# verses

text:
the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness."


text:
and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.


text:
And you will feel secure, because there is hope; you will look around and take your rest in security.


text:
But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last."


text:
But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?


text:
I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called to God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.


text:
In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip.


text:
The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand.


text:
He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless waste.


text:
Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,


text:
"For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.


text:
so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.


text:
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!


text:
If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.


text:
the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.


text:
The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.


text:
He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;


text:
and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins;


text:
he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth;


text:
he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.


text:
I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; |I could join words together against you and shake my head at you.


text:
And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.


text:
He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.


text:
Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me.


text:
I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target;


text:
his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.


text:
He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property- the eyes of his children will fail.


text:
You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?


text:
His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.


text:
The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.


text:
be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment."


text:
He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.


text:
"Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.


text:
In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.


text:
To fill his belly to the full God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.


text:
It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him.


text:
Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.


text:
"How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?


text:
You say, 'God stores up their iniquity for their children.' Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.


text:
The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.


text:
How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."


text:
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?


text:
He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."


text:
on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.


text:
I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.


text:
"Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?


text:
Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children.


text:
(There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast, and they take a pledge against the poor.)


text:
From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong.


text:
"There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.


text:
The murderer rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief.


text:
The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, 'No eye will see me'; and he veils his face.


text:
For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.


text:
"You say, 'Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land; no treader turns toward their vineyards.


text:
The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like a tree.'


text:
They are exalted a little while, and then are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like the heads of grain.


text:
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?"


text:
I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.


text:
"This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:


text:
Man puts an end to darkness and searches out to the farthest limit the ore in gloom and deep darkness.


text:
He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.


text:
He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.


text:
And he said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'"


text:
The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.


text:
I chose their way and sat as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.


text:
"But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.


text:
On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction.


text:
Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.


text:
if my step has turned aside from the way and my heart has gone after my eyes, and if any spot has stuck to my hands,


text:
for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon, and it would burn to the root all my increase.


text:
"If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me,


text:
(for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother's womb I guided the widow),


text:
this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have been false to God above.


text:
because I stood in great fear of the multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors-


text:
Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!) Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!


text:
Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.


text:
He burned with anger also at Job's three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.


text:
And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: "I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you.


text:
"Behold, I waited for your words, I listened for your wise sayings, while you searched out what to say.


text:
I gave you my attention, and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job or who answered his words.


text:
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds,


text:
If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him,


text:
and he is merciful to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom;


text:
then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.


text:
in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.'


text:
"Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.


text:
For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him.


text:
who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?


text:
In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.


text:
When he is quiet, who can condemn? When he hides his face, who can behold him, whether it be a nation or a man?-


text:
Will he then make repayment to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; therefore declare what you know.


text:
For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God."


text:
If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?


text:
"Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.


text:
How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!


text:
He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted.


text:
If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.


text:
He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.


text:
After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.


text:
They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world.


text:
"And now no one looks on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them.


text:
The Almighty- we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.


text:
What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?


text:
Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?


text:
She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,


text:
When the trumpet sounds, he says 'Aha!' He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.


text:
Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.


text:
'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.


text:
After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.


text:
Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."


text:
So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.


text:
And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.


text:
Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.


text:
And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.


text:
And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch.


text:
And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.


text:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;


text:
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.


text:
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;


text:
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed, saying,


text:
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, |for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.


text:
A PSALM OF DAVID, WHEN HE FLED FROM ABSALOM HIS SON. |O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;


text:
Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A PSALM OF DAVID. |Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!


text:
O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah


text:
There are many who say, "Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!"


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: FOR THE FLUTES. A PSALM OF DAVID. |Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning.


text:
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.


text:
For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.


text:
Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.


text:
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS; ACCORDING TO THE SHEMINITH. A PSALM OF DAVID. |O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.


text:
I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.


text:
All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.


text:
A SHIGGAION OF DAVID, WHICH HE SANG TO THE LORD CONCERNING THE WORDS OF CUSH, A BENJAMINITE. |O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,


text:
let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah


text:
Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.


text:
The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.


text:
Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous- you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!


text:
I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE GITTITH. A PSALM OF DAVID. |O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.


text:
Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.


text:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO MUTH-LABBEN. A PSALM OF DAVID. |I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.


text:
You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever.


text:
The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.


text:
And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.


text:
Be gracious to me, O LORD! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death,


text:
that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.


text:
The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid their own foot has been caught.


text:
The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah


text:
In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.


text:
For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD.


text:
His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them.


text:
He says in his heart, "I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity."


text:
His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.


text:
He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;


text:
he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.


text:
But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.


text:
O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear


text:
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. OF DAVID. |In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, "Flee like a bird to your mountain,


text:
for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;


text:
The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD's throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test, the children of man.


text:
Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE SHEMINITH. A PSALM OF DAVID. |Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.


text:
"Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise," says the LORD; "I will place him in the safety for which he longs."


text:
The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?


text:
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? |How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. OF DAVID. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.


text:
The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.


text:
They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.


text:
Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD?


text:
Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.


text:
who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;


text:
in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change;


text:
who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.


text:
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.


text:
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.


text:
A PRAYER OF DAVID. Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!


text:
You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.


text:
Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.


text:
from men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.


text:
As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, WHO ADDRESSED THE WORDS OF THIS SONG TO THE LORD ON THE DAY WHEN THE LORD RESCUED HIM FROM THE HAND OF ALL HIS ENEMIES, AND FROM THE HAND OF SAUL. HE SAID: |I love you, O LORD, my strength.


text:
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.


text:
In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.


text:
Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.


text:
The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.


text:
Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.


text:
The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.


text:
So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.


text:
You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great.


text:
They cried for help, but there was none to save; they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them.


text:
You delivered me from strife with the people; you made me the head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me.


text:
who delivered me from my enemies; yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me; you rescued me from the man of violence.


text:
Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.


text:
Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,


text:
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.


text:
Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.


text:
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;


text:
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;


text:
the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.


text:
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.


text:
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.


text:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!


text:
May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!


text:
Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |O LORD, in your strength the king rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exults!


text:
For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.


text:
You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.


text:
You will destroy their descendants from the earth, and their offspring from among the children of man.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE DOE OF THE DAWN. A PSALM OF DAVID. |My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?


text:
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;


text:
my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.


text:
You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!


text:
For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.


text:
From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.


text:
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!


text:
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.


text:
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.


text:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.


text:
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.


text:
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.


text:
A PSALM OF DAVID. The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,


text:
He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.


text:
Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.


text:
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.


text:
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!


text:
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.


text:
OF DAVID. Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.


text:
OF DAVID. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?


text:
When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.


text:
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.


text:
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.


text:
For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.


text:
And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.


text:
Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!


text:
Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.


text:
OF DAVID. To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.


text:
Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.


text:
Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts.


text:
Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds; give to them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward.


text:
Because they do not regard the works of the LORD or the work of his hands, he will tear them down and build them up no more.


text:
The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.


text:
The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, "Glory!"


text:
A PSALM OF DAVID. A SONG AT THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. |I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.


text:
O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.


text:
For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.


text:
"What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?


text:
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,


text:
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me!


text:
Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me!


text:
I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul,


text:
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.


text:
For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.


text:
Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.


text:
For I hear the whispering of many- terror on every side!- as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.


text:
O LORD, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol.


text:
Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!


text:
In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.


text:
Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.


text:
I had said in my alarm, "I am cut off from your sight." But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.


text:
Love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.


text:
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.


text:
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah


text:
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah


text:
Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.


text:
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah


text:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.


text:
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.


text:
OF DAVID, WHEN HE CHANGED HIS BEHAVIOR BEFORE ABIMELECH, SO THAT HE DROVE HIM OUT, AND HE WENT AWAY. |I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.


text:
OF DAVID. Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!


text:
Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me!


text:
Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it- to his destruction!


text:
All my bones shall say, "O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?"


text:
But I, when they were sick- I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.


text:
I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.


text:
But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered; they gathered together against me; wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing;


text:
How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions!


text:
Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.


text:
For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit.


text:
Let them not say in their hearts, "Aha, our heart's desire!" Let them not say, "We have swallowed him up."


text:
Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!


text:
Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, "Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!"


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. OF DAVID, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD. |Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.


text:
He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.


text:
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD.


text:
How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.


text:
Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart!


text:
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!


text:
In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.


text:
The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright;


text:
But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the LORD are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish- like smoke they vanish away.


text:
I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.


text:
For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.


text:
Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.


text:
The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.


text:
A PSALM OF DAVID, FOR THE MEMORIAL OFFERING. |O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!


text:
There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.


text:
Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: TO JEDUTHUN. A PSALM OF DAVID. |I said, "I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence."


text:
Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah


text:
Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!


text:
When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah


text:
"Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.


text:
He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.


text:
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.


text:
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!


text:
You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.


text:
Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.


text:
I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.


text:
I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.


text:
As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!


text:
For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.


text:
Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt!


text:
But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, "Great is the LORD!"


text:
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him;


text:
the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.


text:
And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A MASKIL OF THE SONS OF KORAH. |As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.


text:
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.


text:
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation


text:
and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.


text:
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.


text:
By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.


text:
I say to God, my rock: "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?"


text:
As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?"


text:
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.


text:
Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!


text:
For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?


text:
Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!


text:
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.


text:
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? |Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A MASKIL OF THE SONS OF KORAH. |O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:


text:
you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free;


text:
for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.


text:
All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO LILIES. A MASKIL OF THE SONS OF KORAH; A LOVE SONG. |My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.


text:
You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.


text:
In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!


text:
you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;


text:
your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;


text:
daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.


text:
I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. OF THE SONS OF KORAH. ACCORDING TO ALAMOTH. A SONG. |God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.


text:
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,


text:
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.


text:
"Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH. |Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!


text:
The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!


text:
A SONG. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH. |Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain,


text:
beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.


text:
As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever. Selah


text:
As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH. |Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,


text:
For he sees that even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.


text:
Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names.


text:
This is the path of those who have foolish confidence; yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah


text:
Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.


text:
For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed,- and though you get praise when you do well for yourself-


text:
A PSALM OF ASAPH. The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.


text:
Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.


text:
But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?


text:
These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.


text:
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!"


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID, |WHEN NATHAN THE PROPHET WENT TO HIM, AFTER HE HAD GONE IN TO BATHSHEBA. |Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.


text:
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.


text:
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.


text:
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.


text:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.


text:
then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A MASKIL OF DAVID, |WHEN DOEG, THE EDOMITE, CAME AND TOLD SAUL, "DAVID HAS COME TO THE HOUSE OF AHIMELECH." |Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all the day.


text:
But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah


text:
"See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!"


text:
But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.


text:
I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO MAHALATH. A MASKIL OF DAVID. |The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.


text:
God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.


text:
They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.


text:
Have those who work evil no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?


text:
There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror! For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.


text:
Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A MASKIL OF DAVID, |WHEN THE ZIPHITES WENT AND TOLD SAUL, "IS NOT DAVID HIDING AMONG US?" |O God, save me, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.


text:
For strangers have risen against me; ruthless men seek my life; they do not set God before themselves. Selah


text:
With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A MASKIL OF DAVID. |Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!


text:
because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me.


text:
For it is not an enemy who taunts me- then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me- then I could hide from him.


text:
Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.


text:
God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, Selah because they do not change and do not fear God.


text:
His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.


text:
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.


text:
But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE DOVE ON FAR-OFF TEREBINTHS. A MIKTAM OF DAVID, WHEN THE PHILISTINES SEIZED HIM IN GATH. |Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me;


text:
For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO DO NOT DESTROY. A MIKTAM OF DAVID, WHEN HE FLED FROM SAUL, IN THE CAVE. |Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.


text:
He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!


text:
My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts- the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.


text:
They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO DO NOT DESTROY. A MIKTAM OF DAVID. |Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?


text:
Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.


text:
The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.


text:
Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth."


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO DO NOT DESTROY. A MIKTAM OF DAVID, WHEN SAUL SENT MEN TO WATCH HIS HOUSE IN ORDER TO KILL HIM. |Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me;


text:
For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD,


text:
You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel. Rouse yourself to punish all the nations; spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah


text:
There they are, bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips- for "Who," they think, "will hear us?"


text:
Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield!


text:
For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter,


text:
consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah


text:
But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.


text:
O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO SHUSHAN EDUTH. A MIKTAM OF DAVID; FOR INSTRUCTION; |WHEN HE STROVE WITH ARAM-NAHARAIM AND WITH ARAM-ZOBAH, AND WHEN JOAB ON HIS RETURN STRUCK DOWN TWELVE THOUSAND OF EDOM IN THE VALLEY OF SALT. |O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us.


text:
God has spoken in his holiness: "With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth.


text:
from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO JEDUTHUN. A PSALM OF DAVID. |For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.


text:
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah


text:
Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.


text:
Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them.


text:
and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.


text:
A PSALM OF DAVID, WHEN HE WAS IN THE WILDERNESS OF JUDAH. |O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.


text:
But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy.


text:
They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, who can see them?


text:
They search out injustice, saying, "We have accomplished a diligent search." For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep!


text:
They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them; all who see them will wag their heads.


text:
Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. A SONG. |Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.


text:
Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!


text:
By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;


text:
so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.


text:
You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.


text:
You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.


text:
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.


text:
Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.


text:
He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him,


text:
who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations- let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah


text:
you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.


text:
I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A PSALM. A SONG. |May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah


text:
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. A SONG. |God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him!


text:
As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God!


text:
Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him!


text:
God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.


text:
the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.


text:
though you men lie among the sheepfolds- the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold.


text:
Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for his abode, yes, where the LORD will dwell forever?


text:
The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary.


text:
You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.


text:
The Lord said, "I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,


text:
that you may strike your feet in their blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe."


text:
There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead, the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.


text:
Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute; scatter the peoples who delight in war.


text:
to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.


text:
Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel- he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO LILIES. OF DAVID. |Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.


text:
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.


text:
More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore?


text:
Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.


text:
For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.


text:
But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.


text:
Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.


text:
For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.


text:
For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it;


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. OF DAVID, FOR THE MEMORIAL OFFERING. |Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O LORD, make haste to help me!


text:
Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life! Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt!


text:
May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, "God is great!"


text:
But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay!


text:
Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.


text:
Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.


text:
May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt.


text:
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.


text:
With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.


text:
So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.


text:
Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?


text:
You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.


text:
I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.


text:
And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.


text:
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!


text:
May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts!


text:
Long may he live; may gold of Sheba be given to him! May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day!


text:
May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field!


text:
May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!


text:
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.


text:
But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.


text:
A MASKIL OF ASAPH. O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?


text:
Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.


text:
They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground.


text:
They said to themselves, "We will utterly subdue them"; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.


text:
We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.


text:
Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!


text:
Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever.


text:
Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.


text:
Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO DO NOT DESTROY. A PSALM OF ASAPH. A SONG. |We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds.


text:
For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A PSALM OF ASAPH. A SONG. |In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel.


text:
The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil; they sank into sleep; all the men of war were unable to use their hands.


text:
Make your vows to the LORD your God and perform them; let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared,


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO JEDUTHUN. A PSALM OF ASAPH. |I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.


text:
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.


text:
I said, "Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart." Then my spirit made a diligent search:


text:
When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled.


text:
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.


text:
A MASKIL OF ASAPH. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth!


text:
We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.


text:
He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children,


text:
that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,


text:
so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;


text:
and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.


text:
He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?"


text:
Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob; his anger rose against Israel,


text:
the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel.


text:
Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.


text:
He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.


text:
He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.


text:
He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.


text:
from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance.


text:
A PSALM OF ASAPH. O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.


text:
They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.


text:
They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.


text:
Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name!


text:
Do not remember against us our former iniquities; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.


text:
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name's sake!


text:
Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes!


text:
Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!


text:
But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO LILIES. A TESTIMONY. OF ASAPH, A PSALM. |Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.


text:
But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE GITTITH. OF ASAPH. |Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!


text:
He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a language I had not known:


text:
In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah


text:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.


text:
But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."


text:
A PSALM OF ASAPH. God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:


text:
They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE GITTITH. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH. |How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!


text:
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.


text:
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.


text:
As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.


text:
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.


text:
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH. |LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.


text:
Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.


text:
All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.


text:
O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seek my life, and they do not set you before them.


text:
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.


text:
Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant.


text:
Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.


text:
Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush- "This one was born there," they say.


text:
And of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in her"; for the Most High himself will establish her.


text:
A SONG. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH. TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO MAHALATH LEANNOTH. A MASKIL OF HEMAN THE EZRAHITE. |O LORD, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you.


text:
like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.


text:
You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;


text:
A MASKIL OF ETHAN THE EZRAHITE. |I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.


text:
For I said, "Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness."


text:
a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?


text:
The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.


text:
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.


text:
Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said: "I have granted help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people.


text:
Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations,


text:
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.


text:
For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.


text:
You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:


text:
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.


text:
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!


text:
He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.


text:
You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.


text:
"Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.


text:
When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.


text:
A PSALM. A SONG FOR THE SABBATH. |It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;


text:
that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;


text:
For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.


text:
The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.


text:
The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring.


text:
Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty!


text:
He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out.


text:
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!


text:
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,


text:
For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways."


text:
Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity."


text:
before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.


text:
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.


text:
All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods!


text:
O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.


text:
A PSALM. Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.


text:
The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.


text:
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.


text:
before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.


text:
The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.


text:
Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the LORD, and he answered them.


text:
In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them; they kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them.


text:
O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.


text:
Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.


text:
I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house;


text:
I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.


text:
Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.


text:
I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.


text:
No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.


text:
Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.


text:
A PRAYER OF ONE AFFLICTED, WHEN HE IS FAINT AND POURS OUT HIS COMPLAINT BEFORE THE LORD. |Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you!


text:
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!


text:
Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:


text:
"O my God," I say, "take me not away in the midst of my days- you whose years endure throughout all generations!"


text:
They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,


text:
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;


text:
But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children,


text:
Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,


text:
He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind;


text:
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth


text:
and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart.


text:
O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.


text:
Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.


text:
When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.


text:
When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.


text:
Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD!


text:
And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples' toil,


text:
Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!


text:
that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.


text:
Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the Sea, at the Red Sea.


text:
Therefore he said he would destroy them- had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.


text:
they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.


text:
Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.


text:
For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.


text:
Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.


text:
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, "Amen!" Praise the LORD!


text:
They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight;


text:
A SONG. A PSALM OF DAVID. |My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being!


text:
God has promised in his holiness: "With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Valley of Succoth.


text:
May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!


text:
For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.


text:
He loved to curse; let curses come upon him! He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!


text:
He clothed himself with cursing as his coat; may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!


text:
But you, O GOD my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!


text:
A PSALM OF DAVID. The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."


text:
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.


text:
The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."


text:
He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.


text:
Praise the LORD!I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.


text:
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!


text:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!


text:
He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor.


text:
The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!


text:
Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!


text:
They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.


text:
The LORD has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;


text:
The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.


text:
O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.


text:
For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!


text:
They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off!


text:
Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly,


text:
The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!


text:
I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.


text:
Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.


text:
to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.


text:
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us.


text:
Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.


text:
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!


text:
A SONG OF ASCENTS. Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.


text:
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.


text:
For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.


text:
But those who turn aside to their crooked ways the LORD will lead away with evildoers! Peace be upon Israel!


text:
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."


text:
He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, |shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.


text:
A SONG OF ASCENTS. OF SOLOMON. Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.


text:
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.


text:
Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.


text:
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.


text:
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.


text:
nor do those who pass by say, "The blessing of the LORD be upon you! We bless you in the name of the LORD!"


text:
O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.


text:
A SONG OF ASCENTS. OF DAVID. O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.


text:
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.


text:
The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: "One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.


text:
If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne."


text:
It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!


text:
It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.


text:
A SONG OF ASCENTS. Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD!


text:
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.


text:
For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"


text:
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!


text:
Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, "Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!"


text:
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!


text:
I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.


text:
All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth,


text:
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.


text:
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.


text:
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.


text:
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.


text:
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.


text:
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.


text:
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. |Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men,


text:
Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men, who have planned to trip up my feet.


text:
The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net; beside the way they have set snares for me. Selah


text:
Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot or they will be exalted! Selah


text:
I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.


text:
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!


text:
Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies!


text:
Let a righteous man strike me- it is a kindness; let him rebuke me- it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.


text:
A MASKIL OF DAVID, WHEN HE WAS IN THE CAVE. A PRAYER. |With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.


text:
When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me.


text:
Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul.


text:
Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!


text:
Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.


text:
A PSALM OF DAVID. Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!


text:
For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.


text:
Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit.


text:
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.


text:
And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant.


text:
he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.


text:
Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners,


text:
Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.


text:
May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace;


text:
may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce; may our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;


text:
may our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing; may there be no cry of distress in our streets!


text:
A SONG OF PRAISE. OF DAVID. I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.


text:
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.


text:
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. [The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.]


text:
who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free;


text:
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.


text:
The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.


text:
Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.


text:
He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills.


text:
Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven.


text:
He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him. Praise the LORD!


text:
If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason;


text:
Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.


text:
"How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?


text:
If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.


text:
when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.


text:
Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.


text:
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.


text:
Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it"- when you have it with you.


text:
For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.


text:
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.


text:
a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.


text:
Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?


text:
then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.


text:
When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.


text:
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,


text:
for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.


text:
till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.


text:
The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.


text:
when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,


text:
then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,


text:
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.


text:
The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.


text:
On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.


text:
The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness.


text:
The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.


text:
With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.


text:
When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness.


text:
Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.


text:
Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer harm, but he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure.


text:
Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.


text:
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.


text:
Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.


text:
An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.


text:
Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.


text:
From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes back to him.


text:
From the fruit of his mouth a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.


text:
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.


text:
Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.


text:
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous.


text:
The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.


text:
Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.


text:
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.


text:
The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.


text:
Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.


text:
By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.


text:
In the light of a king's face there is life, and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain.


text:
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.


text:
A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.


text:
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.


text:
A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.


text:
All a poor man's brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.


text:
A man of great wrath will pay the penalty, for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.


text:
The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.


text:
Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.


text:
He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach.


text:
The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.


text:
Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.


text:
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.


text:
When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise; when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.


text:
Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.


text:
Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.


text:
When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.


text:
for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you.


text:
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?


text:
"They struck me," you will say, "but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink."


text:
If you say, "Behold, we did not know this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?


text:
Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.


text:
Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.


text:
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.


text:
take away the wicked from the presence of the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.


text:
for it is better to be told, "Come up here," than to be put lower in the presence of a noble. What your eyes have seen


text:
do not hastily bring into court, for what will you do in the end, when your neighbor puts you to shame?


text:
Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters.


text:
A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.


text:
Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.


text:
Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.


text:
Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.


text:
Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for an adulteress.


text:
Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.


text:
Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.


text:
There will be enough goats' milk for your food, for the food of your household and maintenance for your girls.


text:
When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue.


text:
The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons shames his father.


text:
Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to the poor.


text:
Whoever misleads the upright into an evil way will fall into his own pit, but the blameless will have a goodly inheritance.


text:
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.


text:
Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.


text:
A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor, but he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days.


text:
If one is burdened with the blood of another, he will be a fugitive until death; let no one help him.


text:
Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.


text:
Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, "That is no transgression," is a companion to a man who destroys.


text:
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.


text:
An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked.


text:
The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle. The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out.


text:
Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!


text:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,


text:
lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the LORD?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.


text:
There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind.


text:
The leech has two daughters; "Give" and "Give," they cry. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, "Enough":


text:
Sheol, the barren womb, the land never satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, "Enough."


text:
The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.


text:
the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin.


text:
If you have been foolish, exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth.


text:
For pressing milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife.


text:
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink,


text:
The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.


text:
All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.


text:
All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.


text:
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.


text:
Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already in the ages before us.


text:
There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.


text:
And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.


text:
I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.


text:
I said in my heart, "I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge."


text:
And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.


text:
I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity.


text:
I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine- my heart still guiding me with wisdom- and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.


text:
I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.


text:
I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man.


text:
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.


text:
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.


text:
Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.


text:
So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.


text:
Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.


text:
The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.


text:
Then I said in my heart, "What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?" And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.


text:
For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!


text:
So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.


text:
I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me,


text:
and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.


text:
because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.


text:
For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.


text:
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,


text:
For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.


text:
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;


text:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.


text:
I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;


text:
also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil- this is God's gift to man.


text:
I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.


text:
That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.


text:
Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.


text:
I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.


text:
I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.


text:
For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.


text:
Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?


text:
So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?


text:
Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.


text:
But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.


text:
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.


text:
one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, "For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?" This also is vanity and an unhappy business.


text:
For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!


text:
And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him- a threefold cord is not quickly broken.


text:
Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.


text:
I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king's place.


text:
There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.


text:
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.


text:
Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.


text:
When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.


text:
Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?


text:
If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.


text:
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.


text:
When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?


text:
Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.


text:
There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt,


text:
and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.


text:
As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.


text:
This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind?


text:
Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.


text:
Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil- this is the gift of God.


text:
For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.


text:
a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.


text:
If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.


text:
Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good- do not all go to the one place?


text:
For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living?


text:
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.


text:
Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.


text:
For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?


text:
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.


text:
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.


text:
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.


text:
In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.


text:
In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.


text:
It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.


text:
I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.


text:
And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.


text:
Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things-


text:
which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.


text:
Who is like the wise?And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.


text:
Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases.


text:
Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.


text:
No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.


text:
All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.


text:
Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.


text:
Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.


text:
Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.


text:
But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.


text:
There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.


text:
And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.


text:
When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep,


text:
then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.


text:
But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him.


text:
It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.


text:
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.


text:
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.


text:
Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.


text:
Go, eat your bread in joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.


text:
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.


text:
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.


text:
Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.


text:
For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.


text:
There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it.


text:
But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man.


text:
But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.


text:
Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.


text:
If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.


text:
If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.


text:
A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?


text:
Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!


text:
Even in your thought, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.


text:
If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.


text:
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.


text:
In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.


text:
So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.


text:
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.


text:
Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.


text:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them";


text:
before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,


text:
in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed,


text:
and the doors on the street are shut- when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low-


text:
they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets-


text:
before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,


text:
Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.


text:
The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.


text:
My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.


text:
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.


text:
Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.


text:
I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.


text:
Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept!


text:
Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?


text:
If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds' tents.


text:
As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste,


text:
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.


text:
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice.


text:
The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.


text:
The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.


text:
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.


text:
Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom."


text:
Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on cleft mountains.


text:
I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not.


text:
Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.


text:
What is that coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?


text:
Behold, it is the litter of Solomon! Around it are sixty mighty men, some of the mighty men of Israel,


text:
all of them wearing swords and expert in war, each with his sword at his thigh, against terror by night.


text:
He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.


text:
Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.


text:
Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.


text:
Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young.


text:
Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.


text:
Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.


text:
Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go away to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.


text:
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the peak of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.


text:
You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.


text:
How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!


text:
Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.


text:
nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices-


text:
Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.


text:
I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!


text:
I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night."


text:
I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.


text:
I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.


text:
The watchmen found me as they went about in the city; they beat me, they bruised me, they took away my veil, those watchmen of the walls.


text:
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am sick with love.


text:
What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?


text:
His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh.


text:
His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.


text:
His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.


text:
Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?


text:
My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze in the gardens and to gather lilies.


text:
Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me- Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.


text:
Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young.


text:
My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.


text:
"Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?"


text:
I went down to the nut orchard to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vines had budded, whether the pomegranates were in bloom.


text:
Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you. Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?


text:
How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand.


text:
Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies.


text:
Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus.


text:
Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses.


text:
I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples,


text:
and your mouth like the best wine. It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth.


text:
let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.


text:
The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.


text:
Oh that you were like a brother to me who nursed at my mother's breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and none would despise me.


text:
I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother- she who used to teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranate.


text:
Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor.


text:
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD.


text:
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.


text:
We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for?


text:
If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver, but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.


text:
Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.


text:
My vineyard, my very own, is before me; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.


text:
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.


text:
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.


text:
The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."


text:
Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.


text:
Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.


text:
From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.


text:
Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.


text:
And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.


text:
If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.


text:
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!


text:
"What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.


text:
Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.


text:
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.


text:
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.


text:
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,


text:
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.


text:
"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.


text:
but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."


text:
How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.


text:
Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.


text:
Therefore the Lord declares, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: "Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.


text:
I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.


text:
And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city."


text:
For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen.


text:
And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.


text:
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,


text:
and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.


text:
He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.


text:
For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortunetellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.


text:
Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.


text:
Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.


text:
Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty.


text:
The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.


text:
For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up- and it shall be brought low;


text:
And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.


text:
And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.


text:
In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,


text:
to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.


text:
For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water;


text:
the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.


text:
And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.


text:
For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: "You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule";


text:
in that day he will speak out, saying: "I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people."


text:
For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.


text:
For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.


text:
Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.


text:
My people- infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.


text:
The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: "It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses.


text:
What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?" declares the Lord GOD of hosts.


text:
The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet,


text:
therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts.


text:
Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.


text:
And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach."


text:
In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.


text:
And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,


text:
when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.


text:
Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy.


text:
There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.


text:
Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.


text:
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.


text:
What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?


text:
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.


text:
I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.


text:
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!


text:
Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.


text:
The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: "Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.


text:
Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!


text:
They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.


text:
Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.


text:
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down, her revelers and he who exults in her.


text:
who say: "Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!"


text:
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!


text:
Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.


text:
Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.


text:
He will raise a signal for nations afar off, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come!


text:
None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken;


text:
their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind.


text:
Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue.


text:
They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by its clouds.


text:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.


text:
Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.


text:
And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"


text:
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.


text:
And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"


text:
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.


text:
And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.


text:
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."


text:
And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "' Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'


text:
Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."


text:
Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,


text:
And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.


text:
In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.


text:
When the house of David was told, "Syria is in league with Ephraim," the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.


text:
And the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field.


text:
And say to him, 'Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.


text:
"Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,"


text:
For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.)


text:
"'And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.'"


text:
And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?


text:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.


text:
For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.


text:
The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah- the king of Assyria."


text:
In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.


text:
And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.


text:
In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River- with the king of Assyria- the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.


text:
and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.


text:
In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.


text:
And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.


text:
Then the LORD said to me, "Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, 'Belonging to Maher-shalal-hashbaz.'


text:
And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me."


text:
And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Call his name Maher-shalal-hashbaz;


text:
for before the boy knows how to cry 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."


text:
"Because this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,


text:
therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks,


text:
and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel."


text:
Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered.


text:
Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.


text:
For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:


text:
"Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.


text:
But the LORD of hosts, him you shall regard as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.


text:
And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


text:
Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.


text:
And when they say to you, "Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter," should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?


text:
To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.


text:
They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.


text:
And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.


text:
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.


text:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.


text:
You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.


text:
For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.


text:
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.


text:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.


text:
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.


text:
and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:


text:
"The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place."


text:
The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.


text:
for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.


text:
Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.


text:
For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.


text:
Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another.


text:
They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm,


text:
Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.


text:
to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!


text:
What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?


text:
Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.


text:
Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.


text:
But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;


text:
As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,


text:
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.


text:
For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.


text:
My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped."


text:
Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!


text:
Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.


text:
The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.


text:
The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.


text:
In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.


text:
For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.


text:
For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.


text:
And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.


text:
And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat."


text:
they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.


text:
This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.


text:
Behold, the Lord GOD of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.


text:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.


text:
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.


text:
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,


text:
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.


text:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.


text:
The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.


text:
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.


text:
They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.


text:
In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples- of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.


text:
In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.


text:
He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.


text:
The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.


text:
But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.


text:
And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.


text:
And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.


text:
You will say in that day:"I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.


text:
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."


text:
And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.


text:
On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles.


text:
I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones.


text:
The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The LORD of hosts is mustering a host for battle.


text:
They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.


text:
They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame.


text:
Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.


text:
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.


text:
I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.


text:
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.


text:
And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.


text:
Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.


text:
Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold.


text:
Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.


text:
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.


text:
It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.


text:
But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there wild goats will dance.


text:
Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged.


text:
For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.


text:
And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD's land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.


text:
When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve,


text:
you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: "How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!


text:
that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution.


text:
The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.'


text:
Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations.


text:
All of them will answer and say to you: 'You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!'


text:
Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.


text:
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!


text:
You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north;


text:
Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,


text:
but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot.


text:
You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. "May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named!


text:
Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities."


text:
"I will rise up against them," declares the LORD of hosts, "and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity," says the LORD.


text:
"And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," declares the LORD of hosts.


text:
The LORD of hosts has sworn: "As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,


text:
that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder."


text:
This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.


text:
For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?


text:
Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent's root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.


text:
And the firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant it will slay.


text:
Wail, O gate; cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.


text:
What will one answer the messengers of the nation? "The LORD has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge."


text:
An oracle concerning Moab. Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone.


text:
He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon, to the high places to weep; over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. On every head is baldness; every beard is shorn;


text:
in the streets they wear sackcloth; on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears.


text:
Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voice is heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembles.


text:
My heart cries out for Moab; her fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction;


text:
the waters of Nimrim are a desolation; the grass is withered, the vegetation fails, the greenery is no more.


text:
Therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up they carry away over the Brook of the Willows.


text:
For a cry has gone around the land of Moab; her wailing reaches to Eglaim; her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.


text:
For the waters of Dibon are full of blood; for I will bring upon Dibon even more, a lion for those of Moab who escape, for the remnant of the land.


text:
Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.


text:
"Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive;


text:
let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,


text:
then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness."


text:
We have heard of the pride of Moab- how proud he is!- of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right.


text:
Therefore let Moab wail for Moab, let everyone wail. Mourn, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.


text:
For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached to Jazer and strayed to the desert; its shoots spread abroad and passed over the sea.


text:
Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased.


text:
And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting.


text:
And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.


text:
But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble."


text:
An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins.


text:
The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.


text:
The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, declares the LORD of hosts.


text:
And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.


text:
Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten- two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the LORD God of Israel.


text:
He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.


text:
In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.


text:
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,


text:
though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow, yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.


text:
Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!


text:
The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.


text:
At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.


text:
which sends ambassadors by the sea, in vessels of papyrus on the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide.


text:
All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear!


text:
For thus the LORD said to me: "I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."


text:
For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks, and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.


text:
They shall all of them be left to the birds of prey of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey will summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.


text:
At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts.


text:
An oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.


text:
And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, each against another and each against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom;


text:
and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers;


text:
and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.


text:
and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away.


text:
There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched, will be driven away, and will be no more.


text:
The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast a hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets on the water.


text:
The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?


text:
Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you that they might know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.


text:
The princes of Zoan have become fools, and the princes of Memphis are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have made Egypt stagger.


text:
The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.


text:
In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the LORD of hosts shakes over them.


text:
And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the LORD of hosts has purposed against them.


text:
In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.


text:
In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.


text:
It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them.


text:
And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them.


text:
And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.


text:
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.


text:
whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."


text:
In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it-


text:
at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet," and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.


text:
Then the LORD said, "As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,


text:
so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.


text:
And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, 'Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?'"


text:
The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.


text:
A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end.


text:
Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see.


text:
My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.


text:
They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink. Arise, O princes; oil the shield!


text:
When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently."


text:
Then he who saw cried out: "Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights.


text:
And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!" And he answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground."


text:
O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.


text:
The oracle concerning Dumah. One is calling to me from Seir, "Watchman, what time of the night? Watchman, what time of the night?"


text:
The watchman says: "Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; come back again."


text:
For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the press of battle.


text:
For thus the Lord said to me, "Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.


text:
And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken."


text:
The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,


text:
you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle.


text:
All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.


text:
Therefore I said: "Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people."


text:
For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains.


text:
He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,


text:
and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool,


text:
You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.


text:
In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth;


text:
and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."


text:
The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: "Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die," says the Lord GOD of hosts.


text:
Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, "Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:


text:
What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock?


text:
and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house.


text:
and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.


text:
And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.


text:
And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house.


text:
And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.


text:
In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken."


text:
The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them.


text:
And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations.


text:
Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying: "I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women."


text:
Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away?


text:
Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?


text:
The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.


text:
He has stretched out his hand over the sea; he has shaken the kingdoms; the LORD has given command concerning Canaan to destroy its strongholds.


text:
And he said: "You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon; arise, cross over to Cyprus, even there you will have no rest."


text:
Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not; Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.


text:
In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:


text:
"Take a harp; go about the city, O forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody; sing many songs, that you may be remembered."


text:
At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.


text:
Her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the LORD. It will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who dwell before the LORD.


text:
Behold, the LORD will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.


text:
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.


text:
The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish.


text:
The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.


text:
Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.


text:
The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled.


text:
There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished.


text:
For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.


text:
They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the LORD they shout from the west.


text:
Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.


text:
From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, "I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed."


text:
He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.


text:
The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.


text:
On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.


text:
They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.


text:
Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.


text:
O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.


text:
For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners' palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.


text:
For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,


text:
like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down.


text:
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.


text:
And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.


text:
He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.


text:
It will be said on that day, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."


text:
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.


text:
And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim, but the LORD will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands.


text:
And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.


text:
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.


text:
For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.


text:
In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.


text:
My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.


text:
If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the LORD.


text:
O LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.


text:
O LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance.


text:
They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.


text:
But you have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.


text:
O LORD, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.


text:
Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O LORD;


text:
we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.


text:
Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.


text:
Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.


text:
For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.


text:
In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.


text:
I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day;


text:
I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together.


text:
In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.


text:
Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?


text:
Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.


text:
Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.


text:
For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes; there it lies down and strips its branches.


text:
When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them; he who formed them will show them no favor.


text:
In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel.


text:
And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.


text:
Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!


text:
Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with his hand.


text:
and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand.


text:
In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,


text:
and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.


text:
These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.


text:
"To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast?


text:
For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."


text:
to whom he has said, "This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose"; yet they would not hear.


text:
And the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.


text:
Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter";


text:
therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: 'Whoever believes will not be in haste.'


text:
And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter."


text:
Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it.


text:
As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.


text:
For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed- strange is his deed! and to work his work- alien is his work!


text:
Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord GOD of hosts against the whole land.


text:
When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border?


text:
Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.


text:
Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it.


text:
Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.


text:
And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.


text:
And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper.


text:
But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,


text:
you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.


text:
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.


text:
As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.


text:
Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink!


text:
For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).


text:
And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed."


text:
And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,


text:
therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden."


text:
Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?"


text:
You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, "He did not make me"; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"?


text:
Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?


text:
In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.


text:
The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.


text:
For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,


text:
who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.


text:
For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.


text:
And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction."


text:
"Ah, stubborn children," declares the LORD, "who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;


text:
who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!


text:
Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.


text:
everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace."


text:
An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.


text:
And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.


text:
For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;


text:
who say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,


text:
Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,


text:
therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;


text:
and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."


text:
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." But you were unwilling,


text:
and you said, "No! We will flee upon horses"; therefore you shall flee away; and, "We will ride upon swift steeds"; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.


text:
A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.


text:
Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.


text:
For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.


text:
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.


text:
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.


text:
Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, "Be gone!"


text:
And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures,


text:
and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.


text:
And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.


text:
Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.


text:
Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;


text:
his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.


text:
You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.


text:
And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.


text:
And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.


text:
For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.


text:
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!


text:
And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.


text:
The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.


text:
For thus the LORD said to me, "As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.


text:
Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it."


text:
For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.


text:
"And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.


text:
His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic," declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.


text:
Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.


text:
Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.


text:
The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.


text:
For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.


text:
As for the scoundrel- his devices are evil; he plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.


text:
In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come.


text:
Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist.


text:
for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city.


text:
For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;


text:
until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.


text:
And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.


text:
Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor, whom none has betrayed! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betraying, they will betray you.


text:
O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.


text:
and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure.


text:
The highways lie waste; the traveler ceases. Covenants are broken; cities are despised; there is no regard for man.


text:
The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.


text:
The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?"


text:
He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,


text:
he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.


text:
Your heart will muse on the terror: "Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute? Where is he who counted the towers?"


text:
You will see no more the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.


text:
Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.


text:
But there the LORD in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor majestic ship can pass.


text:
Your cords hang loose; they cannot hold the mast firm in its place or keep the sail spread out. Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will take the prey.


text:
And no inhabitant will say, "I am sick"; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.


text:
Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it.


text:
For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.


text:
Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood.


text:
All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.


text:
For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.


text:
The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.


text:
Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall drink its fill of blood, and their soil shall be gorged with fat.


text:
And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch.


text:
Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.


text:
But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.


text:
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.


text:
And wild animals shall meet with hyenas; the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there the night bird settles and finds for herself a resting place.


text:
There the owl nests and lays and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow; indeed, there the hawks are gathered, each one with her mate.


text:
Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.


text:
He has cast the lot for them; his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.


text:
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;


text:
it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.


text:
Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you."


text:
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;


text:
the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.


text:
And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.


text:
No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.


text:
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.


text:
And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field.


text:
And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.


text:
Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.


text:
But if you say to me, "We trust in the LORD our God," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this altar"?


text:
Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.'"


text:
Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall."


text:
But the Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?"


text:
Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!


text:
Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."


text:
Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,


text:
until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.


text:
Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?


text:
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?


text:
Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"


text:
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.


text:
They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.


text:
It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"


text:
Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me.


text:
The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.


text:
Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, "He has set out to fight against you." And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,


text:
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.


text:
"O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.


text:
Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.


text:
and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.


text:
So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD."


text:
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,


text:
this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: "' She despises you, she scorns you- the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you- the daughter of Jerusalem.


text:
"'Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel!


text:
By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon, to cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses, to come to its remotest height, its most fruitful forest.


text:
"'Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins,


text:
Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.'


text:
"And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.


text:
For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.


text:
"Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.


text:
And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.


text:
And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.


text:
In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover."


text:
and said, "Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.


text:
"Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.


text:
"This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:


text:
Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps." So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.


text:
I said, In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.


text:
I said, I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.


text:
My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night you bring me to an end;


text:
I calmed myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end.


text:
Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!


text:
What shall I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.


text:
O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh restore me to health and make me live!


text:
Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.


text:
For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.


text:
The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.


text:
The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the LORD.


text:
At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.


text:
And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.


text:
Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon."


text:
He said, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them."


text:
And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."


text:
Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good." For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my days."


text:
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.


text:
A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.


text:
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.


text:
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."


text:
A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.


text:
The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.


text:
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"


text:
Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.


text:
He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.


text:
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?


text:
Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?


text:
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.


text:
All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.


text:
An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.


text:
He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.


text:
Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?


text:
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;


text:
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.


text:
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.


text:
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?


text:
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.


text:
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.


text:
Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near for judgment.


text:
Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step? He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings underfoot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.


text:
Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.


text:
The coastlands have seen and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and come.


text:
The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good"; and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.


text:
you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off";


text:
fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.


text:
Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.


text:
You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.


text:
For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I am the one who helps you."


text:
Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.


text:
Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff;


text:
you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.


text:
When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.


text:
I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.


text:
I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together,


text:
that men may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.


text:
Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come.


text:
Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.


text:
I stirred up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name; he shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay.


text:
Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and beforehand, that we might say, "He is right"? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words.


text:
I was the first to say to Zion, "Behold, here they are!" and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news.


text:
But when I look there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer.


text:
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.


text:
a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.


text:
He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.


text:
Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:


text:
"I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,


text:
to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.


text:
Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."


text:
Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.


text:
Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains.


text:
The LORD goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.


text:
For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant.


text:
I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.


text:
And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.


text:
They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, "You are our gods."


text:
Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD?


text:
But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, "Restore!"


text:
Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?


text:
So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.


text:
But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.


text:
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.


text:
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.


text:
Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.


text:
Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.


text:
I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth,


text:
All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true.


text:
"You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.


text:
I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God.


text:
Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?"


text:
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.


text:
who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:


text:
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.


text:
The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,


text:
You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense.


text:
You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.


text:
Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.


text:
Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.


text:
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.


text:
This one will say, 'I am the LORD's,' another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The LORD's,' and name himself by the name of Israel."


text:
Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.


text:
Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.


text:
Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any."


text:
All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.


text:
Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.


text:
The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.


text:
The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house.


text:
He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.


text:
Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it.


text:
Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!"


text:
And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!"


text:
They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.


text:
No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, "Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?"


text:
He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"


text:
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.


text:
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.


text:
Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel.


text:
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,


text:
who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish,


text:
who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, 'She shall be inhabited,' and of the cities of Judah, 'They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins';


text:
who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose'; saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall be built,' and of the temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid.'"


text:
Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:


text:
"I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,


text:
I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.


text:
For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.


text:
I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,


text:
that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.


text:
I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.


text:
"Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it.


text:
"Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'?


text:
Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'With what are you in labor?'"


text:
Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: "Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?


text:
I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.


text:
I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward," says the LORD of hosts.


text:
Thus says the LORD: "The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: 'Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.'"


text:
But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.


text:
For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other.


text:
I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek me in vain.' I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right.


text:
"Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.


text:
Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.


text:
By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: |'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.'


text:
"Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him.


text:
Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts.


text:
"Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb;


text:
even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.


text:
Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship!


text:
They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.


text:
remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,


text:
declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,'


text:
calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.


text:
I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory."


text:
Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate.


text:
Take the millstones and grind flour, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.


text:
Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your disgrace shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no one.


text:
Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.


text:
I was angry with my people; I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand; you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.


text:
You said, "I shall be mistress forever," so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end.


text:
Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children":


text:
These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.


text:
You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, "No one sees me"; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me."


text:
But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing.


text:
Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror.


text:
You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you.


text:
Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!


text:
Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have done business with you from your youth; they wander about each in his own direction; there is no one to save you.


text:
Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.


text:
For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name.


text:
"The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth and I announced them; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.


text:
I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, 'My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.'


text:
"You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.


text:
They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'


text:
You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.


text:
"For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.


text:
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.


text:
My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.


text:
"Assemble, all of you, and listen! who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.


text:
Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there." And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit.


text:
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.


text:
Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;


text:
your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me."


text:
Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!"


text:
They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out.


text:
Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.


text:
He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.


text:
But I said, "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."


text:
And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him- for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength-


text:
he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."


text:
Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."


text:
Thus says the LORD: "In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages,


text:
saying to the prisoners, 'Come out,' to those who are in darkness, 'Appear.' They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture;


text:
they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.


text:
Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene."


text:
Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! for the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.


text:
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.


text:
Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the LORD, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does.


text:
"Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land- surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.


text:
The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: 'The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.'


text:
Then you will say in your heart: 'Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?'"


text:
Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.


text:
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame."


text:
For thus says the LORD: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.


text:
I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."


text:
Thus says the LORD:"Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.


text:
Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.


text:
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.


text:
I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.


text:
But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.


text:
He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.


text:
Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.


text:
Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.


text:
Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.


text:
"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.


text:
Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.


text:
For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.


text:
"Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.


text:
My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.


text:
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.


text:
"Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings.


text:
For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations."


text:
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon?


text:
Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?


text:
"I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass,


text:
and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor?


text:
He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.


text:
And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, 'You are my people.'"


text:
Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.


text:
There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up.


text:
These two things have happened to you- who will console you?- devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you?


text:
Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.


text:
Thus says your Lord, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people: "Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;


text:
and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, 'Bow down, that we may pass over'; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over."


text:
Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.


text:
Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.


text:
For thus says the Lord GOD: "My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing.


text:
Now therefore what have I here," declares the LORD, "seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail," declares the LORD, "and continually all the day my name is despised.


text:
Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I."


text:
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."


text:
The voice of your watchmen- they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.


text:
Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.


text:
The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.


text:
Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.


text:
For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.


text:
As many were astonished at you- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind-


text:
so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.


text:
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.


text:
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.


text:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.


text:
But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.


text:
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


text:
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.


text:
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?


text:
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.


text:
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.


text:
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.


text:
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.


text:
"Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married," says the LORD.


text:
"Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.


text:
For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.


text:
"Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.


text:
For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.


text:
For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.


text:
In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the LORD, your Redeemer.


text:
"This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you.


text:
For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you.


text:
"O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.


text:
I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones.


text:
In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.


text:
If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you.


text:
Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy;


text:
no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD."


text:
"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.


text:
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.


text:
Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.


text:
Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.


text:
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.


text:
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.


text:
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,


text:
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.


text:
"For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.


text:
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."


text:
Thus says the LORD:"Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.


text:
Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil."


text:
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely separate me from his people"; and let not the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree."


text:
For thus says the LORD: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,


text:
I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.


text:
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant-


text:
these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."


text:
The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, "I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered."


text:
His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.


text:
The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. But they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all.


text:
"Come," they say, "let me get wine; let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure."


text:
The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;


text:
Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit,


text:
you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?


text:
Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they, are your lot; to them you have poured out a drink offering, you have brought a grain offering. Shall I relent for these things?


text:
Behind the door and the doorpost you have set up your memorial; for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed, you have gone up to it, you have made it wide; and you have made a covenant for yourself with them, you have loved their bed, you have looked on nakedness.


text:
You journeyed to the king with oil and multiplied your perfumes; you sent your envoys far off, and sent down even to Sheol.


text:
You were wearied with the length of your way, but you did not say, "It is hopeless"; you found new life for your strength, and so you were not faint.


text:
Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not lay it to heart? Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and you do not fear me?


text:
When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.


text:
And it shall be said, "Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way."


text:
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.


text:
For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made.


text:
Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.


text:
I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,


text:
creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near," says the LORD, "and I will heal him.


text:
But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt.


text:
"Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.


text:
Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.


text:
'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.


text:
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.


text:
Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?


text:
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?


text:
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?


text:
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.


text:
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,


text:
if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.


text:
And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.


text:
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.


text:
"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;


text:
then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."


text:
Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;


text:
but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.


text:
For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.


text:
No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.


text:
They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.


text:
Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands.


text:
Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways.


text:
The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.


text:
Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.


text:
We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men.


text:
We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.


text:
For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities:


text:
transgressing, and denying the LORD, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.


text:
Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.


text:
Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.


text:
He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.


text:
He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.


text:
According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment.


text:
So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives.


text:
"And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression," declares the LORD.


text:
"And as for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD: "My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring," says the LORD, "from this time forth and forevermore."


text:
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.


text:
Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.


text:
Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.


text:
A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.


text:
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house.


text:
For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful.


text:
Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.


text:
Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession.


text:
For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.


text:
The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.


text:
The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.


text:
Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age.


text:
You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.


text:
Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.


text:
Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.


text:
The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.


text:
Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.


text:
Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.


text:
The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it.


text:
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;


text:
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;


text:
to grant to those who mourn in Zion- to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.


text:
They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.


text:
but you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast.


text:
Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.


text:
For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.


text:
Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the LORD has blessed.


text:
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.


text:
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.


text:
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.


text:
The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give.


text:
You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.


text:
For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.


text:
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest,


text:
The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: "I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have labored;


text:
but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary."


text:
Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway; clear it of stones; lift up a signal over the peoples.


text:
Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, "Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him."


text:
And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.


text:
Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save."


text:
"I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel.


text:
I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me.


text:
I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."


text:
I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.


text:
For he said, "Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely." And he became their Savior.


text:
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.


text:
But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.


text:
Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit,


text:
who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name,


text:
Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.


text:
Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me.


text:
For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.


text:
O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.


text:
Your holy people held possession for a little while; our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.


text:
We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who are not called by your name.


text:
as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil- to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!


text:
When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.


text:
From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.


text:
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?


text:
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.


text:
There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.


text:
But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.


text:
Be not so terribly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.


text:
Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.


text:
Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?


text:
I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here am I, here am I," to a nation that was not called by my name.


text:
I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;


text:
a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks;


text:
who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;


text:
who say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you." These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.


text:
Behold, it is written before me: "I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their bosom


text:
both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities together, says the LORD; because they made offerings on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, I will measure into their bosom payment for their former deeds."


text:
Thus says the LORD: "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, 'Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,' so I will do for my servants' sake, and not destroy them all.


text:
I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.


text:
Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me.


text:
But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,


text:
I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in."


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;


text:
behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit.


text:
You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord GOD will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name.


text:
So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes.


text:
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.


text:
But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.


text:
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.


text:
No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.


text:
They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.


text:
They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them.


text:
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain," says the LORD.


text:
Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?


text:
All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.


text:
"He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig's blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations;


text:
I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight."


text:
Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: "Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said, 'Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy'; but it is they who shall be put to shame.


text:
"The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the LORD, rendering recompense to his enemies!


text:
Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children.


text:
Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?" says the LORD; "shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?" says your God.


text:
"Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her;


text:
that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance."


text:
For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees.


text:
You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand of the LORD shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.


text:
"For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.


text:
For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many.


text:
"Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig's flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the LORD.


text:
"For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory,


text:
and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.


text:
And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.


text:
"For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.


text:
From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD.


text:
"And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."


text:
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,


text:
to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.


text:
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.


text:
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."


text:
But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a youth'; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.


text:
Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.


text:
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."


text:
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" And I said, "I see an almond branch."


text:
The word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north."


text:
Then the LORD said to me, "Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land.


text:
For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the LORD, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.


text:
And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.


text:
But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.


text:
And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.


text:
They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you."


text:
"Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.


text:
Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the LORD."


text:
Thus says the LORD: "What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?


text:
They did not say, 'Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?'


text:
And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.


text:
The priests did not say, 'Where is the LORD?' Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.


text:
"Therefore I still contend with you, declares the LORD, and with your children's children I will contend.


text:
For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing.


text:
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.


text:
for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.


text:
The lions have roared against him; they have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.


text:
And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?


text:
Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.


text:
"For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, 'I will not serve.' yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore.


text:
Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?


text:
Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD.


text:
How can you say, 'I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals'? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done- a restless young camel running here and there,


text:
a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her.


text:
Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.'


text:
"As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets,


text:
who say to a tree, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You gave me birth.' For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, 'Arise and save us!'


text:
But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.


text:
In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.


text:
And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, 'We are free, we will come no more to you'?


text:
Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.


text:
"How well you direct your course to seek love! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways.


text:
Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor; you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things


text:
you say, 'I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.' Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned.'


text:
How much you go about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.


text:
From it too you will come away with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them.


text:
"If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD.


text:
Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom.


text:
Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed.


text:
will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?' Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could."


text:
The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: "Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore?


text:
And I thought, 'After she has done all this she will return to me,' but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.


text:
She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.


text:
Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.


text:
Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD."


text:
Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, "' Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever.


text:
Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD.


text:
Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.


text:
"'And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.


text:
And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD." It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.


text:
At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.


text:
In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.


text:
"'I said How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.


text:
Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the LORD.'"


text:
A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the LORD their God.


text:
"Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God.


text:
Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.


text:
"But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.


text:
Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God."


text:
"If you return, O Israel, declares the LORD, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver,


text:
and if you swear, 'As the LORD lives,' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory."


text:
For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.


text:
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds."


text:
Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, "Blow the trumpet through the land; cry aloud and say, 'Assemble, and let us go into the fortified cities!'


text:
Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for safety, stay not, for I bring disaster from the north, and great destruction.


text:
A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.


text:
For this put on sackcloth, lament, and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned back from us."


text:
"In that day, declares the LORD, courage shall fail both king and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded."


text:
Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'It shall be well with you,' whereas the sword has reached their very life."


text:
At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse,


text:
Behold, he comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles- woe to us, for we are ruined!


text:
O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?


text:
Warn the nations that he is coming; announce to Jerusalem, "Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah.


text:
Like keepers of a field are they against her all around, because she has rebelled against me, declares the LORD.


text:
Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart."


text:
My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.


text:
Crash follows hard on crash; the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are laid waste, my curtains in a moment.


text:
"For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are 'wise'- in doing evil! But how to do good they know not."


text:
I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.


text:
I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger.


text:
"For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be dark; for I have spoken; I have purposed; I have not relented, nor will I turn back."


text:
At the noise of horseman and archer every city takes to flight; they enter thickets; they climb among rocks; all the cities are forsaken, and no man dwells in them.


text:
And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.


text:
For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor, anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, "Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers."


text:
Run to and fro through thestreets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.


text:
O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.


text:
Then I said, "These are only the poor; they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.


text:
I will go to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God." But they all alike had broken the yoke; they had burst the bonds.


text:
Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down; a wolf from the desert shall devastate them. A leopard is watching their cities; everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great.


text:
"How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores.


text:
Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?


text:
"Go up through her vine rows and destroy, but make not a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the LORD's.


text:
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly treacherous to me, declares the LORD.


text:
They have spoken falsely of the LORD and have said, 'He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: "Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.


text:
Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.


text:
They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; your fortified cities in which you trust they shall beat down with the sword."


text:
And when your people say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.'"


text:
"Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.


text:
Do you not fear me? declares the LORD; Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.


text:
They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.'


text:
For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.


text:
Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich;


text:
they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.


text:
Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?"


text:
the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?


text:
Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms out of the north, and great destruction.


text:
Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her; they shall pitch their tents around her; they shall pasture, each in his place.


text:
"Prepare war against her; arise, and let us attack at noon! Woe to us, for the day declines, for the shadows of evening lengthen!


text:
For thus says the LORD of hosts: "Cut down her trees; cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her.


text:
As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her evil; violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are ever before me.


text:
Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land."


text:
Thus says the LORD of hosts: "They shall glean thoroughly as a vine the remnant of Israel; like a grape-gatherer pass your hand again over its branches."


text:
To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it.


text:
Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary of holding it in. "Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the gatherings of young men, also; both husband and wife shall be taken, the elderly and the very aged.


text:
Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together, for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land," declares the LORD.


text:
"For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.


text:
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown," says the LORD.


text:
Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'


text:
I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not pay attention.'


text:
Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.


text:
What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will lay before this people stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble; fathers and sons together, neighbor and friend shall perish.'"


text:
Thus says the LORD: "Behold, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.


text:
They lay hold on bow and javelin; they are cruel and have no mercy; the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!"


text:
We have heard the report of it; our hands fall helpless; anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in labor.


text:
Go not out into the field, nor walk on the road, for the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.


text:
O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.


text:
They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron; all of them act corruptly.


text:
The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.


text:
"Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD.


text:
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.


text:
Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'


text:
if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm,


text:
Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,


text:
and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are delivered!'- only to go on doing all these abominations?


text:
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.


text:
Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.


text:
And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,


text:
therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.


text:
"As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.


text:
The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched."


text:
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.


text:
For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.


text:
But this command I gave them: 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.'


text:
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.


text:
From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day.


text:
Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.


text:
"So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.


text:
And you shall say to them, 'This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.


text:
"' Cut off your hair and cast it away; raise a lamentation on the bare heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.'


text:
"For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.


text:
And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.


text:
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere.


text:
And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.


text:
And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.


text:
"At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs.


text:
And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.


text:
Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the LORD of hosts.


text:
"You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?


text:
Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.


text:
I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.


text:
Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the LORD.


text:
"How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us'? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.


text:
The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?


text:
Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.


text:
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.


text:
When I would gather them, declares the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them."


text:
Why do we sit still? Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us to perish and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.


text:
"The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of the neighing of their stallions the whole land quakes. They come and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it.


text:
For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you," declares the LORD.


text:
Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" "Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?"


text:
For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.


text:
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?


text:
Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!


text:
Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.


text:
They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the LORD.


text:
Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.


text:
Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.


text:
Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people?


text:
Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.


text:
Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?


text:
"I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone.


text:
I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."


text:
Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?


text:
And the LORD says: "Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it,


text:
but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink.


text:
I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them."


text:
Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come;


text:
let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water.


text:
For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.'"


text:
Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge.


text:
For death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.


text:
Speak, "Thus declares the LORD: 'The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.'"


text:
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,


text:
but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."


text:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh-


text:
Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."


text:
Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them,


text:
for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.


text:
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."


text:
Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you.


text:
Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men.


text:
But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.


text:
Thus shall you say to them: "The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens."


text:
It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.


text:
When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.


text:
Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.


text:
Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.


text:
For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring distress on them, that they may feel it."


text:
Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is grievous. But I said, "Truly this is an affliction, and I must bear it."


text:
My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken; my children have gone from me, and they are not; there is no one to spread my tent again and to set up my curtains.


text:
For the shepherds are stupid and do not inquire of the LORD; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.


text:
A voice, a rumor! Behold, it comes!- a great commotion out of the north country to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals.


text:
I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.


text:
Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, and on the peoples that call not on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.


text:
You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant


text:
that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God,


text:
that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day." Then I answered, "So be it, LORD."


text:
And the LORD said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them.


text:
For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice.


text:
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not."


text:
Again the LORD said to me, "A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


text:
They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.


text:
Therefore, thus says the LORD, behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them.


text:
Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble.


text:
For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal.


text:
"Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.


text:
What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done many vile deeds? Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult?


text:
The LORD once called you 'a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.' But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed.


text:
The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal."


text:
But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more."


text:
But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand"-


text:
therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine,


text:
and none of them shall be left. For I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment."


text:
Righteous are you, O LORD, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?


text:
You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit; you are near in their mouth and far from their heart.


text:
But you, O LORD, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.


text:
How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? For the evil of those who dwell in it the beasts and the birds are swept away, because they said, "He will not see our latter end."


text:
"If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?


text:
For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; do not believe them, though they speak friendly words to you."


text:
"I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies.


text:
My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest; she has lifted up her voice against me; therefore I hate her.


text:
Is my heritage to me like a hyena's lair? Are the birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the wild beasts; bring them to devour.


text:
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled down my portion; they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.


text:
They have made it a desolation; desolate, it mourns to me. The whole land is made desolate, but no man lays it to heart.


text:
Upon all the bare heights in the desert destroyers have come, for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the land to the other; no flesh has peace.


text:
They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns; they have tired themselves out but profit nothing. They shall be ashamed of their harvests because of the fierce anger of the LORD."


text:
Thus says the LORD concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: "Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.


text:
And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land.


text:
And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, 'As the LORD lives,' even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.


text:
But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, declares the LORD."


text:
Thus says the LORD to me, "Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water."


text:
"Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock."


text:
And after many days the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there."


text:
Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.


text:
This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.


text:
For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.


text:
"You shall speak to them this word: 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, "Every jar shall be filled with wine."' And they will say to you, 'Do we not indeed know that every jar will be filled with wine?'


text:
Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land: the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


text:
And I will dash them one against another, fathers and sons together, declares the LORD. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.'"


text:
Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.


text:
But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock has been taken captive.


text:
Say to the king and the queen mother: "Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has come down from your head."


text:
The cities of the Negeb are shut up, with none to open them; all Judah is taken into exile, wholly taken into exile.


text:
"Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?


text:
What will you say when they set as head over you those whom you yourself have taught to be friends to you? Will not pangs take hold of you like those of a woman in labor?


text:
And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these things come upon me?' it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence.


text:
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.


text:
This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, declares the LORD, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies.


text:
I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your lewd whorings, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?"


text:
"Judah mourns and her gates languish; her people lament on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.


text:
Her nobles send their servants for water; they come to the cisterns; they find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are ashamed and confounded and cover their heads.


text:
Because of the ground that is dismayed, since there is no rain on the land, the farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.


text:
The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail because there is no vegetation.


text:
"Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.


text:
O you hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?


text:
Why should you be like a man confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot save? Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us."


text:
Thus says the LORD concerning this people: "They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins."


text:
Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence."


text:
Then I said: "Ah, Lord GOD, behold, the prophets say to them, 'You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.'"


text:
And the LORD said to me: "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, 'Sword and famine shall not come upon this land': By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed.


text:
And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them- them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their evil upon them.


text:
"You shall say to them this word: 'Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is shattered with a great wound, with a very grievous blow.


text:
If I go out into the field, behold, those pierced by the sword! And if I enter the city, behold, the diseases of famine! For both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land and have no knowledge.'"


text:
Have you utterly rejected Judah? Does your soul loathe Zion? Why have you struck us down so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.


text:
We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you.


text:
Do not spurn us, for your name's sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us.


text:
Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.


text:
Then the LORD said to me, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!


text:
And when they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: "' Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity.'


text:
I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.


text:
And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.


text:
"Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will grieve for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?


text:
You have rejected me, declares the LORD; you keep going backward, so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you- I am weary of relenting.


text:
I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people; they did not turn from their ways.


text:
I have made their widows more in number than the sand of the seas; I have brought against the mothers of young men a destroyer at noonday; I have made anguish and terror fall upon them suddenly.


text:
She who bore seven has grown feeble; she has fainted away; her sun went down while it was yet day; she has been shamed and disgraced. And the rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, declares the LORD."


text:
Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me.


text:
The LORD said, "Have I not set you free for their good? Have I not pleaded for you before the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress?


text:
"Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory.


text:
I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever."


text:
O LORD, you know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance take me not away; know that for your sake I bear reproach.


text:
Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.


text:
I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because your hand was upon me, for you had filled me with indignation.


text:
Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them.


text:
And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the LORD.


text:
For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land:


text:
They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.


text:
"For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the LORD.


text:
Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them.


text:
No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother.


text:
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.


text:
"And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?'


text:
then you shall say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law,


text:
and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.


text:
Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'


text:
"Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,'


text:
but 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.


text:
"Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.


text:
For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.


text:
But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations."


text:
O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.


text:
"Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD."


text:
"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars,


text:
while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills,


text:
on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory.


text:
You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever."


text:
Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.


text:
He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.


text:
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."


text:
"I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."


text:
Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool.


text:
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.


text:
I have not run away from being your shepherd, nor have I desired the day of sickness. You know what came out of my lips; it was before your face.


text:
Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction!


text:
Thus said the LORD to me: "Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem,


text:
and say: 'Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.


text:
Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.


text:
And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.


text:
Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.


text:
"'But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it,


text:
then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever.


text:
And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD.


text:
But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.'"


text:
And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.


text:
"O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.


text:
If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,


text:
and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.


text:
and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.


text:
Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 'Thus says the LORD, behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.'


text:
"But they say, 'That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.'


text:
"Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask among the nations, Who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing.


text:
Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams?


text:
But my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway,


text:
making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head.


text:
Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity."


text:
Then they said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words."


text:
Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.


text:
Therefore deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.


text:
May a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet.


text:
Yet you, O LORD, know all their plotting to kill me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.


text:
Thus says the LORD, "Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests,


text:
and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.


text:
You shall say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.


text:
Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents,


text:
and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind-


text:
therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.


text:
And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth.


text:
And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds.


text:
And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.'


text:
and shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury.


text:
Thus will I do to this place, declares the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth.


text:
The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah- all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods- shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.'"


text:
Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the LORD's house and said to all the people:


text:
"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words."


text:
Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.


text:
Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD.


text:
The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror On Every Side.


text:
For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword.


text:
Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon.


text:
And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely."


text:
O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.


text:
For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.


text:
If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.


text:
For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! "Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my close friends, watching for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him."


text:
But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.


text:
O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.


text:
Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.


text:
Let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon,


text:
because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.


text:
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying,


text:
"Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us."


text:
"Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city.


text:
I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.


text:
And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence.


text:
Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.'


text:
"And to this people you shall say: 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.


text:
He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war.


text:
For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.'


text:
O house of David! Thus says the LORD: "' Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil deeds.'"


text:
"Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, declares the LORD; you who say, 'Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter our habitations?'


text:
I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, declares the LORD; I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her."


text:
and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O King of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates.


text:
Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.


text:
For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people.


text:
But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.


text:
For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: "' You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.


text:
I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons, and they shall cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire.


text:
"'And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, "Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?"


text:
And they will answer, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them."'"


text:
Weep not for him who is dead, nor grieve for him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land.


text:
For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: "He shall return here no more,


text:
but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again."


text:
"Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,


text:
who says, 'I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,' who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.


text:
Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.


text:
He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the LORD.


text:
But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence."


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "They shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah, my brother!' or 'Ah, sister!' They shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah, lord!' or 'Ah, his majesty!'


text:
"Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are destroyed.


text:
I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, 'I will not listen.' This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice.


text:
The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all your evil.


text:
O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in labor!"


text:
"As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off


text:
and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans.


text:
I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die.


text:
Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know?


text:
Thus says the LORD: "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah."


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD.


text:
Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.


text:
I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD.


text:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.


text:
In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'


text:
"Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no longer say, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,'


text:
but 'As the LORD lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own land."


text:
Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of his holy words.


text:
For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right.


text:
Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall, for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, declares the LORD.


text:
In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.


text:
But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah."


text:
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: "Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land."


text:
Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.


text:
They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you.'"


text:
For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?


text:
Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.


text:
The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly.


text:
But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.


text:
Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.


text:
I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!'


text:
How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart,


text:
who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?


text:
Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD.


text:
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another.


text:
Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, 'declares the LORD.'


text:
Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD.


text:
"When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, 'What is the burden of the LORD?' you shall say to them, 'You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the LORD.'


text:
And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, 'The burden of the LORD,' I will punish that man and his household.


text:
Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, 'What has the LORD answered?' or 'What has the LORD spoken?'


text:
But 'the burden of the LORD' you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.


text:
But if you say, 'The burden of the LORD,' thus says the LORD, 'Because you have said these words, "The burden of the LORD," when I sent to you, saying, "You shall not say, 'The burden of the LORD,'"


text:
therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers.


text:
After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.


text:
One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.


text:
And the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I said, "Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten."


text:
"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.


text:
I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not uproot them.


text:
I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.


text:
"But thus says the LORD: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.


text:
I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them.


text:
And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers."


text:
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),


text:
"For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.


text:
You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets,


text:
saying, 'Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever.


text:
Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.'


text:
Yet you have not listened to me, declares the LORD, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.


text:
behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.


text:
Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.


text:
This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.


text:
Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste.


text:
I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.


text:
For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands."


text:
Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.


text:
Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse, as at this day;


text:
and all the mixed tribes among them; all the kings of the land of Uz and all the kings of the land of the Philistines ( Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod);


text:
all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Babylon shall drink.


text:
"Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you.'


text:
"And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink!


text:
For behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of hosts.'


text:
"You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: "' The LORD will roar from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice; he will roar mightily against his fold, and shout, like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.


text:
The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, declares the LORD.'


text:
"Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, disaster is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth!


text:
"And those pierced by the LORD on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground.


text:
"Wail, you shepherds, and cry out, and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come, and you shall fall like a choice vessel.


text:
A voice- the cry of the shepherds, and the wail of the lords of the flock! For the LORD is laying waste their pasture,


text:
Like a lion he has left his lair, for their land has become a waste because of the sword of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger."


text:
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD:


text:
"Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word.


text:
It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds.


text:
You shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you,


text:
and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened,


text:
then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.'"


text:
The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.


text:
And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, "You shall die!


text:
Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, 'This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.


text:
When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the LORD and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the LORD.


text:
Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, "This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears."


text:
Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard.


text:
Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.


text:
Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears."


