# verses

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Do you know the saying, "Drink from your own rain barrel,<br/>draw water from your own spring-fed well"?


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It's true. Otherwise, you may one day come home<br/>and find your barrel empty and your well polluted.


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Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose—<br/>don't ever quit taking delight in her body.<br/>Never take her love for granted!


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Why would you trade enduring intimacies for cheap thrills with a whore?<br/>for dalliance with a promiscuous stranger?


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The shadow of your sin will overtake you;<br/>you'll find yourself stumbling all over yourself in the dark.


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Dear friend, if you've gone into hock with your neighbor<br/>or locked yourself into a deal with a stranger,


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If you've impulsively promised the shirt off your back<br/>and now find yourself shivering out in the cold,


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Friend, don't waste a minute, get yourself out of that mess.<br/>You're in that man's clutches!<br/>Go, put on a long face; act desperate.


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A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,<br/>sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?


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Catastrophe is just around the corner for them,<br/>a total smash-up, their lives ruined beyond repair.


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Wherever you walk, they'll guide you;<br/>whenever you rest, they'll guard you;<br/>when you wake up, they'll tell you what's next.


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You can buy an hour with a whore for a loaf of bread,<br/>but a wanton woman may well eat you alive.


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It's the same when you have sex with your neighbor's wife:<br/>Touch her and you'll pay for it. No excuses.


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Before you know it, he's trotting behind her,<br/>like a calf led to the butcher shop,<br/>Like a stag lured into ambush


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and then shot with an arrow,<br/>Like a bird flying into a net<br/>not knowing that its flying life is over.


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Don't miss a word of this—I'm telling you how to live well,<br/>I'm telling you how to live at your best.


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You'll only hear true and right words from my mouth;<br/>not one syllable will be twisted or skewed.


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For Wisdom is better than all the trappings of wealth;<br/>nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.


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"I am Lady Wisdom, and I live next to Sanity;<br/>Knowledge and Discretion live just down the street.


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The Fear-of-God means hating Evil,<br/>whose ways I hate with a passion—<br/>pride and arrogance and crooked talk.


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Good counsel and common sense are my characteristics;<br/>I am both Insight and the Virtue to live it out.


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My benefits are worth more than a big salary, even a very big salary;<br/>the returns on me exceed any imaginable bonus.


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Long before God stretched out Earth's Horizons,<br/>and tended to the minute details of Soil and Weather,


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When he drew a boundary for Sea,<br/>posted a sign that said, no trespassing,<br/>And then staked out Earth's foundations,


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I was right there with him, making sure everything fit.<br/>Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause,<br/>always enjoying his company,


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Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to me,<br/>awake and ready for me each morning,<br/>alert and responsive as I start my day's work.


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But if you wrong me, you damage your very soul;<br/>when you reject me, you're flirting with death."


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The banquet meal is ready to be served: lamb roasted,<br/>wine poured out, table set with silver and flowers.


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Having dismissed her serving maids,<br/>Lady Wisdom goes to town, stands in a prominent place,<br/>and invites everyone within sound of her voice:


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"Are you confused about life, don't know what's going on?<br/>Come with me, oh come, have dinner with me!


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If you reason with an arrogant cynic, you'll get slapped in the face;<br/>confront bad behavior and get a kick in the shins.


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So don't waste your time on a scoffer;<br/>all you'll get for your pains is abuse.<br/>But if you correct those who care about life,<br/>that's different—they'll love you for it!


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Save your breath for the wise—they'll be wiser for it;<br/>tell good people what you know—they'll profit from it.


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Steal off with me, I'll show you a good time!<br/>No one will ever know—I'll give you the time of your life."


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Blessings accrue on a good and honest life,<br/>but the mouth of the wicked is a dark cave of abuse.


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The mouth of a good person is a deep, life-giving well,<br/>but the mouth of the wicked is a dark cave of abuse.


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You'll find wisdom on the lips of a person of insight,<br/>but the shortsighted needs a slap in the face.


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When the storm is over, there's nothing left of the wicked;<br/>good people, firm on their rock foundation, aren't even fazed.


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A lazy employee will give you nothing but trouble;<br/>it's vinegar in the mouth, smoke in the eyes.


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A thick bankroll is no help when life falls apart,<br/>but a principled life can stand up to the worst.


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The loose tongue of the godless spreads destruction;<br/>the common sense of the godly preserves them.


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When it goes well for good people, the whole town cheers;<br/>when it goes badly for bad people, the town celebrates.


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When right-living people bless the city, it flourishes;<br/>evil talk turns it into a ghost town in no time.


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A gadabout gossip can't be trusted with a secret,<br/>but someone of integrity won't violate a confidence.


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Without good direction, people lose their way;<br/>the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.


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Whoever makes deals with strangers is sure to get burned;<br/>if you keep a cool head, you'll avoid rash bargains.


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The desires of good people lead straight to the best,<br/>but wicked ambition ends in angry frustration.


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The world of the generous gets larger and larger;<br/>the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.


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Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air;<br/>common sense tells you it's a stupid way to live.


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If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it—<br/>how shortsighted to refuse correction!


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What the wicked construct finally falls into ruin,<br/>while the roots of the righteous give life, and more life.


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The gossip of bad people gets them in trouble;<br/>the conversation of good people keeps them out of it.


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The good acquire a taste for helpful conversation;<br/>bullies push and shove their way through life.


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Banks foreclose on the farms of the poor,<br/>or else the poor lose their shirts to crooked lawyers.


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Cynics look high and low for wisdom—and never find it;<br/>the open-minded find it right on their doorstep!


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Sure, those people appear to be having a good time,<br/>but all that laughter will end in heartbreak.


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You insult your Maker when you exploit the powerless;<br/>when you're kind to the poor, you honor God.


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The evil of bad people leaves them out in the cold;<br/>the integrity of good people creates a safe place for living.


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It's a school of hard knocks for those who leave God's path,<br/>a dead-end street for those who hate God's rules.


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An intelligent person is always eager to take in more truth;<br/>fools feed on fast-food fads and fancies.


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The empty-headed treat life as a plaything;<br/>the perceptive grasp its meaning and make a go of it.


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Calloused climbers betray their very own friends;<br/>they'd stab their own grandmothers in the back.


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Whoever mocks poor people, insults their Creator;<br/>gloating over misfortune is a punishable crime.


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Receiving a gift is like getting a rare gemstone;<br/>any way you look at it, you see beauty refracted.


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Criminals out looking for nothing but trouble<br/>won't have to wait long—they'll meet it coming and going!


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The perceptive find wisdom in their own front yard;<br/>fools look for it everywhere but right here.


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Even dunces who keep quiet are thought to be wise;<br/>as long as they keep their mouths shut, they're smart.


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Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy;<br/>do you really want junk like that in your belly?


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Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach;<br/>good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest.


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When you're down on your luck, even your family avoids you—<br/>yes, even your best friends wish you'd get lost.<br/>If they see you coming, they look the other way—<br/>out of sight, out of mind.


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Blockheads shouldn't live on easy street<br/>any more than workers should give orders to their boss.


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Let angry people endure the backlash of their own anger;<br/>if you try to make it better, you'll only make it worse.


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If you quit listening, dear child, and strike off on your own,<br/>you'll soon be out of your depth.


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The irreverent have to learn reverence the hard way;<br/>only a slap in the face brings fools to attention.


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Knowing what is right is like deep water in the heart;<br/>a wise person draws from the well within.


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Don't be too fond of sleep; you'll end up in the poorhouse.<br/>Wake up and get up; then there'll be food on the table.


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The shopper says, "That's junk—I'll take it off your hands,"<br/>then goes off boasting of the bargain.


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Drinking from the beautiful chalice of knowledge<br/>is better than adorning oneself with gold and rare gems.


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Hold tight to collateral on any loan to a stranger;<br/>beware of accepting what a transient has pawned.


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Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by God;<br/>he directs it to whatever ends he chooses.


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Clean living before God and justice with our neighbors<br/>mean far more to God than religious performance.


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Sinners are always wanting what they don't have;<br/>the God-loyal are always giving what they do have.


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A sterling reputation is better than striking it rich;<br/>a gracious spirit is better than money in the bank.


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The perverse travel a dangerous road, potholed and mud-slick;<br/>if you know what's good for you, stay clear of it.


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Kick out the troublemakers and things will quiet down;<br/>you need a break from bickering and griping!


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The mouth of a whore is a bottomless pit;<br/>you'll fall in that pit if you're on the outs with God.


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Listen carefully to my wisdom;<br/>take to heart what I can teach you.<br/>You'll treasure its sweetness deep within;


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Don't walk on the poor just because they're poor,<br/>and don't use your position to crush the weak,


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Because God will come to their defense;<br/>the life you took, he'll take from you and give back to them.


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Don't gamble on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,<br/>hocking your house against a lucky chance.


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The time will come when you have to pay up;<br/>you'll be left with nothing but the shirt on your back.


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Observe people who are good at their work—<br/>skilled workers are always in demand and admired;<br/>they don't take a back seat to anyone.


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Riches disappear in the blink of an eye;<br/>wealth sprouts wings<br/>and flies off into the wild blue yonder.


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He'll be as stingy with you as he is with himself;<br/>he'll say, "Eat! Drink!" but won't mean a word of it.


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Listen with respect to the father who raised you,<br/>and when your mother grows old, don't neglect her.


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Who are the people who are always crying the blues?<br/>Who do you know who reeks of self-pity?<br/>Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all?<br/>Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?


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"They hit me," you'll say, "but it didn't hurt;<br/>they beat on me, but I didn't feel a thing.<br/>When I'm sober enough to manage it,<br/>bring me another drink!"


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If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business,"<br/>will that get you off the hook?<br/>Someone is watching you closely, you know—<br/>Someone not impressed with weak excuses.


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Likewise knowledge,<br/>and wisdom for your soul—<br/>Get that and your future's secured,<br/>your hope is on solid rock.


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No matter how many times you trip them up,<br/>God-loyal people don't stay down long;<br/>Soon they're up on their feet,<br/>while the wicked end up flat on their faces.


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Don't say to anyone, "I'll get back at you for what you did to me.<br/>I'll make you pay for what you did!"


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"A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,<br/>sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?


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Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,<br/>with poverty as your permanent houseguest!"


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Like the horizons for breadth and the ocean for depth,<br/>the understanding of a good leader is broad and deep.


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When you're given a box of candy, don't gulp it all down;<br/>eat too much chocolate and you'll make yourself sick;


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And when you find a friend, don't outwear your welcome;<br/>show up at all hours and he'll soon get fed up.


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You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse<br/>as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a swallow.


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Loafers say, "It's dangerous out there!<br/>Tigers are prowling the streets!"<br/>and then pull the covers back over their heads.


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Dreamers fantasize their self-importance;<br/>they think they are smarter<br/>than a whole college faculty.


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When he speaks warmly to you, don't believe him for a minute;<br/>he's just waiting for the chance to rip you off.


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Don't brashly announce what you're going to do tomorrow;<br/>you don't know the first thing about tomorrow.


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Carrying a log across your shoulders<br/>while you're hefting a boulder with your arms<br/>Is nothing compared to the burden<br/>of putting up with a fool.


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People who won't settle down, wandering hither and yon,<br/>are like restless birds, flitting to and fro.


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Don't leave your friends or your parents' friends<br/>and run home to your family when things get rough;<br/>Better a nearby friend<br/>than a distant family.


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Hold tight to collateral on any loan to a stranger;<br/>be wary of accepting what a transient has pawned.


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If you wake your friend in the early morning<br/>by shouting "Rise and shine!"<br/>It will sound to him<br/>more like a curse than a blessing.


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If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit;<br/>if you honor your boss, you'll be honored.


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The purity of silver and gold is tested<br/>by putting them in the fire;<br/>The purity of human hearts is tested<br/>by giving them a little fame.


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The wicked are edgy with guilt, ready to run off<br/>even when no one's after them;<br/>Honest people are relaxed and confident,<br/>bold as lions.


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When the country is in chaos,<br/>everybody has a plan to fix it—<br/>But it takes a leader of real understanding<br/>to straighten things out.


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If you desert God's law, you're free to embrace depravity;<br/>if you love God's law, you fight for it tooth and nail.


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Practice God's law—get a reputation for wisdom;<br/>hang out with a loose crowd—embarrass your family.


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Get as rich as you want<br/>through cheating and extortion,<br/>But eventually some friend of the poor<br/>is going to give it all back to them.


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Lead good people down a wrong path<br/>and you'll come to a bad end;<br/>do good and you'll be rewarded for it.


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Among leaders who lack insight, abuse abounds,<br/>but for one who hates corruption, the future is bright.


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Work your garden—you'll end up with plenty of food;<br/>play and party—you'll end up with an empty plate.


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Anyone who robs father and mother<br/>and says, "So, what's wrong with that?"<br/>is worse than a pirate.


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Be generous to the poor—you'll never go hungry;<br/>shut your eyes to their needs, and run a gauntlet of curses.


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When corruption takes over, good people go underground,<br/>but when the crooks are thrown out, it's safe to come out.


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For people who hate discipline<br/>and only get more stubborn,<br/>There'll come a day when life tumbles in and they break,<br/>but by then it'll be too late to help them.


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If you love wisdom, you'll delight your parents,<br/>but you'll destroy their trust if you run with whores.


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The good-hearted understand what it's like to be poor;<br/>the hardhearted haven't the faintest idea.


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The poor and their abusers have at least something in common:<br/>they can both see—their sight, God's gift!


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When degenerates take charge, crime runs wild,<br/>but the righteous will eventually observe their collapse.


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If people can't see what God is doing,<br/>they stumble all over themselves;<br/>But when they attend to what he reveals,<br/>they are most blessed.


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Observe the people who always talk before they think—<br/>even simpletons are better off than they are.


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Befriend an outlaw<br/>and become an enemy to yourself.<br/>When the victims cry out,<br/>you'll be included in their curses<br/>if you're a coward to their cause in court.


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Good people can't stand the sight of deliberate evil;<br/>the wicked can't stand the sight of well-chosen goodness.


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Has anyone ever seen Anyone<br/>climb into Heaven and take charge?<br/>grab the winds and control them?<br/>gather the rains in his bucket?<br/>stake out the ends of the earth?<br/>Just tell me his name, tell me the names of his sons.<br/>Come on now—tell me!"


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The believer replied, "Every promise of God proves true;<br/>he protects everyone who runs to him for help.


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Banish lies from my lips<br/>and liars from my presence.<br/>Give me enough food to live on,<br/>neither too much nor too little.


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If I'm too full, I might get independent,<br/>saying, 'God? Who needs him?'<br/>If I'm poor, I might steal<br/>and dishonor the name of my God."


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Don't blow the whistle on your fellow workers<br/>behind their backs;<br/>They'll accuse you of being underhanded,<br/>and then you'll be the guilty one!


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Don't be greedy,<br/>merciless and cruel as wolves,<br/>Tearing into the poor and feasting on them,<br/>shredding the needy to pieces only to discard them.


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A leech has twin daughters<br/>named "Gimme" and "Gimme more."<br/>Three things are never satisfied,<br/>no, there are four that never say, "That's enough, thank you!"—


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An eye that disdains a father<br/>and despises a mother—<br/>that eye will be plucked out by wild vultures<br/>and consumed by young eagles.


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how an eagle flies so high in the sky,<br/>how a snake glides over a rock,<br/>how a ship navigates the ocean,<br/>why adolescents act the way they do.


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Here's how a prostitute operates:<br/>she has sex with her client,<br/>Takes a bath,<br/>then asks, "Who's next?"


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If you're dumb enough to call attention to yourself<br/>by offending people and making rude gestures,


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Don't be surprised if someone bloodies your nose.<br/>Churned milk turns into butter;<br/>riled emotions turn into fist fights.


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Don't dissipate your virility on fortune-hunting women,<br/>promiscuous women who shipwreck leaders.


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She doesn't worry about her family when it snows;<br/>their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.


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Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades.<br/>The woman to be admired and praised<br/>is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.


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Smoke, nothing but smoke. <br/>That's what the Quester says.]<br/>There's nothing to anything—it's all smoke.


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One generation goes its way, the next one arrives,<br/>but nothing changes—it's business as usual for old<br/>planet earth.


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The wind blows south, the wind blows north.<br/>Around and around and around it blows,<br/>blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind.


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All the rivers flow into the sea,<br/>but the sea never fills up.<br/>The rivers keep flowing to the same old place,<br/>and then start all over and do it again.


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Everything's boring, utterly boring—<br/>no one can find any meaning in it.<br/>Boring to the eye,<br/>boring to the ear.


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What was will be again,<br/>what happened will happen again.<br/>There's nothing new on this earth.<br/>Year after year it's the same old thing.


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Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.<br/>And the things that will happen tomorrow?<br/>Nobody'll remember them either.<br/>Don't count on being remembered.


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I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there's not much to write home about. God hasn't made it easy for us.


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I said to myself, "I know more and I'm wiser than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I've stockpiled wisdom and knowledge."


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What I've finally concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless—nothing but spitting into the wind.


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I said to myself, "Let's go for it—experiment with pleasure, have a good time!" But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.


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What do I think of the fun-filled life? Insane! Inane!<br/>My verdict on the pursuit of happiness? Who needs it?


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With the help of a bottle of wine<br/>and all the wisdom I could muster,<br/>I tried my level best<br/>to penetrate the absurdity of life.<br/>I wanted to get a handle on anything useful we mortals might do<br/>during the years we spend on this earth.


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I bought slaves, male and female,<br/>who had children, giving me even more slaves;<br/>then I acquired large herds and flocks,<br/>larger than any before me in Jerusalem.


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I piled up silver and gold,<br/>loot from kings and kingdoms.<br/>I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song,<br/>and—most exquisite of all pleasures—<br/>voluptuous maidens for my bed.


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Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What's more, I kept a clear head through it all.


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Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day's work!


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Then I took a good look at everything I'd done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.


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And then I took a hard look at what's smart and what's stupid. What's left to do after you've been king? That's a hard act to follow. You just do what you can, and that's it.


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Even so, though the smart ones see where they're going and the stupid ones grope in the dark, they're all the same in the end. One fate for all—and that's it.


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When I realized that my fate's the same as the fool's, I had to ask myself, "So why bother being wise?" It's all smoke, nothing but smoke.


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The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight. In a day or two they're both forgotten. Yes, both the smart and the stupid die, and that's it.


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I hate life. As far as I can see, what happens on earth is a bad business. It's smoke—and spitting into the wind.


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And I hated everything I'd accomplished and accumulated on this earth. I can't take it with me—no, I have to leave it to whoever comes after me.


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Whether they're worthy or worthless—and who's to tell?—they'll take over the earthly results of my intense thinking and hard work. Smoke.


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What's the point of working your fingers to the bone if you hand over what you worked for to someone who never lifted a finger for it? Smoke, that's what it is. A bad business from start to finish.


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The best you can do with your life is have a good time and get by the best you can. The way I see it, that's it—divine fate.


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God may give wisdom and knowledge and joy to his favorites, but sinners are assigned a life of hard labor, and end up turning their wages over to God's favorites. Nothing but smoke—and spitting into the wind.


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A right time to search and another to count your losses,<br/>A right time to hold on and another to let go,


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True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going.


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I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life.


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I've also concluded that whatever God does, that's the way it's going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God's done it and that's it. That's so we'll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear.


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The place of righteousness—corrupt! I said to myself, "God will judge righteous and wicked." There's a right time for every thing, every deed—and there's no getting around it.


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I said to myself regarding the human race, "God's testing the lot of us, showing us up as nothing but animals."


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Humans and animals come to the same end—humans die, animals die. We all breathe the same air. So there's really no advantage in being human. None. Everything's smoke.


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Nobody knows for sure that the human spirit rises to heaven or that the animal spirit sinks into the earth.


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So I made up my mind that there's nothing better for us men and women than to have a good time in whatever we do—that's our lot. Who knows if there's anything else to life?


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Next I turned my attention to all the outrageous violence that takes place on this planet—the tears of the victims, no one to comfort them; the iron grip of oppressors, no one to rescue the victims from them.


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But luckier than the dead or the living is the person who has never even been, who has never seen the bad business that takes place on this earth.


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Then I observed all the work and ambition motivated by envy. What a waste! Smoke. And spitting into the wind.


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One handful of peaceful repose<br/>Is better than two fistfuls of worried work—<br/>More spitting into the wind.


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a solitary person, completely alone—no children, no family, no friends—yet working obsessively late into the night, compulsively greedy for more and more, never bothering to ask, "Why am I working like a dog, never having any fun? And who cares?" More smoke. A bad business.


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By yourself you're unprotected.<br/>With a friend you can face the worst.<br/>Can you round up a third?<br/>A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped.


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A poor youngster with some wisdom is better off than an old but foolish king who doesn't know which end is up.


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Even so, the excitement died quickly, the throngs of people soon lost interest. Can't you see it's only smoke? And spitting into the wind?


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Watch your step when you enter God's house.<br/>Enter to learn. That's far better than mindlessly offering<br/>a sacrifice,<br/>Doing more harm than good.


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Don't shoot off your mouth, or speak before you think.<br/>Don't be too quick to tell God what you think he wants to hear.<br/>God's in charge, not you—the less you speak, the better.


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When you tell God you'll do something, do it—now.<br/>God takes no pleasure in foolish gabble. Vow it, then do it.


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Don't let your mouth make a total sinner of you.<br/>When called to account, you won't get by with<br/>"Sorry, I didn't mean it."<br/>Why risk provoking God to angry retaliation?


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But against all illusion and fantasy and empty talk<br/>There's always this rock foundation: Fear God!


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Don't be too upset when you see the poor kicked around, and justice and right violated all over the place. Exploitation filters down from one petty official to another. There's no end to it, and nothing can be done about it.


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The one who loves money is never satisfied with money,<br/>Nor the one who loves wealth with big profits. More smoke.


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The more loot you get, the more looters show up.<br/>And what fun is that—to be robbed in broad daylight?


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Hard and honest work earns a good night's sleep,<br/>Whether supper is beans or steak.<br/>But a rich man's belly gives him insomnia.


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And then loses it all in a bad business deal.<br/>He fathered a child but hasn't a cent left to give him.


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This is bad luck, for sure—naked he came, naked he went.<br/>So what was the point of working for a salary of smoke?


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After looking at the way things are on this earth, here's what I've decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that's about it. That's the human lot.


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Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what's given and delighting in the work. It's God's gift!


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I looked long and hard at what goes on around here, and let me tell you, things are bad. And people feel it.


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There are people, for instance, on whom God showers everything—money, property, reputation—all they ever wanted or dreamed of. And then God doesn't let them enjoy it. Some stranger comes along and has all the fun. It's more of what I'm calling smoke. A bad business.


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Say a couple have scores of children and live a long, long life but never enjoy themselves—even though they end up with a big funeral! I'd say that a stillborn baby gets the better deal.


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Even if someone lived a thousand years—make it two thousand!—but didn't enjoy anything, what's the point? Doesn't everyone end up in the same place?


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Just grab whatever you can while you can; don't assume something better might turn up by and by. All it amounts to anyway is smoke. And spitting into the wind.


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And who knows what's best for us as we live out our meager smoke-and-shadow lives? And who can tell any of us the next chapter of our lives?


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A good reputation is better than a fat bank account.<br/>Your death date tells more than your birth date.


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You learn more at a funeral than at a feast—<br/>After all, that's where we'll end up. We might discover<br/>something from it.


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Don't be quick to fly off the handle.<br/>Anger boomerangs. You can spot a fool by the lumps on his head.


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Don't always be asking, "Where are the good old days?"<br/>Wise folks don't ask questions like that.


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Wisdom is better when it's paired with money,<br/>Especially if you get both while you're still living.


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Take a good look at God's work.<br/>Who could simplify and reduce Creation's curves and angles<br/>To a plain straight line?


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On a good day, enjoy yourself;<br/>On a bad day, examine your conscience.<br/>God arranges for both kinds of days<br/>So that we won't take anything for granted.


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I've seen it all in my brief and pointless life—here a good person cut down in the middle of doing good, there a bad person living a long life of sheer evil.


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So don't knock yourself out being good, and don't go overboard being wise. Believe me, you won't get anything out of it.


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It's best to stay in touch with both sides of an issue. A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it.


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Don't eavesdrop on the conversation of others.<br/>What if the gossip's about you and you'd rather not hear it?


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You've done that a few times, haven't you—said things<br/>Behind someone's back you wouldn't say to his face?


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I concentrated with all my might, studying and exploring and seeking wisdom—the meaning of life. I also wanted to identify evil and stupidity, foolishness and craziness.


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One discovery: A woman can be a bitter pill to swallow, full of seductive scheming and grasping. The lucky escape her; the undiscerning get caught.


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At least this is my experience—what I, the Quester, have pieced together as I've tried to make sense of life.


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But the wisdom I've looked for I haven't found. I didn't find one man or woman in a thousand worth my while.


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Yet I did spot one ray of light in this murk: God made men and women true and upright; we're the ones who've made a mess of things.


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There's nothing better than being wise,<br/>Knowing how to interpret the meaning of life.<br/>Wisdom puts light in the eyes,<br/>And gives gentleness to words and manners.


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Don't worryingly second-guess your orders or try to back out when the task is unpleasant. You're serving his pleasure, not yours.


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Yes, there's a right time and way for everything, even though, unfortunately, we miss it for the most part.


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No one can control the wind or lock it in a box.<br/>No one has any say-so regarding the day of death.<br/>No one can stop a battle in its tracks.<br/>No one who does evil can be saved by evil.


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All this I observed as I tried my best to understand all that's going on in this world. As long as men and women have the power to hurt each other, this is the way it is.


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One time I saw wicked men given a solemn burial in holy ground. When the people returned to the city, they delivered flowery eulogies—and in the very place where wicked acts were done by those very men! More smoke. Indeed.


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Because the sentence against evil deeds is so long in coming, people in general think they can get by with murder.


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Even though a person sins and gets by with it hundreds of times throughout a long life, I'm still convinced that the good life is reserved for the person who fears God, who lives reverently in his presence,


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and that the evil person will not experience a "good" life. No matter how many days he lives, they'll all be as flat and colorless as a shadow—because he doesn't fear God.


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Here's something that happens all the time and makes no sense at all: Good people get what's coming to the wicked, and bad people get what's coming to the good. I tell you, this makes no sense. It's smoke.


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So, I'm all for just going ahead and having a good time—the best possible. The only earthly good men and women can look forward to is to eat and drink well and have a good time—compensation for the struggle for survival these few years God gives us on earth.


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When I determined to load up on wisdom and examine everything taking place on earth, I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking,


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you'll still never figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth. Search as hard as you like, you're not going to make sense of it. No matter how smart you are, you won't get to the bottom of it.


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Well, I took all this in and thought it through, inside and out. Here's what I understood: The good, the wise, and all that they do are in God's hands—but, day by day, whether it's love or hate they're dealing with, they don't know.<br/>Anything's possible.


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It's one fate for everybody—righteous and wicked, good people, bad people, the nice and the nasty, worshipers and non-worshipers, committed and uncommitted.


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I find this outrageous—the worst thing about living on this earth—that everyone's lumped together in one fate. Is it any wonder that so many people are obsessed with evil? Is it any wonder that people go crazy right and left? Life leads to death. That's it.


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Still, anyone selected out for life has hope, for, as they say, "A living dog is better than a dead lion."


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The living at least know something, even if it's only that they're going to die. But the dead know nothing and get nothing. They're a minus that no one remembers.


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Their loves, their hates, yes, even their dreams, are long gone. There's not a trace of them left in the affairs of this earth.


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Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,<br/>Drink wine with a robust heart.<br/>Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!


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Relish life with the spouse you love<br/>Each and every day of your precarious life.<br/>Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange<br/>For the hard work of staying alive.<br/>Make the most of each one!


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Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!<br/>This is your last and only chance at it,<br/>For there's neither work to do nor thoughts to think<br/>In the company of the dead, where you're most certainly headed.


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I took another walk around the neighborhood and realized that on this earth as it is—<br/>The race is not always to the swift,<br/>Nor the battle to the strong,<br/>Nor satisfaction to the wise,<br/>Nor riches to the smart,<br/>Nor grace to the learned.<br/>Sooner or later bad luck hits us all.


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No one can predict misfortune.<br/>Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds in a trap,<br/>So men and women are caught<br/>By accidents evil and sudden.


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One day as I was observing how wisdom fares on this earth, I saw something that made me sit up and take notice.


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There was a small town with only a few people in it. A strong king came and mounted an attack, building trenches and attack posts around it.


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There was a poor but wise man in that town whose wisdom saved the town, but he was promptly forgotten. (He was only a poor man, after all.)


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All the same, I still say that wisdom is better than muscle, even though the wise poor man was treated with contempt and soon forgotten.


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Fools on the road have no sense of direction.<br/>The way they walk tells the story: "There goes the fool again!"


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If a ruler loses his temper against you, don't panic;<br/>A calm disposition quiets intemperate rage.


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Here's a piece of bad business I've seen on this earth,<br/>An error that can be blamed on whoever is in charge:


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Caution: The trap you set might catch you.<br/>Warning: Your accomplice in crime might double-cross you.


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Remember: The duller the ax the harder the work;<br/>Use your head: The more brains, the less muscle.


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Lucky the land whose king is mature,<br/>Where the princes behave themselves<br/>And don't drink themselves silly.


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Laughter and bread go together,<br/>And wine gives sparkle to life—<br/>But it's money that makes the world go around.


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Don't bad-mouth your leaders, not even under your breath,<br/>And don't abuse your betters, even in the privacy of your home.<br/>Loose talk has a way of getting picked up and spread around.<br/>Little birds drop the crumbs of your gossip far and wide.


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Don't hoard your goods; spread them around.<br/>Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night.


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When the clouds are full of water, it rains.<br/>When the wind blows down a tree, it lies where it falls.


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Don't sit there watching the wind. Do your own work.<br/>Don't stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.


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Just as you'll never understand<br/>the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman,<br/>So you'll never understand<br/>the mystery at work in all that God does.


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Go to work in the morning<br/>and stick to it until evening without watching the clock.<br/>You never know from moment to moment<br/>how your work will turn out in the end.


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Even if you live a long time, don't take a single day for granted.<br/>Take delight in each light-filled hour,<br/>Remembering that there will also be many dark days<br/>And that most of what comes your way is smoke.


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You who are young, make the most of your youth.<br/>Relish your youthful vigor.<br/>Follow the impulses of your heart.<br/>If something looks good to you, pursue it.<br/>But know also that not just anything goes;<br/>You have to answer to God for every last bit of it.


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Live footloose and fancy free—<br/>You won't be young forever.<br/>Youth lasts about as long as smoke.


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Honor and enjoy your Creator while you're still young,<br/>Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,


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In old age, your body no longer serves you so well.<br/>Muscles slacken, grip weakens, joints stiffen.<br/>The shades are pulled down on the world.


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You can't come and go at will. Things grind to a halt.<br/>The hum of the household fades away.<br/>You are wakened now by bird-song.


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Hikes to the mountains are a thing of the past.<br/>Even a stroll down the road has its terrors.<br/>Your hair turns apple-blossom white,<br/>Adorning a fragile and impotent matchstick body.<br/>Yes, you're well on your way to eternal rest,<br/>While your friends make plans for your funeral.


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The body is put back in the same ground it came from.<br/>The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it.


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Besides being wise himself, the Quester also taught others knowledge. He weighed, examined, and arranged many proverbs.


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The words of the wise prod us to live well.<br/>They're like nails hammered home, holding life together.<br/>They are given by God, the one Shepherd.


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But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There's no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you're no good for anything else.


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And that's it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it's good or evil.


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headier than your aromatic oils.<br/>The syllables of your name murmur like a meadow brook.<br/>No wonder everyone loves to say your name!


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Take me away with you! Let's run off together!<br/>An elopement with my King-Lover!<br/>We'll celebrate, we'll sing,<br/>we'll make great music.<br/>Yes! For your love is better than vintage wine.<br/>Everyone loves you—of course! And why not?


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I am weathered but still elegant,<br/>oh, dear sisters in Jerusalem,<br/>Weather-darkened like Kedar desert tents,<br/>time-softened like Solomon's Temple hangings.


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Don't look down on me because I'm dark,<br/>darkened by the sun's harsh rays.<br/>My brothers ridiculed me and sent me to work in the fields.<br/>They made me care for the face of the earth,<br/>but I had no time to care for my own face.


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Tell me where you're working<br/>—I love you so much—<br/>Tell me where you're tending your flocks,<br/>where you let them rest at noontime.<br/>Why should I be the one left out,<br/>outside the orbit of your tender care?


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If you can't find me, loveliest of all women,<br/>it's all right. Stay with your flocks.<br/>Lead your lambs to good pasture.<br/>Stay with your shepherd neighbors.


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Pendant earrings line the elegance of your cheeks;<br/>strands of jewels illumine the curve of your throat.


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As an apricot tree stands out in the forest,<br/>my lover stands above the young men in town.<br/>All I want is to sit in his shade,<br/>to taste and savor his delicious love.


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Oh! Give me something refreshing to eat—and quickly!<br/>Apricots, raisins—anything. I'm about to faint with love!


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Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem,<br/>by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer:<br/>Don't excite love, don't stir it up,<br/>until the time is ripe—and you're ready.


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Look! Listen! There's my lover!<br/>Do you see him coming?<br/>Vaulting the mountains,<br/>leaping the hills.


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My lover is like a gazelle, graceful;<br/>like a young stag, virile.<br/>Look at him there, on tiptoe at the gate,<br/>all ears, all eyes—ready!


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My lover has arrived<br/>and he's speaking to me!<br/>Get up, my dear friend,<br/>fair and beautiful lover—come to me!


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Spring flowers are in blossom all over.<br/>The whole world's a choir—and singing!<br/>Spring warblers are filling the forest<br/>with sweet arpeggios.


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Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed,<br/>and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms.<br/>Oh, get up, dear friend,<br/>my fair and beautiful lover—come to me!


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Come, my shy and modest dove—<br/>leave your seclusion, come out in the open.<br/>Let me see your face,<br/>let me hear your voice.<br/>For your voice is soothing<br/>and your face is ravishing.


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Then you must protect me from the foxes,<br/>foxes on the prowl,<br/>Foxes who would like nothing better<br/>than to get into our flowering garden.


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until dawn breathes its light and night slips away.<br/>Turn to me, dear lover.<br/>Come like a gazelle.<br/>Leap like a wild stag<br/>on delectable mountains!


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Restless in bed and sleepless through the night,<br/>I longed for my lover.<br/>I wanted him desperately. His absence was painful.


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So I got up, went out and roved the city,<br/>hunting through streets and down alleys.<br/>I wanted my lover in the worst way!<br/>I looked high and low, and didn't find him.


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And then the night watchmen found me<br/>as they patrolled the darkened city.<br/>"Have you seen my dear lost love?" I asked.


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No sooner had I left them than I found him,<br/>found my dear lost love.<br/>I threw my arms around him and held him tight,<br/>wouldn't let him go until I had him home again,<br/>safe at home beside the fire.


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What's this I see, approaching from the desert,<br/>raising clouds of dust,<br/>Filling the air with sweet smells<br/>and pungent aromatics?


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Look! It's Solomon's carriage,<br/>carried and guarded by sixty soldiers,<br/>sixty of Israel's finest,


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He had it framed with silver and roofed with gold.<br/>The cushions were covered with a purple fabric,<br/>the interior lined with tooled leather.


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Come and look, sisters in Jerusalem.<br/>Oh, sisters of Zion, don't miss this!<br/>My King-Lover,<br/>dressed and garlanded for his wedding,<br/>his heart full, bursting with joy!


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You're so beautiful, my darling,<br/>so beautiful, and your dove eyes are veiled<br/>By your hair as it flows and shimmers,<br/>like a flock of goats in the distance<br/>streaming down a hillside in the sunshine.


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Your lips are jewel red,<br/>your mouth elegant and inviting,<br/>your veiled cheeks soft and radiant.


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The sweet, fragrant curves of your body,<br/>the soft, spiced contours of your flesh<br/>Invite me, and I come. I stay<br/>until dawn breathes its light and night slips away.


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Come with me from Lebanon, my bride.<br/>Leave Lebanon behind, and come.<br/>Leave your high mountain hideaway.<br/>Abandon your wilderness seclusion,<br/>Where you keep company with lions<br/>and panthers guard your safety.


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You've captured my heart, dear friend.<br/>You looked at me, and I fell in love.<br/>One look my way and I was hopelessly in love!


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How beautiful your love, dear, dear friend—<br/>far more pleasing than a fine, rare wine,<br/>your fragrance more exotic than select spices.


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The kisses of your lips are honey, my love,<br/>every syllable you speak a delicacy to savor.<br/>Your clothes smell like the wild outdoors,<br/>the ozone scent of high mountains.


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Body and soul, you are paradise,<br/>a whole orchard of succulent fruits—<br/>Ripe apricots and peaches,<br/>oranges and pears;<br/>Nut trees and cinnamon,<br/>and all scented woods;


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Wake up, North Wind,<br/>get moving, South Wind!<br/>Breathe on my garden,<br/>fill the air with spice fragrance.<br/>Oh, let my lover enter his garden!<br/>Yes, let him eat the fine, ripe fruits.


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I went to my garden, dear friend, best lover!<br/>breathed the sweet fragrance.<br/>I ate the fruit and honey,<br/>I drank the nectar and wine.<br/>Celebrate with me, friends!<br/>Raise your glasses—"To life! To love!"


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I was sound asleep, but in my dreams I was wide awake.<br/>Oh, listen! It's the sound of my lover knocking, calling!<br/>"Let me in, dear companion, dearest friend,<br/>my dove, consummate lover!<br/>I'm soaked with the dampness of the night,<br/>drenched with dew, shivering and cold."


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"But I'm in my nightgown—do you expect me to get dressed?<br/>I'm bathed and in bed—do you want me to get dirty?"


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But my lover wouldn't take no for an answer,<br/>and the longer he knocked, the more excited I became.


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I got up to open the door to my lover,<br/>sweetly ready to receive him,<br/>Desiring and expectant<br/>as I turned the door handle.


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But when I opened the door he was gone.<br/>My loved one had tired of waiting and left.<br/>And I died inside—oh, I felt so bad!<br/>I ran out looking for him<br/>But he was nowhere to be found.<br/>I called into the darkness—but no answer.


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The night watchmen found me<br/>as they patrolled the streets of the city.<br/>They slapped and beat and bruised me,<br/>ripping off my clothes,<br/>These watchmen,<br/>who were supposed to be guarding the city.


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I beg you, sisters in Jerusalem—<br/>if you find my lover,<br/>Please tell him I want him,<br/>that I'm heartsick with love for him.


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What's so great about your lover, fair lady?<br/>What's so special about him that you beg for our help?


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My dear lover glows with health—<br/>red-blooded, radiant!<br/>He's one in a million.<br/>There's no one quite like him!


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His eyes are like doves, soft and bright,<br/>but deep-set, brimming with meaning, like wells of water.


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Fine muscles ripple beneath his skin,<br/>quiet and beautiful.<br/>His torso is the work of a sculptor,<br/>hard and smooth as ivory.


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He stands tall, like a cedar,<br/>strong and deep-rooted,<br/>A rugged mountain of a man,<br/>aromatic with wood and stone.


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His words are kisses, his kisses words.<br/>Everything about him delights me, thrills me<br/>through and through!<br/>That's my lover, that's my man,<br/>dear Jerusalem sisters.


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So where has this love of yours gone,<br/>fair one?<br/>Where on earth can he be?<br/>Can we help you look for him?


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Never mind. My lover is already on his way to his garden,<br/>to browse among the flowers, touching the colors and forms.


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Dear, dear friend and lover,<br/>you're as beautiful as Tirzah, city of delights,<br/>Lovely as Jerusalem, city of dreams,<br/>the ravishing visions of my ecstasy.


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Your beauty is too much for me—I'm in over my head.<br/>I'm not used to this! I can't take it in.<br/>Your hair flows and shimmers<br/>like a flock of goats in the distance<br/>streaming down a hillside in the sunshine.


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She's a woman beyond compare.<br/>My dove is perfection,<br/>Pure and innocent as the day she was born,<br/>and cradled in joy by her mother.<br/>Everyone who came by to see her<br/>exclaimed and admired her—<br/>All the fathers and mothers, the neighbors and friends,<br/>blessed and praised her:


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"Has anyone ever seen anything like this—<br/>dawn-fresh, moon-lovely, sun-radiant,<br/>ravishing as the night sky with its galaxies of stars?"


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One day I went strolling through the orchard,<br/>looking for signs of spring,<br/>Looking for buds about to burst into flower,<br/>anticipating readiness, ripeness.


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Dance, dance, dear Shulammite, Angel-Princess!<br/>Dance, and we'll feast our eyes on your grace!<br/>Everyone wants to see the Shulammite dance<br/>her victory dances of love and peace.


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Shapely and graceful your sandaled feet,<br/>and queenly your movement—<br/>Your limbs are lithe and elegant,<br/>the work of a master artist.


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Your body is a chalice,<br/>wine-filled.<br/>Your skin is silken and tawny<br/>like a field of wheat touched by the breeze.


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Your neck is carved ivory, curved and slender.<br/>Your eyes are wells of light, deep with mystery.<br/>Quintessentially feminine!<br/>Your profile turns all heads,<br/>commanding attention.


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The feelings I get when I see the high mountain ranges<br/>—stirrings of desire, longings for the heights—<br/>Remind me of you,<br/>and I'm spoiled for anyone else!


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You are tall and supple, like the palm tree,<br/>and your full breasts are like sweet clusters of dates.


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I say, "I'm going to climb that palm tree!<br/>I'm going to caress its fruit!"<br/>Oh yes! Your breasts<br/>will be clusters of sweet fruit to me,<br/>Your breath clean and cool like fresh mint,


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your tongue and lips like the best wine.<br/>Yes, and yours are, too—my love's kisses<br/>flow from his lips to mine.


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Let's sleep at some wayside inn,<br/>then rise early and listen to bird-song.<br/>Let's look for wildflowers in bloom,<br/>blackberry bushes blossoming white,<br/>Fruit trees festooned<br/>with cascading flowers.<br/>And there I'll give myself to you,<br/>my love to your love!


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Love-apples drench us with fragrance,<br/>fertility surrounds, suffuses us,<br/>Fruits fresh and preserved<br/>that I've kept and saved just for you, my love.


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I wish you'd been my twin brother,<br/>sharing with me the breasts of my mother,<br/>Playing outside in the street,<br/>kissing in plain view of everyone,<br/>and no one thinking anything of it.


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I'd take you by the hand and bring you home<br/>where I was raised by my mother.<br/>You'd drink my wine<br/>and kiss my cheeks.


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Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem:<br/>Don't excite love, don't stir it up,<br/>until the time is ripe—and you're ready.


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Who is this I see coming up from the country,<br/>arm in arm with her lover?<br/>I found you under the apricot tree,<br/>and woke you up to love.<br/>Your mother went into labor under that tree,<br/>and under that very tree she bore you.


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Hang my locket around your neck,<br/>wear my ring on your finger.<br/>Love is invincible facing danger and death.<br/>Passion laughs at the terrors of hell.<br/>The fire of love stops at nothing—<br/>it sweeps everything before it.


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Flood waters can't drown love,<br/>torrents of rain can't put it out.<br/>Love can't be bought, love can't be sold—<br/>it's not to be found in the marketplace.


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My brothers used to worry about me:<br/>"Our little sister has no breasts.<br/>What shall we do with our little sister<br/>when men come asking for her?


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She's a virgin and vulnerable,<br/>and we'll protect her.<br/>If they think she's a wall, we'll top it with barbed wire.<br/>If they think she's a door, we'll barricade it."


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Dear brothers, I'm a walled-in virgin still,<br/>but my breasts are full—<br/>And when my lover sees me,<br/>he knows he'll soon be satisfied.


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King Solomon may have vast vineyards<br/>in lush, fertile country,<br/>Where he hires others to work the ground.<br/>People pay anything to get in on that bounty.


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But my vineyard is all mine,<br/>and I'm keeping it to myself.<br/>You can have your vast vineyards, Solomon,<br/>you and your greedy guests!


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Run to me, dear lover.<br/>Come like a gazelle.<br/>Leap like a wild stag<br/>on the spice mountains.


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The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.


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Heaven and earth, you're the jury.<br/>Listen to God's case:<br/>"I had children and raised them well,<br/>and they turned on me.


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The ox knows who's boss,<br/>the mule knows the hand that feeds him,<br/>But not Israel.<br/>My people don't know up from down.


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Shame! Misguided God-dropouts,<br/>staggering under their guilt-baggage,<br/>Gang of miscreants,<br/>band of vandals—<br/>My people have walked out on me, their God,<br/>turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,<br/>walked off and never looked back.


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"Why bother even trying to do anything with you<br/>when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?<br/>You keep beating your heads against brick walls.<br/>Everything within you protests against you.


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From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,<br/>nothing's working right.<br/>Wounds and bruises and running sores—<br/>untended, unwashed, unbandaged.


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Your country is laid waste,<br/>your cities burned down.<br/>Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,<br/>reduced to rubble by barbarians.


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Daughter Zion is deserted—<br/>like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,<br/>Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,<br/>like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.


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If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn't left us a few survivors,<br/>we'd be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.


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"Listen to my Message,<br/>you Sodom-schooled leaders.<br/>Receive God's revelation,<br/>you Gomorrah-schooled people.


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"Why this frenzy of sacrifices?"<br/>God's asking.<br/>"Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices,<br/>rams and plump grain-fed calves?<br/>Don't you think I've had my fill<br/>of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?


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When you come before me,<br/>who ever gave you the idea of acting like this,<br/>Running here and there, doing this and that—<br/>all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?


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"Quit your worship charades.<br/>I can't stand your trivial religious games:<br/>Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—<br/>meetings, meetings, meetings—I can't stand one more!


text:
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!<br/>You've worn me out!<br/>I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion,<br/>while you go right on sinning.


text:
When you put on your next prayer-performance,<br/>I'll be looking the other way.<br/>No matter how long or loud or often you pray,<br/>I'll not be listening.<br/>And do you know why? Because you've been tearing<br/>people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.


text:
Go home and wash up.<br/>Clean up your act.<br/>Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings<br/>so I don't have to look at them any longer.<br/>Say no to wrong.


text:
Learn to do good.<br/>Work for justice.<br/>Help the down-and-out.<br/>Stand up for the homeless.<br/>Go to bat for the defenseless.


text:
"Come. Sit down. Let's argue this out."<br/>This is God's Message:<br/>"If your sins are blood-red,<br/>they'll be snow-white.<br/>If they're red like crimson,<br/>they'll be like wool.


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Oh! Can you believe it? The chaste city<br/>has become a whore!<br/>She was once all justice,<br/>everyone living as good neighbors,<br/>And now they're all<br/>at one another's throats.


text:
Your leaders are turncoats<br/>who keep company with crooks.<br/>They sell themselves to the highest bidder<br/>and grab anything not nailed down.<br/>They never stand up for the homeless,<br/>never stick up for the defenseless.


text:
This Decree, therefore, of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>the Strong One of Israel:<br/>"This is it! I'll get my oppressors off my back.<br/>I'll get back at my enemies.


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I'll set honest judges and wise counselors among you<br/>just like it was back in the beginning.<br/>Then you'll be renamed<br/>City-That-Treats-People-Right, the True-Blue City."


text:
"Your dalliances in those oak grove shrines<br/>will leave you looking mighty foolish,<br/>All that fooling around in god and goddess gardens<br/>that you thought was the latest thing.


text:
You'll end up like an oak tree<br/>with all its leaves falling off,<br/>Like an unwatered garden,<br/>withered and brown.


text:
'The Big Man' will turn out to be dead bark and twigs,<br/>and his 'work,' the spark that starts the fire<br/>That exposes man and work both<br/>as nothing but cinders and smoke."


text:
There's a day coming<br/>when the mountain of God's House<br/>Will be The Mountain—<br/>solid, towering over all mountains.<br/>All nations will river toward it,<br/>people from all over set out for it.


text:
They'll say, "Come,<br/>let's climb God's Mountain,<br/>go to the House of the God of Jacob.<br/>He'll show us the way he works<br/>so we can live the way we're made."<br/>Zion's the source of the revelation.<br/>God's Message comes from Jerusalem.


text:
He'll settle things fairly between nations.<br/>He'll make things right between many peoples.<br/>They'll turn their swords into shovels,<br/>their spears into hoes.<br/>No more will nation fight nation;<br/>they won't play war anymore.


text:
God, you've walked out on your family Jacob<br/>because their world is full of hokey religion,<br/>Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus,


text:
And gods—gods of all sorts and sizes.<br/>These people make their own gods and worship what they make.


text:
Head for the hills,<br/>hide in the caves<br/>From the terror of God,<br/>from his dazzling presence.


text:
People with a big head are headed for a fall,<br/>pretentious egos brought down a peg.<br/>It's God alone at front-and-center<br/>on the Day we're talking about,


text:
The Day that God-of-the-Angel-Armies<br/>is matched against all big-talking rivals,<br/>against all swaggering big names;


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The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,<br/>the pretentious egos brought down to earth,<br/>Leaving God alone at front-and-center<br/>on the Day we're talking about.


text:
Clamber into caves in the cliffs,<br/>duck into any hole you can find.<br/>Hide from the terror of God,<br/>from his dazzling presence,<br/>When he assumes his full stature on earth,<br/>towering and terrifying.


text:
On that Day men and women will take<br/>the sticks and stones<br/>They've decked out in gold and silver<br/>to look like gods and then worshiped,<br/>And they will dump them<br/>in any ditch or gully,


text:
Then run for rock caves<br/>and cliff hideouts<br/>To hide from the terror of God,<br/>from his dazzling presence,<br/>When he assumes his full stature on earth,<br/>towering and terrifying.


text:
Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans,<br/>so full of themselves, so full of hot air!<br/>Can't you see there's nothing to them?


text:
The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>is emptying Jerusalem and Judah<br/>Of all the basic necessities,<br/>plain bread and water to begin with.


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captains and generals,<br/>doctors and nurses,<br/>and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades.


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He says, "I'll put little kids in charge of the city.<br/>Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around.


text:
People will be at each other's throats,<br/>stabbing one another in the back:<br/>Neighbor against neighbor, young against old,<br/>the no-account against the well-respected.


text:
One brother will grab another and say,<br/>'You look like you've got a head on your shoulders.<br/>Do something!<br/>Get us out of this mess.'


text:
"Jerusalem's on its last legs.<br/>Judah is soon down for the count.<br/>Everything people say and do<br/>is at cross-purposes with God,<br/>a slap in my face.


text:
Brazen in their depravity,<br/>they flout their sins like degenerate Sodom.<br/>Doom to their eternal souls! They've made their bed;<br/>now they'll sleep in it.


text:
"Skinny kids terrorize my people.<br/>Silly girls bully them around.<br/>My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley.<br/>They're sending you off on a wild goose chase."


text:
God calls for order in the court,<br/>hauls the leaders of his people into the dock:<br/>"You've played havoc with this country.<br/>Your houses are stuffed with what you've stolen from the poor.


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What is this anyway? Stomping on my people,<br/>grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?"<br/>That's what the Master,<br/>God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.


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God says, "Zion women are stuck-up,<br/>prancing around in their high heels,<br/>Making eyes at all the men in the street,<br/>swinging their hips,<br/>Tossing their hair,<br/>gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry."


text:
The Master will fix it so those Zion women<br/>will all turn bald—<br/>Scabby, bald-headed women.<br/>The Master will do it.


text:
Instead of wearing seductive scents,<br/>these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages;<br/>Instead of modeling flowing gowns,<br/>they'll be sporting rags;<br/>Instead of their stylish hairdos,<br/>scruffy heads;<br/>Instead of beauty marks,<br/>scabs and scars.


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The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted<br/>with people mourning their dead—<br/>A city stooped under the weight of her loss,<br/>brought to her knees by her sorrows.


text:
That will be the day when seven women<br/>will gang up on one man, saying,<br/>"We'll take care of ourselves,<br/>get our own food and clothes.<br/>Just give us a child. Make us pregnant<br/>so we'll have something to live for!"


text:
And that's when God's Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel's survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they'll hold their heads high!


text:
Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as "holy"—alive and therefore precious.


text:
God will give Zion's women a good bath. He'll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.


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Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence,


text:
I'll sing a ballad to the one I love,<br/>a love ballad about his vineyard:<br/>The one I love had a vineyard,<br/>a fine, well-placed vineyard.


text:
He hoed the soil and pulled the weeds,<br/>and planted the very best vines.<br/>He built a lookout, built a winepress,<br/>a vineyard to be proud of.<br/>He looked for a vintage yield of grapes,<br/>but for all his pains he got junk grapes.


text:
"Now listen to what I'm telling you,<br/>you who live in Jerusalem and Judah.<br/>What do you think is going on<br/>between me and my vineyard?


text:
Can you think of anything I could have done<br/>to my vineyard that I didn't do?<br/>When I expected good grapes,<br/>why did I get bitter grapes?


text:
"Well now, let me tell you<br/>what I'll do to my vineyard:<br/>I'll tear down its fence<br/>and let it go to ruin.<br/>I'll knock down the gate<br/>and let it be trampled.


text:
I'll turn it into a patch of weeds, untended, uncared for—<br/>thistles and thorns will take over.<br/>I'll give orders to the clouds:<br/>'Don't rain on that vineyard, ever!' "


text:
Do you get it? The vineyard of God-of-the-Angel-Armies<br/>is the country of Israel.<br/>All the men and women of Judah<br/>are the garden he was so proud of.<br/>He looked for a crop of justice<br/>and saw them murdering each other.<br/>He looked for a harvest of righteousness<br/>and heard only the moans of victims.


text:
Doom to you who buy up all the houses<br/>and grab all the land for yourselves—<br/>Evicting the old owners,<br/>posting no trespassing signs,<br/>Taking over the country,<br/>leaving everyone homeless and landless.


text:
I overheard God-of-the-Angel-Armies say:<br/>"Those mighty houses will end up empty.<br/>Those extravagant estates will be deserted.


text:
Doom to those who get up early<br/>and start drinking booze before breakfast,<br/>Who stay up all hours of the night<br/>drinking themselves into a stupor.


text:
They make sure their banquets are well-furnished<br/>with harps and flutes and plenty of wine,<br/>But they'll have nothing to do with the work of God,<br/>pay no mind to what he is doing.


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Therefore my people will end up in exile<br/>because they don't know the score.<br/>Their "big men" will starve to death<br/>and the common people die of thirst.


text:
Sheol developed a huge appetite,<br/>swallowing people nonstop!<br/>Big people and little people alike<br/>down that gullet, to say nothing of all the drunks.


text:
The down-and-out on a par<br/>with the high-and-mighty,<br/>Windbag boasters crumpled,<br/>flaccid as a punctured bladder.


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But by working justice,<br/>God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be a mountain.<br/>By working righteousness,<br/>Holy God will show what "holy" is.


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And lambs will graze<br/>as if they owned the place,<br/>Kids and calves<br/>right at home in the ruins.


text:
Who say, "What's God waiting for?<br/>Let him get a move on so we can see it.<br/>Whatever The Holy of Israel has cooked up,<br/>we'd like to check it out."


text:
Doom to you who call evil good<br/>and good evil,<br/>Who put darkness in place of light<br/>and light in place of darkness,<br/>Who substitute bitter for sweet<br/>and sweet for bitter!


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And then line your pockets with bribes from the guilty<br/>while you violate the rights of the innocent.


text:
But they won't get by with it. As fire eats stubble<br/>and dry grass goes up in smoke,<br/>Their souls will atrophy,<br/>their achievements crumble into dust,<br/>Because they said no to the revelation<br/>of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>Would have nothing to do<br/>with The Holy of Israel.


text:
That's why God flamed out in anger against his people,<br/>reached out and knocked them down.<br/>The mountains trembled<br/>as their dead bodies piled up in the streets.<br/>But even after that, he was still angry,<br/>his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.


text:
He raises a flag, signaling a distant nation,<br/>whistles for people at the ends of the earth.<br/>And here they come—<br/>on the run!


text:
None drag their feet, no one stumbles,<br/>no one sleeps or dawdles.<br/>Shirts are on and pants buckled,<br/>every boot is spit-polished and tied.


text:
Their arrows are sharp,<br/>bows strung,<br/>The hooves of their horses shod,<br/>chariot wheels greased.


text:
Roaring like a pride of lions,<br/>the full-throated roars of young lions,<br/>They growl and seize their prey,<br/>dragging it off—no rescue for that one!


text:
They'll roar and roar and roar on that Day,<br/>like the roar of ocean billows.<br/>Look as long and hard as you like at that land,<br/>you'll see nothing but darkness and trouble.<br/>Every light in the sky<br/>will be blacked out by the clouds.


text:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!—and the train of his robes filled the Temple.


text:
Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew.


text:
And they called back and forth one to the other,<br/>Holy, Holy, Holy is God-of-the-Angel-Armies.<br/>His bright glory fills the whole earth.


text:
The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and then the whole house filled with smoke.


text:
I said,<br/>"Doom! It's Doomsday!<br/>I'm as good as dead!<br/>Every word I've ever spoken is tainted—<br/>blasphemous even!<br/>And the people I live with talk the same way,<br/>using words that corrupt and desecrate.<br/>And here I've looked God in the face!<br/>The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies!"


text:
Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.


text:
He touched my mouth with the coal and said,<br/>"Look. This coal has touched your lips.<br/>Gone your guilt,<br/>your sins wiped out."


text:
And then I heard the voice of the Master:<br/>"Whom shall I send?<br/>Who will go for us?"<br/>I spoke up,<br/>"I'll go.<br/>Send me!"


text:
He said, "Go and tell this people:<br/>" 'Listen hard, but you aren't going to get it;<br/>look hard, but you won't catch on.'


text:
Make these people blockheads,<br/>with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes,<br/>So they won't see a thing,<br/>won't hear a word,<br/>So they won't have a clue about what's going on<br/>and, yes, so they won't turn around and be made whole."


text:
Astonished, I said,<br/>"And Master, how long is this to go on?"<br/>He said, "Until the cities are emptied out,<br/>not a soul left in the cities—<br/>Houses empty of people,<br/>countryside empty of people.


text:
And even if some should survive, say a tenth,<br/>the devastation will start up again.<br/>The country will look like pine and oak forest<br/>with every tree cut down—<br/>Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps.<br/>But there's a holy seed in those stumps."


text:
During the time that Ahaz son of Jothan, son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel attacked Jerusalem, but the attack sputtered out.


text:
When the Davidic government learned that Aram had joined forces with Ephraim (that is, Israel), Ahaz and his people were badly shaken. They shook like trees in the wind.


text:
Then God told Isaiah, "Go and meet Ahaz. Take your son Shear-jashub (A-Remnant-Will-Return) with you. Meet him south of the city at the end of the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry.


text:
Tell him, Listen, calm down. Don't be afraid. And don't panic over these two burnt-out cases, Rezin of Aram and the son of Remaliah. They talk big but there's nothing to them.


text:
Aram, along with Ephraim's son of Remaliah, have plotted to do you harm. They've conspired against you, saying,


text:
'Let's go to war against Judah, dismember it, take it for ourselves, and set the son of Tabeel up as a puppet king over it.'


text:
Because the capital of Aram is Damascus<br/>and the king of Damascus is a mere man, Rezin.<br/>As for Ephraim, in sixty-five years<br/>it will be rubble, nothing left of it.


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The capital of Ephraim is Samaria,<br/>and the king of Samaria is the mere son of Remaliah.<br/>If you don't take your stand in faith,<br/>you won't have a leg to stand on."


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So Isaiah told him, "Then listen to this, government of David! It's bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you're making God tired.


text:
So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She'll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us).


text:
the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture.


text:
But also be warned: God will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!"


text:
That's when God will whistle for the flies at the headwaters of Egypt's Nile, and whistle for the bees in the land of Assyria.


text:
They'll come and infest every nook and cranny of this country. There'll be no getting away from them.


text:
And that's when the Master will take the razor rented from across the Euphrates—the king of Assyria no less!—and shave the hair off your heads and genitals, leaving you shamed, exposed, and denuded. He'll shave off your beards while he's at it.


text:
At least they'll have plenty of milk! Whoever's left in the land will learn to make do with the simplest foods—curds, say, and honey.


text:
But that's not the end of it. This country that used to be covered with fine vineyards—thousands of them, worth millions!—will revert to a weed patch.


text:
Cattle and sheep will forage as best they can in the fields of weeds—but there won't be a trace of all those fertile and well-tended gardens and fields.


text:
Then God told me, "Get a big sheet of paper and write in indelible ink, 'This belongs to Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Spoil-Speeds-Plunder-Hurries).' "


text:
Then I went home to my wife, the prophetess. She conceived and gave birth to a son.<br/>God told me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.


text:
Before that baby says 'Daddy' or 'Mamma' the king of Assyria will have plundered the wealth of Damascus and the riches of Samaria."


text:
"Because this people has turned its back<br/>on the gently flowing stream of Shiloah<br/>And gotten all excited over Rezin<br/>and the son of Remaliah,


text:
I'm stepping in and facing them with<br/>the wild floodwaters of the Euphrates,<br/>The king of Assyria and all his fanfare,<br/>a river in flood, bursting its banks,


text:
Pouring into Judah, sweeping everything before it,<br/>water up to your necks,<br/>A huge wingspan of a raging river,<br/>O Immanuel, spreading across your land."


text:
But face the facts, all you oppressors, and then wring your hands.<br/>Listen, all of you, far and near.<br/>Prepare for the worst and wring your hands.<br/>Yes, prepare for the worst and wring your hands!


text:
Plan and plot all you want—nothing will come of it.<br/>All your talk is mere talk, empty words,<br/>Because when all is said and done,<br/>the last word is Immanuel—God-With-Us.


text:
God spoke strongly to me, grabbed me with both hands and warned me not to go along with this people. He said:


text:
"Don't be like this people,<br/>always afraid somebody is plotting against them.<br/>Don't fear what they fear.<br/>Don't take on their worries.


text:
The Holy can be either a Hiding Place<br/>or a Boulder blocking your way,<br/>The Rock standing in the willful way<br/>of both houses of Israel,<br/>A barbed-wire Fence preventing trespass<br/>to the citizens of Jerusalem.


text:
Many of them are going to run into that Rock<br/>and get their bones broken,<br/>Get tangled up in that barbed wire<br/>and not get free of it."


text:
I stand my ground and hope,<br/>I and the children God gave me as signs to Israel,<br/>Warning signs and hope signs from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>who makes his home in Mount Zion.


text:
When people tell you, "Try out the fortunetellers.<br/>Consult the spiritualists.<br/>Why not tap into the spirit-world,<br/>get in touch with the dead?"


text:
Tell them, "No, we're going to study the Scriptures."<br/>People who try the other ways get nowhere—a dead end!


text:
Frustrated and famished,<br/>they try one thing after another.<br/>When nothing works out they get angry,<br/>cursing first this god and then that one,<br/>Looking this way and that,


text:
up, down, and sideways—and seeing nothing,<br/>A blank wall, an empty hole.<br/>They end up in the dark with nothing.


text:
But there'll be no darkness for those who were in trouble. Earlier he did bring the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali into disrepute, but the time is coming when he'll make that whole area glorious—the road along the Sea, the country past the Jordan, international Galilee.


text:
The people who walked in darkness<br/>have seen a great light.<br/>For those who lived in a land of deep shadows—<br/>light! sunbursts of light!


text:
You repopulated the nation,<br/>you expanded its joy.<br/>Oh, they're so glad in your presence!<br/>Festival joy!<br/>The joy of a great celebration,<br/>sharing rich gifts and warm greetings.


text:
The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants—<br/>all their whips and cudgels and curses—<br/>Is gone, done away with, a deliverance<br/>as surprising and sudden as Gideon's old victory over Midian.


text:
The boots of all those invading troops,<br/>along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood,<br/>Will be piled in a heap and burned,<br/>a fire that will burn for days!


text:
For a child has been born—for us!<br/>the gift of a son—for us!<br/>He'll take over<br/>the running of the world.<br/>His names will be: Amazing Counselor,<br/>Strong God,<br/>Eternal Father,<br/>Prince of Wholeness.


text:
His ruling authority will grow,<br/>and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.<br/>He'll rule from the historic David throne<br/>over that promised kingdom.<br/>He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing<br/>and keep it going<br/>With fair dealing and right living,<br/>beginning now and lasting always.<br/>The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies<br/>will do all this.


text:
All the people soon heard the message,<br/>Ephraim and the citizens of Samaria.<br/>But they were a proud and arrogant bunch.<br/>They dismissed the message, saying,


text:
"Things aren't that bad.<br/>We can handle anything that comes.<br/>If our buildings are knocked down,<br/>we'll rebuild them bigger and finer.<br/>If our forests are cut down,<br/>we'll replant them with finer trees."


text:
From the east, Arameans; from the west, Philistines.<br/>They made hash of Israel.<br/>But even after that, he was still angry,<br/>his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.


text:
Those who were supposed to lead this people<br/>led them down blind alleys,<br/>And those who followed the leaders<br/>ended up lost and confused.


text:
That's why the Master lost interest in the young men,<br/>had no feeling for their orphans and widows.<br/>All of them were godless and evil,<br/>talking filth and folly.<br/>And even after that, he was still angry,<br/>his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.


text:
Their wicked lives raged like an out-of-control fire,<br/>the kind that burns everything in its path—<br/>Trees and bushes, weeds and grasses—<br/>filling the skies with smoke.


text:
God-of-the-Angel-Armies answered fire with fire,<br/>set the whole country on fire,<br/>Turned the people into consuming fires,<br/>consuming one another in their lusts—


text:
Appetites insatiable, stuffing and gorging<br/>themselves left and right with people and things.<br/>But still they starved. Not even their children<br/>were safe from their rapacious hunger.


text:
Manasseh ate Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,<br/>and then the two ganged up against Judah.<br/>And after that, he was still angry,<br/>his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.


text:
Laws that make misery for the poor,<br/>that rob my destitute people of dignity,<br/>Exploiting defenseless widows,<br/>taking advantage of homeless children.


text:
What will you have to say on Judgment Day,<br/>when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?<br/>Who will you get to help you?<br/>What good will your money do you?


text:
A sorry sight you'll be then, huddled with the prisoners,<br/>or just some corpses stacked in the street.<br/>Even after all this, God is still angry,<br/>his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.


text:
I send him against a godless nation,<br/>against the people I'm angry with.<br/>I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind,<br/>and then push their faces in the mud and leave them.


text:
But Assyria has another agenda;<br/>he has something else in mind.<br/>He's out to destroy utterly,<br/>to stamp out as many nations as he can.


text:
Didn't I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish?<br/>Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus?


text:
I've eliminated kingdoms full of gods<br/>far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria.


text:
So what's to keep me from destroying Jerusalem<br/>in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?' "


text:
When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he'll say, "Now it's Assyria's turn. I'll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing,


text:
the way he goes around saying,<br/>" 'I've done all this by myself.<br/>I know more than anyone.<br/>I've wiped out the boundaries of whole countries.<br/>I've walked in and taken anything I wanted.<br/>I charged in like a bull<br/>and toppled their kings from their thrones.


text:
I reached out my hand and took all that they treasured<br/>as easily as a boy taking a bird's eggs from a nest.<br/>Like a farmer gathering eggs from the henhouse,<br/>I gathered the world in my basket,<br/>And no one so much as fluttered a wing<br/>or squawked or even chirped.' "


text:
Does an ax take over from the one who swings it?<br/>Does a saw act more important than the sawyer?<br/>As if a shovel did its shoveling by using a ditch digger!<br/>As if a hammer used the carpenter to pound nails!


text:
Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>will send a debilitating disease on his robust Assyrian fighters.<br/>Under the canopy of God's bright glory<br/>a fierce fire will break out.


text:
Israel's Light will burst into a conflagration.<br/>The Holy will explode into a firestorm,<br/>And in one day burn to cinders<br/>every last Assyrian thornbush.


text:
God will destroy the splendid trees and lush gardens.<br/>The Assyrian body and soul will waste away to nothing<br/>like a disease-ridden invalid.


text:
And on that Day also, what's left of Israel, the ragtag survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They'll lean on God, The Holy—yes, truly.


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Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness.


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Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: "My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don't be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did.


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I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o'-nine-tails and finish them off decisively—as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt.


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On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck."<br/>Assyria's on the move: up from Rimmon,


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They've crossed the pass,<br/>set camp at Geba for the night.<br/>Ramah trembles with fright.<br/>Gibeah of Saul has run off.


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The enemy's soon at Nob—nearly there!<br/>In sight of the city he shakes his fist<br/>At the mount of dear daughter Zion,<br/>the hill of Jerusalem.


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But now watch this: The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>swings his ax and lops the branches,<br/>Chops down the giant trees,<br/>lays flat the towering forest-on-the-march.


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The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him,<br/>the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding,<br/>The Spirit that gives direction and builds strength,<br/>the Spirit that instills knowledge and Fear-of-God.


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Fear-of-God<br/>will be all his joy and delight.<br/>He won't judge by appearances,<br/>won't decide on the basis of hearsay.


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He'll judge the needy by what is right,<br/>render decisions on earth's poor with justice.<br/>His words will bring everyone to awed attention.<br/>A mere breath from his lips will topple the wicked.


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Each morning he'll pull on sturdy work clothes and boots,<br/>and build righteousness and faithfulness in the land.


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The wolf will romp with the lamb,<br/>the leopard sleep with the kid.<br/>Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,<br/>and a little child will tend them.


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Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,<br/>their calves and cubs grow up together,<br/>and the lion eat straw like the ox.


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The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,<br/>the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.


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Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill<br/>on my holy mountain.<br/>The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,<br/>a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.


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On that day, Jesse's Root will be raised high, posted as a rallying banner for the peoples. The nations will all come to him. His headquarters will be glorious.


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Also on that day, the Master for the second time will reach out to bring back what's left of his scattered people. He'll bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Sinar, Hamath, and the ocean islands.


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And he'll raise that rallying banner high, visible to all nations,<br/>gather in all the scattered exiles of Israel,<br/>Pull in all the dispersed refugees of Judah<br/>from the four winds and the seven seas.


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The jealousy of Ephraim will dissolve,<br/>the hostility of Judah will vanish—<br/>Ephraim no longer the jealous rival of Judah,<br/>Judah no longer the hostile rival of Ephraim!


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Blood brothers united, they'll pounce on the Philistines in the west,<br/>join forces to plunder the people in the east.<br/>They'll attack Edom and Moab.<br/>The Ammonites will fall into line.


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God will once again dry up Egypt's Red Sea,<br/>making for an easy crossing.<br/>He'll send a blistering wind<br/>down on the great River Euphrates,<br/>Reduce it to seven mere trickles.<br/>None even need get their feet wet!


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In the end there'll be a highway all the way from Assyria,<br/>easy traveling for what's left of God's people—<br/>A highway just like the one Israel had<br/>when he marched up out of Egypt.


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And you will say in that day,<br/>"I thank you, God.<br/>You were angry<br/>but your anger wasn't forever.<br/>You withdrew your anger<br/>and moved in and comforted me.


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"Yes, indeed—God is my salvation.<br/>I trust, I won't be afraid.<br/>God—yes God!—is my strength and song,<br/>best of all, my salvation!"


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And as you do it, you'll say,<br/>"Give thanks to God.<br/>Call out his name.<br/>Ask him anything!<br/>Shout to the nations, tell them what he's done,<br/>spread the news of his great reputation!


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Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion!<br/>The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel."


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"Run up a flag on an open hill.<br/>Yell loud. Get their attention.<br/>Wave them into formation.<br/>Direct them to the nerve center of power.


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I've taken charge of my special forces,<br/>called up my crack troops.<br/>They're bursting with pride and passion<br/>to carry out my angry judgment."


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Thunder rolls off the mountains<br/>like a mob huge and noisy—<br/>Thunder of kingdoms in an uproar,<br/>nations assembling for war.<br/>God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling<br/>his army into battle formation.


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They come from far-off countries,<br/>they pour in across the horizon.<br/>It's God on the move with the weapons of his wrath,<br/>ready to destroy the whole country.


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and unstrung,<br/>Doubled up in pain<br/>like a woman giving birth to a baby.<br/>Horrified—everyone they see<br/>is like a face out of a nightmare.


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"Watch now. God's Judgment Day comes.<br/>Cruel it is, a day of wrath and anger,<br/>A day to waste the earth<br/>and clean out all the sinners.


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The stars in the sky, the great parade of constellations,<br/>will be nothing but black holes.<br/>The sun will come up as a black disk,<br/>and the moon a blank nothing.


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I'll put a full stop to the evil on earth,<br/>terminate the dark acts of the wicked.<br/>I'll gag all braggarts and boasters—not a peep anymore from them—<br/>and trip strutting tyrants, leave them flat on their faces.


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And yes, I'll even make the sky shake,<br/>and the earth quake to its roots<br/>Under the wrath of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>the Judgment Day of his raging anger.


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Like a hunted white-tailed deer,<br/>like lost sheep with no shepherd,<br/>People will huddle with a few of their own kind,<br/>run off to some makeshift shelter.


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Babies smashed on the rocks<br/>while mothers and fathers watch,<br/>Houses looted,<br/>wives raped.


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"And now watch this:<br/>Against Babylon, I'm inciting the Medes,<br/>A ruthless bunch indifferent to bribes,<br/>the kind of brutality that no one can blunt.


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And Babylon, most glorious of all kingdoms,<br/>the pride and joy of Chaldeans,<br/>Will end up smoking and stinking like Sodom,<br/>and, yes, like Gomorrah, when God had finished with them.


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No one will live there anymore,<br/>generation after generation a ghost town.<br/>Not even Bedouins will pitch tents there.<br/>Shepherds will give it a wide berth.


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But strange and wild animals will like it just fine,<br/>filling the vacant houses with eerie night sounds.<br/>Skunks will make it their home,<br/>and unspeakable night hags will haunt it.


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Hyenas will curdle your blood with their laughing,<br/>and the howling of coyotes will give you the shivers.<br/>"Babylon is doomed.<br/>It won't be long now."


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But not so with Jacob. God will have compassion on Jacob. Once again he'll choose Israel. He'll establish them in their own country. Outsiders will be attracted and throw their lot in with Jacob.


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The nations among whom they lived will actually escort them back home, and then Israel will pay them back by making slaves of them, men and women alike, possessing them as slaves in God's country, capturing those who had captured them, ruling over those who had abused them.


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When God has given you time to recover from the abuse and trouble and harsh servitude that you had to endure,


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you can amuse yourselves by taking up this satire, a taunt against the king of Babylon:<br/>Can you believe it? The tyrant is gone!<br/>The tyranny is over!


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That crushed many people.<br/>A relentless rain of cruel outrage<br/>Established a violent rule of anger<br/>rife with torture and persecution.


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Ponderosa pine trees are happy,<br/>giant Lebanon cedars are relieved, saying,<br/>"Since you've been cut down,<br/>there's no one around to cut us down."


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And the underworld dead are all excited,<br/>preparing to welcome you when you come.<br/>Getting ready to greet you are the ghostly dead,<br/>all the famous names of earth.<br/>All the buried kings of the nations<br/>will stand up on their thrones


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With well-prepared speeches,<br/>royal invitations to death:<br/>"Now you are as nothing as we are!<br/>Make yourselves at home with us dead folks!"


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This is where your pomp and fine music led you, Babylon,<br/>to your underworld private chambers,<br/>A king-size mattress of maggots for repose<br/>and a quilt of crawling worms for warmth.


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What a comedown this, O Babylon!<br/>Daystar! Son of Dawn!<br/>Flat on your face in the underworld mud,<br/>you, famous for flattening nations!


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You said to yourself,<br/>"I'll climb to heaven.<br/>I'll set my throne<br/>over the stars of God.<br/>I'll run the assembly of angels<br/>that meets on sacred Mount Zaphon.


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But you didn't make it, did you?<br/>Instead of climbing up, you came down—<br/>Down with the underground dead,<br/>down to the abyss of the Pit.


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But you're dumped in a ditch unburied,<br/>like a stray dog or cat,<br/>Covered with rotting bodies,<br/>murdered and indigent corpses.<br/>Your dead body desecrated, mutilated—


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no state funeral for you!<br/>You've left your land in ruins,<br/>left a legacy of massacre.<br/>The progeny of your evil life<br/>will never be named. Oblivion!


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Get a place ready to slaughter the sons of the wicked<br/>and wipe out their father's line.<br/>Unthinkable that they should own a square foot of land<br/>or desecrate the face of the world with their cities!


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"I will confront them"—Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies— "and strip Babylon of name and survivors, children and grandchildren.


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" God's Decree. "I'll make it a worthless swamp and give it as a prize to the hedgehog. And then I'll bulldoze it out of existence." Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


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God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:<br/>"Exactly as I planned,<br/>it will happen.<br/>Following my blueprints,<br/>it will take shape.


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I will shatter the Assyrian who trespasses my land<br/>and stomp him into the dirt on my mountains.<br/>I will ban his taking and making of slaves<br/>and lift the weight of oppression from all shoulders."


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This is the plan,<br/>planned for the whole earth,<br/>And this is the hand that will do it,<br/>reaching into every nation.


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God-of-the-Angel-Armies has planned it.<br/>Who could ever cancel such plans?<br/>His is the hand that's reached out.<br/>Who could brush it aside?


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Hold it, Philistines! It's too soon to celebrate<br/>the defeat of your cruel oppressor.<br/>From the death throes of that snake a worse snake will come,<br/>and from that, one even worse.


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The poor won't have to worry.<br/>The needy will escape the terror.<br/>But you Philistines will be plunged into famine,<br/>and those who don't starve, God will kill.


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Wail and howl, proud city!<br/>Fall prostrate in fear, Philistia!<br/>On the northern horizon, smoke from burned cities,<br/>the wake of a brutal, disciplined destroyer.


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What does one say to<br/>outsiders who ask questions?<br/>Tell them, "God has established Zion.<br/>Those in need and in trouble find refuge in her."


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A Message concerning Moab:<br/>Village Ar of Moab is in ruins,<br/>destroyed in a night raid.<br/>Village Kir of Moab is in ruins,<br/>destroyed in a night raid.


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Village Dibon climbs to its chapel in the hills,<br/>goes up to lament.<br/>Moab weeps and wails<br/>over Nebo and Medba.<br/>Every head is shaved bald,<br/>every beard shaved clean.


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They pour into the streets wearing black,<br/>go up on the roofs, take to the town square,<br/>Everyone in tears,<br/>everyone in grief.


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Towns Heshbon and Elealeh cry long and loud.<br/>The sound carries as far as Jahaz.<br/>Moab sobs, shaking in grief.<br/>The soul of Moab trembles.


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Oh, how I grieve for Moab!<br/>Refugees stream to Zoar<br/>and then on to Eglath-shelishiyah.<br/>Up the slopes of Luhith they weep;<br/>on the road to Horonaim they cry their loss.


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They leave, carrying all their possessions<br/>on their backs, everything they own,<br/>Making their way as best they can<br/>across Willow Creek to safety.


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Poignant cries reverberate<br/>all through Moab,<br/>Gut-wrenching sobs as far as Eglaim,<br/>heart-racking sobs all the way to Beer-elim.


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The banks of the Dibon crest with blood,<br/>but God has worse in store for Dibon:<br/>A lion—a lion to finish off the fugitives,<br/>to clean up whoever's left in the land.


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"Dispatch a gift of lambs," says Moab,<br/>"to the leaders in Jerusalem—<br/>Lambs from Sela sent across the desert<br/>to buy the goodwill of Jerusalem.


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The towns and people of Moab<br/>are at a loss,<br/>New-hatched birds knocked from the nest,<br/>fluttering helplessly<br/>At the banks of the Arnon River,<br/>unable to cross:


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Give the refugees from Moab<br/>sanctuary with you.<br/>Be a safe place for those on the run<br/>from the killing fields.' "<br/>"When this is all over," Judah answers,<br/>"the tyrant toppled,<br/>The killing at an end,<br/>all signs of these cruelties long gone,


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A new government of love will be established<br/>in the venerable David tradition.<br/>A Ruler you can depend upon<br/>will head this government,<br/>A Ruler passionate for justice,<br/>a Ruler quick to set things right."


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We've heard—everyone's heard!—of Moab's pride,<br/>world-famous for pride—<br/>Arrogant, self-important, insufferable,<br/>full of hot air.


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So now let Moab lament for a change,<br/>with antiphonal mock-laments from the neighbors!<br/>What a shame! How terrible!<br/>No more fine fruitcakes and Kir-hareseth candies!


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All those lush Heshbon fields dried up,<br/>the rich Sibmah vineyards withered!<br/>Foreign thugs have crushed and torn out<br/>the famous grapevines<br/>That once reached all the way to Jazer,<br/>right to the edge of the desert,<br/>Ripped out the crops in every direction<br/>as far as the eye can see.


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I'll join the weeping. I'll weep right along with Jazer,<br/>weep for the Sibmah vineyards.<br/>And yes, Heshbon and Elealeh,<br/>I'll mingle my tears with your tears!<br/>The joyful shouting at harvest is gone.<br/>Instead of song and celebration, dead silence.


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No more boisterous laughter in the orchards,<br/>no more hearty work songs in the vineyards.<br/>Instead of the bustle and sound of good work in the fields,<br/>silence—deathly and deadening silence.


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When Moab trudges to the shrine to pray,<br/>he wastes both time and energy.<br/>Going to the sanctuary and praying for relief<br/>is useless. Nothing ever happens.


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God's updated Message is, "In three years, no longer than the term of an enlisted soldier, Moab's impressive presence will be gone, that splendid hot-air balloon will be punctured, and instead of a vigorous population, just a few shuffling bums cadging handouts."


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A Message concerning Damascus:<br/>"Watch this: Damascus undone as a city,<br/>a pile of dust and rubble!


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Her towns emptied of people.<br/>The sheep and goats will move in<br/>And take over the towns<br/>as if they owned them—which they will!


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Not a sign of a fort is left in Ephraim,<br/>not a trace of government left in Damascus.<br/>What's left of Aram?<br/>The same as what's left of Israel—not much."<br/>Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


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The country will be left empty, picked clean<br/>as a field harvested by field hands.<br/>She'll be like a few stalks of barley left standing<br/>in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest,


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Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked<br/>in the top of the olive tree,<br/>Or the four or five apples<br/>that the pickers couldn't reach in the orchard."<br/>Decree of the God of Israel.


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Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel.


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They'll lose interest in all the stuff they've made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is.


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And yes, the Day is coming when their fortress cities will be abandoned—the very same cities that the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when Israel invaded! And the country will be empty, desolate.


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And why? Because you have forgotten God-Your-Salvation,<br/>not remembered your Rock-of-Refuge.<br/>And so, even though you are very religious,<br/>planting all sorts of bushes and herbs and trees<br/>to honor and influence your fertility gods,


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And even though you make them grow so well,<br/>bursting with buds and sprouts and blossoms,<br/>Nothing will come of them. Instead of a harvest<br/>you'll get nothing but grief and pain, pain, pain.


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Oh my! Thunder! A thundering herd of people!<br/>Thunder like the crashing of ocean waves!<br/>Nations roaring, roaring,<br/>like the roar of a massive waterfall,


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Roaring like a deafening Niagara!<br/>But God will silence them with a word,<br/>And then he'll blow them away like dead leaves off a tree,<br/>like down from a thistle.


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At bedtime, terror fills the air.<br/>By morning it's gone—not a sign of it anywhere!<br/>This is what happens to those who would ruin us,<br/>this is the fate of those out to get us.


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Shipping emissaries all over the world,<br/>down rivers and across seas.<br/>Go, swift messengers,<br/>go to this people tall and handsome,<br/>This people held in respect everywhere,<br/>this people mighty and merciless,<br/>from the land crisscrossed with rivers.


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Everybody everywhere,<br/>all earth-dwellers:<br/>When you see a flag flying on the mountain, look!<br/>When you hear the trumpet blown, listen!


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For here's what God told me:<br/>"I'm not going to say anything,<br/>but simply look on from where I live,<br/>Quiet as warmth that comes from the sun,<br/>silent as dew during harvest."


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And then, just before harvest, after the blossom<br/>has turned into a maturing grape,<br/>He'll step in and prune back the new shoots,<br/>ruthlessly hack off all the growing branches.


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He'll leave them piled on the ground<br/>for birds and animals to feed on—<br/>Fodder for the summering birds,<br/>fodder for the wintering animals.


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Then tribute will be brought to God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>brought from this people tall and handsome,<br/>This people once held in respect everywhere,<br/>this people once mighty and merciless,<br/>From the land crisscrossed with rivers,<br/>to Mount Zion, God's place.


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A Message concerning Egypt:<br/>Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud,<br/>moving in on Egypt!<br/>The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake,<br/>Egyptians paralyzed by panic.


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God says, "I'll make Egyptian fight Egyptian,<br/>brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor,<br/>City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom—<br/>anarchy and chaos and killing!


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I'll knock the wind out of the Egyptians.<br/>They won't know coming from going.<br/>They'll go to their god-idols for answers;<br/>they'll conjure ghosts and hold s-ances, desperate for answers.


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But I'll turn the Egyptians<br/>over to a tyrant most cruel.<br/>I'll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king."<br/>Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


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The canals will become stagnant and stink,<br/>every stream touching the Nile dry up.<br/>River vegetation will rot away


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the banks of the Nile-baked clay,<br/>The riverbed hard and smooth,<br/>river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.


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The princes of Zoan are fools,<br/>the advisors of Pharaoh stupid.<br/>How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh,<br/>"Trust me: I'm wise. I know what's going on.<br/>Why, I'm descended from the old wisdom of Egypt"?


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There's not a wise man or woman left in the country.<br/>If there were, one of them would tell you<br/>what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt.


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As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools<br/>and the princes of Memphis, dunces.<br/>The honored pillars of your society<br/>have led Egypt into detours and dead ends.


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On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


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Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say "Judah" to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies' plan against Egypt.


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On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title "City of the Sun."


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On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border.


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It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he'll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them.


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God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they'll get to know him on that Day. They'll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They'll make vows and keep them.


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God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.


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On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they'll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians!


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On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center.


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God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: "Blessed be Egypt, my people!... Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands!... Blessed be Israel, my heritage!"


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In the year the field commander, sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought and took it,


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God told Isaiah son of Amoz, "Go, take off your clothes and sandals," and Isaiah did it, going about naked and barefooted.


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Then God said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around town naked and barefooted for three years as a warning sign to Egypt and Ethiopia,


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so the king of Assyria is going to come and take the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles. He'll take young and old alike and march them out of there naked and barefooted, exposed to mockery and jeers—the bared buttocks of Egypt on parade!


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Everyone who lives along this coast will say, 'Look at them! Naked and barefooted, shuffling off to exile! And we thought they were our best hope, that they'd rescue us from the king of Assyria. Now what's going to happen to us? How are we going to get out of this?' "


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A Message concerning the desert at the sea:<br/>As tempests drive through the Negev Desert,<br/>coming out of the desert, that terror-filled place,


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A hard vision is given me:<br/>The betrayer betrayed, the plunderer plundered.<br/>Attack, Elam!<br/>Lay siege, Media!<br/>Persians, attack!<br/>Attack, Babylon!<br/>I'll put an end to<br/>all the moaning and groaning.


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Because of this news I'm doubled up in pain,<br/>writhing in pain like a woman having a baby,<br/>Baffled by what I hear,<br/>undone by what I see.


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Absolutely stunned,<br/>horror-stricken,<br/>I had hoped for a relaxed evening,<br/>but it has turned into a nightmare.


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The banquet is spread,<br/>the guests reclining in luxurious ease,<br/>Eating and drinking, having a good time,<br/>and then, "To arms, princes! The fight is on!"


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When he sees horses and wagons in battle formation,<br/>lines of donkeys and columns of camels,<br/>Tell him to keep his ear to the ground,<br/>note every whisper, every rumor."


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Just then, the lookout shouted,<br/>"I'm at my post, Master,<br/>Sticking to my post day after day<br/>and all through the night!


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I watched them come,<br/>the horses and wagons in battle formation.<br/>I heard them call out the war news in headlines:<br/>'Babylon fallen! Fallen!<br/>And all its precious god-idols<br/>smashed to pieces on the ground.' "


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Dear Israel, you've been through a lot,<br/>you've been put through the mill.<br/>The good news I get from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>the God of Israel, I now pass on to you.


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A Message concerning Edom:<br/>A voice calls to me<br/>from the Seir mountains in Edom,<br/>"Night watchman! How long till daybreak?<br/>How long will this night last?"


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The night watchman calls back,<br/>"Morning's coming,<br/>But for now it's still night.<br/>If you ask me again, I'll give the same answer."


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A Message concerning Arabia:<br/>You'll have to camp out in the desert badlands,<br/>you caravans of Dedanites.


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Haul water to the thirsty,<br/>greet fugitives with bread.<br/>Show your desert hospitality,<br/>you who live in Tema.


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The Master told me, "Hang on. Within one year—I'll sign a contract on it!—the arrogant brutality of Kedar, those hooligans of the desert, will be over,


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A Message concerning the Valley of Vision:<br/>What's going on here anyway?<br/>All this partying and noisemaking,


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You have no brave soldiers to honor,<br/>no combat heroes to be proud of.<br/>Your leaders were all cowards,<br/>captured without even lifting a sword,<br/>A country of cowards<br/>captured escaping the battle.


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In the midst of the shouting, I said, "Let me alone.<br/>Let me grieve by myself.<br/>Don't tell me it's going to be all right.<br/>These people are doomed. It's not all right."


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For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>is bringing a day noisy with mobs of people,<br/>Jostling and stampeding in the Valley of Vision,<br/>knocking down walls<br/>and hollering to the mountains, "Attack! Attack!"


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God has left Judah exposed and defenseless.<br/>You assessed your defenses that Day, inspected your arsenal of weapons in the Forest Armory.


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You found the weak places in the city walls that needed repair. You secured the water supply at the Lower Pool.


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You took an inventory of the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some to get bricks to fortify the city wall.


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You built a large cistern to ensure plenty of water.<br/>You looked and looked and looked, but you never looked to him who gave you this city, never once consulted the One who has long had plans for this city.


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The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>called out on that Day,<br/>Called for a day of repentant tears,<br/>called you to dress in somber clothes of mourning.


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But what do you do? You throw a party!<br/>Eating and drinking and dancing in the streets!<br/>You barbecue bulls and sheep, and throw a huge feast—<br/>slabs of meat, kegs of beer.<br/>"Seize the day! Eat and drink!<br/>Tomorrow we die!"


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God-of-the-Angel-Armies whispered to me his verdict on this frivolity: "You'll pay for this outrage until the day you die." The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says so.


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The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, spoke: "Come. Go to this steward, Shebna, who is in charge of all the king's affairs, and tell him:


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What's going on here? You're an outsider here and yet you act like you own the place, make a big, fancy tomb for yourself where everyone can see it, making sure everyone will think you're important.


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swing you round and round dizzyingly, and then let you go, sailing through the air like a ball, until you're out of sight. Where you'll land, nobody knows. And there you'll die, and all the stuff you've collected heaped on your grave. You've disgraced your master's house!


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I'll dress him in your robe. I'll put your belt on him. I'll give him your authority. He'll be a father-leader to Jerusalem and the government of Judah.


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I'll give him the key of the Davidic heritage. He'll have the run of the place—open any door and keep it open, lock any door and keep it locked.


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Everything will hang on him—not only the fate of Davidic descendants but also the detailed daily operations of the house, including cups and cutlery.


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"And then the Day will come," says God-of-the-Angel-Armies, "when that nail will come loose and fall out, break loose from that solid wall—and everything hanging on it will go with it." That's what will happen. God says so.


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Wail, ships of Tarshish,<br/>your strong seaports all in ruins!<br/>When the ships returned from Cyprus,<br/>they saw the destruction.


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Hold your tongue, you who live on the seacoast,<br/>merchants of Sidon.<br/>Your people sailed the deep seas,<br/>buying and selling,


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Hang your head in shame, Sidon. The Sea speaks up,<br/>the powerhouse of the ocean says,<br/>"I've never had labor pains, never had a baby,<br/>never reared children to adulthood,<br/>Never gave life, never worked with life.<br/>It was all numbers, dead numbers, profit and loss."


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Visit Tarshish, you who live on the seacoast.<br/>Take a good, long look and wail—yes, cry buckets of tears!


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Is this the city you remember as energetic and alive,<br/>bustling with activity, this historic old city,<br/>Expanding throughout the globe,<br/>buying and selling all over the world?


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And who is behind the collapse of Tyre,<br/>the Tyre that controlled the world markets?<br/>Tyre's merchants were the business tycoons.<br/>Tyre's traders called all the shots.


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God-of-the-Angel-Armies ordered the crash<br/>to show the sordid backside of pride<br/>and puncture the inflated reputations.


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God reached out to the sea and sea traders,<br/>threw the sea kingdoms into turmoil.<br/>God ordered the destruction<br/>of the seacoast cities, the centers of commerce.


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God said, "There's nothing left here to be proud of,<br/>bankrupt and bereft Sidon.<br/>Do you want to make a new start in Cyprus?<br/>Don't count on it. Nothing there will work out for you either."


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Look at what happened to Babylon: There's nothing left of it. Assyria turned it into a desert, into a refuge for wild dogs and stray cats. They brought in their big siege engines, tore down the buildings, and left nothing behind but rubble.


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For the next seventy years, a king's lifetime, Tyre will be forgotten. At the end of the seventy years, Tyre will stage a comeback, but it will be the comeback of a worn-out whore, as in the song:


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"Take a harp, circle the city,<br/>unremembered whore.<br/>Sing your old songs, your many old songs.<br/>Maybe someone will remember."


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At the end of the seventy years, God will look in on Tyre. She'll go back to her old whoring trade, selling herself to the highest bidder, doing anything with anyone—promiscuous with all the kingdoms of earth—for a fee.


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But everything she gets, all the money she takes in, will be turned over to God. It will not be put in banks. Her profits will be put to the use of God-Aware, God-Serving-People, providing plenty of food and the best of clothing.


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Danger ahead! God's about to ravish the earth<br/>and leave it in ruins,<br/>Rip everything out by the roots<br/>and send everyone scurrying:


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priests and laypeople alike,<br/>owners and workers alike,<br/>celebrities and nobodies alike,<br/>buyers and sellers alike,<br/>bankers and beggars alike,<br/>the haves and have-nots alike.


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The landscape will be a moonscape,<br/>totally wasted.<br/>And why? Because God says so.<br/>He's issued the orders.


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Earth is polluted by its very own people,<br/>who have broken its laws,<br/>Disrupted its order,<br/>violated the sacred and eternal covenant.


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Therefore a curse, like a cancer,<br/>ravages the earth.<br/>Its people pay the price of their sacrilege.<br/>They dwindle away, dying out one by one.


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The laughter of castanets is gone,<br/>the shouts of celebrants, gone,<br/>the laughter of fiddles, gone.


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People riot in the streets for wine,<br/>but the good times are gone forever—<br/>no more joy for this old world.


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That's the way it will be on this earth.<br/>This is the fate of all nations:<br/>An olive tree shaken clean of its olives,<br/>a grapevine picked clean of its grapes.


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But there are some who will break into glad song.<br/>Out of the west they'll shout of God's majesty.


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Yes, from the east God's glory will ascend.<br/>Every island of the sea<br/>Will broadcast God's fame,<br/>the fame of the God of Israel.


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From the four winds and the seven seas we hear the singing:<br/>"All praise to the Righteous One!"<br/>But I said, "That's all well and good for somebody,<br/>but all I can see is doom, doom, and more doom."<br/>All of them at one another's throats,<br/>yes, all of them at one another's throats.


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If you run from the terror,<br/>you'll fall into the pit.<br/>If you climb out of the pit,<br/>you'll get caught in the trap.<br/>Chaos pours out of the skies.<br/>The foundations of earth are crumbling.


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Earth staggers like a drunk,<br/>sways like a shack in a high wind.<br/>Its piled-up sins are too much for it.<br/>It collapses and won't get up again.


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They'll be rounded up like prisoners in a jail,<br/>Corralled and locked up in a jail,<br/>and then sentenced and put to hard labor.


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Shamefaced moon will cower, humiliated,<br/>red-faced sun will skulk, disgraced,<br/>Because God-of-the-Angel-Armies will take over,<br/>ruling from Mount Zion and Jerusalem,<br/>Splendid and glorious<br/>before all his leaders.


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God, you are my God.<br/>I celebrate you. I praise you.<br/>You've done your share of miracle-wonders,<br/>well-thought-out plans, solid and sure.


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Here you've reduced the city to rubble,<br/>the strong city to a pile of stones.<br/>The enemy Big City is a non-city,<br/>never to be a city again.


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They'll see that you take care of the poor,<br/>that you take care of poor people in trouble,<br/>Provide a warm, dry place in bad weather,<br/>provide a cool place when it's hot.<br/>Brutal oppressors are like a winter blizzard


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and vicious foreigners like high noon in the desert.<br/>But you, shelter from the storm and shade from the sun,<br/>shut the mouths of the big-mouthed bullies.


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But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies<br/>will throw a feast for all the people of the world,<br/>A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,<br/>a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.


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And here on this mountain, God will banish<br/>the pall of doom hanging over all peoples,<br/>The shadow of doom darkening all nations.


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Yes, he'll banish death forever.<br/>And God will wipe the tears from every face.<br/>He'll remove every sign of disgrace<br/>From his people, wherever they are.<br/>Yes! God says so!


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Also at that time, people will say,<br/>"Look at what's happened! This is our God!<br/>We waited for him and he showed up and saved us!<br/>This God, the one we waited for!<br/>Let's celebrate, sing the joys of his salvation.


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God's hand rests on this mountain!"<br/>As for the Moabites, they'll be treated like refuse,<br/>waste shoveled into a cesspool.


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Thrash away as they will,<br/>like swimmers trying to stay afloat,<br/>They'll sink in the sewage.<br/>Their pride will pull them under.


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At that time, this song<br/>will be sung in the country of Judah:<br/>We have a strong city, Salvation City,<br/>built and fortified with salvation.


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People with their minds set on you,<br/>you keep completely whole,<br/>Steady on their feet,<br/>because they keep at it and don't quit.


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Those who lived high and mighty<br/>he knocked off their high horse.<br/>He used the city built on the hill<br/>as fill for the marshes.


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We're in no hurry, God. We're content to linger<br/>in the path sign-posted with your decisions.<br/>Who you are and what you've done<br/>are all we'll ever want.


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Through the night my soul longs for you.<br/>Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you.<br/>When your decisions are on public display,<br/>everyone learns how to live right.


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If the wicked are shown grace,<br/>they don't seem to get it.<br/>In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living,<br/>blind to the splendor of God.


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You hold your hand up high, God,<br/>but they don't see it.<br/>Open their eyes to what you do,<br/>to see your zealous love for your people.<br/>Shame them. Light a fire under them.<br/>Get the attention of these enemies of yours.


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The dead don't talk,<br/>ghosts don't walk,<br/>Because you've said, "Enough—that's all for you,"<br/>and wiped them off the books.


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But the living you make larger than life.<br/>The more life you give, the more glory you display,<br/>and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!


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O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble,<br/>when your discipline was so heavy<br/>they could barely whisper a prayer.


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Like a woman having a baby,<br/>writhing in distress, screaming her pain<br/>as the baby is being born,<br/>That's how we were because of you, O God.


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We were pregnant full-term.<br/>We writhed in labor but bore no baby.<br/>We gave birth to wind.<br/>Nothing came of our labor.<br/>We produced nothing living.<br/>We couldn't save the world.


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But friends, your dead will live,<br/>your corpses will get to their feet.<br/>All you dead and buried,<br/>wake up! Sing!<br/>Your dew is morning dew<br/>catching the first rays of sun,<br/>The earth bursting with life,<br/>giving birth to the dead.


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Come, my people, go home<br/>and shut yourselves in.<br/>Go into seclusion for a while<br/>until the punishing wrath is past,


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Because God is sure to come from his place<br/>to punish the wrong of the people on earth.<br/>Earth itself will point out the bloodstains;<br/>it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.


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At that time God will unsheathe his sword,<br/>his merciless, massive, mighty sword.<br/>He'll punish the serpent Leviathan as it flees,<br/>the serpent Leviathan thrashing in flight.<br/>He'll kill that old dragon<br/>that lives in the sea.


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I, God, tend it.<br/>I keep it well-watered.<br/>I keep careful watch over it<br/>so that no one can damage it.


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I'm not angry. I care.<br/>Even if it gives me thistles and thornbushes,<br/>I'll just pull them out<br/>and burn them up.


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Let that vine cling to me for safety,<br/>let it find a good and whole life with me,<br/>let it hold on for a good and whole life."


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The days are coming when Jacob<br/>shall put down roots,<br/>Israel blossom and grow fresh branches,<br/>and fill the world with its fruit.


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Has God knocked them to the ground<br/>as he knocked down those who hit them? Oh, no.<br/>Were they killed<br/>as their killers were killed? Again, no.


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He was hard on them all right. The exile was a harsh sentence.<br/>He blew them away on a fierce blast of wind.


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But the good news is that through this experience<br/>Jacob's guilt was taken away.<br/>The evidence that his sin is removed will be this:<br/>He will tear down the alien altars,<br/>take them apart stone by stone,<br/>And then crush the stones into gravel<br/>and clean out all the sex-and-religion shrines.


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For there's nothing left of that pretentious grandeur.<br/>Nobody lives there anymore. It's unlivable.<br/>But animals do just fine,<br/>browsing and bedding down.


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And it's not a bad place to get firewood.<br/>Dry twigs and dead branches are plentiful.<br/>It's the leavings of a people with no sense of God.<br/>So, the God who made them<br/>Will have nothing to do with them.<br/>He who formed them will turn his back on them.


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At that time God will thresh<br/>from the River Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt,<br/>And you, people of Israel,<br/>will be selected grain by grain.


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At that same time a great trumpet will be blown,<br/>calling home the exiles from Assyria,<br/>Welcoming home the refugees from Egypt<br/>to come and worship God on the holy mountain, Jerusalem.


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Doom to the pretentious drunks of Ephraim,<br/>shabby and washed out and seedy—<br/>Tipsy, sloppy-fat, beer-bellied parodies<br/>of a proud and handsome past.


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Watch closely: God has someone picked out,<br/>someone tough and strong to flatten them.<br/>Like a hailstorm, like a hurricane, like a flash flood,<br/>one-handed he'll throw them to the ground.


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At that time, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will be<br/>the beautiful crown on the head of what's left of his people:


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Energy and insights of justice to those who guide and decide,<br/>strength and prowess to those who guard and protect.


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These also, the priest and prophet, stagger from drink,<br/>weaving, falling-down drunks,<br/>Besotted with wine and whiskey,<br/>can't see straight, can't talk sense.


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"Is that so? And who do you think you are to teach us?<br/>Who are you to lord it over us?<br/>We're not babies in diapers<br/>to be talked down to by such as you—


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'Da, da, da, da,<br/>blah, blah, blah, blah.<br/>That's a good little girl,<br/>that's a good little boy.' "


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But that's exactly how you will be addressed.<br/>God will speak to this people<br/>In baby talk, one syllable at a time—


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and he'll do it through foreign oppressors.<br/>He said before, "This is the time and place to rest,<br/>to give rest to the weary.<br/>This is the place to lay down your burden."<br/>But they won't listen.


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So God will start over with the simple basics<br/>and address them in baby talk, one syllable at a time—<br/>"Da, da, da, da,<br/>blah, blah, blah, blah.<br/>That's a good little girl,<br/>that's a good little boy."<br/>And like toddlers, they will get up and fall down,<br/>get bruised and confused and lost.


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You say, "We've taken out good life insurance.<br/>We've hedged all our bets, covered all our bases.<br/>No disaster can touch us. We've thought of everything.<br/>We're advised by the experts. We're set."


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But the Master, God, has something to say to this:<br/>"Watch closely. I'm laying a foundation in Zion,<br/>a solid granite foundation, squared and true.<br/>And this is the meaning of the stone:<br/>a trusting life won't topple.


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I'll make justice the measuring stick<br/>and righteousness the plumb line for the building.<br/>A hailstorm will knock down the shantytown of lies,<br/>and a flash flood will wash out the rubble.


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"Then you'll see that your precious life insurance policy<br/>wasn't worth the paper it was written on.<br/>Your careful precautions against death<br/>were a pack of illusions and lies.<br/>When the disaster happens,<br/>you'll be crushed by it.


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Every time disaster comes, you'll be in on it—<br/>disaster in the morning, disaster at night."<br/>Every report of disaster<br/>will send you cowering in terror.


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God will rise to full stature,<br/>raging as he did long ago on Mount Perazim<br/>And in the valley of Gibeon against the Philistines.<br/>But this time it's against you.<br/>Hard to believe, but true.<br/>Not what you'd expect, but it's coming.


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Sober up, friends, and don't scoff.<br/>Scoffing will just make it worse.<br/>I've heard the orders issued for destruction, orders from<br/>God-of-the-Angel-Armies—ending up in an international disaster.


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Do farmers plow and plow and do nothing but plow?<br/>Or harrow and harrow and do nothing but harrow?


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After they've prepared the ground, don't they plant?<br/>Don't they scatter dill and spread cumin,<br/>Plant wheat and barley in the fields<br/>and raspberries along the borders?


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On the other hand, wheat is threshed and milled, but still not endlessly.<br/>The farmer knows how to treat each kind of grain.


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He's learned it all from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>who knows everything about when and how and where.


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Doom, Ariel, Ariel,<br/>the city where David set camp!<br/>Let the years add up,<br/>let the festivals run their cycles,


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But I'm not letting up on Jerusalem.<br/>The moaning and groaning will continue.<br/>Jerusalem to me is an Ariel.


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Like David, I'll set up camp against you.<br/>I'll set siege, build towers,<br/>bring in siege engines, build siege ramps.


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Driven into the ground, you'll speak,<br/>you'll mumble words from the dirt—<br/>Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost.<br/>Your speech will whisper from the dust.


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But it will be your enemies who are beaten to dust,<br/>the mob of tyrants who will be blown away like chaff.<br/>Because, surprise, as if out of nowhere,


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a visit from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>With thunderclaps, earthquakes, and earsplitting noise,<br/>backed up by hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning strikes,


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And the mob of enemies at war with Ariel,<br/>all who trouble and hassle and torment her,<br/>will turn out to be a bad dream, a nightmare.


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Like a hungry man dreaming he's eating steak<br/>and wakes up hungry as ever,<br/>Like a thirsty woman dreaming she's drinking iced tea<br/>and wakes up thirsty as ever,<br/>So that mob of nations at war against Mount Zion<br/>will wake up and find they haven't shot an arrow,<br/>haven't killed a single soul.


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Drug yourselves so you feel nothing.<br/>Blind yourselves so you see nothing.<br/>Get drunk, but not on wine.<br/>Black out, but not from whiskey.


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For God has rocked you into a deep, deep sleep,<br/>put the discerning prophets to sleep,<br/>put the farsighted seers to sleep.


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What you've been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone who can read and tell her, "Read this," she'll say, "I can't. The envelope is sealed."


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The Master said:<br/>"These people make a big show of saying the right thing,<br/>but their hearts aren't in it.<br/>Because they act like they're worshiping me<br/>but don't mean it,


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I'm going to step in and shock them awake,<br/>astonish them, stand them on their ears.<br/>The wise ones who had it all figured out<br/>will be exposed as fools.<br/>The smart people who thought they knew everything<br/>will turn out to know nothing."


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Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track.<br/>You shut God out and work behind the scenes,<br/>Plotting the future as if you knew everything,<br/>acting mysterious, never showing your hand.


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You have everything backwards!<br/>You treat the potter as a lump of clay.<br/>Does a book say to its author,<br/>"He didn't write a word of me"?<br/>Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it,<br/>"She had nothing to do with this"?


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And then before you know it,<br/>and without you having anything to do with it,<br/>Wasted Lebanon will be transformed into lush gardens,<br/>and Mount Carmel reforested.


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At that time the deaf will hear<br/>word-for-word what's been written.<br/>After a lifetime in the dark,<br/>the blind will see.


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The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in God,<br/>the down-and-outs shouting praise to The Holy of Israel.


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For there'll be no more gangs on the street.<br/>Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species.<br/>Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean<br/>will never be heard of again:


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Gone the people who corrupted the courts,<br/>gone the people who cheated the poor,<br/>gone the people who victimized the innocent.


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And finally this, God's Message for the family of Jacob,<br/>the same God who redeemed Abraham:<br/>"No longer will Jacob hang his head in shame,<br/>no longer grow gaunt and pale with waiting.


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For he's going to see his children,<br/>my personal gift to him—lots of children.<br/>And these children will honor me<br/>by living holy lives.<br/>In holy worship they'll honor the Holy One of Jacob<br/>and stand in holy awe of the God of Israel.


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"Doom, rebel children!"<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"You make plans, but not mine.<br/>You make deals, but not in my Spirit.<br/>You pile sin on sin,<br/>one sin on top of another,


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Going off to Egypt<br/>without so much as asking me,<br/>Running off to Pharaoh for protection,<br/>expecting to hide out in Egypt.


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They look big and important, true,<br/>with officials strategically established in<br/>Zoan in the north and Hanes in the south,


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but there's nothing to them.<br/>Anyone stupid enough to trust them<br/>will end up looking stupid—<br/>All show, no substance,<br/>an embarrassing farce."


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And this note on the animals of the Negev<br/>encountered on the road to Egypt:<br/>A most dangerous, treacherous route,<br/>menaced by lions and deadly snakes.<br/>And you're going to lug all your stuff down there,<br/>your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes,<br/>Thinking you can buy protection<br/>from that hollow farce of a nation?


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So, go now and write all this down.<br/>Put it in a book<br/>So that the record will be there<br/>to instruct the coming generations,


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Because this is a rebel generation,<br/>a people who lie,<br/>A people unwilling to listen<br/>to anything God tells them.


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They tell their spiritual leaders,<br/>"Don't bother us with irrelevancies."<br/>They tell their preachers,<br/>"Don't waste our time on impracticalities.<br/>Tell us what makes us feel better.


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Don't bore us with obsolete religion.<br/>That stuff means nothing to us.<br/>Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel."


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Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this:<br/>"Because you scorn this Message,<br/>Preferring to live by injustice<br/>and shape your lives on lies,


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This perverse way of life<br/>will be like a towering, badly built wall<br/>That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts,<br/>and then one day, without warning, collapses—


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Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,<br/>smashed beyond recognition or repair,<br/>Useless, a pile of debris<br/>to be swept up and thrown in the trash."


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God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,<br/>has this solemn counsel:<br/>"Your salvation requires you to turn back to me<br/>and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.<br/>Your strength will come from settling down<br/>in complete dependence on me—<br/>The very thing<br/>you've been unwilling to do.


text:
You've said, 'Nothing doing! We'll rush off on horseback!'<br/>You'll rush off, all right! Just not far enough!<br/>You've said, 'We'll ride off on fast horses!'<br/>Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?


text:
Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker.<br/>Before a mere five you'll all run off.<br/>There'll be nothing left of you—<br/>a flagpole on a hill with no flag,<br/>a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off."


text:
But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you.<br/>He's gathering strength to show mercy to you.<br/>God takes the time to do everything right—everything.<br/>Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.


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Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find it's grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer.


text:
Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job,


text:
You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!"


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God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide.


text:
Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well


text:
Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.


text:
Look, God's on his way,<br/>and from a long way off!<br/>Smoking with anger,<br/>immense as he comes into view,<br/>Words steaming from his mouth,<br/>searing, indicting words!


text:
A torrent of words, a flash flood of words<br/>sweeping everyone into the vortex of his words.<br/>He'll shake down the nations in a sieve of destruction,<br/>herd them into a dead end.


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But you will sing,<br/>sing through an all-night holy feast!<br/>Your hearts will burst with song,<br/>make music like the sound of flutes on parade,<br/>En route to the mountain of God,<br/>on the way to the Rock of Israel.


text:
God will sound out in grandiose thunder,<br/>display his hammering arm,<br/>Furiously angry, showering sparks—<br/>cloudburst, storm, hail!


text:
Every blow God lands on them with his club<br/>is in time to the music of drums and pipes,<br/>God in all-out, two-fisted battle,<br/>fighting against them.


text:
Topheth's fierce fires are well prepared,<br/>ready for the Assyrian king.<br/>The Topheth furnace is deep and wide,<br/>well stoked with hot-burning wood.<br/>God's breath, like a river of burning pitch,<br/>starts the fire.


text:
Doom to those who go off to Egypt<br/>thinking that horses can help them,<br/>Impressed by military mathematics,<br/>awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders—<br/>And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance,<br/>not so much as a prayer to God.


text:
Still, he must be reckoned with,<br/>a most wise God who knows what he's doing.<br/>He can call down catastrophe.<br/>He's a God who does what he says.<br/>He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong,<br/>stands up against interfering evildoers.


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Egyptians are mortal, not God,<br/>and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.<br/>When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike<br/>will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.


text:
This is what God told me:<br/>"Like a lion, king of the beasts,<br/>that gnaws and chews and worries its prey,<br/>Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds<br/>who arrive to chase it off,<br/>So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down<br/>to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.


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And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky,<br/>God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem.<br/>I'll protect and rescue it.<br/>Yes, I'll hover and deliver."


text:
On the day you return, you'll throw away—every last one of you—the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood.


text:
"Assyrians will fall dead,<br/>killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier,<br/>laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal.<br/>Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives,<br/>and their prize young men made slaves.


text:
Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces,<br/>their leaders scatter hysterically."<br/>God's Decree on Assyria.<br/>His fire blazes in Zion,<br/>his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem.


text:
Each one will stand as a shelter from high winds,<br/>provide safe cover in stormy weather.<br/>Each will be cool running water in parched land,<br/>a huge granite outcrop giving shade in the desert.


text:
For fools are fools and that's that,<br/>thinking up new ways to do mischief.<br/>They leave a wake of wrecked lives<br/>and lies about God,<br/>Turning their backs on the homeless hungry,<br/>ignoring those dying of thirst in the streets.


text:
And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are,<br/>inventive in sin and scandal,<br/>Exploiting the poor with scams and lies,<br/>unmoved by the victimized poor.


text:
Take your stand, indolent women!<br/>Listen to me!<br/>Indulgent, indolent women,<br/>listen closely to what I have to say.


text:
In just a little over a year from now,<br/>you'll be shaken out of your lazy lives.<br/>The grape harvest will fail,<br/>and there'll be no fruit on the trees.


text:
Oh tremble, you indolent women.<br/>Get serious, you pampered dolls!<br/>Strip down and discard your silk fineries.<br/>Put on funeral clothes.


text:
Weep for my people's gardens and farms<br/>that grow nothing but thistles and thornbushes.<br/>Cry tears, real tears, for the happy homes no longer happy,<br/>the merry city no longer merry.


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The royal palace is deserted,<br/>the bustling city quiet as a morgue,<br/>The emptied parks and playgrounds<br/>taken over by wild animals,<br/>delighted with their new home.


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Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured<br/>down on us from above<br/>And the badlands desert grows crops<br/>and the fertile fields become forests.


text:
And where there's Right, there'll be Peace<br/>and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust.


text:
But you will enjoy a blessed life,<br/>planting well-watered fields and gardens,<br/>with your farm animals grazing freely.


text:
Doom to you, Destroyer,<br/>not yet destroyed;<br/>And doom to you, Betrayer,<br/>not yet betrayed.<br/>When you finish destroying,<br/>your turn will come—destroyed!<br/>When you quit betraying,<br/>your turn will come—betrayed!


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God, treat us kindly. You're our only hope.<br/>First thing in the morning, be there for us!<br/>When things go bad, help us out!


text:
God keeps your days stable and secure—<br/>salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus,<br/>and best of all, Zion's treasure, Fear-of-God.


text:
The roads are empty—<br/>not a soul out on the streets.<br/>The peace treaty is broken,<br/>its conditions violated,<br/>its signers reviled.


text:
The very ground under our feet mourns,<br/>the Lebanon mountains hang their heads,<br/>Flowering Sharon is a weed-choked gully,<br/>and the forests of Bashan and Carmel? Bare branches.


text:
"Now I'm stepping in," God says.<br/>"From now on, I'm taking over.<br/>The gloves come off. Now see how mighty I am.


text:
There's nothing to you.<br/>Pregnant with chaff, you produce straw babies;<br/>full of hot air, you self-destruct.


text:
"If you're far away,<br/>get the reports on what I've done,<br/>And if you're in the neighborhood,<br/>pay attention to my record.


text:
The sinners in Zion are rightly terrified;<br/>the godless are at their wit's end:<br/>'Who among us can survive this firestorm?<br/>Who of us can get out of this purge with our lives?' "


text:
The answer's simple:<br/>Live right,<br/>speak the truth,<br/>despise exploitation,<br/>refuse bribes,<br/>reject violence,<br/>avoid evil amusements.


text:
This is how you raise your standard of living!<br/>A safe and stable way to live.<br/>A nourishing, satisfying way to live.


text:
In your mind you'll go over the old terrors:<br/>"What happened to that Assyrian inspector who condemned and confiscated?<br/>And the one who gouged us of taxes?<br/>And that cheating moneychanger?"


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Gone! Out of sight forever! Their insolence<br/>nothing now but a fading stain on the carpet!<br/>No more putting up with a language you can't understand,<br/>no more sounds of gibberish in your ears.


text:
Just take a look at Zion, will you?<br/>Centering our worship in festival feasts!<br/>Feast your eyes on Jerusalem,<br/>a quiet and permanent place to live.<br/>No more pulling up stakes and moving on,<br/>no more patched-together lean-tos.


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Instead, God! God majestic, God himself the place<br/>in a country of broad rivers and streams,<br/>But rivers blocked to invading ships,<br/>off-limits to predatory pirates.


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For God makes all the decisions here. God is our king.<br/>God runs this place and he'll keep us safe.


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Ha! Your sails are in shreds,<br/>your mast wobbling,<br/>your hold leaking.<br/>The plunder is free for the taking, free for all—<br/>for weak and strong, insiders and outsiders.


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Draw in close now, nations. Listen carefully,<br/>you people. Pay attention!<br/>Earth, you too, and everything in you.<br/>World, and all that comes from you.


text:
And here's why: God is angry,<br/>good and angry with all the nations,<br/>So blazingly angry at their arms and armies<br/>that he's going to rid earth of them, wipe them out.


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The corpses, thrown in a heap,<br/>will stink like the town dump in midsummer,<br/>Their blood flowing off the mountains<br/>like creeks in spring runoff.


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Stars will fall out of the sky<br/>like overripe, rotting fruit in the orchard,<br/>And the sky itself will be folded up like a blanket<br/>and put away in a closet.<br/>All that army of stars, shriveled to nothing,<br/>like leaves and fruit in autumn, dropping and rotting!


text:
"Once I've finished with earth and sky,<br/>I'll start in on Edom.<br/>I'll come down hard on Edom,<br/>a people I've slated for total termination."


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God has a sword, thirsty for blood and more blood,<br/>a sword hungry for well-fed flesh,<br/>Lamb and goat blood,<br/>the suet-rich kidneys of rams.<br/>Yes, God has scheduled a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital,<br/>the whole country of Edom a slaughterhouse.


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A wholesale slaughter, wild animals<br/>and farm animals alike slaughtered.<br/>The whole country soaked with blood,<br/>all the ground greasy with fat.


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Edom's streams will flow sluggish, thick with pollution,<br/>the soil sterile, poisoned with waste,<br/>The whole country<br/>a smoking, stinking garbage dump—


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The fires burning day and night,<br/>the skies black with endless smoke.<br/>Generation after generation of wasteland—<br/>no more travelers through this country!


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Vultures and skunks will police the streets;<br/>owls and crows will feel at home there.<br/>God will reverse creation. Chaos!<br/>He will cancel fertility. Emptiness!


text:
Leaders will have no one to lead.<br/>They'll name it No Kingdom There,<br/>A country where all kings<br/>and princes are unemployed.


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Thistles will take over, covering the castles,<br/>fortresses conquered by weeds and thornbushes.<br/>Wild dogs will prowl the ruins,<br/>ostriches have the run of the place.


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Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together,<br/>demons and devils dance through the night.<br/>The night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious,<br/>will establish permanent quarters.


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Get and read God's book:<br/>None of this is going away,<br/>this breeding, brooding evil.<br/>God has personally commanded it all.<br/>His Spirit set it in motion.


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God has assigned them their place,<br/>decreed their fate in detail.<br/>This is permanent—<br/>generation after generation, the same old thing.


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Wilderness and desert will sing joyously,<br/>the badlands will celebrate and flower—<br/>Like the crocus in spring,


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bursting into blossom,<br/>a symphony of song and color.<br/>Mountain glories of Lebanon—a gift.<br/>Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts.<br/>God's resplendent glory, fully on display.<br/>God awesome, God majestic.


text:
Tell fearful souls,<br/>"Courage! Take heart!<br/>God is here, right here,<br/>on his way to put things right<br/>And redress all wrongs.<br/>He's on his way! He'll save you!"


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Lame men and women will leap like deer,<br/>the voiceless break into song.<br/>Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,<br/>streams flow in the desert.


text:
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,<br/>thirsty ground a splashing fountain.<br/>Even lowly jackals will have water to drink,<br/>and barren grasslands flourish richly.


text:
There will be a highway<br/>called the Holy Road.<br/>No one rude or rebellious<br/>is permitted on this road.<br/>It's for God's people exclusively—<br/>impossible to get lost on this road.<br/>Not even fools can get lost on it.


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No lions on this road,<br/>no dangerous wild animals—<br/>Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening.<br/>Only the redeemed will walk on it.


text:
The people God has ransomed<br/>will come back on this road.<br/>They'll sing as they make their way home to Zion,<br/>unfading halos of joy encircling their heads,<br/>Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness<br/>as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.


text:
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria made war on all the fortress cities of Judah and took them.


text:
Then the king of Assyria sent his general, the "Rabshekah," accompanied by a huge army, from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. The general stopped at the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry.


text:
Three men went out to meet him: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, in charge of the palace; Shebna the secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the official historian.


text:
The Rabshekah said to them, "Tell Hezekiah that the Great King, the king of Assyria, says this: 'What kind of backing do you think you have against me?


text:
You're bluffing and I'm calling your bluff. Your words are no match for my weapons. What kind of backup do you have now that you've rebelled against me?


text:
Egypt? Don't make me laugh. Egypt is a rubber crutch. Lean on Egypt and you'll end up flat on your face. That's all Pharaoh king of Egypt is to anyone who leans on him.


text:
And if you try to tell me, "We're leaning on our God," isn't it a bit late? Hasn't Hezekiah just gotten rid of all the places of worship, telling you, "You've got to worship at this altar"?


text:
" 'Be reasonable. Face the facts: My master the king of Assyria will give you two thousand horses if you can put riders on them.


text:
You can't do it, can you? So how do you think, depending on flimsy Egypt's chariots and riders, you can stand up against even the lowest-ranking captain in my master's army?


text:
" 'And besides, do you think I came all this way to destroy this land without first getting God's blessing? It was your God who told me, Make war on this land. Destroy it.' "


text:
Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah answered the Rabshekah, "Please talk to us in Aramaic. We understand Aramaic. Don't talk to us in Hebrew within earshot of all the people gathered around."


text:
But the Rabshekah replied, "Do you think my master has sent me to give this message to your master and you but not also to the people clustered here? It's their fate that's at stake. They're the ones who are going to end up eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine."


text:
Then the Rabshekah stood up and called out loudly in Hebrew, the common language, "Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria!


text:
And don't pay any attention to Hezekiah's pious sermons telling you to lean on God, telling you 'God will save us, depend on it. God won't let this city fall to the king of Assyria.'


text:
"Don't listen to Hezekiah. Listen to the king of Assyria's offer: 'Make peace with me. Come and join me. Everyone will end up with a good life, with plenty of land and water,


text:
and eventually something far better. I'll turn you loose in wide open spaces, with more than enough fertile and productive land for everyone.'


text:
Don't let Hezekiah mislead you with his lies, 'God will save us.' Has that ever happened? Has any god in history ever gotten the best of the king of Assyria?


text:
Look around you. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? The gods of Sepharvaim? Did the gods do anything for Samaria?


text:
Name one god that has ever saved its countries from me. So what makes you think that God could save Jerusalem from me?' "


text:
The three men were silent. They said nothing, for the king had already commanded, "Don't answer him."


text:
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, tearing their clothes in defeat and despair, went back and reported what the Rabshekah had said to Hezekiah.


text:
When King Hezekiah heard the report, he also tore his clothes and dressed in rough, penitential burlap gunnysacks, and went into the sanctuary of God.


text:
He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all of them also dressed in penitential burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.


text:
They said to him, "Hezekiah says, 'This is a black day. We're in crisis. We're like pregnant women without even the strength to have a baby!


text:
Do you think your God heard what the Rabshekah said, sent by his master the king of Assyria to mock the living God? And do you think your God will do anything about it? Pray for us, Isaiah. Pray for those of us left here holding the fort!' "


text:
Isaiah said, "Tell your master this: 'God's Message: Don't be upset by what you've heard, all those words the servants of the Assyrian king have used to mock me.


text:
I personally will take care of him. I'll arrange it so that he'll get a rumor of bad news back home and rush home to take care of it. And he'll die there. Killed—a violent death.' "


text:
The Rabshekah left and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. (He had gotten word that the king had left Lachish.)


text:
Just then the Assyrian king received an intelligence report on King Tirhakah of Ethiopia: "He is on his way to make war on you."<br/>On hearing that, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with instructions to deliver this message:


text:
"Don't let your God, on whom you so naively lean, deceive you, promising that Jerusalem won't fall to the king of Assyria.


text:
Use your head! Look around at what the kings of Assyria have done all over the world—one country after another devastated! And do you think you're going to get off?


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Have any of the gods of any of these countries ever stepped in and saved them, even one of these nations my predecessors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who lived in Telassar?


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Look around. Do you see anything left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, the king of Ivvah?"


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Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of the messengers and read it. Then he went into the sanctuary of God and spread the letter out before God.


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"God-of-the-Angel-Armies, enthroned over the cherubim-angels, you are God, the only God there is, God of all kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth.


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Listen, O God, and hear. Look, O God, and see. Mark all these words of Sennacherib that he sent to mock the living God.


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They've thrown their gods into the trash and burned them—no great achievement since they were no-gods anyway, gods made in workshops, carved from wood and chiseled from rock. An end to the no-gods!


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But now step in, O God, our God. Save us from him. Let all the kingdoms of earth know that you and you alone are God."


text:
Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this word to Hezekiah: "God's Message, the God of Israel: Because you brought King Sennacherib of Assyria to me in prayer,


text:
here is my answer, God's answer:<br/>" 'She has no use for you, Sennacherib, nothing but contempt,<br/>this virgin daughter Zion.<br/>She spits at you and turns on her heel,<br/>this daughter Jerusalem.


text:
" 'Who do you think you've been mocking and reviling<br/>all these years?<br/>Who do you think you've been jeering<br/>and treating with such utter contempt<br/>All these years?<br/>The Holy of Israel!


text:
You've used your servants to mock the Master.<br/>You've bragged, "With my fleet of chariots<br/>I've gone to the highest mountain ranges,<br/>penetrated the far reaches of Lebanon,<br/>Chopped down its giant cedars,<br/>its finest cypresses.<br/>I conquered its highest peak,<br/>explored its deepest forest.


text:
I dug wells<br/>and drank my fill.<br/>I emptied the famous rivers of Egypt<br/>with one kick of my foot.


text:
" 'Haven't you gotten the news<br/>that I've been behind this all along?<br/>This is a longstanding plan of mine<br/>and I'm just now making it happen,<br/>using you to devastate strong cities,<br/>turning them into piles of rubble


text:
and leaving their citizens helpless,<br/>bewildered, and confused,<br/>drooping like unwatered plants,<br/>stunted like withered seedlings.


text:
" 'I know all about your pretentious poses,<br/>your officious comings and goings,<br/>and, yes, the tantrums you throw against me.


text:
Because of all your wild raging against me,<br/>your unbridled arrogance that I keep hearing of,<br/>I'll put my hook in your nose<br/>and my bit in your mouth.<br/>I'll show you who's boss. I'll turn you around<br/>and take you back to where you came from.


text:
" 'And this, Hezekiah, will be your confirming sign: This year's crops will be slim pickings, and next year it won't be much better. But in three years, farming will be back to normal, with regular sowing and reaping, planting and harvesting.


text:
The people left in Jerusalem will get moving again. Mount Zion survivors will take hold again. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.'


text:
"Finally, this is God's verdict on the king of Assyria:<br/>" 'Don't worry, he won't enter this city,<br/>won't let loose a single arrow,<br/>Won't brandish so much as one shield,<br/>let alone build a siege ramp against it.


text:
I've got my hand on this city<br/>to save it,<br/>Save it for my very own sake,<br/>but also for the sake of my David dynasty.' "


text:
Then the Angel of God arrived and struck the Assyrian camp—185,000 Assyrians died. By the time the sun came up, they were all dead—an army of corpses!


text:
As he was worshiping in the sanctuary of his god Nisroch, he was murdered by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer. They escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esar-haddon became the next king.


text:
At that time, Hezekiah got sick. He was about to die. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and said, "God says, 'Prepare your affairs and your family. This is it: You're going to die. You're not going to get well.' "


text:
"God, please, I beg you: Remember how I've lived my life. I've lived faithfully in your presence, lived out of a heart that was totally yours. You've seen how I've lived, the good that I have done." And Hezekiah wept as he prayed—painful tears.


text:
"Go and speak with Hezekiah. Give him this Message from me, God, the God of your ancestor David: 'I've heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here's what I'll do: I'll add fifteen years to your life.


text:
Watch for this: As the sun goes down and the shadow lengthens on the sundial of Ahaz, I'm going to reverse the shadow ten notches on the dial.' " And that's what happened: The declining sun's shadow reversed ten notches on the dial.


text:
This is what Hezekiah king of Judah wrote after he'd been sick and then recovered from his sickness:


text:
In the very prime of life<br/>I have to leave.<br/>Whatever time I have left<br/>is spent in death's waiting room.


text:
No more glimpses of God<br/>in the land of the living,<br/>No more meetings with my neighbors,<br/>no more rubbing shoulders with friends.


text:
This body I inhabit is taken down<br/>and packed away like a camper's tent.<br/>Like a weaver, I've rolled up the carpet of my life<br/>as God cuts me free of the loom<br/>And at day's end sweeps up the scraps and pieces.


text:
I cry for help until morning.<br/>Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me,<br/>relentlessly finishing me off.


text:
I squawk like a doomed hen,<br/>moan like a dove.<br/>My eyes ache from looking up for help:<br/>"Master, I'm in trouble! Get me out of this!"


text:
But what's the use? God himself gave me the word.<br/>He's done it to me.<br/>I can't sleep—<br/>I'm that upset, that troubled.


text:
O Master, these are the conditions in which people live,<br/>and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive—<br/>fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life!


text:
It seems it was good for me<br/>to go through all those troubles.<br/>Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline.<br/>You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing.<br/>But my sins you let go of,<br/>threw them over your shoulder—good riddance!


text:
The dead don't thank you,<br/>and choirs don't sing praises from the morgue.<br/>Those buried six feet under<br/>don't witness to your faithful ways.


text:
It's the living—live men, live women—who thank you,<br/>just as I'm doing right now.<br/>Parents give their children<br/>full reports on your faithful ways.


text:
God saves and will save me.<br/>As fiddles and mandolins strike up the tunes,<br/>We'll sing, oh we'll sing, sing,<br/>for the rest of our lives in the Sanctuary of God.


text:
Sometime later, King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent messengers with greetings and a gift to Hezekiah. He had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and was now well.


text:
Hezekiah received the messengers warmly. He took them on a tour of his royal precincts, proudly showing them all his treasures: silver, gold, spices, expensive oils, all his weapons—everything out on display. There was nothing in his house or kingdom that Hezekiah didn't show them.


text:
Later the prophet Isaiah showed up. He asked Hezekiah, "What were these men up to? What did they say? And where did they come from?"<br/>Hezekiah said, "They came from a long way off, from Babylon."


text:
"And what did they see in your palace?"<br/>"Everything," said Hezekiah. "I showed them the works, opened all the doors and impressed them with it all."


text:
I have to warn you, the time is coming when everything in this palace, along with everything your ancestors accumulated before you, will be hauled off to Babylon. God says that there will be nothing left. Nothing.


text:
And not only your things but your sons. Some of your sons will be taken into exile, ending up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."


text:
Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, "Good. If God says so, it's good." Within himself he was thinking, "But surely nothing bad will happen in my lifetime. I'll enjoy peace and stability as long as I live."


text:
"Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,<br/>but also make it very clear<br/>That she has served her sentence,<br/>that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!<br/>She's been punished enough and more than enough,<br/>and now it's over and done with."


text:
Thunder in the desert!<br/>"Prepare for God's arrival!<br/>Make the road straight and smooth,<br/>a highway fit for our God.


text:
A voice says, "Shout!"<br/>I said, "What shall I shout?"<br/>"These people are nothing but grass,<br/>their love fragile as wildflowers.


text:
The grass withers, the wildflowers fade,<br/>if God so much as puffs on them.<br/>Aren't these people just so much grass?


text:
Climb a high mountain, Zion.<br/>You're the preacher of good news.<br/>Raise your voice. Make it good and loud, Jerusalem.<br/>You're the preacher of good news.<br/>Speak loud and clear. Don't be timid!<br/>Tell the cities of Judah,<br/>"Look! Your God!"


text:
Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power,<br/>ready to go into action.<br/>He is going to pay back his enemies<br/>and reward those who have loved him.


text:
Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock,<br/>gathering the lambs in his arms,<br/>Hugging them as he carries them,<br/>leading the nursing ewes to good pasture.


text:
Who has scooped up the ocean<br/>in his two hands,<br/>or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger,<br/>Who has put all the earth's dirt in one of his baskets,<br/>weighed each mountain and hill?


text:
What expert would he have gone to for advice,<br/>what school would he attend to learn justice?<br/>What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows,<br/>showed him how things work?


text:
Why, the nations are but a drop in a bucket,<br/>a mere smudge on a window.<br/>Watch him sweep up the islands<br/>like so much dust off the floor!


text:
There aren't enough trees in Lebanon<br/>nor enough animals in those vast forests<br/>to furnish adequate fuel and offerings for his worship.


text:
All the nations add up to simply nothing before him—<br/>less than nothing is more like it. A minus.


text:
Some no-god idol? Ridiculous!<br/>It's made in a workshop, cast in bronze,<br/>Given a thin veneer of gold,<br/>and draped with silver filigree.


text:
Or, perhaps someone will select a fine wood—<br/>olive wood, say—that won't rot,<br/>Then hire a woodcarver to make a no-god,<br/>giving special care to its base so it won't tip over!


text:
Have you not been paying attention?<br/>Have you not been listening?<br/>Haven't you heard these stories all your life?<br/>Don't you understand the foundation of all things?


text:
God sits high above the round ball of earth.<br/>The people look like mere ants.<br/>He stretches out the skies like a canvas—<br/>yes, like a tent canvas to live under.


text:
Princes and rulers don't amount to much.<br/>Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,<br/>They shrivel when God blows on them.<br/>Like flecks of chaff, they're gone with the wind.


text:
Look at the night skies:<br/>Who do you think made all this?<br/>Who marches this army of stars out each night,<br/>counts them off, calls each by name<br/>—so magnificent! so powerful!—<br/>and never overlooks a single one?


text:
Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,<br/>or, whine, Israel, saying,<br/>"God has lost track of me.<br/>He doesn't care what happens to me"?


text:
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?<br/>God doesn't come and go. God lasts.<br/>He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.<br/>He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.<br/>And he knows everything, inside and out.


text:
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.<br/>They spread their wings and soar like eagles,<br/>They run and don't get tired,<br/>they walk and don't lag behind.


text:
"Quiet down, far-flung ocean islands. Listen!<br/>Sit down and rest, everyone. Recover your strength.<br/>Gather around me. Say what's on your heart.<br/>Together let's decide what's right.


text:
"Who got things rolling here,<br/>got this champion from the east on the move?<br/>Who recruited him for this job,<br/>then rounded up and corralled the nations<br/>so he could run roughshod over kings?<br/>He's off and running,<br/>pulverizing nations into dust,<br/>leaving only stubble and chaff in his wake.


text:
"Who did this? Who made it happen?<br/>Who always gets things started?<br/>I did. God. I'm first on the scene.<br/>I'm also the last to leave.


text:
"Far-flung ocean islands see it and panic.<br/>The ends of the earth are shaken.<br/>Fearfully they huddle together.


text:
The godmakers in the workshops<br/>go into overtime production, crafting new models of no-gods,<br/>Urging one another on—'Good job!' 'Great design!'—<br/>pounding in nails at the base<br/>so that the things won't tip over.


text:
"But you, Israel, are my servant.<br/>You're Jacob, my first choice,<br/>descendants of my good friend Abraham.


text:
I pulled you in from all over the world,<br/>called you in from every dark corner of the earth,<br/>Telling you, 'You're my servant, serving on my side.<br/>I've picked you. I haven't dropped you.'


text:
Don't panic. I'm with you.<br/>There's no need to fear for I'm your God.<br/>I'll give you strength. I'll help you.<br/>I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.


text:
"Count on it: Everyone who had it in for you<br/>will end up out in the cold—<br/>real losers.<br/>Those who worked against you<br/>will end up empty-handed—<br/>nothing to show for their lives.


text:
When you go out looking for your old adversaries<br/>you won't find them—<br/>Not a trace of your old enemies,<br/>not even a memory.


text:
That's right. Because I, your God,<br/>have a firm grip on you and I'm not letting go.<br/>I'm telling you, 'Don't panic.<br/>I'm right here to help you.'


text:
"Do you feel like a lowly worm, Jacob?<br/>Don't be afraid.<br/>Feel like a fragile insect, Israel?<br/>I'll help you.<br/>I, God, want to reassure you.<br/>The God who buys you back, The Holy of Israel.


text:
I'm transforming you from worm to harrow,<br/>from insect to iron.<br/>As a sharp-toothed harrow you'll smooth out the mountains,<br/>turn those tough old hills into loamy soil.


text:
You'll open the rough ground to the weather,<br/>to the blasts of sun and wind and rain.<br/>But you'll be confident and exuberant,<br/>expansive in The Holy of Israel!


text:
"The poor and homeless are desperate for water,<br/>their tongues parched and no water to be found.<br/>But I'm there to be found, I'm there for them,<br/>and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty.


text:
I'll open up rivers for them on the barren hills,<br/>spout fountains in the valleys.<br/>I'll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond,<br/>the waterless waste into splashing creeks.


text:
I'll plant the red cedar in that treeless wasteland,<br/>also acacia, myrtle, and olive.<br/>I'll place the cypress in the desert,<br/>with plenty of oaks and pines.


text:
Everyone will see this. No one can miss it—<br/>unavoidable, indisputable evidence<br/>That I, God, personally did this.<br/>It's created and signed by The Holy of Israel.


text:
"Take the stand on behalf of your idols, offer arguments,<br/>assemble reasons.<br/>Spread out the facts before us<br/>so that we can assess them ourselves.<br/>Ask them, 'If you are gods, explain what the past means—


text:
or, failing that, tell us what will happen in the future.<br/>Can't do that?<br/>How about doing something—anything!<br/>Good or bad—whatever.<br/>Can you hurt us or help us? Do we need to be afraid?'


text:
"I, God, started someone out from the north and he's come.<br/>He was called out of the east by name.<br/>He'll stomp the rulers into the mud<br/>the way a potter works the clay.


text:
Let me ask you, Did anyone guess that this might happen?<br/>Did anyone tell us earlier so we might confirm it<br/>with 'Yes, he's right!'?<br/>No one mentioned it, no one announced it,<br/>no one heard a peep out of you.


text:
But around here there's no one—<br/>no one who knows what's going on.<br/>I ask, but no one can tell me the score.


text:
"Take a good look at my servant.<br/>I'm backing him to the hilt.<br/>He's the one I chose,<br/>and I couldn't be more pleased with him.<br/>I've bathed him with my Spirit, my life.<br/>He'll set everything right among the nations.


text:
He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt<br/>and he won't disregard the small and insignificant,<br/>but he'll steadily and firmly set things right.


text:
He won't tire out and quit. He won't be stopped<br/>until he's finished his work—to set things right on earth.<br/>Far-flung ocean islands<br/>wait expectantly for his teaching."


text:
God's Message,<br/>the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,<br/>laid out the earth and all that grows from it,<br/>Who breathes life into earth's people,<br/>makes them alive with his own life:


text:
"I am God. I have called you to live right and well.<br/>I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.<br/>I have set you among my people to bind them to me,<br/>and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,


text:
To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:<br/>opening blind eyes,<br/>releasing prisoners from dungeons,<br/>emptying the dark prisons.


text:
Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled.<br/>I'm announcing the new salvation work.<br/>Before it bursts on the scene,<br/>I'm telling you all about it."


text:
Sing to God a brand-new song,<br/>sing his praises all over the world!<br/>Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,<br/>with all the far-flung islands joining in.


text:
Let the desert and its camps raise a tune,<br/>calling the Kedar nomads to join in.<br/>Let the villagers in Sela round up a choir<br/>and perform from the tops of the mountains.


text:
God steps out like he means business.<br/>You can see he's primed for action.<br/>He shouts, announcing his arrival;<br/>he takes charge and his enemies fall into line:


text:
"I've been quiet long enough.<br/>I've held back, biting my tongue.<br/>But now I'm letting loose, letting go,<br/>like a woman who's having a baby—


text:
Stripping the hills bare,<br/>withering the wildflowers,<br/>Drying up the rivers,<br/>turning lakes into mudflats.


text:
But I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way,<br/>who can't see where they're going.<br/>I'll be a personal guide to them,<br/>directing them through unknown country.<br/>I'll be right there to show them what roads to take,<br/>make sure they don't fall into the ditch.<br/>These are the things I'll be doing for them—<br/>sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute."


text:
You're my servant, and you're not looking!<br/>You're my messenger, and you're not listening!<br/>The very people I depended upon, servants of God,<br/>blind as a bat—willfully blind!


text:
But this is a people battered and cowed,<br/>shut up in attics and closets,<br/>Victims licking their wounds,<br/>feeling ignored, abandoned.


text:
Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs,<br/>let loose the robbers on Israel?<br/>Wasn't it God himself, this God against whom we've sinned—<br/>not doing what he commanded,<br/>not listening to what he said?


text:
Isn't it God's anger that's behind all this,<br/>God's punishing power?<br/>Their whole world collapsed but they still didn't get it;<br/>their life is in ruins but they don't take it to heart.


text:
But now, God's Message,<br/>the God who made you in the first place, Jacob,<br/>the One who got you started, Israel:<br/>"Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you.<br/>I've called your name. You're mine.


text:
When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you.<br/>When you're in rough waters, you will not go down.<br/>When you're between a rock and a hard place,<br/>it won't be a dead end—


text:
Because I am God, your personal God,<br/>The Holy of Israel, your Savior.<br/>I paid a huge price for you:<br/>all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!


text:
That's how much you mean to me!<br/>That's how much I love you!<br/>I'd sell off the whole world to get you back,<br/>trade the creation just for you.


text:
"So don't be afraid: I'm with you.<br/>I'll round up all your scattered children,<br/>pull them in from east and west.


text:
I'll send orders north and south:<br/>'Send them back.<br/>Return my sons from distant lands,<br/>my daughters from faraway places.


text:
I want them back, every last one who bears my name,<br/>every man, woman, and child<br/>Whom I created for my glory,<br/>yes, personally formed and made each one.' "


text:
Get the blind and deaf out here and ready—<br/>the blind (though there's nothing wrong with their eyes)<br/>and the deaf (though there's nothing wrong with their ears).


text:
Then get the other nations out here and ready.<br/>Let's see what they have to say about this,<br/>how they account for what's happened.<br/>Let them present their expert witnesses<br/>and make their case;<br/>let them try to convince us what they say is true.


text:
"But you are my witnesses." God's Decree.<br/>"You're my handpicked servant<br/>So that you'll come to know and trust me,<br/>understand both that I am and who I am.<br/>Previous to me there was no such thing as a god,<br/>nor will there be after me.


text:
I spoke, I saved, I told you what existed<br/>long before these upstart gods appeared on the scene.<br/>And you know it, you're my witnesses,<br/>you're the evidence." God's Decree.<br/>"Yes, I am God.


text:
I've always been God<br/>and I always will be God.<br/>No one can take anything from me.<br/>I make; who can unmake it?"


text:
God, your Redeemer,<br/>The Holy of Israel, says:<br/>"Just for you, I will march on Babylon.<br/>I'll turn the tables on the Babylonians.<br/>Instead of whooping it up,<br/>they'll be wailing.


text:
This is what God says,<br/>the God who builds a road right through the ocean,<br/>who carves a path through pounding waves,


text:
The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—<br/>they lie down and then can't get up;<br/>they're snuffed out like so many candles:


text:
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.<br/>It's bursting out! Don't you see it?<br/>There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,<br/>rivers in the badlands.


text:
Wild animals will say 'Thank you!'<br/>—the coyotes and the buzzards—<br/>Because I provided water in the desert,<br/>rivers through the sun-baked earth,<br/>Drinking water for the people I chose,


text:
You wouldn't even bring sheep for offerings in worship.<br/>You couldn't be bothered with sacrifices.<br/>It wasn't that I asked that much from you.<br/>I didn't expect expensive presents.


text:
But you didn't even do the minimum—<br/>so stingy with me, so closefisted.<br/>Yet you haven't been stingy with your sins.<br/>You've been plenty generous with them—and I'm fed up.


text:
"But I, yes I, am the one<br/>who takes care of your sins—that's what I do.<br/>I don't keep a list of your sins.


text:
"So, make your case against me. Let's have this out.<br/>Make your arguments. Prove you're in the right.


text:
God who made you has something to say to you;<br/>the God who formed you in the womb wants to help you.<br/>Don't be afraid, dear servant Jacob,<br/>Jeshurun, the one I chose.


text:
For I will pour water on the thirsty ground<br/>and send streams coursing through the parched earth.<br/>I will pour my Spirit into your descendants<br/>and my blessing on your children.


text:
This one will say, 'I am God's,'<br/>and another will go by the name Jacob;<br/>That one will write on his hand 'God's property'—<br/>and be proud to be called Israel."


text:
God, King of Israel,<br/>your Redeemer, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says:<br/>"I'm first, I'm last, and everything in between.<br/>I'm the only God there is.


text:
Who compares with me?<br/>Speak up. See if you measure up.<br/>From the beginning, who else has always announced what's coming?<br/>So what is coming next? Anybody want to venture a try?


text:
Don't be afraid, and don't worry:<br/>Haven't I always kept you informed, told you what was going on?<br/>You're my eyewitnesses:<br/>Have you ever come across a God, a real God, other than me?<br/>There's no Rock like me that I know of."


text:
All those who make no-god idols don't amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing—they're total embarrassments!


text:
Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality.


text:
The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil—such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst.


text:
The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel.


text:
He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain.


text:
Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships—carves it into a god shape and prays before it.


text:
With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: "Ah, this is the life."


text:
And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, "Save me. You're my god."


text:
Pretty stupid, wouldn't you say? Don't they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all?


text:
Doesn't it occur to them to say, "Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I've used the rest to make an abominable no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!"


text:
This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can't even look at what he's doing, can't even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, "This is crazy."


text:
"Remember these things, O Jacob.<br/>Take it seriously, Israel, that you're my servant.<br/>I made you, shaped you: You're my servant.<br/>O Israel, I'll never forget you.


text:
I've wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings.<br/>There's nothing left of your sins.<br/>Come back to me, come back.<br/>I've redeemed you."


text:
High heavens, sing!<br/>God has done it.<br/>Deep earth, shout!<br/>And you mountains, sing!<br/>A forest choir of oaks and pines and cedars!<br/>God has redeemed Jacob.<br/>God's glory is on display in Israel.


text:
God, your Redeemer,<br/>who shaped your life in your mother's womb, says:<br/>"I am God. I made all that is.<br/>With no help from you I spread out the skies<br/>and laid out the earth."


text:
He makes the magicians look ridiculous<br/>and turns fortunetellers into jokes.<br/>He makes the experts look trivial<br/>and their latest knowledge look silly.


text:
But he backs the word of his servant<br/>and confirms the counsel of his messengers.<br/>He says to Jerusalem, "Be inhabited,"<br/>and to the cities of Judah, "Be rebuilt,"<br/>and to the ruins, "I raise you up."


text:
He says to Cyrus, "My shepherd—<br/>everything I want, you'll do it."<br/>He says to Jerusalem, "Be built,"<br/>and to the Temple, "Be established."


text:
God's Message to his anointed,<br/>to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand<br/>To give the task of taming the nations,<br/>of terrifying their kings—<br/>He gave him free rein,<br/>no restrictions:


text:
"I'll go ahead of you,<br/>clearing and paving the road.<br/>I'll break down bronze city gates,<br/>smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances.


text:
I'll lead you to buried treasures,<br/>secret caches of valuables—<br/>Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God,<br/>the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.


text:
It's because of my dear servant Jacob,<br/>Israel my chosen,<br/>That I've singled you out, called you by name,<br/>and given you this privileged work.<br/>And you don't even know me!


text:
I am God, the only God there is.<br/>Besides me there are no real gods.<br/>I'm the one who armed you for this work,<br/>though you don't even know me,


text:
So that everyone, from east to west, will know<br/>that I have no god-rivals.<br/>I am God, the only God there is.


text:
I form light and create darkness,<br/>I make harmonies and create discords.<br/>I, God, do all these things.


text:
"Open up, heavens, and rain.<br/>Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!<br/>Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;<br/>sprout right living.<br/>I, God, generate all this.


text:
But doom to you who fight your Maker—<br/>you're a pot at odds with the potter!<br/>Does clay talk back to the potter:<br/>'What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!'


text:
Would a sperm say to a father,<br/>'Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?'<br/>Or a fetus to a mother,<br/>'Why have you cooped me up in this belly?' "


text:
Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel's Maker, says:<br/>"Do you question who or what I'm making?<br/>Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?


text:
I made earth,<br/>and I created man and woman to live on it.<br/>I handcrafted the skies<br/>and direct all the constellations in their turnings.


text:
And now I've got Cyrus on the move.<br/>I've rolled out the red carpet before him.<br/>He will build my city.<br/>He will bring home my exiles.<br/>I didn't hire him to do this. I told him.<br/>I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies."


text:
God says:<br/>"The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia,<br/>and those statuesque Sabeans<br/>Will all come over to you—all yours.<br/>Docile in chains, they'll follow you,<br/>Hands folded in reverence, praying before you:<br/>'Amazing! God is with you!<br/>There is no other God—none.' "


text:
Humiliated, all those others<br/>will be ashamed to show their faces in public.<br/>Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols<br/>won't know what to do with themselves.


text:
The people of Israel, though, are saved by you, God,<br/>saved with an eternal salvation.<br/>They won't be ashamed,<br/>they won't be at loose ends, ever.


text:
God, Creator of the heavens—<br/>he is, remember, God.<br/>Maker of earth—<br/>he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch.<br/>He didn't go to all that trouble<br/>to just leave it empty, nothing in it.<br/>He made it to be lived in.<br/>This God says:<br/>"I am God,<br/>the one and only.


text:
I don't just talk to myself<br/>or mumble under my breath.<br/>I never told Jacob,<br/>'Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.'<br/>I am God. I work out in the open,<br/>saying what's right, setting things right.


text:
So gather around, come on in,<br/>all you refugees and castoffs.<br/>They don't seem to know much, do they—<br/>those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood,<br/>praying for help to a dead stick?


text:
So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence.<br/>Put your heads together. Make your case.<br/>Who told you, and a long time ago, what's going on here?<br/>Who made sense of things for you?<br/>Wasn't I the one? God?<br/>It had to be me. I'm the only God there is—<br/>The only God who does things right<br/>and knows how to help.


text:
So turn to me and be helped—saved!—<br/>everyone, whoever and wherever you are.<br/>I am God,<br/>the only God there is, the one and only.


text:
I promise in my own name:<br/>Every word out of my mouth does what it says.<br/>I never take back what I say.<br/>Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me.<br/>Everyone is going to end up saying of me,


text:
'Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!' "<br/>All who have raged against him<br/>will be brought before him,<br/>disgraced by their unbelief.


text:
The god Bel falls down, god Nebo slumps.<br/>The no-god hunks of wood are loaded on mules<br/>And have to be hauled off,<br/>wearing out the poor mules—


text:
"Listen to me, family of Jacob,<br/>everyone that's left of the family of Israel.<br/>I've been carrying you on my back<br/>from the day you were born,


text:
And I'll keep on carrying you when you're old.<br/>I'll be there, bearing you when you're old and gray.<br/>I've done it and will keep on doing it,<br/>carrying you on my back, saving you.


text:
People with a lot of money<br/>hire craftsmen to make them gods.<br/>The artisan delivers the god,<br/>and they kneel and worship it!


text:
They carry it around in holy parades,<br/>then take it home and put it on a shelf.<br/>And there it sits, day in and day out,<br/>a dependable god, always right where you put it.<br/>Say anything you want to it, it never talks back.<br/>Of course, it never does anything either!


text:
"Think about this. Wrap your minds around it.<br/>This is serious business, rebels. Take it to heart.


text:
Remember your history,<br/>your long and rich history.<br/>I am God, the only God you've had or ever will have—<br/>incomparable, irreplaceable—


text:
From the very beginning<br/>telling you what the ending will be,<br/>All along letting you in<br/>on what is going to happen,<br/>Assuring you, 'I'm in this for the long haul,<br/>I'll do exactly what I set out to do,'


text:
Calling that eagle, Cyrus, out of the east,<br/>from a far country the man I chose to help me.<br/>I've said it, and I'll most certainly do it.<br/>I've planned it, so it's as good as done.


text:
I'm ready to help you right now.<br/>Deliverance is not a long-range plan.<br/>Salvation isn't on hold.<br/>I'm putting salvation to work in Zion now,<br/>and glory in Israel.


text:
"Get off your high horse and sit in the dirt,<br/>virgin daughter of Babylon.<br/>No more throne for you—sit on the ground,<br/>daughter of the Chaldeans.<br/>Nobody will be calling you 'charming'<br/>and 'alluring' anymore. Get used to it.


text:
Get a job, any old job:<br/>Clean gutters, scrub toilets.<br/>Hock your gowns and scarves,<br/>put on overalls—the party's over.


text:
Your nude body will be on public display,<br/>exposed to vulgar taunts.<br/>It's vengeance time, and I'm taking vengeance.<br/>No one gets let off the hook."


text:
"Shut up and get out of the way,<br/>daughter of Chaldeans.<br/>You'll no longer be called<br/>'First Lady of the Kingdoms.'


text:
I was fed up with my people,<br/>thoroughly disgusted with my progeny.<br/>I turned them over to you,<br/>but you had no compassion.<br/>You put old men and women<br/>to cruel, hard labor.


text:
You said, 'I'm the First Lady.<br/>I'll always be the pampered darling.'<br/>You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart,<br/>never gave tomorrow a thought.


text:
Well, start thinking, playgirl.<br/>You're acting like the center of the universe,<br/>Smugly saying to yourself, 'I'm Number One. There's nobody but me.<br/>I'll never be a widow, I'll never lose my children.'


text:
Those two things are going to hit you both at once,<br/>suddenly, on the same day:<br/>Spouse and children gone, a total loss,<br/>despite your many enchantments and charms.


text:
You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life,<br/>saying, 'No one sees me.'<br/>You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out.<br/>What delusion!<br/>Smugly telling yourself, 'I'm Number One. There's nobody but me.'


text:
Ruin descends—<br/>you can't charm it away.<br/>Disaster strikes—<br/>you can't cast it off with spells.<br/>Catastrophe, sudden and total—<br/>and you're totally at sea, totally bewildered!


text:
But don't give up. From your great repertoire<br/>of enchantments there must be one you haven't yet tried.<br/>You've been at this a long time.<br/>Surely something will work.


text:
I know you're exhausted trying out remedies,<br/>but don't give up.<br/>Call in the astrologers and stargazers.<br/>They're good at this. Surely they can work up something!


text:
"Fat chance. You'd be grasping at straws<br/>that are already in the fire,<br/>A fire that is even now raging.<br/>Your 'experts' are in it and won't get out.<br/>It's not a fire for cooking venison stew,<br/>not a fire to warm you on a winter night!


text:
That's the fate of your friends in sorcery, your magician buddies<br/>you've been in cahoots with all your life.<br/>They reel, confused, bumping into one another.<br/>None of them bother to help you.


text:
"And now listen to this, family of Jacob,<br/>you who are called by the name Israel:<br/>Who got you started in the loins of Judah,<br/>you who use God's name to back up your promises<br/>and pray to the God of Israel?<br/>But do you mean it?<br/>Do you live like it?


text:
You claim to be citizens of the Holy City;<br/>you act as though you lean on the God of Israel,<br/>named God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


text:
For a long time now, I've let you in on the way I work:<br/>I told you what I was going to do beforehand,<br/>then I did it and it was done, and that's that.


text:
So I got a running start and began telling you<br/>what was going on before it even happened.<br/>That is why you can't say,<br/>'My god-idol did this.'<br/>'My favorite god-carving commanded this.'


text:
You have all this evidence<br/>confirmed by your own eyes and ears.<br/>Shouldn't you be talking about it?<br/>And that was just the beginning.<br/>I have a lot more to tell you,<br/>things you never knew existed.


text:
This isn't a variation on the same old thing.<br/>This is new, brand-new,<br/>something you'd never guess or dream up.<br/>When you hear this you won't be able to say,<br/>'I knew that all along.'


text:
You've never been good listeners to me.<br/>You have a history of ignoring me,<br/>A sorry track record of fickle attachments—<br/>rebels from the womb.


text:
But out of the sheer goodness of my heart,<br/>because of who I am,<br/>I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper.<br/>I don't wash my hands of you.


text:
Do you see what I've done?<br/>I've refined you, but not without fire.<br/>I've tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction.


text:
Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do.<br/>I have my reputation to keep up.<br/>I'm not playing second fiddle to either gods or people.


text:
"Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel—<br/>I'm the One who named you!<br/>I'm the One.<br/>I got things started and, yes, I'll wrap them up.


text:
Earth is my work, handmade.<br/>And the skies—I made them too, horizon to horizon.<br/>When I speak, they're on their feet, at attention.


text:
"Come everybody, gather around, listen:<br/>Who among the gods has delivered the news?<br/>I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I'm using him<br/>to do what I want with Babylon.


text:
Come close, listen carefully:<br/>I've never kept secrets from you.<br/>I've always been present with you."<br/>And now, the Master, God, sends me and his Spirit


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with this Message from God,<br/>your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel:<br/>"I am God, your God,<br/>who teaches you how to live right and well.<br/>I show you what to do, where to go.


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If you had listened all along to what I told you,<br/>your life would have flowed full like a river,<br/>blessings rolling in like waves from the sea.


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Children and grandchildren are like sand,<br/>your progeny like grains of sand.<br/>There would be no end of them,<br/>no danger of losing touch with me."


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Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians!<br/>Shout the news. Broadcast it.<br/>Let the world know, the whole world.<br/>Tell them, "God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!"


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They weren't thirsty when he led them through the deserts.<br/>He made water pour out of the rock;<br/>he split the rock and the water gushed.


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Listen, far-flung islands,<br/>pay attention, faraway people:<br/>God put me to work from the day I was born.<br/>The moment I entered the world he named me.


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He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.<br/>He kept his hand on me to protect me.<br/>He made me his straight arrow<br/>and hid me in his quiver.


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But I said, "I've worked for nothing.<br/>I've nothing to show for a life of hard work.<br/>Nevertheless, I'll let God have the last word.<br/>I'll let him pronounce his verdict."


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"And now," God says,<br/>this God who took me in hand<br/>from the moment of birth to be his servant,<br/>To bring Jacob back home to him,<br/>to set a reunion for Israel—<br/>What an honor for me in God's eyes!<br/>That God should be my strength!


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He says, "But that's not a big enough job for my servant—<br/>just to recover the tribes of Jacob,<br/>merely to round up the strays of Israel.<br/>I'm setting you up as a light for the nations<br/>so that my salvation becomes global!"


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God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel,<br/>says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations,<br/>slave labor to the ruling class:<br/>"Kings will see, get to their feet—the princes, too—<br/>and then fall on their faces in homage<br/>Because of God, who has faithfully kept his word,<br/>The Holy of Israel, who has chosen you."


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God also says:<br/>"When the time's ripe, I answer you.<br/>When victory's due, I help you.<br/>I form you and use you<br/>to reconnect the people with me,<br/>To put the land in order,<br/>to resettle families on the ruined properties.


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I tell prisoners, 'Come on out. You're free!'<br/>and those huddled in fear, 'It's all right. It's safe now.'<br/>There'll be foodstands along all the roads,<br/>picnics on all the hills—


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Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty,<br/>shade from the sun, shelter from the wind,<br/>For the Compassionate One guides them,<br/>takes them to the best springs.


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Look: These coming from far countries,<br/>and those, out of the north,<br/>These streaming in from the west,<br/>and those from all the way down the Nile!"


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Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead!<br/>Mountains, send up cheers!<br/>God has comforted his people.<br/>He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people.


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"Can a mother forget the infant at her breast,<br/>walk away from the baby she bore?<br/>But even if mothers forget,<br/>I'd never forget you—never.


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Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands.<br/>The walls you're rebuilding are never out of my sight.


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Look up, look around, look well!<br/>See them all gathering, coming to you?<br/>As sure as I am the living God"—God's Decree—<br/>"you're going to put them on like so much jewelry,<br/>you're going to use them to dress up like a bride.


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"And your ruined land?<br/>Your devastated, decimated land?<br/>Filled with more people than you know what to do with!<br/>And your barbarian enemies, a fading memory.


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The children born in your exile will be saying,<br/>'It's getting too crowded here. I need more room.'


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And you'll say to yourself,<br/>'Where on earth did these children come from?<br/>I lost everything, had nothing, was exiled and penniless.<br/>So who reared these children?<br/>How did these children get here?' "


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The Master, God, says:<br/>"Look! I signal to the nations,<br/>I raise my flag to summon the people.<br/>Here they'll come: women carrying your little boys in their arms,<br/>men carrying your little girls on their shoulders.


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Kings will be your babysitters,<br/>princesses will be your nursemaids.<br/>They'll offer to do all your drudge work—<br/>scrub your floors, do your laundry.<br/>You'll know then that I am God.<br/>No one who hopes in me ever regrets it."


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But God says, "Even if a giant grips the plunder<br/>and a tyrant holds my people prisoner,<br/>I'm the one who's on your side,<br/>defending your cause, rescuing your children.


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And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves,<br/>killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction.<br/>Then everyone will know that I, God,<br/>have saved you—I, the Mighty One of Jacob."


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God says:<br/>"Can you produce your mother's divorce papers<br/>proving I got rid of her?<br/>Can you produce a receipt<br/>proving I sold you?<br/>Of course you can't.<br/>It's your sins that put you here,<br/>your wrongs that got you shipped out.


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So why didn't anyone come when I knocked?<br/>Why didn't anyone answer when I called?<br/>Do you think I've forgotten how to help?<br/>Am I so decrepit that I can't deliver?<br/>I'm as powerful as ever,<br/>and can reverse what I once did:<br/>I can dry up the sea with a word,<br/>turn river water into desert sand,<br/>And leave the fish stinking in the sun,<br/>stranded on dry land...


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The Master, God, has given me<br/>a well-taught tongue,<br/>So I know how to encourage tired people.<br/>He wakes me up in the morning,<br/>Wakes me up, opens my ears<br/>to listen as one ready to take orders.


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The Master, God, opened my ears,<br/>and I didn't go back to sleep,<br/>didn't pull the covers back over my head.


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I followed orders,<br/>stood there and took it while they beat me,<br/>held steady while they pulled out my beard,<br/>Didn't dodge their insults,<br/>faced them as they spit in my face.


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And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me,<br/>so I'm not disgraced.<br/>Therefore I set my face like flint,<br/>confident that I'll never regret this.


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My champion is right here.<br/>Let's take our stand together!<br/>Who dares bring suit against me?<br/>Let him try!


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Look! the Master, God, is right here.<br/>Who would dare call me guilty?<br/>Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare<br/>socks and shirts, fodder for moths!


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Who out there fears God,<br/>actually listens to the voice of his servant?<br/>For anyone out there who doesn't know where you're going,<br/>anyone groping in the dark,<br/>Here's what: Trust in God.<br/>Lean on your God!


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But if all you're after is making trouble,<br/>playing with fire,<br/>Go ahead and see where it gets you.<br/>Set your fires, stir people up, blow on the flames,<br/>But don't expect me to just stand there and watch.<br/>I'll hold your feet to those flames.


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"Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living<br/>and committed to seeking God.<br/>Ponder the rock from which you were cut,<br/>the quarry from which you were dug.


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Yes, ponder Abraham, your father,<br/>and Sarah, who bore you.<br/>Think of it! One solitary man when I called him,<br/>but once I blessed him, he multiplied.


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Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion,<br/>comfort all her mounds of ruins.<br/>I'll transform her dead ground into Eden,<br/>her moonscape into the garden of God,<br/>A place filled with exuberance and laughter,<br/>thankful voices and melodic songs.


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"Pay attention, my people.<br/>Listen to me, nations.<br/>Revelation flows from me.<br/>My decisions light up the world.


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My deliverance arrives on the run,<br/>my salvation right on time.<br/>I'll bring justice to the peoples.<br/>Even faraway islands will look to me<br/>and take hope in my saving power.


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Look up at the skies,<br/>ponder the earth under your feet.<br/>The skies will fade out like smoke,<br/>the earth will wear out like work pants,<br/>and the people will die off like flies.<br/>But my salvation will last forever,<br/>my setting-things-right will never be obsolete.


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"Listen now, you who know right from wrong,<br/>you who hold my teaching inside you:<br/>Pay no attention to insults, and when mocked<br/>don't let it get you down.


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Those insults and mockeries are moth-eaten,<br/>from brains that are termite-ridden,<br/>But my setting-things-right lasts,<br/>my salvation goes on and on and on."


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Wake up, wake up, flex your muscles, God!<br/>Wake up as in the old days, in the long ago.<br/>Didn't you once make mincemeat of Rahab,<br/>dispatch the old chaos-dragon?


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And didn't you once dry up the sea,<br/>the powerful waters of the deep,<br/>And then made the bottom of the ocean a road<br/>for the redeemed to walk across?


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In the same way God's ransomed will come back,<br/>come back to Zion cheering, shouting,<br/>Joy eternal wreathing their heads,<br/>exuberant ecstasies transporting them—<br/>and not a sign of moans or groans.


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"I, I'm the One comforting you.<br/>What are you afraid of—or who?<br/>Some man or woman who'll soon be dead?<br/>Some poor wretch destined for dust?


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You've forgotten me, God, who made you,<br/>who unfurled the skies, who founded the earth.<br/>And here you are, quaking like an aspen<br/>before the tantrums of a tyrant<br/>who thinks he can kick down the world.<br/>But what will come of the tantrums?


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The victims will be released before you know it.<br/>They're not going to die.<br/>They're not even going to go hungry.


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For I am God, your very own God,<br/>who stirs up the sea and whips up the waves,<br/>named God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


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I teach you how to talk, word by word,<br/>and personally watch over you,<br/>Even while I'm unfurling the skies,<br/>setting earth on solid foundations,<br/>and greeting Zion: 'Welcome, my people!' "


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So wake up! Rub the sleep from your eyes!<br/>Up on your feet, Jerusalem!<br/>You've drunk the cup God handed you,<br/>the strong drink of his anger.<br/>You drank it down to the last drop,<br/>staggered and collapsed, dead-drunk.


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And nobody to help you home,<br/>no one among your friends or children<br/>to take you by the hand and put you in bed.


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You've been hit with a double dose of trouble<br/>—does anyone care?<br/>Assault and battery, hunger and death<br/>—will anyone comfort?


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Your sons and daughters have passed out,<br/>strewn in the streets like stunned rabbits,<br/>Sleeping off the strong drink of God's anger,<br/>the rage of your God.


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Therefore listen, please,<br/>you with your splitting headaches,<br/>You who are nursing the hangovers<br/>that didn't come from drinking wine.


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Your Master, your God, has something to say,<br/>your God has taken up his people's case:<br/>"Look, I've taken back the drink that sent you reeling.<br/>No more drinking from that jug of my anger!


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I've passed it over to your abusers to drink, those who ordered you,<br/>'Down on the ground so we can walk all over you!'<br/>And you had to do it. Flat on the ground,<br/>you were the dirt under their feet."


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Wake up, wake up! Pull on your boots, Zion!<br/>Dress up in your Sunday best, Jerusalem, holy city!<br/>Those who want no part of God have been culled out.<br/>They won't be coming along.


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Brush off the dust and get to your feet, captive Jerusalem!<br/>Throw off your chains, captive daughter of Zion!


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Again, the Master, God, says, "Early on, my people went to Egypt and lived, strangers in the land. At the other end, Assyria oppressed them.


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And now, what have I here?" God's Decree. "My people are hauled off again for no reason at all. Tyrants on the warpath, whooping it up, and day after day, incessantly, my reputation blackened.


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Now it's time that my people know who I am, what I'm made of—yes, that I have something to say. Here I am!"


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How beautiful on the mountains<br/>are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,<br/>Breaking the news that all's well,<br/>proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,<br/>telling Zion, "Your God reigns!"


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Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts,<br/>shouting in joyful unison.<br/>They see with their own eyes<br/>God coming back to Zion.


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Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:<br/>"God has comforted his people!<br/>He's redeemed Jerusalem!"


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God has rolled up his sleeves.<br/>All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.<br/>Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,<br/>sees him at work, doing his salvation work.


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Out of here! Out of here! Leave this place!<br/>Don't look back. Don't contaminate yourselves with plunder.<br/>Just leave, but leave clean. Purify yourselves<br/>in the process of worship, carrying the holy vessels of God.


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But you don't have to be in a hurry.<br/>You're not running from anybody!<br/>God is leading you out of here,<br/>and the God of Israel is also your rear guard.


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But he didn't begin that way.<br/>At first everyone was appalled.<br/>He didn't even look human—<br/>a ruined face, disfigured past recognition.


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Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback,<br/>kings shocked into silence when they see him.<br/>For what was unheard of they'll see with their own eyes,<br/>what was unthinkable they'll have right before them."


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Who believes what we've heard and seen?<br/>Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?


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The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,<br/>a scrubby plant in a parched field.<br/>There was nothing attractive about him,<br/>nothing to cause us to take a second look.


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He was looked down on and passed over,<br/>a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.<br/>One look at him and people turned away.<br/>We looked down on him, thought he was scum.


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But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—<br/>our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.<br/>We thought he brought it on himself,<br/>that God was punishing him for his own failures.


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But it was our sins that did that to him,<br/>that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!<br/>He took the punishment, and that made us whole.<br/>Through his bruises we get healed.


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We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.<br/>We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.<br/>And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,<br/>on him, on him.


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He was beaten, he was tortured,<br/>but he didn't say a word.<br/>Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered<br/>and like a sheep being sheared,<br/>he took it all in silence.


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Justice miscarried, and he was led off—<br/>and did anyone really know what was happening?<br/>He died without a thought for his own welfare,<br/>beaten bloody for the sins of my people.


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They buried him with the wicked,<br/>threw him in a grave with a rich man,<br/>Even though he'd never hurt a soul<br/>or said one word that wasn't true.


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Still, it's what God had in mind all along,<br/>to crush him with pain.<br/>The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin<br/>so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.<br/>And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.


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Out of that terrible travail of soul,<br/>he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.<br/>Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,<br/>will make many "righteous ones,"<br/>as he himself carries the burden of their sins.


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Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—<br/>the best of everything, the highest honors—<br/>Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,<br/>because he embraced the company of the lowest.<br/>He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,<br/>he took up the cause of all the black sheep.


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"Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby.<br/>Fill the air with song, you who've never experienced childbirth!<br/>You're ending up with far more children<br/>than all those childbearing women." God says so!


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"Clear lots of ground for your tents!<br/>Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!<br/>Use plenty of rope,<br/>drive the tent pegs deep.


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You're going to need lots of elbow room<br/>for your growing family.<br/>You're going to take over whole nations;<br/>you're going to resettle abandoned cities.


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Don't be afraid—you're not going to be embarrassed.<br/>Don't hold back—you're not going to come up short.<br/>You'll forget all about the humiliations of your youth,<br/>and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.


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For your Maker is your bridegroom,<br/>his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!<br/>Your Redeemer is The Holy of Israel,<br/>known as God of the whole earth.


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You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief,<br/>and God welcomed you back,<br/>Like a woman married young<br/>and then left," says your God.


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Your Redeemer God says:<br/>"I left you, but only for a moment.<br/>Now, with enormous compassion, I'm bringing you back.


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In an outburst of anger I turned my back on you—<br/>but only for a moment.<br/>It's with lasting love<br/>that I'm tenderly caring for you.


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"This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:<br/>I promised then that the waters of Noah<br/>would never again flood the earth.<br/>I'm promising now no more anger,<br/>no more dressing you down.


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For even if the mountains walk away<br/>and the hills fall to pieces,<br/>My love won't walk away from you,<br/>my covenant commitment of peace won't fall apart."<br/>The God who has compassion on you says so.


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"Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:<br/>I'm about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise,<br/>Lay your foundations with sapphires,


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construct your towers with rubies,<br/>Your gates with jewels,<br/>and all your walls with precious stones.


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You'll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,<br/>far from any trouble—nothing to fear!<br/>far from terror—it won't even come close!


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If anyone attacks you,<br/>don't for a moment suppose that I sent them,<br/>And if any should attack,<br/>nothing will come of it.


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I create the blacksmith<br/>who fires up his forge<br/>and makes a weapon designed to kill.<br/>I also create the destroyer—


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but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged.<br/>Any accuser who takes you to court<br/>will be dismissed as a liar.<br/>This is what God's servants can expect.<br/>I'll see to it that everything works out for the best."<br/>God's Decree.


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"Hey there! All who are thirsty,<br/>come to the water!<br/>Are you penniless?<br/>Come anyway—buy and eat!<br/>Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.<br/>Buy without money—everything's free!


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Why do you spend your money on junk food,<br/>your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?<br/>Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,<br/>fill yourself with only the finest.


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Pay attention, come close now,<br/>listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.<br/>I'm making a lasting covenant commitment with you,<br/>the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.


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And now I'm doing it to you:<br/>You'll summon nations you've never heard of,<br/>and nations who've never heard of you<br/>will come running to you<br/>Because of me, your God,<br/>because The Holy of Israel has honored you."


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Let the wicked abandon their way of life<br/>and the evil their way of thinking.<br/>Let them come back to God, who is merciful,<br/>come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.


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"For as the sky soars high above earth,<br/>so the way I work surpasses the way you work,<br/>and the way I think is beyond the way you think.


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Just as rain and snow descend from the skies<br/>and don't go back until they've watered the earth,<br/>Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,<br/>producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,


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So will the words that come out of my mouth<br/>not come back empty-handed.<br/>They'll do the work I sent them to do,<br/>they'll complete the assignment I gave them.


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"So you'll go out in joy,<br/>you'll be led into a whole and complete life.<br/>The mountains and hills will lead the parade,<br/>bursting with song.<br/>All the trees of the forest will join the procession,<br/>exuberant with applause.


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No more thistles, but giant sequoias,<br/>no more thornbushes, but stately pines—<br/>Monuments to me, to God,<br/>living and lasting evidence of God."


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God's Message:<br/>"Guard my common good:<br/>Do what's right and do it in the right way,<br/>For salvation is just around the corner,<br/>my setting-things-right is about to go into action.


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How blessed are you who enter into these things,<br/>you men and women who embrace them,<br/>Who keep Sabbath and don't defile it,<br/>who watch your step and don't do anything evil!


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Make sure no outsider who now follows God<br/>ever has occasion to say, 'God put me in second-class.<br/>I don't really belong.'<br/>And make sure no physically mutilated person<br/>is ever made to think, 'I'm damaged goods.<br/>I don't really belong.' "


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For God says:<br/>"To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths<br/>and choose what delights me<br/>and keep a firm grip on my covenant,


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I'll provide them an honored place<br/>in my family and within my city,<br/>even more honored than that of sons and daughters.<br/>I'll confer permanent honors on them<br/>that will never be revoked.


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"And as for the outsiders who now follow me,<br/>working for me, loving my name,<br/>and wanting to be my servants—<br/>All who keep Sabbath and don't defile it,<br/>holding fast to my covenant—


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I'll bring them to my holy mountain<br/>and give them joy in my house of prayer.<br/>They'll be welcome to worship the same as the 'insiders,'<br/>to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar.<br/>Oh yes, my house of worship<br/>will be known as a house of prayer for all people."


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The Decree of the Master, God himself,<br/>who gathers in the exiles of Israel:<br/>"I will gather others also,<br/>gather them in with those already gathered."


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For Israel's watchmen are blind, the whole lot of them.<br/>They have no idea what's going on.<br/>They're dogs without sense enough to bark,<br/>lazy dogs, dreaming in the sun—


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But hungry dogs, they do know how to eat,<br/>voracious dogs, with never enough.<br/>And these are Israel's shepherds!<br/>They know nothing, understand nothing.<br/>They all look after themselves,<br/>grabbing whatever's not nailed down.


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"Come," they say, "let's have a party.<br/>Let's go out and get drunk!"<br/>And tomorrow, more of the same:<br/>"Let's live it up!"


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Meanwhile, right-living people die<br/>and no one gives them a thought.<br/>God-fearing people are carted off<br/>and no one even notices.<br/>The right-living people are out of their misery,<br/>they're finally at rest.


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What business do you have taunting,<br/>sneering, and sticking out your tongue?<br/>Do you have any idea what wretches you've turned out to be?<br/>A race of rebels, a generation of liars.


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You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade<br/>and fornicate at whim.<br/>You kill your children at any convenient spot—<br/>any cave or crevasse will do.


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You take stones from the creek<br/>and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.<br/>You've chosen your fate.<br/>Your worship will be your doom.


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Behind closed doors<br/>you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.<br/>Deserting me, you've gone all out, stripped down<br/>and made your bed your place of worship.<br/>You've climbed into bed with the 'sacred' whores<br/>and loved every minute of it,<br/>adoring every curve of their naked bodies.


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You anoint your king-god with ointments<br/>and lavish perfumes on yourselves.<br/>You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,<br/>send them all the way to hell and back.


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You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,<br/>and never see what a waste it all is.<br/>You've always found strength for the latest fad,<br/>never got tired of trying new religions.


text:
"Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense,<br/>leaving me high and dry,<br/>forgetting you ever knew me?<br/>Because I don't yell and make a scene<br/>do you think I don't exist?


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I'll go over, detail by detail, all your 'righteous' attempts at religion,<br/>and expose the absurdity of it all.


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Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods:<br/>A good wind will blow them away.<br/>They're smoke, nothing but smoke.<br/>"But anyone who runs to me for help<br/>will inherit the land,<br/>will end up owning my holy mountain!"


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Someone says: "Build, build! Make a road!<br/>Clear the way, remove the rocks<br/>from the road my people will travel."


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A Message from the high and towering God,<br/>who lives in Eternity,<br/>whose name is Holy:<br/>"I live in the high and holy places,<br/>but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,<br/>And what I do is put new spirit in them,<br/>get them up and on their feet again.


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For I'm not going to haul people into court endlessly,<br/>I'm not going to be angry forever.<br/>Otherwise, people would lose heart.<br/>These souls I created would tire out and give up.


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I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel's sins.<br/>I struck him hard and turned away in anger,<br/>while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways.


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When I looked again and saw what he was doing,<br/>I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him,<br/>creating a new language of praise for the mourners.


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But the wicked are storm-battered seas<br/>that can't quiet down.<br/>The waves stir up garbage and mud.


text:
"Shout! A full-throated shout!<br/>Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!<br/>Tell my people what's wrong with their lives,<br/>face my family Jacob with their sins!


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They're busy, busy, busy at worship,<br/>and love studying all about me.<br/>To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people—<br/>law-abiding, God-honoring.<br/>They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?'<br/>and love having me on their side.


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But they also complain,<br/>'Why do we fast and you don't look our way?<br/>Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'<br/>"Well, here's why:<br/>"The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.<br/>You drive your employees much too hard.


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You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.<br/>You fast, but you swing a mean fist.<br/>The kind of fasting you do<br/>won't get your prayers off the ground.


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Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:<br/>a day to show off humility?<br/>To put on a pious long face<br/>and parade around solemnly in black?<br/>Do you call that fasting,<br/>a fast day that I, God, would like?


text:
"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:<br/>to break the chains of injustice,<br/>get rid of exploitation in the workplace,<br/>free the oppressed,<br/>cancel debts.


text:
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:<br/>sharing your food with the hungry,<br/>inviting the homeless poor into your homes,<br/>putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,<br/>being available to your own families.


text:
Do this and the lights will turn on,<br/>and your lives will turn around at once.<br/>Your righteousness will pave your way.<br/>The God of glory will secure your passage.


text:
Then when you pray, God will answer.<br/>You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'<br/>"If you get rid of unfair practices,<br/>quit blaming victims,<br/>quit gossiping about other people's sins,


text:
If you are generous with the hungry<br/>and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,<br/>Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,<br/>your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.


text:
I will always show you where to go.<br/>I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—<br/>firm muscles, strong bones.<br/>You'll be like a well-watered garden,<br/>a gurgling spring that never runs dry.


text:
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,<br/>rebuild the foundations from out of your past.<br/>You'll be known as those who can fix anything,<br/>restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,<br/>make the community livable again.


text:
"If you watch your step on the Sabbath<br/>and don't use my holy day for personal advantage,<br/>If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,<br/>God's holy day as a celebration,<br/>If you honor it by refusing 'business as usual,'<br/>making money, running here and there—


text:
Then you'll be free to enjoy God!<br/>Oh, I'll make you ride high and soar above it all.<br/>I'll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob."<br/>Yes! God says so!


text:
Look! Listen!<br/>God's arm is not amputated—he can still save.<br/>God's ears are not stopped up—he can still hear.


text:
There's nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you.<br/>Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God.<br/>Your sins got between you so that he doesn't hear.


text:
Your hands are drenched in blood,<br/>your fingers dripping with guilt,<br/>Your lips smeared with lies,<br/>your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.


text:
No one speaks up for the right,<br/>no one deals fairly.<br/>They trust in illusion, they tell lies,<br/>they get pregnant with mischief and have sin-babies.


text:
The spider webs are no good for shirts or shawls.<br/>No one can wear these weavings!<br/>They weave wickedness,<br/>they hatch violence.


text:
They compete in the race to do evil<br/>and run to be the first to murder.<br/>They plan and plot evil, think and breathe evil,<br/>and leave a trail of wrecked lives behind them.


text:
They know nothing about peace<br/>and less than nothing about justice.<br/>They make tortuously twisted roads.<br/>No peace for the wretch who walks down those roads!


text:
Which means that we're a far cry from fair dealing,<br/>and we're not even close to right living.<br/>We long for light but sink into darkness,<br/>long for brightness but stumble through the night.


text:
Like the blind, we inch along a wall,<br/>groping eyeless in the dark.<br/>We shuffle our way in broad daylight,<br/>like the dead, but somehow walking.


text:
We're no better off than bears, groaning,<br/>and no worse off than doves, moaning.<br/>We look for justice—not a sign of it;<br/>for salvation—not so much as a hint.


text:
Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God,<br/>our sins stand up and accuse us.<br/>Our wrongdoings stare us down;<br/>we know in detail what we've done:


text:
Mocking and denying God,<br/>not following our God,<br/>Spreading false rumors, inciting sedition,<br/>pregnant with lies, muttering malice.


text:
Justice is beaten back,<br/>Righteousness is banished to the sidelines,<br/>Truth staggers down the street,<br/>Honesty is nowhere to be found,


text:
Good is missing in action.<br/>Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.<br/>God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon—<br/>so much evil and no sign of Justice.


text:
He couldn't believe what he saw:<br/>not a soul around to correct this awful situation.<br/>So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation,<br/>fueled by his own Righteousness.


text:
He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor,<br/>with Salvation on his head like a helmet,<br/>Put on Judgment like an overcoat,<br/>and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders.


text:
He'll make everyone pay for what they've done:<br/>fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies.<br/>Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full.


text:
In the west they'll fear the name of God,<br/>in the east they'll fear the glory of God,<br/>For he'll arrive like a river in flood stage,<br/>whipped to a torrent by the wind of God.


text:
"As for me," God says, "this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I've placed upon you and the words that I've given you to speak, they're not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won't ever stop." God's orders.


text:
"Get out of bed, Jerusalem!<br/>Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight.<br/>God's bright glory has risen for you.


text:
The whole earth is wrapped in darkness,<br/>all people sunk in deep darkness,<br/>But God rises on you,<br/>his sunrise glory breaks over you.


text:
Look up! Look around!<br/>Watch as they gather, watch as they approach you:<br/>Your sons coming from great distances,<br/>your daughters carried by their nannies.


text:
When you see them coming you'll smile—big smiles!<br/>Your heart will swell and, yes, burst!<br/>All those people returning by sea for the reunion,<br/>a rich harvest of exiles gathered in from the nations!


text:
And then streams of camel caravans as far as the eye can see,<br/>young camels of nomads in Midian and Ephah,<br/>Pouring in from the south from Sheba,<br/>loaded with gold and frankincense,<br/>preaching the praises of God.


text:
And yes, a great roundup<br/>of flocks from the nomads in Kedar and Nebaioth,<br/>Welcome gifts for worship at my altar<br/>as I bathe my glorious Temple in splendor.


text:
It's ships from the distant islands,<br/>the famous Tarshish ships<br/>Returning your children from faraway places,<br/>loaded with riches, with silver and gold,<br/>And backed by the name of your God, The Holy of Israel,<br/>showering you with splendor.


text:
Foreigners will rebuild your walls,<br/>and their kings assist you in the conduct of worship.<br/>When I was angry I hit you hard.<br/>It's my desire now to be tender.


text:
Your Jerusalem gates will always be open<br/>—open house day and night!—<br/>Receiving deliveries of wealth from all nations,<br/>and their kings, the delivery boys!


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The rich woods of Lebanon will be delivered<br/>—all that cypress and oak and pine—<br/>To give a splendid elegance to my Sanctuary,<br/>as I make my footstool glorious.


text:
The descendants of your oppressor<br/>will come bowing and scraping to you.<br/>All who looked down at you in contempt<br/>will lick your boots.<br/>They'll confer a title on you: City of God,<br/>Zion of The Holy of Israel.


text:
Not long ago you were despised refuse—<br/>out-of-the-way, unvisited, ignored.<br/>But now I've put you on your feet,<br/>towering and grand forever, a joy to look at!


text:
When you suck the milk of nations<br/>and the breasts of royalty,<br/>You'll know that I, God, am your Savior,<br/>your Redeemer, Champion of Jacob.


text:
I'll give you only the best—no more hand-me-downs!<br/>Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron,<br/>bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones.<br/>I'll install Peace to run your country,<br/>make Righteousness your boss.


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There'll be no more stories of crime in your land,<br/>no more robberies, no more vandalism.<br/>You'll name your main street Salvation Way,<br/>and install Praise Park at the center of town.


text:
You'll have no more need of the sun by day<br/>nor the brightness of the moon at night.<br/>God will be your eternal light,<br/>your God will bathe you in splendor.


text:
Your sun will never go down,<br/>your moon will never fade.<br/>I will be your eternal light.<br/>Your days of grieving are over.


text:
All your people will live right and well,<br/>in permanent possession of the land.<br/>They're the green shoot that I planted,<br/>planted with my own hands to display my glory.


text:
The runt will become a great tribe,<br/>the weakling become a strong nation.<br/>I am God.<br/>At the right time I'll make it happen."


text:
The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me<br/>because God anointed me.<br/>He sent me to preach good news to the poor,<br/>heal the heartbroken,<br/>Announce freedom to all captives,<br/>pardon all prisoners.


text:
God sent me to announce the year of his grace—<br/>a celebration of God's destruction of our enemies—<br/>and to comfort all who mourn,


text:
To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,<br/>give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,<br/>Messages of joy instead of news of doom,<br/>a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.<br/>Rename them "Oaks of Righteousness"<br/>planted by God to display his glory.


text:
They'll rebuild the old ruins,<br/>raise a new city out of the wreckage.<br/>They'll start over on the ruined cities,<br/>take the rubble left behind and make it new.


text:
But you'll have the title "Priests of God,"<br/>honored as ministers of our God.<br/>You'll feast on the bounty of nations,<br/>you'll bask in their glory.


text:
Because you got a double dose of trouble<br/>and more than your share of contempt,<br/>Your inheritance in the land will be doubled<br/>and your joy go on forever.


text:
"Because I, God, love fair dealing<br/>and hate thievery and crime,<br/>I'll pay your wages on time and in full,<br/>and establish my eternal covenant with you.


text:
Your descendants will become well-known all over.<br/>Your children in foreign countries<br/>Will be recognized at once<br/>as the people I have blessed."


text:
I will sing for joy in God,<br/>explode in praise from deep in my soul!<br/>He dressed me up in a suit of salvation,<br/>he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness,<br/>As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo<br/>and a bride a jeweled tiara.


text:
For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers,<br/>and as a garden cascades with blossoms,<br/>So the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom<br/>and puts praise on display before the nations.


text:
Regarding Zion, I can't keep my mouth shut,<br/>regarding Jerusalem, I can't hold my tongue,<br/>Until her righteousness blazes down like the sun<br/>and her salvation flames up like a torch.


text:
Foreign countries will see your righteousness,<br/>and world leaders your glory.<br/>You'll get a brand-new name<br/>straight from the mouth of God.


text:
You'll be a stunning crown in the palm of God's hand,<br/>a jeweled gold cup held high in the hand of your God.


text:
No more will anyone call you Rejected,<br/>and your country will no more be called Ruined.<br/>You'll be called Hephzibah (My Delight),<br/>and your land Beulah (Married),<br/>Because God delights in you<br/>and your land will be like a wedding celebration.


text:
For as a young man marries his virgin bride,<br/>so your builder marries you,<br/>And as a bridegroom is happy in his bride,<br/>so your God is happy with you.


text:
I've posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem.<br/>Day and night they keep at it, praying, calling out,<br/>reminding God to remember.


text:
They are to give him no peace until he does what he said,<br/>until he makes Jerusalem famous as the City of Praise.


text:
God has taken a solemn oath,<br/>an oath he means to keep:<br/>"Never again will I open your grain-filled barns<br/>to your enemies to loot and eat.<br/>Never again will foreigners drink the wine<br/>that you worked so hard to produce.


text:
No. The farmers who grow the food will eat the food<br/>and praise God for it.<br/>And those who make the wine will drink the wine<br/>in my holy courtyards."


text:
Walk out of the gates. Get going!<br/>Get the road ready for the people.<br/>Build the highway. Get at it!<br/>Clear the debris,<br/>hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples!


text:
Yes! God has broadcast to all the world:<br/>"Tell daughter Zion, 'Look! Your Savior comes,<br/>Ready to do what he said he'd do,<br/>prepared to complete what he promised.' "


text:
The watchmen call out,<br/>"Who goes there, marching out of Edom,<br/>out of Bozrah in clothes dyed red?<br/>Name yourself, so splendidly dressed,<br/>advancing, bristling with power!"<br/>"It is I: I speak what is right,<br/>I, mighty to save!"


text:
"I've been treading the winepress alone.<br/>No one was there to help me.<br/>Angrily, I stomped the grapes;<br/>raging, I trampled the people.<br/>Their blood spurted all over me—<br/>all my clothes were soaked with blood.


text:
I looked around for someone to help<br/>—no one.<br/>I couldn't believe it<br/>—not one volunteer.<br/>So I went ahead and did it myself,<br/>fed and fueled by my rage.


text:
I trampled the people in my anger,<br/>crushed them under foot in my wrath,<br/>soaked the earth with their lifeblood."


text:
I'll make a list of God's gracious dealings,<br/>all the things God has done that need praising,<br/>All the generous bounties of God,<br/>his great goodness to the family of Israel—<br/>Compassion lavished,<br/>love extravagant.


text:
He said, "Without question these are my people,<br/>children who would never betray me."<br/>So he became their Savior.


text:
In all their troubles,<br/>he was troubled, too.<br/>He didn't send someone else to help them.<br/>He did it himself, in person.<br/>Out of his own love and pity<br/>he redeemed them.<br/>He rescued them and carried them along<br/>for a long, long time.


text:
But they turned on him;<br/>they grieved his Holy Spirit.<br/>So he turned on them,<br/>became their enemy and fought them.


text:
Then they remembered the old days,<br/>the days of Moses, God's servant:<br/>"Where is he who brought the shepherds of his flock<br/>up and out of the sea?<br/>And what happened to the One who set<br/>his Holy Spirit within them?


text:
Who linked his arm with Moses' right arm,<br/>divided the waters before them,<br/>Making him famous ever after,


text:
Like a herd of cattle led to pasture,<br/>the Spirit of God gave them rest."<br/>That's how you led your people!<br/>That's how you became so famous!


text:
Look down from heaven, look at us!<br/>Look out the window of your holy and magnificent house!<br/>Whatever happened to your passion,<br/>your famous mighty acts,<br/>Your heartfelt pity, your compassion?<br/>Why are you holding back?


text:
You are our Father.<br/>Abraham and Israel are long dead.<br/>They wouldn't know us from Adam.<br/>But you're our living Father,<br/>our Redeemer, famous from eternity!


text:
Why, God, did you make us wander from your ways?<br/>Why did you make us cold and stubborn<br/>so that we no longer worshiped you in awe?<br/>Turn back for the sake of your servants.<br/>You own us! We belong to you!


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Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend,<br/>make the mountains shudder at your presence—


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To shock your enemies into facing you,<br/>make the nations shake in their boots!<br/>You did terrible things we never expected,<br/>descended and made the mountains shudder at your presence.


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Since before time began<br/>no one has ever imagined,<br/>No ear heard, no eye seen, a God like you<br/>who works for those who wait for him.


text:
You meet those who happily do what is right,<br/>who keep a good memory of the way you work.<br/>But how angry you've been with us!<br/>We've sinned and kept at it so long!<br/>Is there any hope for us? Can we be saved?


text:
We're all sin-infected, sin-contaminated.<br/>Our best efforts are grease-stained rags.<br/>We dry up like autumn leaves—<br/>sin-dried, we're blown off by the wind.


text:
No one prays to you<br/>or makes the effort to reach out to you<br/>Because you've turned away from us,<br/>left us to stew in our sins.


text:
Still, God, you are our Father.<br/>We're the clay and you're our potter:<br/>All of us are what you made us.


text:
Don't be too angry with us, O God.<br/>Don't keep a permanent account of wrongdoing.<br/>Keep in mind, please, we are your people—all of us.


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Our holy and beautiful Temple,<br/>which our ancestors filled with your praises,<br/>Was burned down by fire,<br/>all our lovely parks and gardens in ruins.


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In the face of all this,<br/>are you going to sit there unmoved, God?<br/>Aren't you going to say something?<br/>Haven't you made us miserable long enough?


text:
"I've made myself available<br/>to those who haven't bothered to ask.<br/>I'm here, ready to be found<br/>by those who haven't bothered to look.<br/>I kept saying 'I'm here, I'm right here'<br/>to a nation that ignored me.


text:
I reached out day after day<br/>to a people who turned their backs on me,<br/>People who make wrong turns,<br/>who insist on doing things their own way.


text:
They get on my nerves,<br/>are rude to my face day after day,<br/>Make up their own kitchen religion,<br/>a potluck religious stew.


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They spend the night in tombs<br/>to get messages from the dead,<br/>Eat forbidden foods<br/>and drink a witch's brew of potions and charms.


text:
They say, 'Keep your distance.<br/>Don't touch me. I'm holier than thou.'<br/>These people gag me.<br/>I can't stand their stench.


text:
Look at this! Their sins are all written out—<br/>I have the list before me.<br/>I'm not putting up with this any longer.<br/>I'll pay them the wages


text:
They have coming for their sins.<br/>And for the sins of their parents lumped in,<br/>a bonus." God says so.<br/>"Because they've practiced their blasphemous worship,<br/>mocking me at their hillside shrines,<br/>I'll let loose the consequences<br/>and pay them in full for their actions."


text:
God's Message:<br/>"But just as one bad apple doesn't ruin the whole bushel,<br/>there are still plenty of good apples left.<br/>So I'll preserve those in Israel who obey me.<br/>I won't destroy the whole nation.


text:
I'll bring out my true children from Jacob<br/>and the heirs of my mountains from Judah.<br/>My chosen will inherit the land,<br/>my servants will move in.


text:
The lush valley of Sharon in the west<br/>will be a pasture for flocks,<br/>And in the east, the valley of Achor,<br/>a place for herds to graze.<br/>These will be for the people<br/>who bothered to reach out to me, who wanted me in their lives,<br/>who actually bothered to look for me.


text:
"But you who abandon me, your God,<br/>who forget the holy mountains,<br/>Who hold dinners for Lady Luck<br/>and throw cocktail parties for Sir Fate,


text:
Well, you asked for it. Fate it will be:<br/>your destiny, Death.<br/>For when I invited you, you ignored me;<br/>when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.<br/>You did the very things I exposed as evil;<br/>you chose what I hate."


text:
Therefore, this is the Message from the Master, God:<br/>"My servants will eat,<br/>and you'll go hungry;<br/>My servants will drink,<br/>and you'll go thirsty;<br/>My servants will rejoice,<br/>and you'll hang your heads.


text:
My servants will laugh from full hearts,<br/>and you'll cry out heartbroken,<br/>yes, wail from crushed spirits.


text:
Your legacy to my chosen<br/>will be your name reduced to a cussword.<br/>I, God, will put you to death<br/>and give a new name to my servants.


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Then whoever prays a blessing in the land<br/>will use my faithful name for the blessing,<br/>And whoever takes an oath in the land<br/>will use my faithful name for the oath,<br/>Because the earlier troubles are gone and forgotten,<br/>banished far from my sight.


text:
"Pay close attention now:<br/>I'm creating new heavens and a new earth.<br/>All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain<br/>are things of the past, to be forgotten.


text:
Look ahead with joy.<br/>Anticipate what I'm creating:<br/>I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,<br/>create my people as pure delight.


text:
I'll take joy in Jerusalem,<br/>take delight in my people:<br/>No more sounds of weeping in the city,<br/>no cries of anguish;


text:
No more babies dying in the cradle,<br/>or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime;<br/>One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—<br/>anything less will seem like a cheat.


text:
No more building a house<br/>that some outsider takes over,<br/>No more planting fields<br/>that some enemy confiscates,<br/>For my people will be as long-lived as trees,<br/>my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.


text:
They won't work and have nothing come of it,<br/>they won't have children snatched out from under them.<br/>For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,<br/>with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.


text:
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,<br/>lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,<br/>but snakes—they'll get a diet of dirt!<br/>Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill<br/>anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.


text:
God's Message:<br/>"Heaven's my throne,<br/>earth is my footstool.<br/>What sort of house could you build for me?<br/>What holiday spot reserve for me?


text:
I made all this! I own all this!"<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"But there is something I'm looking for:<br/>a person simple and plain,<br/>reverently responsive to what I say.


text:
"Your acts of worship<br/>are acts of sin:<br/>Your sacrificial slaughter of the ox<br/>is no different from murdering the neighbor;<br/>Your offerings for worship,<br/>no different from dumping pig's blood on the altar;<br/>Your presentation of memorial gifts,<br/>no different from honoring a no-god idol.<br/>You choose self-serving worship,<br/>you delight in self-centered worship—disgusting!


text:
Well, I choose to expose your nonsense<br/>and let you realize your worst fears,<br/>Because when I invited you, you ignored me;<br/>when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.<br/>You did the very things I exposed as evil,<br/>you chose what I hate."


text:
But listen to what God has to say<br/>to you who reverently respond to his Word:<br/>"Your own families hate you<br/>and turn you out because of me.<br/>They taunt you, 'Let us see God's glory!<br/>If God's so great, why aren't you happy?'<br/>But they're the ones<br/>who are going to end up shamed."


text:
Rumbles of thunder from the city!<br/>A voice out of the Temple!<br/>God's voice,<br/>handing out judgment to his enemies:


text:
"Before she went into labor,<br/>she had the baby.<br/>Before the birth pangs hit,<br/>she delivered a son.


text:
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?<br/>Has anyone seen anything like this?<br/>A country born in a day?<br/>A nation born in a flash?<br/>But Zion was barely in labor<br/>when she had her babies!


text:
Do I open the womb<br/>and not deliver the baby?<br/>Do I, the One who delivers babies,<br/>shut the womb?


text:
"Rejoice, Jerusalem,<br/>and all who love her, celebrate!<br/>And all you who have shed tears over her,<br/>join in the happy singing.


text:
You newborns can satisfy yourselves<br/>at her nurturing breasts.<br/>Yes, delight yourselves and drink your fill<br/>at her ample bosom."


text:
God's Message:<br/>"I'll pour robust well-being into her like a river,<br/>the glory of nations like a river in flood.<br/>You'll nurse at her breasts,<br/>nestle in her bosom,<br/>and be bounced on her knees.


text:
You'll see all this and burst with joy<br/>—you'll feel ten feet tall—<br/>As it becomes apparent that God is on your side<br/>and against his enemies.


text:
For God arrives like wildfire<br/>and his chariots like a tornado,<br/>A furious outburst of anger,<br/>a rebuke fierce and fiery.


text:
For it's by fire that God brings judgment,<br/>a death sentence on the human race.<br/>Many, oh so many,<br/>are under God's sentence of death:


text:
"All who enter the sacred groves for initiation in those unholy rituals that climaxed in that foul and obscene meal of pigs and mice will eat together and then die together." God's Decree.


text:
"I know everything they've ever done or thought. I'm going to come and then gather everyone—all nations, all languages. They'll come and see my glory.


text:
I'll set up a station at the center. I'll send the survivors of judgment all over the world: Spain and Africa, Turkey and Greece, and the far-off islands that have never heard of me, who know nothing of what I've done nor who I am. I'll send them out as missionaries to preach my glory among the nations.


text:
They'll return with all your long-lost brothers and sisters from all over the world. They'll bring them back and offer them in living worship to God. They'll bring them on horses and wagons and carts, on mules and camels, straight to my holy mountain Jerusalem," says God. "They'll present them just as Israelites present their offerings in a ceremonial vessel in the Temple of God.


text:
"For just as the new heavens and new earth<br/>that I am making will stand firm before me"<br/>—God's Decree—<br/>"So will your children<br/>and your reputation stand firm.


text:
"And then they'll go out and look at what happened<br/>to those who rebelled against me. Corpses!<br/>Maggots endlessly eating away on them,<br/>an endless supply of fuel for fires.<br/>Everyone who sees what's happened<br/>and smells the stench retches."


text:
The Message of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah of the family of priests who lived in Anathoth in the country of Benjamin.


text:
God's Message began to come to him during the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amos reigned over Judah.


text:
It continued to come to him during the time Jehoiakim son of Josiah reigned over Judah. And it continued to come to him clear down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah over Judah, the year that Jerusalem was taken into exile.


text:
"Before I shaped you in the womb,<br/>I knew all about you.<br/>Before you saw the light of day,<br/>I had holy plans for you:<br/>A prophet to the nations—<br/>that's what I had in mind for you."


text:
God told me, "Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.'<br/>I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there.<br/>I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it.


text:
God reached out, touched my mouth, and said,<br/>"Look! I've just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered!


text:
See what I've done? I've given you a job to do<br/>among nations and governments—a red-letter day!<br/>Your job is to pull up and tear down,<br/>take apart and demolish,<br/>And then start over,<br/>building and planting."


text:
God's Message came again: "So what do you see now?"<br/>I said, "I see a boiling pot, tipped down toward us."


text:
Watch for this: I'm calling all the kings out of the north."<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"They'll come and set up headquarters<br/>facing Jerusalem's gates,<br/>Facing all the city walls,<br/>facing all the villages of Judah.


text:
I'll pronounce my judgment on the people of Judah<br/>for walking out on me—what a terrible thing to do!—<br/>And courting other gods with their offerings,<br/>worshiping as gods sticks they'd carved, stones they'd painted.


text:
"But you—up on your feet and get dressed for work!<br/>Stand up and say your piece. Say exactly what I tell you to say.<br/>Don't pull your punches<br/>or I'll pull you out of the lineup.


text:
"Stand at attention while I prepare you for your work.<br/>I'm making you as impregnable as a castle,<br/>Immovable as a steel post,<br/>solid as a concrete block wall.<br/>You're a one-man defense system<br/>against this culture,<br/>Against Judah's kings and princes,<br/>against the priests and local leaders.


text:
They'll fight you, but they won't<br/>even scratch you.<br/>I'll back you up every inch of the way."<br/>God's Decree.


text:
"Get out in the streets and call to Jerusalem,<br/>'God's Message!<br/>I remember your youthful loyalty,<br/>our love as newlyweds.<br/>You stayed with me through the wilderness years,<br/>stuck with me through all the hard places.


text:
Israel was God's holy choice,<br/>the pick of the crop.<br/>Anyone who laid a hand on her<br/>would soon wish he hadn't!' "<br/>God's Decree.


text:
God's Message: "What did your ancestors find fault with in me<br/>that they drifted so far from me,<br/>Took up with Sir Windbag<br/>and turned into windbags themselves?


text:
It never occurred to them to say, 'Where's God,<br/>the God who got us out of Egypt,<br/>Who took care of us through thick and thin, those rough-and-tumble<br/>wilderness years of parched deserts and death valleys,<br/>A land that no one who enters comes out of,<br/>a cruel, inhospitable land?'


text:
"I brought you to a garden land<br/>where you could eat lush fruit.<br/>But you barged in and polluted my land,<br/>trashed and defiled my dear land.


text:
The priests never thought to ask, 'Where's God?'<br/>The religion experts knew nothing of me.<br/>The rulers defied me.<br/>The prophets preached god Baal<br/>And chased empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.


text:
"Because of all this,<br/>I'm bringing charges against you"<br/>—God's Decree—<br/>"charging you and your children and your grandchildren.


text:
Look around. Have you ever seen anything quite like this?<br/>Sail to the western islands and look.<br/>Travel to the Kedar wilderness and look.<br/>Look closely. Has this ever happened before,


text:
That a nation has traded in its gods<br/>for gods that aren't even close to gods?<br/>But my people have traded my Glory<br/>for empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.


text:
"Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see!<br/>Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can't be!"<br/>God's Decree.


text:
"My people have committed a compound sin:<br/>they've walked out on me, the fountain<br/>Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns—<br/>cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.


text:
"Isn't Israel a valued servant,<br/>born into a family with place and position?<br/>So how did she end up a piece of meat


text:
fought over by snarling and roaring lions?<br/>There's nothing left of her but a few old bones,<br/>her towns trashed and deserted.


text:
And why do you think all this has happened?<br/>Isn't it because you walked out on your God<br/>just as he was beginning to lead you in the right way?


text:
"And now, what do you think you'll get by going off to Egypt?<br/>Maybe a cool drink of Nile River water?<br/>Or what do you think you'll get by going off to Assyria?<br/>Maybe a long drink of Euphrates River water?


text:
Your evil ways will get you a sound thrashing, that's what you'll get.<br/>You'll pay dearly for your disloyal ways.<br/>Take a long, hard look at what you've done and its bitter results.<br/>Was it worth it to have walked out on your God?"<br/>God's Decree, Master God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


text:
"A long time ago you broke out of the harness.<br/>You shook off all restraints.<br/>You said, 'I will not serve!'<br/>and off you went,<br/>Visiting every sex-and-religion shrine on the way,<br/>like a common whore.


text:
You were a select vine when I planted you<br/>from completely reliable stock.<br/>And look how you've turned out—<br/>a tangle of rancid growth, a poor excuse for a vine.


text:
Scrub, using the strongest soaps.<br/>Scour your skin raw.<br/>The sin-grease won't come out. I can't stand to even look at you!"<br/>God's Decree, the Master's Decree.


text:
"How dare you tell me, 'I'm not stained by sin.<br/>I've never chased after the Baal sex gods'!<br/>Well, look at the tracks you've left behind in the valley.<br/>How do you account for what is written in the desert dust—<br/>Tracks of a camel in heat, running this way and that,


text:
tracks of a wild donkey in rut,<br/>Sniffing the wind for the slightest scent of sex.<br/>Who could possibly corral her!<br/>On the hunt for sex, sex, and more sex—<br/>insatiable, indiscriminate, promiscuous.


text:
"Slow down. Take a deep breath. What's the hurry?<br/>Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?<br/>But you say, 'I can't help it.<br/>I'm addicted to alien gods. I can't quit.'


text:
"Just as a thief is chagrined, but only when caught,<br/>so the people of Israel are chagrined,<br/>Caught along with their kings and princes,<br/>their priests and prophets.


text:
They walk up to a tree and say, 'My father!'<br/>They pick up a stone and say, 'My mother! You bore me!'<br/>All I ever see of them is their backsides.<br/>They never look me in the face.<br/>But when things go badly, they don't hesitate to come running,<br/>calling out, 'Get a move on! Save us!'


text:
Why not go to your handcrafted gods you're so fond of?<br/>Rouse them. Let them save you from your bad times.<br/>You've got more gods, Judah,<br/>than you know what to do with.


text:
"I've wasted my time trying to train your children.<br/>They've paid no attention to me, ignored my discipline.<br/>And you've gotten rid of your God-messengers,<br/>treating them like dirt and sweeping them away.


text:
"What a generation you turned out to be!<br/>Didn't I tell you? Didn't I warn you?<br/>Have I let you down, Israel?<br/>Am I nothing but a dead-end street?<br/>Why do my people say, 'Good riddance!<br/>From now on we're on our own'?


text:
Young women don't forget their jewelry, do they?<br/>Brides don't show up without their veils, do they?<br/>But my people forget me.<br/>Day after day after day they never give me a thought.


text:
"What an impressive start you made<br/>to get the most out of life.<br/>You founded schools of sin,<br/>taught graduate courses in evil!


text:
And now you're sending out graduates, resplendent in cap and gown—<br/>except the gowns are stained with the blood of your victims!<br/>All that blood convicts you.<br/>You cut and hurt a lot of people to get where you are.


text:
And yet you have the gall to say, 'I've done nothing wrong.<br/>God doesn't mind. He hasn't punished me, has he?'<br/>Don't look now, but judgment's on the way,<br/>aimed at you who say, 'I've done nothing wrong.'


text:
"You think it's just a small thing, don't you,<br/>to try out another sin-project when the first one fails?<br/>But Egypt will leave you in the lurch<br/>the same way that Assyria did.


text:
You're going to walk away from there<br/>wringing your hands.<br/>I, God, have blacklisted those you trusted.<br/>You'll get not a lick of help from them."


text:
God's Message came to me as follows:<br/>"If a man's wife<br/>walks out on him<br/>And marries another man,<br/>can he take her back as if nothing had happened?<br/>Wouldn't that raise a huge stink<br/>in the land?<br/>And isn't that what you've done—<br/>'whored' your way with god after god?<br/>And now you want to come back as if nothing had happened."<br/>God's Decree.


text:
"Look around at the hills.<br/>Where have you not had sex?<br/>You've camped out like hunters stalking deer.<br/>You've solicited many lover-gods,<br/>Like a streetwalking whore<br/>chasing after other gods.


text:
And so the rain has stopped.<br/>No more rain from the skies!<br/>But it doesn't even faze you. Brazen as whores,<br/>you carry on as if you've done nothing wrong.


text:
Then you have the nerve to call out, 'My father!<br/>You took care of me when I was a child. Why not now?


text:
Are you going to keep up your anger nonstop?'<br/>That's your line. Meanwhile you keep sinning nonstop."


text:
God spoke to me during the reign of King Josiah: "You have noticed, haven't you, how fickle Israel has visited every hill and grove of trees as a whore at large?


text:
I assumed that after she had gotten it out of her system, she'd come back, but she didn't. Her flighty sister, Judah, saw what she did.


text:
She also saw that because of fickle Israel's loose morals I threw her out, gave her her walking papers. But that didn't faze flighty sister Judah. She went out, big as you please, and took up a whore's life also.


text:
She took up cheap sex-and-religion as a sideline diversion, an indulgent recreation, and used anything and anyone, flouting sanity and sanctity alike, stinking up the country.


text:
And not once in all this did flighty sister Judah even give me a nod, although she made a show of it from time to time." God's Decree.


text:
Go and preach this message. Face north toward Israel and say:<br/>" 'Turn back, fickle Israel.<br/>I'm not just hanging back to punish you.<br/>I'm committed in love to you.<br/>My anger doesn't seethe nonstop.


text:
Just admit your guilt.<br/>Admit your God-defiance.<br/>Admit to your promiscuous life with casual partners,<br/>pulling strangers into the sex-and-religion groves<br/>While turning a deaf ear to me.' "<br/>God's Decree.


text:
"Come back, wandering children!"<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"I, yes I, am your true husband.<br/>I'll pick you out one by one—<br/>This one from the city, these two from the country—<br/>and bring you to Zion.


text:
"And this is what will happen: You will increase and prosper in the land. The time will come"—God's Decree!—"when no one will say any longer, 'Oh, for the good old days! Remember the Ark of the Covenant?' It won't even occur to anyone to say it—'the good old days.' The so-called good old days of the Ark are gone for good.


text:
"Jerusalem will be the new Ark—'God's Throne.' All the godless nations, no longer stuck in the ruts of their evil ways, will gather there to honor God.


text:
"At that time, the House of Judah will join up with the House of Israel. Holding hands, they'll leave the north country and come to the land I willed to your ancestors.


text:
"I planned what I'd say if you returned to me:<br/>'Good! I'll bring you back into the family.<br/>I'll give you choice land,<br/>land that the godless nations would die for.'<br/>And I imagined that you would say, 'Dear father!'<br/>and would never again go off and leave me.


text:
But no luck. Like a false-hearted woman walking out on her husband,<br/>you, the whole family of Israel, have proven false to me."<br/>God's Decree.


text:
The sound of voices comes drifting out of the hills,<br/>the unhappy sound of Israel's crying,<br/>Israel lamenting the wasted years,<br/>never once giving her God a thought.


text:
"Come back, wandering children!<br/>I can heal your wanderlust!"<br/>"We're here! We've come back to you.<br/>You're our own true God!


text:
All that popular religion was a cheap lie,<br/>duped crowds buying up the latest in gods.<br/>We're back! Back to our true God,<br/>the salvation of Israel.


text:
The Fraud picked us clean, swindled us<br/>of what our ancestors bequeathed us,<br/>Gypped us out of our inheritance—<br/>God-blessed flocks and God-given children.


text:
We made our bed and now lie in it,<br/>all tangled up in the dirty sheets of dishonor.<br/>All because we sinned against our God,<br/>we and our fathers and mothers.<br/>From the time we took our first steps, said our first words,<br/>we've been rebels, disobeying the voice of our God."


text:
"If you want to come back, O Israel,<br/>you must really come back to me.<br/>You must get rid of your stinking sin paraphernalia<br/>and not wander away from me anymore.


text:
Then you can say words like, 'As God lives... '<br/>and have them mean something true and just and right.<br/>And the godless nations will get caught up in the blessing<br/>and find something in Israel to write home about."


text:
Here's another Message from God<br/>to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:<br/>"Plow your unplowed fields,<br/>but then don't plant weeds in the soil!


text:
Yes, circumcise your lives for God's sake.<br/>Plow your unplowed hearts,<br/>all you people of Judah and Jerusalem.<br/>Prevent fire—the fire of my anger—<br/>for once it starts it can't be put out.<br/>Your wicked ways<br/>are fuel for the fire.


text:
"Sound the alarm in Judah,<br/>broadcast the news in Jerusalem.<br/>Say, 'Blow the ram's horn trumpet through the land!'<br/>Shout out—a bullhorn bellow!—<br/>'Close ranks!<br/>Run for your lives to the shelters!'


text:
Send up a flare warning Zion:<br/>'Not a minute to lose! Don't sit on your hands!'<br/>Disaster's descending from the north. I set it off!<br/>When it lands, it will shake the foundations.


text:
Invaders have pounced like a lion from its cover,<br/>ready to rip nations to shreds,<br/>Leaving your land in wrack and ruin,<br/>your cities in rubble, abandoned.


text:
Dress in funereal black.<br/>Weep and wail,<br/>For God's sledgehammer anger<br/>has slammed into us head-on.


text:
"When this happens"<br/>—God's Decree—<br/>"King and princes will lose heart;<br/>priests will be baffled and prophets stand dumbfounded."


text:
Then I said, "Alas, Master God!<br/>You've fed lies to this people, this Jerusalem.<br/>You assured them, 'All is well, don't worry,'<br/>at the very moment when the sword was at their throats."


text:
At that time, this people, yes, this very Jerusalem,<br/>will be told in plain words:<br/>"The northern hordes are sweeping in<br/>from the desert steppes—<br/>A wind that's up to no good,


text:
a gale-force wind.<br/>I ordered this wind.<br/>I'm pronouncing<br/>my hurricane judgment on my people."


text:
Look at them! Like banks of storm clouds,<br/>racing, tumbling, their chariots a tornado,<br/>Their horses faster than eagles!<br/>Woe to us! We're done for!


text:
Jerusalem! Scrub the evil from your lives<br/>so you'll be fit for salvation.<br/>How much longer will you harbor<br/>devious and malignant designs within you?


text:
Make the report public.<br/>Broadcast the news to Jerusalem:<br/>"Invaders from far off are<br/>raising war cries against Judah's towns.


text:
They're all over her, like a dog on a bone.<br/>And why? Because she rebelled against me."<br/>God's Decree.


text:
"It's the way you've lived<br/>that's brought all this on you.<br/>The bitter taste is from your evil life.<br/>That's what's piercing your heart."


text:
I'm doubled up with cramps in my belly—<br/>a poker burns in my gut.<br/>My insides are tearing me up,<br/>never a moment's peace.<br/>The ram's horn trumpet blast rings in my ears,<br/>the signal for all-out war.


text:
Disaster hard on the heels of disaster,<br/>the whole country in ruins!<br/>In one stroke my home is destroyed,<br/>the walls flattened in the blink of an eye.


text:
"What fools my people are!<br/>They have no idea who I am.<br/>A company of half-wits,<br/>dopes and donkeys all!<br/>Experts at evil<br/>but klutzes at good."


text:
I looked at the earth—<br/>it was back to pre-Genesis chaos and emptiness.<br/>I looked at the skies,<br/>and not a star to be seen.


text:
I looked at the mountains—<br/>they were trembling like aspen leaves,<br/>And all the hills<br/>rocking back and forth in the wind.


text:
I looked—this can't be! Every garden and orchard shriveled up.<br/>All the towns were ghost towns.<br/>And all this because of God,<br/>because of the blazing anger of God.


text:
Yes, this is God's Word on the matter:<br/>"The whole country will be laid waste—<br/>still it won't be the end of the world.


text:
The earth will mourn<br/>and the skies lament<br/>Because I've given my word and won't take it back.<br/>I've decided and won't change my mind."


text:
Someone shouts, "Horsemen and archers!"<br/>and everybody runs for cover.<br/>They hide in ditches,<br/>they climb into caves.<br/>The cities are emptied,<br/>not a person left anywhere.


text:
And you, what do you think you're up to?<br/>Dressing up in party clothes,<br/>Decking yourselves out in jewelry,<br/>putting on lipstick and rouge and mascara!<br/>Your primping goes for nothing.<br/>You're not going to seduce anyone. They're out to kill you!


text:
And what's that I hear? The cry of a woman in labor,<br/>the screams of a mother giving birth to her firstborn.<br/>It's the cry of Daughter Zion, gasping for breath,<br/>reaching out for help:<br/>"Help, oh help me! I'm dying!<br/>The killers are on me!"


text:
"Patrol Jerusalem's streets.<br/>Look around. Take note.<br/>Search the market squares.<br/>See if you can find one man, one woman,<br/>A single soul who does what is right<br/>and tries to live a true life.<br/>I want to forgive that person."<br/>God's Decree.


text:
But you, God,<br/>you have an eye for truth, don't you?<br/>You hit them hard, but it didn't faze them.<br/>You disciplined them, but they refused correction.<br/>Hardheaded, harder than rock,<br/>they wouldn't change.


text:
Then I said to myself, "Well, these are just poor people.<br/>They don't know any better.<br/>They were never taught anything about God.<br/>They never went to prayer meetings.<br/>I'll find some people from the best families.


text:
I'll talk to them.<br/>They'll know what's going on, the way God works.<br/>They'll know the score."<br/>But they were no better! Rebels all!<br/>Off doing their own thing.


text:
The invaders are ready to pounce and kill,<br/>like a mountain lion, a wilderness wolf,<br/>Panthers on the prowl.<br/>The streets aren't safe anymore.<br/>And why? Because the people's sins are piled sky-high;<br/>their betrayals are past counting.


text:
"Why should I even bother with you any longer?<br/>Your children wander off, leaving me,<br/>Taking up with gods<br/>that aren't even gods.<br/>I satisfied their deepest needs, and then they went off with the 'sacred' whores,<br/>left me for orgies in sex shrines!


text:
Do you think I'm going to stand around and do nothing?"<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"Don't you think I'll take serious measures<br/>against a people like this?


text:
"Go down the rows of vineyards and rip out the vines,<br/>but not all of them. Leave a few.<br/>Prune back those vines!<br/>That growth didn't come from God!


text:
"They've spread lies about God.<br/>They've said, 'There's nothing to him.<br/>Nothing bad will happen to us,<br/>neither famine nor war will come our way.


text:
Therefore, this is what God said to me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies:<br/>"Because they have talked this way,<br/>they are going to eat those words.<br/>Watch now! I'm putting my words<br/>as fire in your mouth.<br/>And the people are a pile of kindling<br/>ready to go up in flames.


text:
"Attention! I'm bringing a far-off nation<br/>against you, O house of Israel."<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"A solid nation,<br/>an ancient nation,<br/>A nation that speaks another language.<br/>You won't understand a word they say.


text:
They'll clean you out of house and home,<br/>rob you of crops and children alike.<br/>They'll feast on your sheep and cattle,<br/>strip your vines and fig trees.<br/>And the fortresses that made you feel so safe—<br/>leveled with a stroke of the sword!


text:
And when people ask, 'Why did our God do all this to us?' you must say to them, 'It's tit for tat. Just as you left me and served foreign gods in your own country, so now you must serve foreigners in their own country.'


text:
Listen to this,<br/>you scatterbrains, airheads,<br/>With eyes that see but don't really look,<br/>and ears that hear but don't really listen.


text:
Why don't you honor me?<br/>Why aren't you in awe before me?<br/>Yes, me, who made the shorelines<br/>to contain the ocean waters.<br/>I drew a line in the sand<br/>that cannot be crossed.<br/>Waves roll in but cannot get through;<br/>breakers crash but that's the end of them.


text:
It never occurs to them to say,<br/>'How can we honor our God with our lives,<br/>The God who gives rain in both spring and autumn<br/>and maintains the rhythm of the seasons,<br/>Who sets aside time each year for harvest<br/>and keeps everything running smoothly for us?'


text:
Of course you don't! Your bad behavior blinds you to all this.<br/>Your sins keep my blessings at a distance.


text:
"My people are infiltrated by wicked men,<br/>unscrupulous men on the hunt.<br/>They set traps for the unsuspecting.<br/>Their victims are innocent men and women.


text:
Their houses are stuffed with ill-gotten gain,<br/>like a hunter's bag full of birds.<br/>Pretentious and powerful and rich,


text:
hugely obese, oily with rolls of fat.<br/>Worse, they have no conscience.<br/>Right and wrong mean nothing to them.<br/>They stand for nothing, stand up for no one,<br/>throw orphans to the wolves, exploit the poor.


text:
Do you think I'll stand by and do nothing about this?"<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"Don't you think I'll take serious measures<br/>against a people like this?


text:
Prophets preach lies<br/>and priests hire on as their assistants.<br/>And my people love it. They eat it up!<br/>But what will you do when it's time to pick up the pieces?


text:
"Run for your lives, children of Benjamin!<br/>Get out of Jerusalem, and now!<br/>Give a blast on the ram's horn in Blastville.<br/>Send up smoke signals from Smoketown.<br/>Doom pours out of the north—<br/>massive terror!


text:
Well, now 'shepherds' from the north have discovered her<br/>and brought in their flocks of soldiers.<br/>They've pitched camp all around her,<br/>and plan where they'll 'graze.'


text:
And then, 'Prepare to attack! The fight is on!<br/>To arms! We'll strike at noon!<br/>Oh, it's too late? Day is dying?<br/>Evening shadows are upon us?


text:
God-of-the-Angel-Armies gave the orders:<br/>"Chop down her trees.<br/>Build a siege ramp against Jerusalem,<br/>A city full of brutality,<br/>bursting with violence.


text:
Just as a well holds a good supply of water,<br/>she supplies wickedness nonstop.<br/>The streets echo the cries: 'Violence! Rape!'<br/>Victims, bleeding and moaning, lie all over the place.


text:
You're in deep trouble, Jerusalem.<br/>You've pushed me to the limit.<br/>You're on the brink of being wiped out,<br/>being turned into a ghost town."


text:
More orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:<br/>"Time's up! Harvest the grapes for judgment.<br/>Salvage what's left of Israel.<br/>Go back over the vines.<br/>Pick them clean, every last grape.


text:
"I've got something to say. Is anybody listening?<br/>I've a warning to post. Will anyone notice?<br/>It's hopeless! Their ears are stuffed with wax—<br/>deaf as a post, blind as a bat.<br/>It's hopeless! They've tuned out God.<br/>They don't want to hear from me.


text:
But I'm bursting with the wrath of God.<br/>I can't hold it in much longer.<br/>"So dump it on the children in the streets.<br/>Let it loose on the gangs of youth.<br/>For no one's exempt: Husbands and wives will be taken,<br/>the old and those ready to die;


text:
Their homes will be given away—<br/>all they own, even their loved ones—<br/>When I give the signal<br/>against all who live in this country."<br/>God's Decree.


text:
"Everyone's after the dishonest dollar,<br/>little people and big people alike.<br/>Prophets and priests and everyone in between<br/>twist words and doctor truth.


text:
My people are broken—shattered!—<br/>and they put on band-aids,<br/>Saying, 'It's not so bad. You'll be just fine.'<br/>But things are not 'just fine'!


text:
Do you suppose they are embarrassed<br/>over this outrage?<br/>No, they have no shame.<br/>They don't even know how to blush.<br/>There's no hope for them. They've hit bottom<br/>and there's no getting up.<br/>As far as I'm concerned,<br/>they're finished."<br/>God has spoken.


text:
God's Message yet again:<br/>"Go stand at the crossroads and look around.<br/>Ask for directions to the old road,<br/>The tried and true road. Then take it.<br/>Discover the right route for your souls.<br/>But they said, 'Nothing doing.<br/>We aren't going that way.'


text:
I even provided watchmen for them<br/>to warn them, to set off the alarm.<br/>But the people said, 'It's a false alarm.<br/>It doesn't concern us.'


text:
And, 'Pay attention, earth!<br/>Don't miss these bulletins.'<br/>I'm visiting catastrophe on this people, the end result<br/>of the games they've been playing with me.<br/>They've ignored everything I've said,<br/>had nothing but contempt for my teaching.


text:
What would I want with incense brought in from Sheba,<br/>rare spices from exotic places?<br/>Your burnt sacrifices in worship give me no pleasure.<br/>Your religious rituals mean nothing to me."


text:
So listen to this. Here's God's verdict on your way of life:<br/>"Watch out! I'm putting roadblocks and barriers<br/>on the road you're taking.<br/>They'll send you sprawling,<br/>parents and children, neighbors and friends—<br/>and that will be the end of the lot of you."


text:
And listen to this verdict from God:<br/>"Look out! An invasion from the north,<br/>a mighty power on the move from a faraway place:


text:
Armed to the teeth,<br/>vicious and pitiless,<br/>Booming like sea storm and thunder—tramp, tramp, tramp—<br/>riding hard on war horses,<br/>In battle formation<br/>against you, dear Daughter Zion!"


text:
We've heard the news,<br/>and we're as limp as wet dishrags.<br/>We're paralyzed with fear.<br/>Terror has a death grip on our throats.


text:
Don't dare go outdoors!<br/>Don't leave the house!<br/>Death is on the prowl.<br/>Danger everywhere!


text:
"Dear Daughter Zion: Dress in black.<br/>Blacken your face with ashes.<br/>Weep most bitterly,<br/>as for an only child.<br/>The countdown has begun...<br/>six, five, four, three...<br/>The Terror is on us!"


text:
God gave me this task:<br/>"I have made you the examiner of my people,<br/>to examine and weigh their lives.


text:
Refining fires are cranked up to white heat,<br/>but the ore stays a lump, unchanged.<br/>It's useless to keep trying any longer.<br/>Nothing can refine evil out of them.


text:
"Stand in the gate of God's Temple and preach this Message.<br/>"Say, 'Listen, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship God


text:
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God, has this to say to you:<br/>" 'Clean up your act—the way you live, the things you do—so I can make my home with you in this place.


text:
Don't for a minute believe the lies being spoken here—"This is God's Temple, God's Temple, God's Temple!"


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Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors,


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only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods—


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only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple.


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Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market


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—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, "We're safe!" thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege?


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A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I've got eyes in my head. I can see what's going on.' " God's Decree!


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" 'Take a trip down to the place that was once in Shiloh, where I met my people in the early days. Take a look at those ruins, what I did to it because of the evil ways of my people Israel.


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" 'So now, because of the way you have lived and failed to listen, even though time and again I took you aside and talked seriously with you, and because you refused to change when I called you to repent,


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I'm going to do to this Temple, set aside for my worship, this place you think is going to keep you safe no matter what, this place I gave as a gift to your ancestors and you, the same as I did to Shiloh.


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And as for you, I'm going to get rid of you, the same as I got rid of those old relatives of yours around Shiloh, your fellow Israelites in that former kingdom to the north.'


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"And you, Jeremiah, don't waste your time praying for this people. Don't offer to make petitions or intercessions. Don't bother me with them. I'm not listening.


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Why, they've got the children gathering wood while the fathers build fires and the mothers make bread to be offered to 'the Queen of Heaven'! And as if that weren't bad enough, they go around pouring out libations to any other gods they come across, just to hurt me.


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"But is it me they're hurting?" God's Decree! "Aren't they just hurting themselves? Exposing themselves shamefully? Making themselves ridiculous?


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"Here's what the Master God has to say: 'My white-hot anger is about to descend on this country and everything in it—people and animals, trees in the field and vegetables in the garden—a raging wildfire that no one can put out.'


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"The Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God: 'Go ahead! Put your burnt offerings with all your other sacrificial offerings and make a good meal for yourselves. I sure don't want them!


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When I delivered your ancestors out of Egypt, I never said anything to them about wanting burnt offerings and sacrifices as such.


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But I did say this, commanded this: "Obey me. Do what I say and I will be your God and you will be my people. Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well."


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" 'But do you think they listened? Not a word of it. They did just what they wanted to do, indulged any and every evil whim and got worse day by day.


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From the time your ancestors left the land of Egypt until now, I've supplied a steady stream of my servants the prophets,


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Tell them, 'You are the nation that wouldn't obey God, that refused all discipline. Truth has disappeared. There's not a trace of it left in your mouths.


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" 'So shave your heads.<br/>Go bald to the hills and lament,<br/>For God has rejected and left<br/>this generation that has made him so angry.'


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"The people of Judah have lived evil lives while I've stood by and watched." God's Decree. "In deliberate insult to me, they've set up their obscene god-images in the very Temple that was built to honor me.


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They've constructed Topheth altars for burning babies in prominent places all through the valley of Ben-hinnom, altars for burning their sons and daughters alive in the fire—a shocking perversion of all that I am and all I command.


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"But soon, very soon"—God's Decree!—"the names Topheth and Ben-hinnom will no longer be used. They'll call the place what it is: Murder Meadow. Corpses will be stacked up in Topheth because there's no room left to bury them!


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And I'll empty both smiles and laughter from the villages of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. No wedding songs, no holiday sounds. Dead silence.


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"And when the time comes"—God's Decree!—"I'll see to it that they dig up the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the princes and priests and prophets, and yes, even the bones of the common people.


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They'll dig them up and spread them out like a congregation at worship before sun, moon, and stars, all those sky gods they've been so infatuated with all these years, following their 'lucky stars' in doglike devotion. The bones will be left scattered and exposed, to reenter the soil as fertilizer, like manure.


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"Everyone left—all from this evil generation unlucky enough to still be alive in whatever godforsaken place I will have driven them to—will wish they were dead." Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


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"Tell them this, God's Message:<br/>" 'Do people fall down and not get up?<br/>Or take the wrong road and then just keep going?


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So why does this people go backwards,<br/>and just keep on going—backwards!<br/>They stubbornly hold on to their illusions,<br/>refuse to change direction.


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I listened carefully<br/>but heard not so much as a whisper.<br/>No one expressed one word of regret.<br/>Not a single "I'm sorry" did I hear.<br/>They just kept at it, blindly and stupidly<br/>banging their heads against a brick wall.


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Cranes know when it's time<br/>to move south for winter.<br/>And robins, warblers, and bluebirds<br/>know when it's time to come back again.<br/>But my people? My people know nothing,<br/>not the first thing of God and his rule.


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" 'How can you say, "We know the score.<br/>We're the proud owners of God's revelation"?<br/>Look where it's gotten you—stuck in illusion.<br/>Your religion experts have taken you for a ride!


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Your know-it-alls will be unmasked,<br/>caught and shown up for what they are.<br/>Look at them! They know everything but God's Word.<br/>Do you call that "knowing"?


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" 'So here's what will happen to the know-it-alls:<br/>I'll make them wifeless and homeless.<br/>Everyone's after the dishonest dollar,<br/>little people and big people alike.<br/>Prophets and priests and everyone in-between<br/>twist words and doctor truth.


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My dear Daughter—my people—broken, shattered,<br/>and yet they put on band-aids,<br/>Saying, "It's not so bad. You'll be just fine."<br/>But things are not "just fine"!


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Do you suppose they are embarrassed<br/>over this outrage?<br/>Not really. They have no shame.<br/>They don't even know how to blush.<br/>There's no hope for them. They've hit bottom<br/>and there's no getting up.<br/>As far as I'm concerned,<br/>they're finished.' " God has spoken.


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" 'I went out to see if I could salvage anything' "<br/>—God's Decree—<br/>" 'but found nothing:<br/>Not a grape, not a fig,<br/>just a few withered leaves.<br/>I'm taking back<br/>everything I gave them.' "


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So why are we sitting here, doing nothing?<br/>Let's get organized.<br/>Let's go to the big city<br/>and at least die fighting.<br/>We've gotten God's ultimatum:<br/>We're damned if we do and damned if we don't—<br/>damned because of our sin against him.


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We hoped things would turn out for the best,<br/>but it didn't happen that way.<br/>We were waiting around for healing—<br/>and terror showed up!


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From Dan at the northern borders<br/>we hear the hooves of horses,<br/>Horses galloping, horses neighing.<br/>The ground shudders and quakes.<br/>They're going to swallow up the whole country.<br/>Towns and people alike—fodder for war.


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" 'What's more, I'm dispatching<br/>poisonous snakes among you,<br/>Snakes that can't be charmed,<br/>snakes that will bite you and kill you.' "<br/>God's Decree!


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Oh, listen! Please listen! It's the cry of my dear people<br/>reverberating through the country.<br/>Is God no longer in Zion?<br/>Has the King gone away?<br/>Can you tell me why they flaunt their plaything-gods,<br/>their silly, imported no-gods before me?


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The crops are in, the summer is over,<br/>but for us nothing's changed.<br/>We're still waiting to be rescued.


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Are there no healing ointments in Gilead?<br/>Isn't there a doctor in the house?<br/>So why can't something be done<br/>to heal and save my dear, dear people?


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I wish my head were a well of water<br/>and my eyes fountains of tears<br/>So I could weep day and night<br/>for casualties among my dear, dear people.


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At times I wish I had a wilderness hut,<br/>a backwoods cabin,<br/>Where I could get away from my people<br/>and never see them again.<br/>They're a faithless, feckless bunch,<br/>a congregation of degenerates.


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"Their tongues shoot out lies<br/>like a bow shoots arrows—<br/>A mighty army of liars,<br/>the sworn enemies of truth.<br/>They advance from one evil to the next,<br/>ignorant of me."<br/>God's Decree.


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"Be wary of even longtime neighbors.<br/>Don't even trust your grandmother!<br/>Brother schemes against brother,<br/>like old cheating Jacob.<br/>Friend against friend<br/>spreads malicious gossip.


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Neighbors gyp neighbors,<br/>never telling the truth.<br/>They've trained their tongues to tell lies,<br/>and now they can't tell the truth.


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Therefore, God-of-the-Angel-Armies says:<br/>"Watch this! I'll melt them down<br/>and see what they're made of.<br/>What else can I do<br/>with a people this wicked?


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Their tongues are poison arrows!<br/>Deadly lies stream from their mouths.<br/>Neighbor greets neighbor with a smile,<br/>'Good morning! How're things?'<br/>while scheming to do away with him.


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"I'm lamenting the loss of the mountain pastures.<br/>I'm chanting dirges for the old grazing grounds.<br/>They've become deserted wastelands too dangerous for travelers.<br/>No sounds of sheep bleating or cattle mooing.<br/>Birds and wild animals, all gone.<br/>Nothing stirring, no sounds of life.


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I'm going to make Jerusalem a pile of rubble,<br/>fit for nothing but stray cats and dogs.<br/>I'm going to reduce Judah's towns to piles of ruins<br/>where no one lives!"


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I asked, "Is there anyone around bright enough to tell us what's going on here? Anyone who has the inside story from God and can let us in on it?<br/>"Why is the country wasted?<br/>"Why no travelers in this desert?"


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God's answer: "Because they abandoned my plain teaching. They wouldn't listen to anything I said, refused to live the way I told them to.


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Instead they lived any way they wanted and took up with the Baal gods, who they thought would give them what they wanted—following the example of their parents."


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And this is the consequence. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so:<br/>"I'll feed them with pig slop.<br/>"I'll give them poison to drink.


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"Then I'll scatter them far and wide among godless peoples that neither they nor their parents have ever heard of, and I'll send Death in pursuit until there's nothing left of them."


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A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:<br/>"Look over the trouble we're in and call for help.<br/>Send for some singers who can help us mourn our loss.


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Tell them to hurry—<br/>to help us express our loss and lament,<br/>Help us get our tears flowing,<br/>make tearful music of our crying.


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Listen to it!<br/>Listen to that torrent of tears out of Zion:<br/>'We're a ruined people,<br/>we're a shamed people!<br/>We've been driven from our homes<br/>and must leave our land!' "


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Mourning women! Oh, listen to God's Message!<br/>Open your ears. Take in what he says.<br/>Teach your daughters songs for the dead<br/>and your friends the songs of heartbreak.


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Death has climbed in through the window,<br/>broken into our bedrooms.<br/>Children on the playgrounds drop dead,<br/>and young men and women collapse at their games.


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Speak up! "God's Message:<br/>" 'Dead bodies everywhere, scattered at random<br/>like sheep and goat dung in the fields,<br/>Like wheat cut down by reapers<br/>and left to rot where it falls.' "


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God's Message:<br/>"Don't let the wise brag of their wisdom.<br/>Don't let heroes brag of their exploits.<br/>Don't let the rich brag of their riches.


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If you brag, brag of this and this only:<br/>That you understand and know me.<br/>I'm God, and I act in loyal love.<br/>I do what's right and set things right and fair,<br/>and delight in those who do the same things.<br/>These are my trademarks."<br/>God's Decree.


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"Stay alert! It won't be long now"—God's Decree!—"when I will personally deal with everyone whose life is all outside but no inside:


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Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab. All these nations are big on performance religion—including Israel, who is no better."


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Listen most carefully:<br/>"Don't take the godless nations as your models.<br/>Don't be impressed by their glamour and glitz,<br/>no matter how much they're impressed.


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The religion of these peoples<br/>is nothing but smoke.<br/>An idol is nothing but a tree chopped down,<br/>then shaped by a woodsman's ax.


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It's like a scarecrow in a cabbage patch—can't talk!<br/>Dead wood that has to be carried—can't walk!<br/>Don't be impressed by such stuff.<br/>It's useless for either good or evil."


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Who can fail to be impressed by you, King of the nations?<br/>It's your very nature to be worshiped!<br/>Look far and wide among the elite of the nations.<br/>The best they can come up with is nothing compared to you.


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Gilded with silver foil from Tarshish,<br/>covered with gold from Uphaz,<br/>Hung with violet and purple fabrics—<br/>no matter how fancy the sticks, they're still sticks.


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But God is the real thing—<br/>the living God, the eternal King.<br/>When he's angry, Earth shakes.<br/>Yes, and the godless nations quake.


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"Tell them this: 'The stick gods<br/>who made nothing, neither sky nor earth,<br/>Will come to nothing<br/>on the earth and under the sky.' "


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But it is God whose power made the earth,<br/>whose wisdom gave shape to the world,<br/>who crafted the cosmos.


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He thunders, and rain pours down.<br/>He sends the clouds soaring.<br/>He embellishes the storm with lightnings,<br/>launches wind from his warehouse.


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Stick-god worshipers looking mighty foolish,<br/>god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!<br/>Their gods are frauds—dead sticks,


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But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing.<br/>He put the whole universe together<br/>And pays special attention to Israel.<br/>His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!


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God has given notice:<br/>"Attention! I'm evicting<br/>Everyone who lives here,<br/>And right now—yes, right now!<br/>I'm going to press them to the limit,<br/>squeeze the life right out of them."


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But it's a black day for me!<br/>Hopelessly wounded,<br/>I said, "Why, oh why<br/>did I think I could bear it?"


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My house is ruined—<br/>the roof caved in.<br/>Our children are gone—<br/>we'll never see them again.<br/>No one left to help in rebuilding,<br/>no one to make a new start!


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It's because our leaders are stupid.<br/>They never asked God for counsel,<br/>And so nothing worked right.<br/>The people are scattered all over.


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But listen! Something's coming!<br/>A big commotion from the northern borders!<br/>Judah's towns about to be smashed,<br/>left to all the stray dogs and cats!


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I know, God, that mere mortals<br/>can't run their own lives,<br/>That men and women<br/>don't have what it takes to take charge of life.


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Vent your anger on the godless nations,<br/>who refuse to acknowledge you,<br/>And on the people<br/>who won't pray to you—<br/>The very ones who've made hash out of Jacob,<br/>yes, made hash<br/>And devoured him whole,<br/>people and pastures alike.


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Tell them this: 'This is God's Message, the Message of Israel's God to you. Anyone who does not keep the terms of this covenant is cursed.


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The terms are clear. I made them plain to your ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt, out of the iron furnace of suffering.<br/>" 'Obey what I tell you. Do exactly what I command you. Your obedience will close the deal. You'll be mine and I'll be yours.


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This will provide the conditions in which I will be able to do what I promised your ancestors: to give them a fertile and lush land. And, as you know, that's what I did.' "<br/>"Yes, God," I replied. "That's true."


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God continued: "Preach all this in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Say, 'Listen to the terms of this covenant and carry them out!


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I warned your ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt and I've kept up the warnings. I haven't quit warning them for a moment. I warned them from morning to night: "Obey me or else!"


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But they didn't obey. They paid no attention to me. They did whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it, until finally I stepped in and ordered the punishments set out in the covenant, which, despite all my warnings, they had ignored.' "


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They've plotted to reenact the sins of their ancestors—the ones who disobeyed me and decided to go after other gods and worship them. Israel and Judah are in this together, mindlessly breaking the covenant I made with their ancestors."


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"Well, your God has something to say about this: Watch out! I'm about to visit doom on you, and no one will get out of it. You're going to cry for help but I won't listen.


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Then all the people in Judah and Jerusalem will start praying to the gods you've been sacrificing to all these years, but it won't do a bit of good.


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You've got as many gods as you have villages, Judah! And you've got enough altars for sacrifices to that impotent sex god Baal to put one on every street corner in Jerusalem!"


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"And as for you, Jeremiah, I don't want you praying for this people. Nothing! Not a word of petition. Indeed, I'm not going to listen to a single syllable of their crisis-prayers."


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"What business do the ones I love have figuring out<br/>how to get off the hook? And right in the house of worship!<br/>Do you think making promises and devising pious programs<br/>will save you from doom?<br/>Do you think you can get out of this<br/>by becoming more religious?


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A mighty oak tree, majestic and glorious—<br/>that's how I once described you.<br/>But it will only take a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning<br/>to leave you a shattered wreck.


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"I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who planted you—yes, I have pronounced doom on you. Why? Because of the disastrous life you've lived, Israel and Judah alike, goading me to anger with your continuous worship and offerings to that sorry god Baal."


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God told me what was going on. That's how I knew.<br/>You, God, opened my eyes to their evil scheming.


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I had no idea what was going on—naive as a lamb<br/>being led to slaughter!<br/>I didn't know they had it in for me,<br/>didn't know of their behind-the-scenes plots:<br/>"Let's get rid of the preacher.<br/>That will stop the sermons!<br/>Let's get rid of him for good.<br/>He won't be remembered for long."


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Then I said, "God-of-the-Angel-Armies,<br/>you're a fair judge.<br/>You examine and cross-examine<br/>human actions and motives.<br/>I want to see these people shown up and put down!<br/>I'm an open book before you. Clear my name."


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That sent a signal to God, who spoke up: "Here's what I'll do to the men of Anathoth who are trying to murder you, the men who say, 'Don't preach to us in God's name or we'll kill you.'


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Yes, it's God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaking. Indeed! I'll call them to account: Their young people will die in battle, their children will die of starvation,


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You are right, O God, and you set things right.<br/>I can't argue with that. But I do have some questions:<br/>Why do bad people have it so good?<br/>Why do con artists make it big?


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You planted them and they put down roots.<br/>They flourished and produced fruit.<br/>They talk as if they're old friends with you,<br/>but they couldn't care less about you.


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Meanwhile, you know me inside and out.<br/>You don't let me get by with a thing!<br/>Make them pay for the way they live,<br/>pay with their lives, like sheep marked for slaughter.


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How long do we have to put up with this—<br/>the country depressed, the farms in ruin—<br/>And all because of wickedness, these wicked lives?<br/>Even animals and birds are dying off<br/>Because they'll have nothing to do with God<br/>and think God has nothing to do with them.


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"So, Jeremiah, if you're worn out in this footrace with men,<br/>what makes you think you can race against horses?<br/>And if you can't keep your wits during times of calm,<br/>what's going to happen when troubles break loose<br/>like the Jordan in flood?


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Those closest to you, your own brothers and cousins,<br/>are working against you.<br/>They're out to get you. They'll stop at nothing.<br/>Don't trust them, especially when they're smiling.


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"I will abandon the House of Israel,<br/>walk away from my beloved people.<br/>I will turn over those I most love<br/>to those who are her enemies.


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She's been, this one I held dear,<br/>like a snarling lion in the jungle,<br/>Growling and baring her teeth at me—<br/>and I can't take it anymore.


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Has this one I hold dear become a preening peacock?<br/>But isn't she under attack by vultures?<br/>Then invite all the hungry animals at large,<br/>invite them in for a free meal!


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Foreign, scavenging shepherds<br/>will loot and trample my fields,<br/>Turn my beautiful, well-cared-for fields<br/>into vacant lots of tin cans and thistles.


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They leave them littered with junk—<br/>a ruined land, a land in lament.<br/>The whole countryside is a wasteland,<br/>and no one will really care.


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"The barbarians will invade,<br/>swarm over hills and plains.<br/>The judgment sword of God will take its toll<br/>from one end of the land to the other.<br/>Nothing living will be safe.


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They will plant wheat and reap weeds.<br/>Nothing they do will work out.<br/>They will look at their meager crops and wring their hands.<br/>All this the result of God's fierce anger!"


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God's Message: "Regarding all the bad neighbors who abused the land I gave to Israel as their inheritance: I'm going to pluck them out of their lands, and then pluck Judah out from among them.


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Once I've pulled the bad neighbors out, I will relent and take them tenderly to my heart and put them back where they belong, put each of them back in their home country, on their family farms.


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Then if they will get serious about living my way and pray to me as well as they taught my people to pray to that god Baal, everything will go well for them.


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But if they won't listen, then I'll pull them out of their land by the roots and cart them off to the dump. Total destruction!" God's Decree.


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God told me, "Go and buy yourself some linen shorts. Put them on and keep them on. Don't even take them off to wash them."


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"Take the shorts that you bought and go straight to Perath and hide them there in a crack in the rock."


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Next, after quite a long time, God told me, "Go back to Perath and get the linen shorts I told you to hide there."


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So I went back to Perath and dug them out of the place where I had hidden them. The shorts by then had rotted and were worthless.


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a wicked bunch of people who won't obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They're going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts.


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Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care"—God's Decree—"so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.


text:
"And then tell them this: 'God's Message, personal from the God of Israel: Every wine jug should be full of wine.'<br/>"And they'll say, 'Of course. We know that. Every wine jug should be full of wine!'


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"Then you'll say, 'This is what God says: Watch closely. I'm going to fill every person who lives in this country—the kings who rule from David's throne, the priests, the prophets, the citizens of Jerusalem—with wine that will make them drunk.


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And then I'll smash them, smash the wine-filled jugs—old and young alike. Nothing will stop me. Not an ounce of pity or mercy or compassion will slow me down. Every last drunken jug of them will be smashed!' "


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Then I said, Listen. Listen carefully: Don't stay stuck in your ways!<br/>It's God's Message we're dealing with here.


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Let your lives glow bright before God<br/>before he turns out the lights,<br/>Before you trip and fall<br/>on the dark mountain paths.<br/>The light you always took for granted will go out<br/>and the world will turn black.


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If you people won't listen,<br/>I'll go off by myself and weep over you,<br/>Weep because of your stubborn arrogance,<br/>bitter, bitter tears,<br/>Rivers of tears from my eyes,<br/>because God's sheep will end up in exile.


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Tell the king and the queen-mother,<br/>"Come down off your high horses.<br/>Your dazzling crowns<br/>will tumble off your heads."


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The villages in the Negev will be surrounded,<br/>everyone trapped,<br/>And Judah dragged off to exile,<br/>the whole country dragged to oblivion.


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Look, look, Jerusalem!<br/>Look at the enemies coming out of the north!<br/>What will become of your flocks of people,<br/>the beautiful flocks in your care?


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How are you going to feel when the people<br/>you've played up to, looked up to all these years<br/>Now look down on you? You didn't expect this?<br/>Surprise! The pain of a woman having a baby!


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Do I hear you saying,<br/>"What's going on here? Why me?"<br/>The answer's simple: You're guilty,<br/>hugely guilty.<br/>Your guilt has your life endangered,<br/>your guilt has you writhing in pain.


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Can an African change skin?<br/>Can a leopard get rid of its spots?<br/>So what are the odds on you doing good,<br/>you who are so long-practiced in evil?


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You have it coming to you.<br/>I've measured it out precisely."<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"It's because you forgot me<br/>and embraced the Big Lie,<br/>that so-called god Baal.


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Your obsessions with gods, gods, and more gods,<br/>your goddess affairs, your god-adulteries.<br/>Gods on the hills, gods in the fields—<br/>every time I look you're off with another god.<br/>O Jerusalem, what a sordid life!<br/>Is there any hope for you!"


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"Judah weeps,<br/>her cities mourn.<br/>The people fall to the ground, moaning,<br/>while sounds of Jerusalem's sobs rise up, up.


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The rich people sent their servants for water.<br/>They went to the cisterns, but the cisterns were dry.<br/>They came back with empty buckets,<br/>wringing their hands, shaking their heads.


text:
All the farm work has stopped.<br/>Not a drop of rain has fallen.<br/>The farmers don't know what to do.<br/>They wring their hands, they shake their heads.


text:
We know we're guilty. We've lived bad lives—<br/>but do something, God. Do it for your sake!<br/>Time and time again we've betrayed you.<br/>No doubt about it—we've sinned against you.


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Hope of Israel! Our only hope!<br/>Israel's last chance in this trouble!<br/>Why are you acting like a tourist,<br/>taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow?


text:
Why do you just stand there and stare,<br/>like someone who doesn't know what to do in a crisis?<br/>But God, you are, in fact, here, here with us!<br/>You know who we are—you named us!<br/>Don't leave us in the lurch.


text:
Then God said of these people:<br/>"Since they loved to wander this way and that,<br/>never giving a thought to where they were going,<br/>I will now have nothing more to do with them—<br/>except to note their guilt and punish their sins."


text:
When they skip their meals in order to pray, I won't listen to a thing they say. When they redouble their prayers, bringing all kinds of offerings from their herds and crops, I'll not accept them. I'm finishing them off with war and famine and disease."


text:
I said, "But Master, God! Their preachers have been telling them that everything is going to be all right—no war and no famine—that there's nothing to worry about."


text:
Then God said, "These preachers are liars, and they use my name to cover their lies. I never sent them, I never commanded them, and I don't talk with them. The sermons they've been handing out are sheer illusion, tissues of lies, whistlings in the dark.


text:
"So this is my verdict on them: All the preachers who preach using my name as their text, preachers I never sent in the first place, preachers who say, 'War and famine will never come here'—these preachers will die in war and by starvation.


text:
And the people to whom they've been preaching will end up as corpses, victims of war and starvation, thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem unburied—no funerals for them or their wives or their children! I'll make sure they get the full brunt of all their evil.


text:
"And you, Jeremiah, will say this to them:<br/>" 'My eyes pour out tears.<br/>Day and night, the tears never quit.<br/>My dear, dear people are battered and bruised,<br/>hopelessly and cruelly wounded.


text:
I walk out into the fields,<br/>shocked by the killing fields strewn with corpses.<br/>I walk into the city,<br/>shocked by the sight of starving bodies.<br/>And I watch the preachers and priests<br/>going about their business as if nothing's happened!' "


text:
God, have you said your final No to Judah?<br/>Can you simply not stand Zion any longer?<br/>If not, why have you treated us like this,<br/>beaten us nearly to death?<br/>We hoped for peace—<br/>nothing good came from it;<br/>We looked for healing—<br/>and got kicked in the stomach.


text:
We admit, O God, how bad we've lived,<br/>and our ancestors, how bad they were.<br/>We've sinned, they've sinned,<br/>we've all sinned against you!


text:
Your reputation is at stake! Don't quit on us!<br/>Don't walk out and abandon your glorious Temple!<br/>Remember your covenant.<br/>Don't break faith with us!


text:
Can the no-gods of the godless nations cause rain?<br/>Can the sky water the earth by itself?<br/>You're the one, O God, who does this.<br/>So you're the one for whom we wait.<br/>You made it all,<br/>you do it all.


text:
Then God said to me: "Jeremiah, even if Moses and Samuel stood here and made their case, I wouldn't feel a thing for this people. Get them out of here. Tell them to get lost!


text:
And if they ask you, 'So where do we go?' tell them God says,<br/>" 'If you're assigned to die, go and die;<br/>if assigned to war, go and get killed;<br/>If assigned to starve, go starve;<br/>if assigned to exile, off to exile you go!'


text:
"I've arranged for four kinds of punishment: death in battle, the corpses dropped off by killer dogs, the rest picked clean by vultures, the bones gnawed by hyenas.


text:
They'll be a sight to see, a sight to shock the whole world—and all because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah and all he did in Jerusalem.


text:
"Who do you think will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?<br/>Who do you think will waste tears on you?<br/>Who will bother to take the time to ask,<br/>'So, how are things going?'


text:
"You left me, remember?" God's Decree.<br/>"You turned your back and walked out.<br/>So I will grab you and hit you hard.<br/>I'm tired of letting you off the hook.


text:
I threw you to the four winds<br/>and let the winds scatter you like leaves.<br/>I made sure you'll lose everything,<br/>since nothing makes you change.


text:
I created more widows among you<br/>than grains of sand on the ocean beaches.<br/>At noon mothers will get the news<br/>of their sons killed in action.<br/>Sudden anguish for the mothers—<br/>all those terrible deaths.


text:
A mother of seven falls to the ground,<br/>gasping for breath,<br/>Robbed of her children in their prime.<br/>Her sun sets at high noon!<br/>Then I'll round up any of you that are left alive<br/>and see that you're killed by your enemies."<br/>God's Decree.


text:
Unlucky mother—that you had me as a son,<br/>given the unhappy job of indicting the whole country!<br/>I've never hurt or harmed a soul,<br/>and yet everyone is out to get me.


text:
But, God knows, I've done everything I could to help them,<br/>prayed for them and against their enemies.<br/>I've always been on their side, trying to stave off disaster.<br/>God knows how I've tried!


text:
I'll make you slaves to your enemies<br/>in a strange and far-off land.<br/>My anger is blazing and fierce,<br/>burning in hot judgment against you."


text:
You know where I am, God! Remember what I'm doing here!<br/>Take my side against my detractors.<br/>Don't stand back while they ruin me.<br/>Just look at the abuse I'm taking!


text:
When your words showed up, I ate them—<br/>swallowed them whole. What a feast!<br/>What delight I took in being yours,<br/>O God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!


text:
I never joined the party crowd<br/>in their laughter and their fun.<br/>Led by you, I went off by myself.<br/>You'd filled me with indignation. Their sin had me seething.


text:
But why, why this chronic pain,<br/>this ever worsening wound and no healing in sight?<br/>You're nothing, God, but a mirage,<br/>a lovely oasis in the distance—and then nothing!


text:
This is how God answered me:<br/>"Take back those words, and I'll take you back.<br/>Then you'll stand tall before me.<br/>Use words truly and well. Don't stoop to cheap whining.<br/>Then, but only then, you'll speak for me.<br/>Let your words change them.<br/>Don't change your words to suit them.


text:
I'll turn you into a steel wall,<br/>a thick steel wall, impregnable.<br/>They'll attack you but won't put a dent in you<br/>because I'm at your side, defending and delivering."<br/>God's Decree.


text:
I have signed the death warrant on all the children born in this country, the mothers who bear them and the fathers who beget them—


text:
an epidemic of death. Death unlamented, the dead unburied, dead bodies decomposing and stinking like dung, all the killed and starved corpses served up as meals for carrion crows and mongrel dogs!"


text:
God continued: "Don't enter a house where there's mourning. Don't go to the funeral. Don't sympathize. I've quit caring about what happens to this people." God's Decree. "No more loyal love on my part, no more compassion.


text:
The famous and obscure will die alike here, unlamented and unburied. No funerals will be conducted, no one will give them a second thought,


text:
no one will care, no one will say, 'I'm sorry,' no one will so much as offer a cup of tea, not even for the mother or father.


text:
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, "Watch this! I'm about to banish smiles and laughter from this place. No more brides and bridegrooms celebrating. And I'm doing it in your lifetime, before your very eyes.


text:
"When you tell this to the people and they ask, 'Why is God talking this way, threatening us with all these calamities? We're not criminals, after all. What have we done to our God to be treated like this?'


text:
tell them this: 'It's because your ancestors left me, walked off and never looked back. They took up with the no-gods, worshiped and doted on them, and ignored me and wouldn't do a thing I told them.


text:
And you're even worse! Take a good look in the mirror—each of you doing whatever you want, whenever you want, refusing to pay attention to me.


text:
And for this I'm getting rid of you, throwing you out in the cold, into a far and strange country. You can worship your precious no-gods there to your heart's content. Rest assured, I won't bother you anymore.'


text:
"On the other hand, don't miss this: The time is coming when no one will say any longer, 'As sure as God lives, the God who delivered Israel from Egypt.'


text:
What they'll say is, 'As sure as God lives, the God who brought Israel back from the land of the north, brought them back from all the places where he'd scattered them.' That's right, I'm going to bring them back to the land I first gave to their ancestors.


text:
"Now, watch for what comes next: I'm going to assemble a bunch of fishermen." God's Decree! "They'll go fishing for my people and pull them in for judgment. Then I'll send out a party of hunters, and they'll hunt them out in all the mountains, hills, and caves.


text:
I'm watching their every move. I haven't lost track of a single one of them, neither them nor their sins.


text:
"They won't get by with a thing. They'll pay double for everything they did wrong. They've made a complete mess of things, littering their lives with their obscene no-gods, leaving piles of stinking god-junk all over the place."


text:
God, my strength, my stronghold,<br/>my safe retreat when trouble descends:<br/>The godless nations will come<br/>from earth's four corners, saying,<br/>"Our ancestors lived on lies,<br/>useless illusions, all smoke."


text:
"Watch closely now. I'm going to teach these wrongheaded people.<br/>Starting right now, I'm going to teach them<br/>Who I am and what I do,<br/>teach them the meaning of my name, God—'I Am.'


text:
"Judah's sin is engraved<br/>with a steel chisel,<br/>A steel chisel with a diamond point—<br/>engraved on their granite hearts,<br/>engraved on the stone corners of their altars.


text:
The evidence against them is plain to see:<br/>sex-and-religion altars and sacred sex shrines<br/>Anywhere there's a grove of trees,<br/>anywhere there's an available hill.


text:
"I'll use your mountains as roadside stands<br/>for giving away everything you have.<br/>All your 'things' will serve as reparations<br/>for your sins all over the country.


text:
You'll lose your gift of land,<br/>The inheritance I gave you.<br/>I'll make you slaves of your enemies<br/>in a far-off and strange land.<br/>My anger is hot and blazing and fierce,<br/>and no one will put it out."


text:
God's Message:<br/>"Cursed is the strong one<br/>who depends on mere humans,<br/>Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone<br/>and sets God aside as dead weight.


text:
He's like a tumbleweed on the prairie,<br/>out of touch with the good earth.<br/>He lives rootless and aimless<br/>in a land where nothing grows.


text:
They're like trees replanted in Eden,<br/>putting down roots near the rivers—<br/>Never a worry through the hottest of summers,<br/>never dropping a leaf,<br/>Serene and calm through droughts,<br/>bearing fresh fruit every season.


text:
But I, God, search the heart<br/>and examine the mind.<br/>I get to the heart of the human.<br/>I get to the root of things.<br/>I treat them as they really are,<br/>not as they pretend to be."


text:
Like a cowbird that cheats by laying its eggs<br/>in another bird's nest<br/>Is the person who gets rich by cheating.<br/>When the eggs hatch, the deceit is exposed.<br/>What a fool he'll look like then!


text:
O God, you're the hope of Israel.<br/>All who leave you end up as fools,<br/>Deserters with nothing to show for their lives,<br/>who walk off from God, fountain of living waters—<br/>and wind up dead!


text:
Listen to how they talk about me:<br/>"So where's this 'Word of God'?<br/>We'd like to see something happen!"


text:
But it wasn't my idea to call for Doomsday.<br/>I never wanted trouble.<br/>You know what I've said.<br/>It's all out in the open before you.


text:
Let those who harass me be harassed, not me.<br/>Let them be disgraced, not me.<br/>Bring down upon them the day of doom.<br/>Lower the boom. Boom!


text:
God's Message to me: "Go stand in the People's Gate, the one used by Judah's kings as they come and go, and then proceed in turn to all the gates of Jerusalem.


text:
Tell them: 'Listen, you kings of Judah, listen to God's Message—and all you people who go in and out of these gates, you listen!


text:
" 'This is God's Message. Be careful, if you care about your lives, not to desecrate the Sabbath by turning it into just another workday, lugging stuff here and there.


text:
Don't use the Sabbath to do business as usual. Keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.


text:
They never did it, as you know. They paid no attention to what I said and went about their own business, refusing to be guided or instructed by me.


text:
" 'But now, take seriously what I tell you. Quit desecrating the Sabbath by busily going about your own work, and keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing business as usual.


text:
Then kings from the time of David and their officials will continue to ride through these gates on horses or in chariots. The people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem will continue to pass through them, too. Jerusalem will always be filled with people.


text:
People will stream in from all over Judah, from the province of Benjamin, from the Jerusalem suburbs, from foothills and mountains and deserts. They'll come to worship, bringing all kinds of offerings—animals, grains, incense, expressions of thanks—into the Sanctuary of God.


text:
" 'But if you won't listen to me, won't keep the Sabbath holy, won't quit using the Sabbath for doing your own work, busily going in and out of the city gates on your self-important business, then I'll burn the gates down. In fact, I'll burn the whole city down, palaces and all, with a fire nobody will be able to put out!' "


text:
Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.


text:
"Can't I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?" God's Decree! "Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel.


text:
but if they don't cooperate and won't listen to me, I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.


text:
"So, tell the people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem my Message: 'Danger! I'm shaping doom against you, laying plans against you. Turn back from your doomed way of life. Straighten out your lives.'


text:
"But they'll just say, 'Why should we? What's the point? We'll live just the way we've always lived, doom or no doom.' "


text:
God's Message:<br/>"Ask around.<br/>Survey the godless nations.<br/>Has anyone heard the likes of this?<br/>Virgin Israel has become a slut!


text:
But my people have left me<br/>to worship the Big Lie.<br/>They've gotten off the track,<br/>the old, well-worn trail,<br/>And now bushwhack through underbrush<br/>in a tangle of roots and vines.


text:
Their land's going to end up a mess—<br/>a fool's memorial to be spit on.<br/>Travelers passing through<br/>will shake their heads in disbelief.


text:
I'll scatter my people before their enemies,<br/>like autumn leaves in a high wind.<br/>On their day of doom, they'll stare at my back as I walk away,<br/>catching not so much as a glimpse of my face."


text:
Some of the people said, "Come on, let's cook up a plot against Jeremiah. We'll still have the priests to teach us the law, wise counselors to give us advice, and prophets to tell us what God has to say. Come on, let's discredit him so we don't have to put up with him any longer."


text:
Should I get paid evil for good?<br/>That's what they're doing. They've made plans to kill me!<br/>Remember all the times I stood up for them before you,<br/>speaking up for them,<br/>trying to soften your anger?


text:
But enough! Let their children starve!<br/>Let them be massacred in battle!<br/>Let their wives be childless and widowed,<br/>their friends die and their proud young men be killed.


text:
Let cries of panic sound from their homes<br/>as you surprise them with war parties!<br/>They're all set to lynch me.<br/>The noose is practically around my neck!


text:
But you know all this, God.<br/>You know they're determined to kill me.<br/>Don't whitewash their crimes,<br/>don't overlook a single sin!<br/>Round the bunch of them up before you.<br/>Strike while the iron of your anger is hot!"


text:
God said to me, "Go, buy a clay pot. Then get a few leaders from the people and a few of the leading priests


text:
and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, just outside the Potsherd Gate, and preach there what I tell you.


text:
"Say, 'Listen to God's Word, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem! This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel. I'm about to bring doom crashing down on this place. Oh, and will ears ever ring!


text:
Doom—because they've walked off and left me, and made this place strange by worshiping strange gods, gods never heard of by them, their parents, or the old kings of Judah. Doom—because they have massacred innocent people.


text:
Doom—because they've built altars to that no-god Baal, and burned their own children alive in the fire as offerings to Baal, an atrocity I never ordered, never so much as hinted at!


text:
" 'And so it's pay day, and soon'—God's Decree!—'this place will no longer be known as Topheth or Valley of Ben-hinnom, but Massacre Meadows.


text:
I'm canceling all the plans Judah and Jerusalem had for this place, and I'll have them killed by their enemies. I'll stack their dead bodies to be eaten by carrion crows and wild dogs.


text:
I'll turn this city into such a museum of atrocities that anyone coming near will be shocked speechless by the savage brutality.


text:
The people will turn into cannibals. Dehumanized by the pressure of the enemy siege, they'll eat their own children! Yes, they'll eat one another, family and friends alike.'


text:
Then say, 'This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies says: I'll smash this people and this city like a man who smashes a clay pot into so many pieces it can never be put together again. They'll bury bodies here in Topheth until there's no more room.


text:
The city will be turned by people and kings alike into a center for worshiping the star gods and goddesses, turned into an open grave, the whole city an open grave, stinking like a sewer, like Topheth.' "


text:
Then Jeremiah left Topheth, where God had sent him to preach the sermon, and took his stand in the court of God's Temple and said to the people,


text:
"This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies to you: 'Warning! Danger! I'm bringing down on this city and all the surrounding towns the doom that I have pronounced. They're set in their ways and won't budge. They refuse to do a thing I say.' "


text:
The priest Pashur son of Immer was the senior priest in God's Temple. He heard Jeremiah preach this sermon.


text:
He whipped Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate of God's Temple.


text:
The next day Pashur came and let him go. Jeremiah told him, "God has a new name for you: not Pashur but Danger-Everywhere,


text:
because God says, 'You're a danger to yourself and everyone around you. All your friends are going to get killed in battle while you stand there and watch. What's more, I'm turning all of Judah over to the king of Babylon to do whatever he likes with them—haul them off into exile, kill them at whim.


text:
Everything worth anything in this city, property and possessions along with everything in the royal treasury—I'm handing it all over to the enemy. They'll rummage through it and take what they want back to Babylon.


text:
" 'And you, Pashur, you and everyone in your family will be taken prisoner into exile—that's right, exile in Babylon. You'll die and be buried there, you and all your cronies to whom you preached your lies.' "


text:
You pushed me into this, God, and I let you do it.<br/>You were too much for me.<br/>And now I'm a public joke.<br/>They all poke fun at me.


text:
Every time I open my mouth<br/>I'm shouting, "Murder!" or "Rape!"<br/>And all I get for my God-warnings<br/>are insults and contempt.


text:
But if I say, "Forget it!<br/>No more God-Messages from me!"<br/>The words are fire in my belly,<br/>a burning in my bones.<br/>I'm worn out trying to hold it in.<br/>I can't do it any longer!


text:
Then I hear whispering behind my back:<br/>"There goes old 'Danger-Everywhere.' Shut him up! Report him!"<br/>Old friends watch, hoping I'll fall flat on my face:<br/>"One misstep and we'll have him. We'll get rid of him for good!"


text:
But God, a most fierce warrior, is at my side.<br/>Those who are after me will be sent sprawling—<br/>Slapstick buffoons falling all over themselves,<br/>a spectacle of humiliation no one will ever forget.


text:
Oh, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, no one fools you.<br/>You see through everyone, everything.<br/>I want to see you pay them back for what they've done.<br/>I rest my case with you.


text:
And curse the man who delivered<br/>the news to my father:<br/>"You've got a new baby—a boy baby!"<br/>(How happy it made him.)


text:
Let that birth notice be blacked out,<br/>deleted from the records,<br/>And the man who brought it haunted to his death<br/>with the bad news he brought.


text:
He should have killed me before I was born,<br/>with that womb as my tomb,<br/>My mother pregnant for the rest of her life<br/>with a baby dead in her womb.


text:
Why, oh why, did I ever leave that womb?<br/>Life's been nothing but trouble and tears,<br/>and what's coming is more of the same.


text:
God's Message to Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent Pashur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to him with this request:


text:
"Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has waged war against us. Pray to God for us. Ask him for help. Maybe God will intervene with one of his famous miracles and make him leave."


text:
'This is the God of Israel's Message to you: You can say good-bye to your army, watch morale and weapons flushed down the drain. I'm going to personally lead the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, against whom you're fighting so hard, right into the city itself.


text:
I'm joining their side and fighting against you, fighting all-out, holding nothing back. And in fierce anger.


text:
I'm prepared to wipe out the population of this city, people and animals alike, in a raging epidemic.


text:
And then I will personally deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his princes, and any survivors left in the city who haven't died from disease, been killed, or starved. I'll deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—yes, hand them over to their enemies, who have come to kill them. He'll kill them ruthlessly, showing no mercy.'


text:
"And then tell the people at large, 'God's Message to you is this: Listen carefully. I'm giving you a choice: life or death.


text:
Whoever stays in this city will die—either in battle or by starvation or disease. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who have surrounded the city will live. You'll lose everything—but not your life.


text:
I'm determined to see this city destroyed. I'm that angry with this place! God's Decree. I'm going to give it to the king of Babylon, and he's going to burn it to the ground.'


text:
House of David, listen—God's Message to you:<br/>'Start each day by dealing with justice.<br/>Rescue victims from their exploiters.<br/>Prevent fire—the fire of my anger—<br/>for once it starts, it can't be put out.<br/>Your evil regime<br/>is fuel for my anger.


text:
Don't you realize that I'm against you,<br/>yes, against you.<br/>You think you've got it made,<br/>all snug and secure.<br/>You say, "Who can possibly get to us?<br/>Who can crash our party?"


text:
Well, I can—and will!<br/>I'll punish your evil regime.<br/>I'll start a fire that will rage unchecked,<br/>burn everything in sight to cinders.' "


text:
Say, 'Listen to what God says, O King of Judah, you who sit on David's throne—you and your officials and all the people who go in and out of these palace gates.


text:
This is God's Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters. Don't take advantage of the homeless, the orphans, the widows. Stop the murdering!


text:
" 'If you obey these commands, then kings who follow in the line of David will continue to go in and out of these palace gates mounted on horses and riding in chariots—they and their officials and the citizens of Judah.


text:
But if you don't obey these commands, then I swear—God's Decree!—this palace will end up a heap of rubble.' "


text:
This is God's verdict on Judah's royal palace:<br/>"I number you among my favorite places—<br/>like the lovely hills of Gilead,<br/>like the soaring peaks of Lebanon.<br/>Yet I swear I'll turn you into a wasteland,<br/>as empty as a ghost town.


text:
I'll hire a demolition crew,<br/>well-equipped with sledgehammers and wrecking bars,<br/>Pound the country to a pulp<br/>and burn it all up.


text:
"Travelers from all over will come through here and say to one another, 'Why would God do such a thing to this wonderful city?'


text:
They'll be told, 'Because they walked out on the covenant of their God, took up with other gods and worshiped them.' "


text:
Don't weep over dead King Josiah.<br/>Don't waste your tears.<br/>Weep for his exiled son:<br/>He's gone for good.<br/>He'll never see home again.


text:
For this is God's Word on Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah: "He's gone from here, gone for good.


text:
"Doom to him who builds palaces but bullies people,<br/>who makes a fine house but destroys lives,<br/>Who cheats his workers<br/>and won't pay them for their work,


text:
Who says, 'I'll build me an elaborate mansion<br/>with spacious rooms and fancy windows.<br/>I'll bring in rare and expensive woods<br/>and the latest in interior decor.'


text:
So, that makes you a king—<br/>living in a fancy palace?<br/>Your father got along just fine, didn't he?<br/>He did what was right and treated people fairly,<br/>And things went well with him.


text:
He stuck up for the down-and-out,<br/>And things went well for Judah.<br/>Isn't this what it means to know me?"<br/>God's Decree!


text:
"But you're blind and brainless.<br/>All you think about is yourself,<br/>Taking advantage of the weak,<br/>bulldozing your way, bullying victims."


text:
This is God's epitaph on Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:<br/>"Doom to this man!<br/>Nobody will shed tears over him,<br/>'Poor, poor brother!'<br/>Nobody will shed tears over him,<br/>'Poor, poor master!'


text:
"People of Jerusalem, climb a Lebanon peak and weep,<br/>climb a Bashan mountain and wail,<br/>Climb the Abarim ridge and cry—<br/>you've made a total mess of your life.


text:
I spoke to you when everything was going your way.<br/>You said, 'I'm not interested.'<br/>You've been that way as long as I've known you,<br/>never listened to a thing I said.


text:
All your leaders will be blown away,<br/>all your friends end up in exile,<br/>And you'll find yourself in the gutter,<br/>disgraced by your evil life.


text:
You big-city people thought you were so important,<br/>thought you were 'king of the mountain'!<br/>You're soon going to be doubled up in pain,<br/>pain worse than the pangs of childbirth.


text:
"As sure as I am the living God"—God's Decree—"even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I'd pull you off


text:
and then throw you, both you and your mother, into a foreign country, far from your place of birth. There you'll both die.


text:
Is Jehoiachin a leaky bucket,<br/>a rusted-out pail good for nothing?<br/>Why else would he be thrown away, he and his children,<br/>thrown away to a foreign place?


text:
This is God's verdict:<br/>"Write this man off as if he were childless,<br/>a man who will never amount to anything.<br/>Nothing will ever come of his life.<br/>He's the end of the line, the last of the kings.


text:
"So here is what I, God, Israel's God, say to the shepherd-leaders who misled my people: 'You've scattered my sheep. You've driven them off. You haven't kept your eye on them. Well, let me tell you, I'm keeping my eye on you, keeping track of your criminal behavior.


text:
I'll take over and gather what's left of my sheep, gather them in from all the lands where I've driven them. I'll bring them back where they belong, and they'll recover and flourish.


text:
I'll set shepherd-leaders over them who will take good care of them. They won't live in fear or panic anymore. All the lost sheep rounded up!' God's Decree."


text:
"Time's coming"—God's Decree—<br/>"when I'll establish a truly righteous David-Branch,<br/>A ruler who knows how to rule justly.<br/>He'll make sure of justice and keep people united.


text:
In his time Judah will be secure again<br/>and Israel will live in safety.<br/>This is the name they'll give him:<br/>'God-Who-Puts-Everything-Right.'


text:
"So watch for this. The time's coming"—God's Decree—"when no one will say, 'As sure as God lives, the God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,'


text:
but, 'As sure as God lives, the God who brought the descendants of Israel back from the north country and from the other countries where he'd driven them, so that they can live on their own good earth.' "


text:
My head is reeling,<br/>my limbs are limp,<br/>I'm staggering like a drunk,<br/>seeing double from too much wine—<br/>And all because of God,<br/>because of his holy words.


text:
Now for what God says regarding the lying prophets:<br/>"Can you believe it? A country teeming with adulterers!<br/>faithless, promiscuous idolater-adulterers!<br/>They're a curse on the land.<br/>The land's a wasteland.<br/>Their unfaithfulness<br/>is turning the country into a cesspool,


text:
Prophets and priests devoted to desecration.<br/>They have nothing to do with me as their God.<br/>My very own Temple, mind you—<br/>mud-spattered with their crimes." God's Decree.


text:
"But they won't get by with it.<br/>They'll find themselves on a slippery slope,<br/>Careening into the darkness,<br/>somersaulting into the pitch-black dark.<br/>I'll make them pay for their crimes.<br/>It will be the Year of Doom." God's Decree.


text:
"Over in Samaria I saw prophets<br/>acting like silly fools—shocking!<br/>They preached using that no-god Baal for a text,<br/>messing with the minds of my people.


text:
And the Jerusalem prophets are even worse—horrible!—<br/>sex-driven, living a lie,<br/>Subsidizing a culture of wickedness,<br/>and never giving it a second thought.<br/>They're as bad as those wretches in old Sodom,<br/>the degenerates of old Gomorrah."


text:
So here's the Message to the prophets from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:<br/>"I'll cook them a supper of maggoty meat<br/>with after-dinner drinks of strychnine.<br/>The Jerusalem prophets are behind all this.<br/>They're the cause of the godlessness polluting this country."


text:
A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:<br/>"Don't listen to the sermons of the prophets.<br/>It's all hot air. Lies, lies, and more lies.<br/>They make it all up.<br/>Not a word they speak comes from me.


text:
They preach their 'Everything Will Turn Out Fine' sermon<br/>to congregations with no taste for God,<br/>Their 'Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen to You' sermon<br/>to people who are set in their own ways.


text:
"Have any of these prophets bothered to meet with me, the true God?<br/>bothered to take in what I have to say?<br/>listened to and then lived out my Word?


text:
Look out! God's hurricane will be let loose—<br/>my hurricane blast,<br/>Spinning the heads of the wicked like tops!


text:
God's raging anger won't let up<br/>Until I've made a clean sweep,<br/>completing the job I began.<br/>When the job's done,<br/>you'll see that it's been well done.


text:
"I never sent these prophets,<br/>but they ran anyway.<br/>I never spoke to them,<br/>but they preached away.


text:
If they'd have bothered to sit down and meet with me,<br/>they'd have preached my Message to my people.<br/>They'd have gotten them back on the right track,<br/>gotten them out of their evil ruts.


text:
Can anyone hide out in a corner<br/>where I can't see him?"<br/>God's Decree.<br/>"Am I not present everywhere,<br/>whether seen or unseen?"<br/>God's Decree.


text:
"I know what they're saying, all these prophets who preach lies using me as their text, saying 'I had this dream! I had this dream!'


text:
How long do I have to put up with this? Do these prophets give two cents about me as they preach their lies and spew out their grandiose delusions?


text:
They swap dreams with one another, feed on each other's delusive dreams, trying to distract my people from me just as their ancestors were distracted by the no-god Baal.


text:
"You prophets who do nothing but dream—<br/>go ahead and tell your silly dreams.<br/>But you prophets who have a message from me—<br/>tell it truly and faithfully.<br/>What does straw have in common with wheat?<br/>Nothing else is like God's Decree.


text:
"Oh yes, I've had it with the prophets who preach the lies they dream up, spreading them all over the country, ruining the lives of my people with their cheap and reckless lies.<br/>"I never sent these prophets, never authorized a single one of them. They do nothing for this people—nothing!" God's Decree.


text:
"And anyone, including prophets and priests, who asks, 'What's God got to say about all this, what's troubling him?' tell him, 'You, you're the trouble, and I'm getting rid of you.' " God's Decree.


text:
"And if anyone, including prophets and priests, goes around saying glibly 'God's Message! God's Message!' I'll punish him and his family.


text:
"Instead of claiming to know what God says, ask questions of one another, such as 'How do we understand God in this?'


text:
But don't go around pretending to know it all, saying 'God told me this... God told me that. I don't want to hear it anymore. Only the person I authorize speaks for me. Otherwise, my Message gets twisted, the Message of the living God-of-the-Angel-Armies.


text:
But don't pretend that you know all the answers yourselves and talk like you know it all. I'm telling you: Quit the 'God told me this... God told me that...' kind of talk.


text:
"Are you paying attention? You'd better, because I'm about to take you in hand and throw you to the ground, you and this entire city that I gave to your ancestors. I've had it with the lot of you.


text:
God showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple of God. This was after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem into exile in Babylon, along with the leaders of Judah, the craftsmen, and the skilled laborers.


text:
In one basket the figs were of the finest quality, ripe and ready to eat. In the other basket the figs were rotten, so rotten they couldn't be eaten.


text:
God said to me, "Jeremiah, what do you see?"<br/>"Figs," I said. "Excellent figs of the finest quality, and also rotten figs, so rotten they can't be eaten."


text:
"This is the Message from the God of Israel: The exiles from here that I've sent off to the land of the Babylonians are like the good figs, and I'll make sure they get good treatment.


text:
I'll keep my eye on them so that their lives are good, and I'll bring them back to this land. I'll build them up, not tear them down; I'll plant them, not uproot them.


text:
"And I'll give them a heart to know me, God. They'll be my people and I'll be their God, for they'll have returned to me with all their hearts.


text:
"But like the rotten figs, so rotten they can't be eaten, is Zedekiah king of Judah. Rotten figs—that's how I'll treat him and his leaders, along with the survivors here and those down in Egypt.


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I'll make them something that the whole world will look on as disgusting—repugnant outcasts, their names used as curse words wherever in the world I drive them.


text:
And I'll make sure they die like flies—from war, starvation, disease, whatever—until the land I once gave to them and their ancestors is completely rid of them."


text:
This is the Message given to Jeremiah for all the people of Judah. It came in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah. It was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.


text:
From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah right up to the present day—twenty-three years it's been!—God's Word has come to me, and from early each morning to late every night I've passed it on to you. And you haven't listened to a word of it!


text:
Not only that, but God also sent a steady stream of prophets to you who were just as persistent as me, and you never listened.


text:
They told you, "Turn back—right now, each one of you!—from your evil way of life and bad behavior, and live in the land God gave you and your ancestors, the land he intended to give you forever.


text:
Don't follow the god-fads of the day, taking up and worshiping these no-gods. Don't make me angry with your god-businesses, making and selling gods—a dangerous business!


text:
"You refused to listen to any of this, and now I am really angry. These god-making businesses of yours are your doom."


text:
The verdict of God-of-the-Angel-Armies on all this: "Because you have refused to listen to what I've said,


text:
I'm stepping in. I'm sending for the armies out of the north headed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant in this, and I'm setting them on this land and people and even the surrounding countries. I'm devoting the whole works to total destruction—a horror to top all the horrors in history.


text:
And I'll banish every sound of joy—singing, laughter, marriage festivities, genial workmen, candlelit suppers.


text:
The whole landscape will be one vast wasteland. These countries will be in subjection to the king of Babylon for seventy years.


text:
"Once the seventy years is up, I'll punish the king of Babylon and the whole nation of Babylon for their sin. Then they'll be the wasteland.


text:
Everything that I said I'd do to that country, I'll do—everything that's written in this book, everything Jeremiah preached against all the godless nations.


text:
Many nations and great kings will make slaves of the Babylonians, paying them back for everything they've done to others. They won't get by with anything." God's Decree.


text:
This is a Message that the God of Israel gave me: "Take this cup filled with the wine of my wrath that I'm handing to you. Make all the nations where I send you drink it down.


text:
They'll drink it and get drunk, staggering in delirium because of the killing that I'm going to unleash among them."


text:
Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, along with their kings and leaders, turning them into a vast wasteland, a horror to look at, a cussword—which, in fact, they now are;


text:
plus all his people and the melting pot of foreigners collected there;<br/>All the kings of Uz;<br/>All the kings of the Philistines from Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what's left of Ashdod;


text:
All the kings of Arabia and the various Bedouin sheiks and chieftains wandering about in the desert;


text:
All the kings from the north countries near and far, one by one;<br/>All the kingdoms on planet Earth...<br/>And the king of Sheshak (that is, Babylon) will be the last to drink.


text:
"Tell them, 'These are orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: Drink and get drunk and vomit. Fall on your faces and don't get up again. You're slated for a massacre.'


text:
"If any of them refuse to take the cup from you and drink it, say to them, 'God-of-the-Angel-Armies has ordered you to drink. So drink!


text:
" 'Prepare for the worst! I'm starting off the catastrophe in the city that I claim as my own, so don't think you are going to get out of it. No, you're not getting out of anything. It's the sword and nothing but the sword against everyone everywhere!' " The God-of-the-Angel-Armies' Decree.


text:
"Preach it all, Jeremiah. Preach the entire Message to them. Say:<br/>" 'God roars like a lion from high heaven;<br/>thunder rolls out from his holy dwelling—<br/>Ear-splitting bellows against his people,<br/>shouting hurrahs like workers in harvest.


text:
The noise reverberates all over the earth;<br/>everyone everywhere hears it.<br/>God makes his case against the godless nations.<br/>He's about to put the human race on trial.<br/>For the wicked the verdict is clear-cut:<br/>death by the sword.' " God's Decree.


text:
A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:<br/>"Prepare for the worst! Doomsday!<br/>Disaster is spreading from nation to nation.<br/>A huge storm is about to rage<br/>all across planet Earth."


text:
Laid end to end, those killed in God's judgment that day will stretch from one end of the earth to the other. No tears will be shed and no burials conducted. The bodies will be left where they fall, like so much horse dung fertilizing the fields.


text:
Wail, shepherds! Cry out for help!<br/>Grovel in the dirt, you masters of flocks!<br/>Time's up—you're slated for the slaughterhouse,<br/>like a choice ram with its throat cut.


text:
Hear that? Rulers crying for help,<br/>shepherds of the flock wailing!<br/>God is about to ravage their fine pastures.


text:
God will come out into the open<br/>like a lion leaping from its cover,<br/>And the country will be torn to pieces,<br/>ripped and ravaged by his anger.


text:
At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this Message came from God to Jeremiah:


text:
"God's Message: Stand in the court of God's Temple and preach to the people who come from all over Judah to worship in God's Temple. Say everything I tell you to say to them. Don't hold anything back.


text:
Just maybe they'll listen and turn back from their bad lives. Then I'll reconsider the disaster that I'm planning to bring on them because of their evil behavior.


text:
"Say to them, 'This is God's Message: If you refuse to listen to me and live by my teaching that I've revealed so plainly to you,


text:
and if you continue to refuse to listen to my servants the prophets that I tirelessly keep on sending to you—but you've never listened! Why would you start now?


text:
—then I'll make this Temple a pile of ruins like Shiloh, and I'll make this city nothing but a bad joke worldwide.' "


text:
Everybody there—priests, prophets, and people—heard Jeremiah preaching this Message in the Temple of God.


text:
When Jeremiah had finished his sermon, saying everything God had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and people all grabbed him, yelling, "Death! You're going to die for this!


text:
How dare you preach—and using God's name!—saying that this Temple will become a heap of rubble like Shiloh and this city be wiped out without a soul left in it!"<br/>All the people mobbed Jeremiah right in the Temple itself.


text:
Officials from the royal court of Judah were told of this. They left the palace immediately and came to God's Temple to investigate. They held court on the spot, at the New Gate entrance to God's Temple.


text:
The prophets and priests spoke first, addressing the officials, but also the people: "Death to this man! He deserves nothing less than death! He has preached against this city—you've heard the evidence with your own ears."


text:
Jeremiah spoke next, publicly addressing the officials before the crowd: "God sent me to preach against both this Temple and city everything that's been reported to you.


text:
So do something about it! Change the way you're living, change your behavior. Listen obediently to the Message of your God. Maybe God will reconsider the disaster he has threatened.


text:
But take warning: If you kill me, you're killing an innocent man, and you and the city and the people in it will be liable. I didn't say any of this on my own. God sent me and told me what to say. You've been listening to God speak, not Jeremiah."


text:
The court officials, backed by the people, then handed down their ruling to the priests and prophets: "Acquittal. No death sentence for this man. He has spoken to us with the authority of our God."


text:
"In the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, Micah of Moresheth preached to the people of Judah this sermon: This is God-of-the-Angel-Armies' Message for you:<br/>" 'Because of people like you,<br/>Zion will be turned back into farmland,<br/>Jerusalem end up as a pile of rubble,<br/>and instead of the Temple on the mountain,<br/>a few scraggly scrub pines.'


text:
"Did King Hezekiah or anyone else in Judah kill Micah of Moresheth because of that sermon? Didn't Hezekiah honor him and pray for mercy from God? And then didn't God call off the disaster he had threatened?<br/>"Friends, we're at the brink of bringing a terrible calamity upon ourselves."


text:
(At another time there had been a man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, who had preached similarly in the name of God. He preached against this same city and country just as Jeremiah did.


text:
When King Jehoiakim and his royal court heard his sermon, they determined to kill him. Uriah, afraid for his life, went into hiding in Egypt.


text:
They brought him back from Egypt and presented him to the king. And the king had him killed. They dumped his body unceremoniously outside the city.


text:
But in Jeremiah's case, Ahikam son of Shaphan stepped forward and took his side, preventing the mob from lynching him.)


text:
Early in the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah received this Message from God:


text:
Send a message to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. Send it through their ambassadors who have come to Jerusalem to see Zedekiah king of Judah.


text:
Give them this charge to take back to their masters: 'This is a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel. Tell your masters:


text:
" 'I'm the one who made the earth, man and woman, and all the animals in the world. I did it on my own without asking anyone's help and I hand it out to whomever I will.


text:
Here and now I give all these lands over to my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have made even the wild animals subject to him.


text:
All nations will be under him, then his son, and then his grandson. Then his country's time will be up and the tables will be turned: Babylon will be the underdog servant.


text:
But until then, any nation or kingdom that won't submit to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon must take the yoke of the king of Babylon and harness up. I'll punish that nation with war and starvation and disease until I've got them where I want them.


text:
" 'So don't for a minute listen to all your prophets and spiritualists and fortunetellers, who claim to know the future and who tell you not to give in to the king of Babylon.


text:
They're handing you a line of lies, barefaced lies, that will end up putting you in exile far from home. I myself will drive you out of your lands, and that'll be the end of you.


text:
But the nation that accepts the yoke of the king of Babylon and does what he says, I'll let that nation stay right where it is, minding its own business.' "


text:
Then I gave this same message to Zedekiah king of Judah: "Harness yourself up to the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people. Live a long life!


text:
Why choose to get killed or starve to death or get sick and die, which is what God has threatened to any nation that won't throw its lot in with Babylon?


text:
Don't listen to the prophets who are telling you not to submit to the king of Babylon. They're telling you lies, preaching lies.


text:
God's Word on this is, 'I didn't send those prophets, but they keep preaching lies, claiming I sent them. If you listen to them, I'll end up driving you out of here and that will be the end of you, both you and the lying prophets.' "


text:
And finally I spoke to the priests and the people at large: "This is God's Message: Don't listen to the preaching of the prophets who keep telling you, 'Trust us: The furnishings, plundered from God's Temple, are going to be returned from Babylon any day now.' That's a lie.


text:
Don't listen to them. Submit to the king of Babylon and live a long life. Why do something that will destroy this city and leave it a heap of rubble?


text:
If they are real prophets and have a Message from God, let them come to God-of-the-Angel-Armies in prayer so that the furnishings that are still left in God's Temple, the king's palace, and Jerusalem aren't also lost to Babylon.


text:
That's because God-of-the-Angel-Armies has already spoken about the Temple furnishings that remain—the pillars, the great bronze basin, the stands, and all the other bowls and chalices


text:
that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn't take when he took Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim off to Babylonian exile along with all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem.


text:
He said that the furnishings left behind in the Temple of God and in the royal palace and in Jerusalem


text:
will be taken off to Babylon and stay there until, in God's words, 'I take the matter up again and bring them back where they belong.' "


text:
Later that same year (it was in the fifth month of King Zedekiah's fourth year) Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from Gibeon, confronted Jeremiah in the Temple of God in front of the priests and all the people who were there.


text:
Hananiah said:<br/>"This Message is straight from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: 'I will most certainly break the yoke of the king of Babylon.


text:
Before two years are out I'll have all the furnishings of God's Temple back here, all the things that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon plundered and hauled off to Babylon.


text:
I'll also bring back Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the exiles who were taken off to Babylon.' God's Decree. 'Yes, I will break the king of Babylon's yoke. You'll no longer be in harness to him.' "


text:
Prophet Jeremiah stood up to Prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people who were in God's Temple that day.


text:
Prophet Jeremiah said, "Wonderful! Would that it were true—that God would validate your preaching by bringing the Temple furnishings and all the exiles back from Babylon.


text:
The old prophets, the ones before our time, preached judgment against many countries and kingdoms, warning of war and disaster and plague.


text:
So any prophet who preaches that everything is just fine and there's nothing to worry about stands out like a sore thumb. We'll wait and see. If it happens, it happens—and then we'll know that God sent him."


text:
And then he addressed the people: "This is God's Message: In just this way I will smash the yoke of the king of Babylon and get him off the neck of all the nations—and within two years."<br/>Jeremiah walked out.


text:
Later, sometime after Hananiah had smashed the yoke from off his shoulders, Jeremiah received this Message from God:


text:
"Go back to Hananiah and tell him, 'This is God's Message: You smashed the wooden yoke-bars; now you've got iron yoke-bars.


text:
This is a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's own God: I've put an iron yoke on all these nations. They're harnessed to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They'll do just what he tells them. Why, I'm even putting him in charge of the wild animals.' "


text:
So prophet Jeremiah told prophet Hananiah, "Hold it, Hananiah! God never sent you. You've talked the whole country into believing a pack of lies!


text:
And so God says, 'You claim to be sent? I'll send you all right—right off the face of the earth! Before the year is out, you'll be dead because you fomented sedition against God.' "


text:
This is the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to what was left of the elders among the exiles, to the priests and prophets and all the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem,


text:
including King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the government leaders, and all the skilled laborers and craftsmen.


text:
The letter was carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:


text:
This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God, to all the exiles I've taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:


text:
"Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you'll thrive in that country and not waste away.


text:
"Make yourselves at home there and work for the country's welfare. "Pray for Babylon's well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you."


text:
Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God: "Don't let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don't pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you.


text:
They're a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me." God's Decree!


text:
This is God's Word on the subject: "As soon as Babylon's seventy years are up and not a day before, I'll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home.


text:
I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.


text:
"When you come looking for me, you'll find me. "Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else,


text:
I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." God's Decree. "I'll turn things around for you. I'll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you"—God's Decree—"bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.


text:
"But for right now, because you've taken up with these newfangled prophets who set themselves up as 'Babylonian specialists,' spreading the word 'God sent them just for us!'


text:
God is setting the record straight: As for the king still sitting on David's throne and all the people left in Jerusalem who didn't go into exile with you, they're facing bad times.


text:
God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, 'Watch this! Catastrophe is on the way: war, hunger, disease! They're a barrel of rotten apples.


text:
I'll rid the country of them through war and hunger and disease. The whole world is going to hold its nose at the smell, shut its eyes at the horrible sight. They'll end up in slum ghettos


text:
because they wouldn't listen to a thing I said when I sent my servant-prophets preaching tirelessly and urgently. No, they wouldn't listen to a word I said.' " God's Decree.


text:
As far as Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah are concerned, the 'Babylonian specialists' who are preaching lies in my name, I will turn them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will kill them while you watch.


text:
The exiles from Judah will take what they see at the execution and use it as a curse: 'God fry you to a crisp like the king of Babylon fried Zedekiah and Ahab in the fire!'


text:
Those two men, sex predators and prophet-impostors, got what they deserved. They pulled every woman they got their hands on into bed—their neighbors' wives, no less—and preached lies claiming it was my Message. I never sent those men. I've never had anything to do with them." God's Decree. "They won't get away with a thing. I've witnessed it all."


text:
"God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says: You took it on yourself to send letters to all the people in Jerusalem and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and the company of priests. In your letter you told Zephaniah that


text:
God set you up as priest replacing priest Jehoiadah. He's put you in charge of God's Temple and made you responsible for locking up any crazy fellow off the street who takes it into his head to be a prophet.


text:
"So why haven't you done anything about muzzling Jeremiah of Anathoth, who's going around posing as a prophet?


text:
He's gone so far as to write to us in Babylon, 'It's going to be a long exile, so build houses and make yourselves at home. Plant gardens and prepare Babylonian recipes.' "


text:
"Send this Message to the exiles. Tell them what God says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Shemaiah is preaching lies to you. I didn't send him. He is seducing you into believing lies.


text:
So this is God's verdict: I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his whole family. He's going to end up with nothing and no one. No one from his family will be around to see any of the good that I am going to do for my people because he has preached rebellion against me." God's Decree.


text:
" 'Look. The time is coming when I will turn everything around for my people, both Israel and Judah. I, God, say so. I'll bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors, and they'll take up ownership again.' "


text:
Ask around! Look around!<br/>Can men bear babies?<br/>So why do I see all these he-men<br/>holding their bellies like women in labor,<br/>Faces contorted,<br/>pale as death?


text:
The blackest of days,<br/>no day like it ever!<br/>A time of deep trouble for Jacob—<br/>but he'll come out of it alive.


text:
" 'And then I'll enter the darkness.<br/>I'll break the yoke from their necks,<br/>Cut them loose from the harness.<br/>No more slave labor to foreigners!


text:
" 'So fear no more, Jacob, dear servant.<br/>Don't despair, Israel.<br/>Look up! I'll save you out of faraway places,<br/>I'll bring your children back from exile.<br/>Jacob will come back and find life good,<br/>safe and secure.


text:
I'll be with you. I'll save you.<br/>I'll finish off all the godless nations<br/>Among which I've scattered you,<br/>but I won't finish you off.<br/>I'll punish you, but fairly.<br/>I won't send you off with just a slap on the wrist.'


text:
All your fair-weather friends have skipped town<br/>without giving you a second thought.<br/>But I delivered the knockout blow,<br/>a punishment you will never forget,<br/>Because of the enormity of your guilt,<br/>the endless list of your sins.


text:
So why all this self-pity, licking your wounds?<br/>You deserve all this, and more.<br/>Because of the enormity of your guilt,<br/>the endless list of your sins,<br/>I've done all this to you.


text:
" 'Everyone who hurt you will be hurt;<br/>your enemies will end up as slaves.<br/>Your plunderers will be plundered;<br/>your looters will become loot.


text:
As for you, I'll come with healing,<br/>curing the incurable,<br/>Because they all gave up on you<br/>and dismissed you as hopeless—<br/>that good-for-nothing Zion.'


text:
"Again, God's Message:<br/>" 'I'll turn things around for Jacob.<br/>I'll compassionately come in and rebuild homes.<br/>The town will be rebuilt on its old foundations;<br/>the mansions will be splendid again.


text:
Thanksgivings will pour out of the windows;<br/>laughter will spill through the doors.<br/>Things will get better and better.<br/>Depression days are over.<br/>They'll thrive, they'll flourish.<br/>The days of contempt will be over.


text:
They'll look forward to having children again,<br/>to being a community in which I take pride.<br/>I'll punish anyone who hurts them,


text:
and their prince will come from their own ranks.<br/>One of their own people shall be their leader.<br/>Their ruler will come from their own ranks.<br/>I'll grant him free and easy access to me.<br/>Would anyone dare to do that on his own,<br/>to enter my presence uninvited?' God's Decree.


text:
Look out! God's hurricane is let loose,<br/>his hurricane blast,<br/>Spinning the heads of the wicked like dust devils!


text:
God's raging anger won't let up<br/>Until he's made a clean sweep<br/>completing the job he began.<br/>When the job's done<br/>you'll see it's been well done.


text:
"And when that happens"—God's Decree—<br/>"it will be plain as the sun at high noon:<br/>I'll be the God of every man, woman, and child in Israel<br/>and they shall be my very own people."


text:
This is the way God put it:<br/>"They found grace out in the desert,<br/>these people who survived the killing.<br/>Israel, out looking for a place to rest,


text:
met God out looking for them!"<br/>God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will.<br/>Expect love, love, and more love!


text:
And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again,<br/>dear virgin Israel.<br/>You'll resume your singing,<br/>grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.


text:
You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards<br/>on the Samaritan hillsides,<br/>And sit back and enjoy the fruit—<br/>oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!


text:
The time's coming when watchmen will call out<br/>from the hilltops of Ephraim:<br/>'On your feet! Let's go to Zion,<br/>go to meet our God!' "


text:
Oh yes, God says so:<br/>"Shout for joy at the top of your lungs for Jacob!<br/>Announce the good news to the number-one nation!<br/>Raise cheers! Sing praises. Say,<br/>'God has saved his people,<br/>saved the core of Israel.'


text:
"Watch what comes next:<br/>"I'll bring my people back<br/>from the north country<br/>And gather them up from the ends of the earth,<br/>gather those who've gone blind<br/>And those who are lame and limping,<br/>gather pregnant women,<br/>Even the mothers whose birth pangs have started,<br/>bring them all back, a huge crowd!


text:
"Watch them come! They'll come weeping for joy<br/>as I take their hands and lead them,<br/>Lead them to fresh flowing brooks,<br/>lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths.<br/>Yes, it's because I'm Israel's Father<br/>and Ephraim's my firstborn son!


text:
"Hear this, nations! God's Message!<br/>Broadcast this all over the world!<br/>Tell them, 'The One who scattered Israel<br/>will gather them together again.<br/>From now on he'll keep a careful eye on them,<br/>like a shepherd with his flock.'


text:
I, God, will pay a stiff ransom price for Jacob;<br/>I'll free him from the grip of the Babylonian bully.


text:
The people will climb up Zion's slopes shouting with joy,<br/>their faces beaming because of God's bounty—<br/>Grain and wine and oil,<br/>flocks of sheep, herds of cattle.<br/>Their lives will be like a well-watered garden,<br/>never again left to dry up.


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Young women will dance and be happy,<br/>young men and old men will join in.<br/>I'll convert their weeping into laughter,<br/>lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy.


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I'll make sure that their priests get three square meals a day<br/>and that my people have more than enough.' " God's Decree.


text:
Again, God's Message:<br/>"Listen to this! Laments coming out of Ramah,<br/>wild and bitter weeping.<br/>It's Rachel weeping for her children,<br/>Rachel refusing all solace.<br/>Her children are gone,<br/>gone—long gone into exile."


text:
But God says, "Stop your incessant weeping,<br/>hold back your tears.<br/>Collect wages from your grief work." God's Decree.<br/>"They'll be coming back home!


text:
"I've heard the contrition of Ephraim.<br/>Yes, I've heard it clearly, saying,<br/>'You trained me well.<br/>You broke me, a wild yearling horse, to the saddle.<br/>Now put me, trained and obedient, to use.<br/>You are my God.


text:
After those years of running loose, I repented.<br/>After you trained me to obedience,<br/>I was ashamed of my past, my wild, unruly past.<br/>Humiliated, I beat on my chest.<br/>Will I ever live this down?'


text:
"Oh! Ephraim is my dear, dear son,<br/>my child in whom I take pleasure!<br/>Every time I mention his name,<br/>my heart bursts with longing for him!<br/>Everything in me cries out for him.<br/>Softly and tenderly I wait for him." God's Decree.


text:
"Set up signposts to mark your trip home.<br/>Get a good map.<br/>Study the road conditions.<br/>The road out is the road back.<br/>Come back, dear virgin Israel,<br/>come back to your hometowns.


text:
How long will you flit here and there, indecisive?<br/>How long before you make up your fickle mind?<br/>God will create a new thing in this land:<br/>A transformed woman will embrace the transforming God!"


text:
A Message from Israel's God-of-the-Angel-Armies: "When I've turned everything around and brought my people back, the old expressions will be heard on the streets: 'God bless you!'... 'O True Home!'... 'O Holy Mountain!'


text:
"Be ready. The time's coming"—God's Decree—"when I will plant people and animals in Israel and Judah, just as a farmer plants seed.


text:
And in the same way that earlier I relentlessly pulled up and tore down, took apart and demolished, so now I am sticking with them as they start over, building and planting.


text:
"When that time comes you won't hear the old proverb anymore,<br/>Parents ate the green apples,<br/>their children got the stomachache.


text:
It won't be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master." God's Decree.


text:
"This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people.


text:
They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They'll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I'll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I'll forget they ever sinned!" God's Decree.


text:
God's Message, from the God who lights up the day with sun and<br/>brightens the night with moon and stars,<br/>Who whips the ocean into a billowy froth,<br/>whose name is God-of-the-Angel-Armies:


text:
"If this ordered cosmos ever fell to pieces,<br/>fell into chaos before me"—God's Decree—<br/>"Then and only then might Israel fall apart<br/>and disappear as a nation before me."


text:
God's Message:<br/>"If the skies could be measured with a yardstick<br/>and the earth explored to its core,<br/>Then and only then would I turn my back on Israel,<br/>disgusted with all they've done." God's Decree.


text:
"The time is coming"—it's God's Decree—"when God's city will be rebuilt, rebuilt all the way from the Citadel of Hanamel to the Corner Gate.


text:
The whole valley to the south where incinerated corpses are dumped—a death valley if there ever was one!—and all the terraced fields out to the Brook Kidron on the east as far north as the Horse Gate will be consecrated to me as a holy place.<br/>"This city will never again be torn down or destroyed."


text:
The Message Jeremiah received from God in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah. It was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.


text:
At that time the army of the king of Babylon was holding Jerusalem under siege. Jeremiah was shut up in jail in the royal palace.


text:
Zedekiah, king of Judah, had locked him up, complaining, "How dare you preach, saying, 'God says, I'm warning you: I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will take it over.


text:
Zedekiah king of Judah will be handed over to the Chaldeans right along with the city. He will be handed over to the king of Babylon and forced to face the music.


text:
He'll be hauled off to Babylon where he'll stay until I deal with him. God's Decree. Fight against the Babylonians all you want—it won't get you anywhere.' "


text:
Prepare yourself! Hanamel, your uncle Shallum's son, is on his way to see you. He is going to say, 'Buy my field in Anathoth. You have the legal right to buy it.'


text:
"And sure enough, just as God had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me while I was in jail and said, 'Buy my field in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, for you have the legal right to keep it in the family. Buy it. Take it over.'<br/>"That did it. I knew it was God's Message.


text:
I followed all the proper procedures: In the presence of witnesses I wrote out the bill of sale, sealed it, and weighed out the money on the scales.


text:
Then I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy that contained the contract and its conditions and also the open copy—


text:
and gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. All this took place in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who had signed the deed, as the Jews who were at the jail that day looked on.


text:
'These are orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: Take these documents—both the sealed and the open deeds—and put them for safekeeping in a pottery jar.


text:
For God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, "Life is going to return to normal. Homes and fields and vineyards are again going to be bought in this country." '


text:
'Dear God, my Master, you created earth and sky by your great power—by merely stretching out your arm! There is nothing you can't do.


text:
You're loyal in your steadfast love to thousands upon thousands—but you also make children live with the fallout from their parents' sins. Great and powerful God, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies,


text:
determined in purpose and relentless in following through, you see everything that men and women do and respond appropriately to the way they live, to the things they do.


text:
" 'You performed signs and wonders in the country of Egypt and continue to do so right into the present, right here in Israel and everywhere else, too. You've made a reputation for yourself that doesn't diminish.


text:
You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders—a powerful deliverance!—by merely stretching out your arm.


text:
But when they entered the land and took it over, they didn't listen to you. They didn't do what you commanded. They wouldn't listen to a thing you told them. And so you brought this disaster on them.


text:
" 'Oh, look at the siege ramps already set in place to take the city. Killing and starvation and disease are on our doorstep. The Babylonians are attacking! The Word you spoke is coming to pass—it's daily news!


text:
And yet you, God, the Master, even though it is certain that the city will be turned over to the Babylonians, also told me, Buy the field. Pay for it in cash. And make sure there are witnesses.' "


text:
So listen to God's Message: No doubt about it, I'm handing this city over to the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He'll take it.


text:
The attacking Chaldeans will break through and burn the city down: All those houses whose roofs were used as altars for offerings to Baal and the worship of who knows how many other gods provoked me.


text:
It isn't as if this were the first time they had provoked me. The people of Israel and Judah have been doing this for a long time—doing what I hate, making me angry by the way they live." God's Decree.


text:
"This city has made me angry from the day they built it, and now I've had my fill. I'm destroying it. I can't stand to look any longer


text:
at the wicked lives of the people of Israel and Judah, deliberately making me angry, the whole lot of them—kings and leaders and priests and preachers, in the country and in the city.


text:
They've turned their backs on me—won't even look me in the face!—even though I took great pains to teach them how to live. They refused to listen, refused to be taught.


text:
Why, they even set up obscene god and goddess statues in the Temple built in my honor—an outrageous desecration!


text:
And then they went out and built shrines to the god Baal in the valley of Hinnom, where they burned their children in sacrifice to the god Molech—I can hardly conceive of such evil!—turning the whole country into one huge act of sin.


text:
"But there is also this Message from me, the God of Israel, to this city of which you have said, 'In killing and starvation and disease this city will be delivered up to the king of Babylon':


text:
" 'Watch for this! I will collect them from all the countries to which I will have driven them in my anger and rage and indignation. Yes, I'll bring them all back to this place and let them live here in peace.


text:
I'll make them of one mind and heart, always honoring me, so that they can live good and whole lives, they and their children after them.


text:
What's more, I'll make a covenant with them that will last forever, a covenant to stick with them no matter what, and work for their good. I'll fill their hearts with a deep respect for me so they'll not even think of turning away from me.


text:
" 'Oh how I'll rejoice in them! Oh how I'll delight in doing good things for them! Heart and soul, I'll plant them in this country and keep them here!'


text:
"Yes, this is God's Message: 'I will certainly bring this huge catastrophe on this people, but I will also usher in a wonderful life of prosperity. I promise.


text:
Fields are going to be bought here again, yes, in this very country that you assume is going to end up desolate—gone to the dogs, unlivable, wrecked by the Babylonians.


text:
Yes, people will buy farms again, and legally, with deeds of purchase, sealed documents, proper witnesses—and right here in the territory of Benjamin, and in the area around Jerusalem, around the villages of Judah and the hill country, the Shephelah and the Negev. I will restore everything that was lost.' God's Decree."


text:
"This is God's Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God:


text:
'Call to me and I will answer you. I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.'


text:
"This is what God, the God of Israel, has to say about what's going on in this city, about the homes of both people and kings that have been demolished, about all the ravages of war


text:
and the killing by the Chaldeans, and about the streets littered with the dead bodies of those killed because of my raging anger—about all that's happened because the evil actions in this city have turned my stomach in disgust.


text:
"But now take another look. I'm going to give this city a thorough renovation, working a true healing inside and out. I'm going to show them life whole, life brimming with blessings.


text:
I'll restore everything that was lost to Judah and Jerusalem. I'll build everything back as good as new.


text:
I'll scrub them clean from the dirt they've done against me. I'll forgive everything they've done wrong, forgive all their rebellions.


text:
And Jerusalem will be a center of joy and praise and glory for all the countries on earth. They'll get reports on all the good I'm doing for her. They'll be in awe of the blessings I am pouring on her.


text:
"Yes, God's Message: 'You're going to look at this place, these empty and desolate towns of Judah and streets of Jerusalem, and say, "A wasteland. Unlivable. Not even a dog could live here."


text:
But the time is coming when you're going to hear laughter and celebration, marriage festivities, people exclaiming, "Thank God-of-the-Angel-Armies. He's so good! His love never quits," as they bring thank offerings into God's Temple. I'll restore everything that was lost in this land. I'll make everything as good as new.' I, God, say so.


text:
"God-of-the-Angel-Armies says: 'This coming desolation, unfit for even a stray dog, is once again going to become a pasture for shepherds who care for their flocks.


text:
You'll see flocks everywhere—in the mountains around the towns of the Shephelah and Negev, all over the territory of Benjamin, around Jerusalem and the towns of Judah—flocks under the care of shepherds who keep track of each sheep.' God says so.


text:
" 'Watch for this: The time is coming'—God's Decree—'when I will keep the promise I made to the families of Israel and Judah.


text:
When that time comes, I will make a fresh and true shoot sprout from the David-Tree. He will run this country honestly and fairly. He will set things right.


text:
That's when Judah will be secure and Jerusalem live in safety. The motto for the city will be, "God Has Set Things Right for Us."


text:
and that there will always be Levitical priests on hand to offer burnt offerings, present grain offerings, and carry on the sacrificial worship in my honor.' "


text:
"God says, 'If my covenant with day and my covenant with night ever fell apart so that day and night became haphazard and you never knew which was coming and when,


text:
then and only then would my covenant with my servant David fall apart and his descendants no longer rule. The same goes for the Levitical priests who serve me.


text:
Just as you can't number the stars in the sky nor measure the sand on the seashore, neither will you be able to account for the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who serve me.' "


text:
"Have you heard the saying that's making the rounds: 'The two families God chose, Israel and Judah, he disowned'? And have you noticed that my people are treated with contempt, with rumors afoot that there's nothing to them anymore?


text:
"Well, here's God's response: 'If my covenant with day and night wasn't in working order, if sky and earth weren't functioning the way I set them going,


text:
then, but only then, you might think I had disowned the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David, and that I wouldn't set up any of David's descendants over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But as it is, I will give them back everything they've lost. The last word is, I will have mercy on them.' "


text:
God's Message to Jeremiah at the time King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon mounted an all-out attack on Jerusalem and all the towns around it with his armies and allies and everyone he could muster:


text:
"I, God, the God of Israel, direct you to go and tell Zedekiah king of Judah: 'This is God's Message. Listen to me. I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he is going to burn it to the ground.


text:
And don't think you'll get away. You'll be captured and be his prisoner. You will have a personal confrontation with the king of Babylon and be taken off with him, captive, to Babylon.


text:
You'll die a peaceful death. They will honor you with funeral rites as they honored your ancestors, the kings who preceded you. They will properly mourn your death, weeping, "Master, master!" This is a solemn promise. God's Decree.' "


text:
The prophet Jeremiah gave this Message to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, gave it to him word for word.


text:
It was at the very time that the king of Babylon was mounting his all-out attack on Jerusalem and whatever cities in Judah that were still standing—only Lachish and Azekah, as it turned out (they were the only fortified cities left in Judah).


text:
God delivered a Message to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah made a covenant with the people of Jerusalem to decree freedom


text:
to the slaves who were Hebrews, both men and women. The covenant stipulated that no one in Judah would own a fellow Jew as a slave.


text:
But a little while later, they reneged on the covenant, broke their promise and forced their former slaves to become slaves again.


text:
"God, the God of Israel, says, 'I made a covenant with your ancestors when I delivered them out of their slavery in Egypt. At the time I made it clear:


text:
"At the end of seven years, each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has had to sell himself to you. After he has served six years, set him free." But your ancestors totally ignored me.


text:
" 'And now, you—what have you done? First you turned back to the right way and did the right thing, decreeing freedom for your brothers and sisters—and you made it official in a solemn covenant in my Temple.


text:
And then you turned right around and broke your word, making a mockery of both me and the covenant, and made them all slaves again, these men and women you'd just set free. You forced them back into slavery.


text:
" 'So here is what I, God, have to say: You have not obeyed me and set your brothers and sisters free. Here is what I'm going to do: I'm going to set you free—God's Decree—free to get killed in war or by disease or by starvation. I'll make you a spectacle of horror. People all over the world will take one look at you and shudder.


text:
Everyone who violated my covenant, who didn't do what was solemnly promised in the covenant ceremony when they split the young bull into two halves and walked between them,


text:
all those people that day who walked between the two halves of the bull—leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, palace officials, priests, and all the rest of the people—


text:
I'm handing the lot of them over to their enemies who are out to kill them. Their dead bodies will be carrion food for vultures and stray dogs.


text:
" 'As for Zedekiah king of Judah and his palace staff, I'll also hand them over to their enemies, who are out to kill them. The army of the king of Babylon has pulled back for a time,


text:
but not for long, for I'm going to issue orders that will bring them back to this city. They'll attack and take it and burn it to the ground. The surrounding cities of Judah will fare no better. I'll turn them into ghost towns, unlivable and unlived in.' " God's Decree.


text:
The Message that Jeremiah received from God ten years earlier, during the time of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Israel:


text:
"Go visit the Recabite community. Invite them to meet with you in one of the rooms in God's Temple. And serve them wine."


text:
So I went and got Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, along with all his brothers and sons—the whole community of the Recabites as it turned out—


text:
and brought them to God's Temple and to the meeting room of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God. It was next to the meeting room of the Temple officials and just over the apartment of Maaseiah son of Shallum, who was in charge of Temple affairs.


text:
But they wouldn't do it. "We don't drink wine," they said. "Our ancestor Jonadab son of Recab commanded us, 'You are not to drink wine, you or your children, ever.


text:
Neither shall you build houses or settle down, planting fields and gardens and vineyards. Don't own property. Live in tents as nomads so that you will live well and prosper in a wandering life.'


text:
"And we've done it, done everything Jonadab son of Recab commanded. We and our wives, our sons and daughters, drink no wine at all.


text:
We live in tents as nomads. We've listened to our ancestor Jonadab and we've done everything he commanded us.


text:
"But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded our land, we said, 'Let's go to Jerusalem and get out of the path of the Chaldean and Aramean armies, find ourselves a safe place.' That's why we're living in Jerusalem right now."


text:
"God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, wants you to go tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem that I say, 'Why won't you learn your lesson and do what I tell you?' God's Decree.


text:
'The commands of Jonadab son of Recab to his sons have been carried out to the letter. He told them not to drink wine, and they haven't touched a drop to this very day. They honored and obeyed their ancestor's command. But look at you! I have gone to a lot of trouble to get your attention, and you've ignored me.


text:
I sent prophet after prophet to you, all of them my servants, to tell you from early morning to late at night to change your life, make a clean break with your evil past and do what is right, to not take up with every Tom, Dick, and Harry of a god that comes down the pike, but settle down and be faithful in this country I gave your ancestors.<br/>" 'And what do I get from you? Deaf ears.


text:
The descendants of Jonadab son of Recab carried out to the letter what their ancestor commanded them, but this people ignores me.'


text:
"So here's what is going to happen. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, 'I will bring calamity down on the heads of the people of Judah and Jerusalem—the very calamity I warned you was coming—because you turned a deaf ear when I spoke, turned your backs when I called.' "


text:
Then, turning to the Recabite community, Jeremiah said, "And this is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says to you: Because you have done what Jonadab your ancestor told you, obeyed his commands and followed through on his instructions,


text:
receive this Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: There will always be a descendant of Jonadab son of Recab at my service! Always!' "


text:
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah received this Message from God:


text:
"Get a scroll and write down everything I've told you regarding Israel and Judah and all the other nations from the time I first started speaking to you in Josiah's reign right up to the present day.


text:
"Maybe the community of Judah will finally get it, finally understand the catastrophe that I'm planning for them, turn back from their bad lives, and let me forgive their perversity and sin."


text:
So Jeremiah called in Baruch son of Neriah. Jeremiah dictated and Baruch wrote down on a scroll everything that God had said to him.


text:
so you'll have to go in my place. Go into the Temple and read everything you've written at my dictation. Wait for a day of fasting when everyone is there to hear you. And make sure that all the people who come from the Judean villages hear you.


text:
"Maybe, just maybe, they'll start praying and God will hear their prayers. Maybe they'll turn back from their bad lives. This is no light matter. God has certainly let them know how angry he is!"


text:
Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do. In the Temple of God he read the Message of God from the scroll.


text:
It came about in December of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah that all the people of Jerusalem, along with all the people from the Judean villages, were there in Jerusalem to observe a fast to God.


text:
Baruch took the scroll to the Temple and read out publicly the words of Jeremiah. He read from the meeting room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary of state, which was in the upper court right next to the New Gate of God's Temple. Everyone could hear him.


text:
he went straight to the palace and to the chambers of the secretary of state where all the government officials were holding a meeting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other government officials.


text:
Immediately they dispatched Jehudi son of Nethaniah, son of Semaiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch, ordering him, "Take the scroll that you have read to the people and bring it here." So Baruch went and retrieved the scroll.


text:
When they had heard it all, they were upset. They talked it over. "We've got to tell the king all this."


text:
Baruch said, "That's right. Every word right from his own mouth. And I wrote it down, word for word, with pen and ink."


text:
The government officials told Baruch, "You need to get out of here. Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah. Don't let anyone know where you are!"


text:
The officials went to the court of the palace to report to the king, having put the scroll for safekeeping in the office of Elishama the secretary of state.


text:
The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He brought it from the office of Elishama the secretary. Jehudi then read it to the king and the officials who were in the king's service.


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After Jehudi would read three or four columns, the king would cut them off the scroll with his pocketknife and throw them in the fire. He continued in this way until the entire scroll had been burned up in the fire.


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Neither the king nor any of his officials showed the slightest twinge of conscience as they listened to the messages read.


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Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah tried to convince the king not to burn the scroll, but he brushed them off.


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He just plowed ahead and ordered Prince Jerahameel, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Jeremiah the prophet and his secretary Baruch. But God had hidden them away.


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After the king had burned the scroll that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation, Jeremiah received this Message from God:


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"Get another blank scroll and do it all over again. Write out everything that was in that first scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.


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"And send this personal message to Jehoiakim king of Judah: 'God says, You had the gall to burn this scroll and then the nerve to say, "What kind of nonsense is this written here—that the king of Babylon will come and destroy this land and kill everything in it?"


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" 'Well, do you want to know what God says about Jehoiakim king of Judah? This: No descendant of his will ever rule from David's throne. His corpse will be thrown in the street and left unburied, exposed to the hot sun and the freezing night.


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I will punish him and his children and the officials in his government for their blatant sin. I'll let loose on them and everyone in Jerusalem the doomsday disaster of which I warned them but they spit at.' "


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So Jeremiah went and got another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah, his secretary. At Jeremiah's dictation he again wrote down everything that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. There were also generous additions, but of the same kind of thing.


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King Zedekiah son of Josiah, a puppet king set on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the land of Judah, was now king in place of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim.


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But neither he nor his officials nor the people themselves paid a bit of attention to the Message God gave by Jeremiah the prophet.


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However, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "Pray for us—pray hard!—to the Master, our God."


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Jeremiah was still moving about freely among the people in those days. This was before he had been put in jail.


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Pharaoh's army was marching up from Egypt. The Chaldeans fighting against Jerusalem heard that the Egyptians were coming and pulled back.


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"I, the God of Israel, want you to give this Message to the king of Judah, who has just sent you to me to find out what he should do. Tell him, 'Get this: Pharaoh's army, which is on its way to help you, isn't going to stick it out. No sooner will they get here than they'll leave and go home to Egypt.


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And then the Babylonians will come back and resume their attack, capture this city and burn it to the ground.


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I, God, am telling you: Don't kid yourselves, reassuring one another, "The Babylonians will leave in a few days." I tell you, they aren't leaving.


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Why, even if you defeated the entire attacking Chaldean army and all that was left were a few wounded soldiers in their tents, the wounded would still do the job and burn this city to the ground.' "


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Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go over to the territory of Benjamin to take care of some personal business.


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When he got to the Benjamin Gate, the officer on guard there, Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, grabbed Jeremiah the prophet, accusing him, "You're deserting to the Chaldeans!"


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"That's a lie," protested Jeremiah. "I wouldn't think of deserting to the Chaldeans."<br/>But Irijah wouldn't listen to him. He arrested him and took him to the police.


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The police were furious with Jeremiah. They beat him up and threw him into jail in the house of Jonathan the secretary of state. (They were using the house for a prison cell.)


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So Jeremiah entered an underground cell in a cistern turned into a dungeon. He stayed there a long time.


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Later King Zedekiah had Jeremiah brought to him. The king questioned him privately, "Is there a Message from God?"<br/>"There certainly is," said Jeremiah. "You're going to be turned over to the king of Babylon."


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Jeremiah continued speaking to King Zedekiah: "Can you tell me why you threw me into prison? What crime did I commit against you or your officials or this people?


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And tell me, whatever has become of your prophets who preached all those sermons saying that the king of Babylon would never attack you or this land?


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Listen to me, please, my master—my king! Please don't send me back to that dungeon in the house of Jonathan the secretary. I'll die there!"


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So King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be assigned to the courtyard of the palace guards. He was given a loaf of bread from Bakers' Alley every day until all the bread in the city was gone. And that's where Jeremiah remained—in the courtyard of the palace guards.


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Shaphatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling the people, namely:


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"This is God's Message: 'Whoever stays in this town will die—will be killed or starve to death or get sick and die. But those who go over to the Babylonians will save their necks and live.'


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"And, God's sure Word: 'This city is destined to fall to the army of the king of Babylon. He's going to take it over.' "


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These officials told the king, "Please, kill this man. He's got to go! He's ruining the resolve of the soldiers who are still left in the city, as well as the people themselves, by spreading these words. This man isn't looking after the good of this people. He's trying to ruin us!"


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So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malkijah the king's son that was in the courtyard of the palace guard. They lowered him down with ropes. There wasn't any water in the cistern, only mud. Jeremiah sank into the mud.


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Ebed-melek the Ethiopian, a court official assigned to the royal palace, heard that they had thrown Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was holding court in the Benjamin Gate,


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"My master, O king—these men are committing a great crime in what they're doing, throwing Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern and leaving him there to starve. He's as good as dead. There isn't a scrap of bread left in the city."


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So the king ordered Ebed-melek the Ethiopian, "Get three men and pull Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies."


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Ebed-melek got three men and went to the palace wardrobe and got some scraps of old clothing, which they tied together and lowered down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.


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Ebed-melek the Ethiopian called down to Jeremiah, "Put these scraps of old clothing under your armpits and around the ropes."<br/>Jeremiah did what he said.


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And so they pulled Jeremiah up out of the cistern by the ropes. But he was still confined in the courtyard of the palace guard.


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Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance of the Temple of God. The king said to Jeremiah, "I'm going to ask you something. Don't hold anything back from me."


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Jeremiah said, "If I told you the whole truth, you'd kill me. And no matter what I said, you wouldn't pay any attention anyway."


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Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah right there, but in secret, "As sure as God lives, who gives us life, I won't kill you, nor will I turn you over to the men who are trying to kill you."


