he will remove the sin of his land and people.
Also, he is “a stone that causes people to stumble, a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey what God says, which is what God planned to happen to them.
Those false teachers only want your money, so they will use you by telling you lies. Their judgment spoken against them long ago is still coming, and their ruin is certain.