Surely you will not destroy the good people along with the evil ones; then they would be treated the same. You are the judge of all the earth. Won’t you do what is right?”
Now Elijah the Tishbite was a prophet from the settlers in Gilead. “I serve the Lord, the God of Israel,” Elijah said to Ahab. “As surely as the Lord lives, no rain or dew will fall during the next few years unless I command it.”
Elijah told Ahaziah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have sent messengers to ask questions of Baal-Zebub, god of Ekron. Is it because you think there is no God in Israel to ask? Because of this, you will never get up from your bed; you will die.’ ”
Then Jehoram received this letter from Elijah the prophet: This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says, “Jehoram, you have not lived as your father Jehoshaphat lived and as Asa king of Judah lived.
But he will judge the poor honestly; he will be fair in his decisions for the poor people of the land. At his command evil people will be punished, and by his words the wicked will be put to death.
The Lord says, “Shout out loud. Don’t hold back. Shout out loud like a trumpet. Tell my people what they have done against their God; tell the family of Jacob about their sins.
Today I am going to make you a strong city, an iron pillar, a bronze wall. You will be able to stand against everyone in the land: Judah’s kings, officers, priests, and the people of the land.
Then you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will make everyone in this land like a drunken person—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests and the prophets, and all the people who live in Jerusalem.
So this is what the Lord God All-Powerful says: “The people said I would not punish them. So, the words I give you will be like fire, and these people will be like wood that it burns up.
I am making you as hard as a diamond, harder than stone. Don’t be afraid of them or be frightened by them, though they are a people who turn against me.”
“Human, cry for the people of Egypt. Bring down Egypt, together with the women of the powerful nations; bring them down to the place of the dead below the earth to join those who go to the place of the dead.
The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when the Lord came to destroy the city and also like the vision I had seen by the Kebar River. I bowed facedown on the ground.
But the Lord is good, and he is there in that city. He does no wrong. Every morning he governs the people fairly; every day he can be trusted. But evil people are not ashamed of what they do.
But you are stubborn and refuse to change, so you are making your own punishment even greater on the day he shows his anger. On that day everyone will see God’s right judgments.
God’s word is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword. It cuts all the way into us, where the soul and the spirit are joined, to the center of our joints and bones. And it judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts.
And they let loose the four angels who had been kept ready for this hour and day and month and year so they could kill a third of all people on the earth.
Samuel said, “You acted foolishly! You haven’t obeyed the command of the Lord your God. If you had obeyed him, the Lord would have made your kingdom continue in Israel always,
But Samuel answered, “What pleases the Lord more: burnt offerings and sacrifices or obedience to his voice? It is better to obey than to sacrifice. It is better to listen to God than to offer the fat of sheep.
Samuel said to him, “Your sword made other mothers lose their children. Now your mother will have no children.” And Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.