# verses

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seated on his throne, the Lord. It was he who created, inspected and weighed her up, and then poured her out on all his works-


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she has made a home in the human race, an age -- old foundation, and to their descendants will she faithfully cling.


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The Lord has seen and assessed her, he has showered down knowledge and intelligence, he has exalted the renown of those who possess her.


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A patient person puts up with things until the right time comes: but his joy will break out in the end.


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Wisdom's treasuries contain the maxims of knowledge, the sinner, however, holds piety in abhorrence.


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For the fear of the Lord is wisdom and instruction, and what pleases him is faithfulness and gentleness.


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Do not grow too high and mighty, for fear you fall and cover yourself in disgrace; for the Lord would then reveal your secrets and overthrow you before the whole community for not having practised fear of the Lord and for having a heart full of deceit.


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Look at the generations of old and see: whoever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or whoever, steadfastly fearing him, was forsaken? Or whoever called to him and was ignored?


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Those who fear the Lord do their best to please him, and those who love him will find satisfaction in the Law.


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Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, not into any human clutches; for as his majesty is, so too is his mercy.


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for the Lord honours the father above his children and upholds the rights of a mother over her sons.


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Whoever respects a father will in turn be happy with children, the day he prays for help, he will be heard.


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since a father's blessing makes his children's house firm, while a mother's curse tears up its foundations.


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Do not make a boast of disgrace overtaking your father, your father's disgrace reflects no honour on you;


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for a person's own honour derives from the respect shown to his father, and a mother held in dishonour is a reproach to her children.


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Whoever deserts a father is no better than a blasphemer, and whoever distresses a mother is accursed of the Lord.


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My child, be gentle in carrying out your business, and you will be better loved than a lavish giver.


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The greater you are, the more humbly you should behave, and then you will find favour with the Lord;


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Do not try to understand things that are too difficult for you, or try to discover what is beyond your powers.


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Do not meddle with matters that are beyond you; what you have been taught already exceeds the scope of the human mind.


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Whoever gives favours in return is mindful of the future; at the moment of falling, such a person will find support.


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Be like a father to the fatherless and as good as a husband to their mothers. And you will be like a child to the Most High, who will love you more than your own mother does.


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If he trusts himself to her he will inherit her, and his descendants will remain in possession of her;


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for though she takes him at first through winding ways, bringing fear and faintness on him, trying him out with her discipline till she can trust him, and testing him with her ordeals,


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Do not let your hands be outstretched to receive, yet tight-fisted when the time comes to give back.


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And do not say, 'His compassion is great, he will forgive me my many sins'; for with him are both mercy and retribution, and his anger does not pass from sinners.


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Do not delay your return to the Lord, do not put it off day after day; for suddenly the Lord's wrath will blaze out, and on the day of punishment you will be utterly destroyed.


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If you understand the matter, give your neighbour an answer, if not, keep your hand over your mouth.


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Do not get a name for scandal-mongering, do not set traps with your tongue; for as shame lies in store for the thief, so harsh condemnation awaits the deceitful.


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Do not get carried aloft on the wings of passion, for fear your strength tear itself apart like a bull,


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and you devour your own foliage and destroy your own fruit and end by making yourself like a piece of dried-up wood.


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for one kind of friend is so only when it suits him but will not stand by you in your day of trouble.


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My child, from your earliest youth choose instruction, and till your hair is white you will keep finding wisdom.


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Like ploughman and sower, cultivate her and wait for her fine harvest, for in tilling her you will toil a little while, but very soon you will be eating her crops.


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she will weigh as heavily on the senseless as a touchstone and such a person will lose no time in throwing her off;


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Reflect on the injunctions of the Lord, busy yourself at all times with his commandments. He will strengthen your mind, and the wisdom you desire will be granted you.


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Do not scheme to be appointed judge, for fear you should not be strong enough to stamp out injustice, for fear of being swayed by someone influential and so of risking the loss of your integrity.


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Do not say, 'God will be impressed by my numerous offerings; when I sacrifice to God Most High, he is bound to accept.'


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Fear the Lord and honour the priest and give him the portion enjoined on you: first-fruits, sacrifice of reparation, shoulder-gift, sanctification sacrifice, first-fruits of the holy things.


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Do not quarrel with anyone rich, in case he puts his weight against you; for gold has destroyed many, and has swayed the hearts of kings.


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Do not scorn the discourse of the wise, but make yourself familiar with their maxims, since from these you will learn the theory and the art of serving the great.


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Do not dismiss what the old people have to say, for they too were taught by their parents; from them you will learn how to think, and the art of the timely answer.


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Do not go travelling with a rash man, for fear he becomes burdensome to you; he will act as the whim takes him, and you will both be ruined by his folly.


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Do not argue with a quick-tempered man, do not go with him where there are no other people, since blood counts for nothing in his eyes, and where no help is to be had, he will strike you down.


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In a stranger's presence do nothing that should be kept secret, since you cannot tell what use the stranger will make of it.


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Turn your eyes away from a handsome woman, do not stare at a beauty belonging to someone else. Because of a woman's beauty, many have been undone; this makes passion flare up like a fire.


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Never sit down with a married woman, or sit at table with her drinking wine, in case you let your heart succumb to her and you lose all self-control and slide to disaster.


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Do not desert an old friend; the new one will not be his match. New friend, new wine; when it grows old, you drink it with pleasure.


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Keep your distance from the man who has the power to put to death, and you will not be haunted by the fear of dying. If you do approach him, make no false move, or he may take your life. Realise that you are treading among trip-lines, that you are strolling on the battlements.


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As the magistrate is, so will his officials be, as the governor is, so will be the inhabitants of his city.


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An undisciplined king will be the ruin of his people, a city owes its prosperity to the intelligence of its leading men.


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The government of the earth is in the hands of the Lord, he sets the right leader over it at the right time.


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Since the first stage of pride is sin, whoever clings to it will pour forth filth. This is why the Lord inflicts unexpected punishments on such people, utterly destroying them.


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The Lord has overthrown the lands of the nations and destroyed them to the very foundations of the earth.


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What race deserves honour? The human race. What race deserves honour? Those who fear the Lord. What race deserves contempt? The human race. What race deserves contempt? Those who break the Law.


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It is not right to despise one who is poor but intelligent, and it is not good to honour one who is a sinner.


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Magnate, magistrate, potentate, all are to be honoured, but none is greater than the one who fears the Lord.


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Honoured in poverty, how much the more in wealth! Dishonoured in wealth, how much the more in poverty!


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Do not grow proud when people honour you; for the works of the Lord are wonderful but hidden from human beings.


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Many monarchs have been made to sit on the ground, and the person nobody thought of has worn the crown.


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Many influential people have been utterly disgraced, and prominent people have fallen into the power of others.


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Do not wrangle about something that does not concern you, do not interfere in the quarrels of sinners.


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My child, do not take on a great amount of business; if you multiply your interests, you are bound to suffer for it; hurry as fast as you can, yet you will never arrive, nor will you escape by running away.


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Or there is the slow kind of person, needing help, poor in possessions and rich in poverty; and the Lord turns a favourable eye on him, lifts him out of his wretched condition,


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although they say, 'Now I can sit back and enjoy the benefit of what I have got,' they do not know how long this will last; they will have to leave their goods to others and die.


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Do not admire the achievements of sinners, trust the Lord and mind your own business; since it is a trifle in the eyes of the Lord, in a moment, suddenly to make the poor rich.


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The blessing of the Lord is the reward of the devout, in a moment God brings his blessing to flower.


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A moment's adversity, and pleasures are forgotten; in a person's last hour his deeds will stand revealed.


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Like a captive partridge in a cage, so is the heart of the proud: like a spy he watches for your downfall,


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A hearthful of glowing coals starts from a single spark, and the sinner lurks for the chance to spill blood.


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Do good to someone devout, and you will be rewarded, if not by that person, then certainly by the Most High.


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Do good to the humble, give nothing to the godless. Refuse him bread, do not give him any, it might make him stronger than you are; then you would be repaid evil twice over for all the good you had done him.


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When someone is doing well that person's enemies are sad, when someone is doing badly, even a friend will keep at a distance.


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Even if he behaves humbly and comes bowing and scraping, maintain your reserve and be on your guard against him. Behave towards him as if you were polishing a mirror, you will find that his tarnish cannot last.


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Do not stand him beside you in case he thrusts you out and takes your place. Do not seat him on your right, or he will be after your position, and then you will remember what I have said and sadly admit that I was right.


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Who feels sorry for a snake-charmer bitten by a snake, or for those who take risks with savage animals? -


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An enemy may have sweetness on his lips, and in his heart a scheme to throw you into the ditch. An enemy may have tears in his eyes, but if he gets a chance there can never be too much blood for him.


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If you meet with misfortune, you will find him there before you, and, pretending to help you, he will trip you up.


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Whoever touches pitch will be defiled, and anyone who associates with the proud will come to be like them.


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Do not try to carry a burden too heavy for you, do not associate with someone more powerful and wealthy than yourself. Why put the clay pot next to the iron cauldron? It will only break when they bang against each other.


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Does he need you? - he will hoodwink you, smile at you and raise your hopes; he will speak politely to you and say, 'Is there anything you need?'


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He will make you feel small at his dinner parties and, having cleaned you out two or three times over, will end by laughing at you. Afterwards, when he sees you, he will avoid you and shake his head about you.


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When an influential person invites you, show reluctance, and he will press his invitation all the more.


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Do not thrust yourself forward, in case you are pushed aside, but do not stand aloof, or you will be overlooked.


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Do not affect to treat him as an equal, do not trust his flow of words; since all this talking is expressly meant to test you, under cover of geniality he will be weighing you up.


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When the rich slips, there are many hands to catch him, if he talks nonsense he is congratulated. The poor slips, and is blamed for it, he may talk good sense, but no room is made for him.


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The rich speaks and everyone stops talking, and then they praise his discourse to the skies. The poor speaks and people say, 'Who is this?' and if he stumbles, they trip him up yet more.


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Whoever hoards by stinting himself is hoarding for others, and others will live sumptuously on his riches.


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Do not refuse yourself the good things of today, do not let your share of what is lawfully desired pass you by.


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Will you not have to leave your fortune to another, and the fruit of your labour to be divided by lot?


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Like foliage growing on a bushy tree, some leaves falling, others growing, so are the generations of flesh and blood: one dies, another is born.


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Do not count on their having long life, do not put too much faith in their number; for better have one than a thousand, better die childless than have children who are godless.


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And had there been only one man stubborn, it would have been amazing had he escaped unpunished, since mercy and wrath alike belong to the Lord who is mighty to forgive and to pour out wrath.


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Do not say, 'I shall hide from the Lord; who is going to remember me up there? I shall not be noticed among so many people; what am I in the immensity of creation?'


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When God created his works in the beginning, he assigned them their places as soon as they were made.


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He determined his works for all time, from their origins to their distant generations. They know neither hunger nor weariness, and they never desert their duties.


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The dead can praise no more than those who do not exist, only those with life and health can praise the Lord.


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He has given no one the power to proclaim his works to the end, and who can fathom his magnificent deeds?


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Nothing can be added to them, nothing subtracted, it is impossible to fathom the marvels of the Lord.


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Like a drop of water from the sea, or a grain of sand, such are these few years compared with eternity.


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Human compassion extends to neighbours, but the Lord's compassion extends to everyone; rebuking, correcting and teaching, bringing them back as a shepherd brings his flock.


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Let nothing prevent your discharging a vow in good time, and do not wait till death to set matters right.


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If you allow yourself to satisfy your desires, this will make you the laughing-stock of your enemies.


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A drunken workman will never grow rich, and one who makes light of small matters will gradually sink.


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Question your friend, he may have done nothing at all; and if he has done anything, he will not do it again.


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Question your neighbour, he may have said nothing at all; and if he has said anything, he will not say it again.


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People sometimes make a slip, without meaning what they say; and which of us has never sinned by speech?


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Wisdom consists entirely in fearing the Lord, and wisdom is entirely constituted by the fulfilling of the Law.


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There is a wickedness which is scrupulous but nonetheless dishonest, and there are those who misuse kindness to win their case.


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There is the person who is prevented from sinning by lack of strength, yet he will do wrong when he gets the chance.


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There is the rebuke that is untimely, and there is the person who keeps quiet, and he is the shrewd one.


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There is the person who keeps quiet and is considered wise, another incurs hatred for talking too much.


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There is the person who keeps quiet, not knowing how to answer, another keeps quiet, knowing when to speak.


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There is the honour that leads to humiliation, and there are people in a low state who raise their heads.


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The gift of the stupid will bring you no advantage, his eyes look for seven times as much in return.


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He gives little and reviles much, he opens his mouth like the town crier, he lends today and demands payment tomorrow; he is a detestable fellow.


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Better a slip on the pavement than a slip of the tongue; this is how ruin takes the wicked by surprise.


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There is a person who is prevented from sinning by poverty; no qualms of conscience disturb that person's rest.


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There is a person who courts destruction out of false shame, courts destruction for the sake of a fool's opinion.


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There is a person who out of false shame makes promises to a friend, and so makes an enemy for nothing.


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Whoever tills the soil will have a full harvest, whoever wins favour from the great will secure pardon for offences.


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Flee from sin as from a snake, if you approach it, it will bite you; its teeth are lion's teeth, they take human life away.


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A plea from the mouth of the poor goes straight to the ear of God, whose judgement comes without delay.


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Whoever resents reproof walks in the sinner's footsteps; whoever fears the Lord is repentant of heart.


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If the educated hears a wise saying, he praises it and caps it with another; if a debauchee hears it, he does not like it and tosses it behind his back.


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The utterance of the shrewd will be eagerly awaited in the assembly, what he says will be given serious consideration.


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The step of a fool goes straight into a house, but a person of much experience makes a respectful approach;


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An untimely remonstrance is like music at a funeral, but a thrashing and correction are wisdom at all times.


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Teaching a fool is like gluing bits of pottery together -- you are rousing someone who is besotted with sleep.


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You might as well talk to someone sound asleep; when you have finished the fool will say, 'What's up?'


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Shed tears for the dead, who has left the light behind; shed tears for the fool, who has left his wits behind. Shed quieter tears for the dead who is at rest, for the fool life is worse than death.


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Do not waste many words on the stupid, do not go near a dolt. Beware of him, or you will have trouble and be soiled by contact with him; keep away from him, and you will have peace of mind and not be exasperated by his folly.


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A tie-beam bonded into a building will not be dislodged by an earthquake; so too, a heart resolved after due reflection will not flinch at the critical moment.


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Pebbles placed on top of a wall will not stand up to the wind; no more can the heart of a fool frightened at his own thoughts stand up to fear.


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If you have opened your mouth against your friend, do not worry; there is hope for reconciliation; but insult, arrogance, betrayal of secrets, and the stab in the back -- in these cases any friend is lost.


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Win your neighbour's confidence when he is poor, so that you may enjoy his later good fortune with him; stand by him in times of trouble, in order to have your share when he comes into a legacy.


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Who will set a guard on my mouth, and an efficient seal on my lips, to keep me from falling, and my tongue from causing my ruin?


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Lord, father and master of my life, do not abandon me to their whims, do not let me fall because of them.


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Who will lay whips to my thoughts, and the discipline of wisdom to my heart, to be merciless to my errors and not let my sins go unchecked,


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for fear my errors should multiply and my sins then abound and I fall before my adversaries, and my enemy gloat over me?


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for just as a slave who is constantly overseen will never be without bruises, so someone who is always swearing and uttering the Name will not be exempt from sin.


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A man for ever swearing is full of iniquity, and the scourge will not depart from his house. If he offends, his sin will be on him, if he did it unheedingly, he has doubly sinned; if he swears a false oath, he will not be treated as innocent, for his house will be filled with calamities.


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One way of talking is like death, let it not be found in the heritage of Jacob since devout people have nothing to do with that: they will not wallow in sin.


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Remember your father and mother when you are sitting with the great, for fear you forget yourself in their presence and behave like a fool, and then wish you had not been born and curse the day of your birth.


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desire, blazing like a furnace, will not die down until it has been sated- the man who lusts after members of his own family is not going to stop until he is quite burnt out; every food is sweet to the promiscuous, and he will not desist until he dies;


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and the man who sins against the marriage bed and says to himself, 'Who can see me? There is darkness all round me, the walls hide me, no one can see me, why should I worry? The Most High will not remember my sins.'


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What he fears are human eyes, he does not realise that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, observing every aspect of human behaviour, seeing into the most secret corners.


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first, she has disobeyed the Law of the Most High; secondly, she has been false to her husband; and thirdly, she has gone whoring in adultery


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and conceived children by another man. She will be led before the assembly, an enquiry will be held about her children.


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And those who survive her will recognise that nothing is better than fearing the Lord, and nothing sweeter than adherence to the Lord's commandments.


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She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High, she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One:


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Over the waves of the sea and over the whole earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway.


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Then the Creator of all things instructed me and he who created me fixed a place for my tent. He said, "Pitch your tent in Jacob, make Israel your inheritance."


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I have grown tall as a palm in En-Gedi, as the rose bushes of Jericho; as a fine olive in the plain, as a plane tree, I have grown tall.


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Like cinnamon and acanthus, I have yielded a perfume, like choice myrrh, have breathed out a scent, like galbanum, onycha, labdanum, like the smoke of incense in the tent.


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All this is no other than the Book of the Covenant of the Most High God, the Law that Moses enjoined on us, an inheritance for the communities of Jacob.


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I said, 'I am going to water my orchard, I intend to irrigate my flower beds.' And see, my conduit has grown into a river, and my river has grown into a sea.


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There are three things my soul delights in, and which are delightful to God and to all people: concord between brothers, friendship between neighbours, and a wife and husband who live happily together.


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There are three sorts of people my soul hates, and whose existence I consider an outrage: the poor swollen with pride, the rich who is a liar and an adulterous old man who has no sense.


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There are nine things I can think of which strike me as happy, and a tenth which is now on my tongue: the man who can be proud of his children, he who lives to see the downfall of his enemies;


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happy is he who keeps house with a sensible wife; he who does not toil with ox and donkey; he who has never sinned with his tongue; he who does not serve a man less worthy than himself;


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There is no poison worse than the poison of a snake, there is no fury worse than the fury of an enemy.


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Low spirits, gloomy face, stricken heart: such is a spiteful wife. Slack hands and sagging knees: such is the wife who does not make her husband happy.


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There are three things that I dread, and a fourth which terrifies me: slander by a whole town, the gathering of a mob, and a false accusation -- these are all worse than death;


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but a woman jealous of a woman means heartbreak and sorrow, and all this is the scourge of the tongue.


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Like a thirsty traveller she will open her mouth and drink any water she comes across; she will sit down in front of every tent-peg and open her quiver to any arrow.


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Like the sun rising over the mountains of the Lord, such is the beauty of a good wife in a well-run house.


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There are two things which grieve my heart and a third arouses my anger: a warrior wasting away through poverty, the intelligent treated with contempt, someone turning back from virtue to sin -- the Lord marks out such a person for a violent death.


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A peg will stick in the joint between two stones, and sin will wedge itself between selling and buying.


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The orchard where the tree grows is judged by its fruit, similarly words betray what a person feels.


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The talk of hard-swearing people makes your hair stand on end, their brawling makes you stop your ears.


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Be fond of a friend and keep faith with him, but if you have betrayed his secrets, do not go after him any more;


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and as you let a bird slip through your fingers, so you have let your friend go, and will not catch him.


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Honey-tongued to your face, he is lost in admiration at your words; but behind your back he has other things to say, and turns your words into a stumbling-block.


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Sarcasm and abuse are the mark of the arrogant, but vengeance lies in wait like a lion for such a one.


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The trap will close on all who rejoice in the downfall of the devout, and pain will eat them up before they die.


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Whoever exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord, who keeps strict account of sin.


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Remember the last things, and stop hating, corruption and death, and be faithful to the commandments.


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Remember the commandments, and do not bear your fellow ill-will, remember the covenant of the Most High, and ignore the offence.


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The way a fire burns depends on its fuel, a quarrel spreads in proportion to its violence; a man's rage depends on his strength, his fury grows fiercer in proportion to his wealth.


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A curse on the scandal-monger and double-talker, such a person has ruined many who lived in concord.


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That third tongue has shattered the peace of many and driven them from nation to nation; it has pulled down fortified cities, and overthrown the houses of the great.


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Blessed is anyone who has been sheltered from it, and has not experienced its fury, who has not dragged its yoke about, or been bound in its chains;


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Those who desert the Lord will fall into it, it will flare up inextinguishably among them, it will be let loose against them like a lion, it will tear them like a leopard.


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Making your neighbour a loan is an act of mercy, to lend him a helping hand is to keep the commandments.


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Until he gets something, a man will kiss his neighbour's hand, and refer diffidently to his wealth; but when the loan falls due, he puts this off, he repays with offhand words, and pleads the inconvenience of the time.


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Even if he can be made to pay, his creditor will recover barely half, and consider even that a windfall. But otherwise he will be cheated of his money, and undeservedly gain himself an enemy; the man will pay him back in curses and abuse, and with insults instead of honour.


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In obedience to the commandment, help the poor; do not turn the poor away empty-handed in their need.


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Whether you have little or much, be content with it, and you will not hear your household complaining.


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you do not belong, you receive no thanks for the drink you pour out and hear embittering words into the bargain:


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'Go away, stranger, make room for someone important; my brother is coming to stay, I need the house.'


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Whoever is strict with his son will reap the benefit, and be able to boast of him to his acquaintances.


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Bend his neck in youth, bruise his ribs while he is a child, or else he will grow stubborn and disobedient, and hurt you very deeply.


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What use is an offering to an idol which can neither eat nor smell? How describe someone pursued by the Lord's displeasure?


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Give your cares the slip, console your heart, chase sorrow far away; for sorrow has been the ruin of many, and is no use to anybody.


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The sleeplessness brought by wealth makes a person lose weight, the worry it causes drives away sleep.


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The worries of the daytime prevent you from sleeping, like a serious illness, they keep sleep at bay.


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Who has been through this test and emerged perfect? He may well be proud of that! Who has had the chance to sin and has not sinned, had the chance to do wrong and has not done it?


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If you are sitting down to a lavish table, do not display your greed, do not say, 'What a lot to eat!'


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Remember, it is bad to have a greedy eye. Is any creature more wicked than the eye? - That is why it is always weeping!


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Eat what is offered you like a well brought-up person, do not wolf your food or you will earn dislike.


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A moderate diet ensures sound sleep, one gets up early, in the best of spirits. Sleeplessness, biliousness and gripe are what the glutton has to endure.


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Listen to me, my child, do not disregard me, eventually you will see the force of my words. Be moderate in all your activities and illness will never overtake you.


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But a niggardly host provokes universal resentment and people will retail instances of his meanness.


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Wine gives life if drunk in moderation. What is life worth without wine? It came into being to make people happy.


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Drunkenness excites the stupid to a fury to his own harm, it reduces his strength while leading to blows.


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Do not provoke your fellow-guest at a wine feast, do not make fun of him when he is enjoying himself, do not take him to task or annoy him by reclaiming money owed.


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Have they made you the presider? Do not let it go to your head, behave like everyone else in the party, see that they are happy and then sit down yourself.


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Having discharged your duties, take your place so that your joy may be through theirs, and you may receive the crown for your competence.


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Among eminent people do not behave as though you were their equal; do not make frivolous remarks when someone else is speaking.


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Anyone who trusts in the Law obeys its precepts, no one who has confidence in the Lord will come to harm.


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An intelligent person will put faith in the Law, for such a one the Law is as dependable as a prophecy.


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Prepare what you have to say and you will get a hearing, marshal your information before you answer.


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in the fullness of his wisdom the Lord has made distinctions between them, and diversified their conditions.


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Some of them he has blessed, hallowing and setting them near him; others he has cursed and humiliated by degrading them from their positions.


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Like clay in the hands of the potter to mould as it pleases him, so are human beings in the hands of their Maker to reward as he judges right.


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Although the last to come, I have kept my eyes open like a man picking up what the grape-pickers have left.


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By the blessing of the Lord I have come in first, and like a true grape-picker have filled my winepress.


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Neither to son nor wife, brother nor friend, give power over yourself during your own lifetime. And do not give your property to anyone else, in case you regret it and have to ask for it back.


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Work your slave hard, and you will have peace of mind, leave his hands idle, and he will be asking for his freedom.


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Someone who has never had his trials knows little; but the travelled man is master of every situation.


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the spirit of those who fear the Lord can survive, for their hope is in someone with power to save them.


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The eyes of the Lord watch over those who love him, he is their powerful protection and their strong support, their screen from the desert wind, their shelter from the midday sun, a guard against stumbling, an assurance against a fall.


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The sacrifice of an offering unjustly acquired is a mockery; the gifts of the impious are unacceptable.


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The Most High takes no pleasure in offerings from the godless, multiplying sacrifices will not gain pardon for sin.


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Offering sacrifice from the property of the poor is as bad as slaughtering a son before his father's eyes.


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To take away a fellow-man's livelihood is to kill him, to deprive an employee of his wages is to shed blood.


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If one person prays and another calls down a curse, to which one's voice is the Master going to listen?


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If someone washes after touching a corpse, and then touches it again, what is the good of his washing?


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Just so with someone who fasts for sin, and then goes and commits it again. Who is going to hear that person's prayer? What is the good of the self-abasement?


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One who keeps the Law multiplies offerings; one who follows the commandments offers communion sacrifices.


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Do not appear empty-handed in the Lord's presence; for all these things are due under the commandment.


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Do not try to bribe him with presents, he will not accept them, do not put your faith in wrongly motivated sacrifices;


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He never shows partiality to the detriment of the poor, he listens to the plea of the injured party.


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nor will he desist until the Most High takes notice of him, acquits the upright and delivers judgement.


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Take pity on us, Master, Lord of the universe, look at us, spread fear of yourself throughout all other nations.


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As, in their sight, you have proved yourself holy to us, so now, in our sight, prove yourself great to them.


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A perverse character causes depression in others; it needs experience to know how to repay such a one.


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The man who takes a wife has the makings of a fortune, a helper to match himself, a pillar of support.


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When property has no fence, it is open to plunder, when a man has no wife, he is aimless and querulous.


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One kind of comrade congratulates a friend in prosperity but in time of trouble appears on the other side.


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Beware of someone who offers advice; first find out what he wants himself- since his advice coincides with his own interest -- in case he has designs on you


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Do not consult a woman about her rival, or a coward about war, a merchant about prices, or a buyer about selling, anyone mean about gratitude, or anyone selfish about kindness, a lazy fellow about any sort of work, or a casual worker about finishing a job, an idle servant about a major undertaking -- do not rely on these for any advice.


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But have constant recourse to some devout person, whom you know to be a keeper of the commandments, whose soul matches your own, and who, if you go wrong, will be sympathetic.


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During your life, my child, see what suits your constitution, do not give it what you find disagrees with it;


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Treat the doctor with the honour that is his due, in consideration of his services; for he too has been created by the Lord.


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Then let the doctor take over -- the Lord created him too -- do not let him leave you, for you need him.


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For they, in their turn, will pray the Lord to grant them the grace to relieve and to heal, and so prolong your life.


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My child, shed tears over the dead, lament for the dead to show your sorrow, then bury the body with due ceremony and do not fail to honour the grave.


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Weep bitterly, beat your breast, observe the mourning the dead deserves for a day or two, to avoid censorious comment, and then be comforted in your sorrow;


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Once the dead are laid to rest, let their memory rest, do not fret for them, once their spirit departs.


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How can the ploughman become wise, whose sole ambition is to wield the goad, driving his oxen, engrossed in their work, his conversation limited to bullocks,


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Similarly with all workmen and craftsmen, toiling day and night; those who engrave seals, for ever trying to think of a new design, concentrating on catching a good likeness and staying up late to get the work done.


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Similarly with the blacksmith sitting by his anvil; he considers what to do with the pig-iron, the breath of the fire scorches his skin, as he contends with the heat of the furnace; the noise of the hammer deafens him, his eyes are fixed on the pattern; he concentrates on getting the job done well and stays up late to apply the finishing touches.


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Similarly with the potter, sitting at his work, turning the wheel with his feet; constantly on the alert over his work, each flick of the finger premeditated;


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he pummels the clay with his arm, and with his feet he kneads it; he concentrates on applying the glaze right and stays up late to clean the kiln.


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But you will not find them in the parliament, they do not hold high rank in the assembly. They do not sit on the judicial bench, and they do not meditate on the Law.


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They are not remarkable for their culture or judgement, nor are they found frequenting the philosophers. They sustain the structure of the world, and their prayer is concerned with their trade.


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Not so with one who concentrates his mind and his meditation on the Law of the Most High. He researches into the wisdom of all the Ancients, he occupies his time with the prophecies.


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He enters the service of princes, he is seen in the presence of rulers. He travels in foreign countries, he has experienced human good and human evil.


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At dawn and with all his heart he turns to the Lord his Creator; he pleads in the presence of the Most High, he opens his mouth in prayer and makes entreaty for his sins.


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If such be the will of the great Lord, he will be filled with the spirit of intelligence, he will shower forth words of wisdom, and in prayer give thanks to the Lord.


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He will display the instruction he has received, taking his pride in the Law of the Lord's covenant.


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Many will praise his intelligence and it will never be forgotten. His memory will not disappear, generation after generation his name will live.


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If he lives long, his name will be more glorious than a thousand others, and if he dies, that will satisfy him just as well.


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Give off a sweet smell like incense, flower like the lily, spread your fragrance abroad, sing a song of praise blessing the Lord for all his works.


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Declare the greatness of his name, proclaim his praise with song and with lyre, and this is how you must sing his praises:


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'How wonderful, the actions of the Lord! Whatever he orders is done at the proper time!' You must not say, 'What is this? Why is that?' There is a proper time for every question.


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The prime needs of human beings for living are water and fire, iron and salt, wheat-flour, milk and honey, the juice of the grape, oil and clothing.


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Some winds have been created for punishing, in his fury, he uses them as scourges; on the day of doom, they unleash their violence and appease the wrath of their Creator.


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all of them exult in discharging his orders, ready on earth whenever the need arises and, when their time comes, not falling short of his word.


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A hard lot has been created for human beings, a heavy yoke lies on the children of Adam from the day they come out of their mother's womb, till the day they return to the mother of them all.


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from the one who wears purple and a crown to the one dressed in sacking, all is fury and jealousy, turmoil and unrest, fear of death, rivalry, strife.


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scarcely has he lain down to rest, when in his sleep, as if in broad daylight, he is troubled with nightmares, like one who has escaped from a battle,


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All that comes from the earth returns to the earth, and what comes from the water returns to the sea.


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For a person of private means and one who works hard, life is pleasant, better off than either, one who finds a treasure.


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Money and strength make a confident heart; better than either, the fear of the Lord. With fear of the Lord, nothing is lacking: no need to seek for other help.


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A life spent in eyeing someone else's table cannot be accounted a life at all. Other people's food defiles the gullet; a wise, well-brought-up person will beware of doing this.


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O death, how bitter it is to remember you for someone peacefully living with his possessions, for someone with no worries and everything going well and who can still enjoy his food!


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O death, your sentence is welcome to one in want, whose strength is failing, to one worn out with age and a thousand worries, resentful and impatient!


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This is the sentence passed on all living creatures by the Lord, so why object to what seems good to the Most High? Whether your life lasts ten or a hundred or a thousand years, its length will not be held against you in Sheol.


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The inheritance of sinners' children is doomed to perish, their posterity will endure lasting reproach.


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When you were born, you were born to be accursed, and when you die, that curse will be your portion.


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All that comes from the earth returns to the earth, so too the wicked proceed from curse to destruction.


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Mourning concerns only the bodies of the dead, but the worthless name of sinners will be blotted out.


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Keep my instructions and be at peace, my children. Wisdom hidden away and treasure undisplayed, what use is either of these?


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Preserve a sense of shame in the following matters, for not every kind of shame is right to harbour, nor is every situation correctly appraised by all.


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Be ashamed, before father and mother, of depraved behaviour, and before prince or potentate of telling lies;


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of sharp practice before your companion and your friend, and of theft before the neighbourhood you live in.


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of gaining from commercial transactions, of disciplining your children strictly, of lashing a wicked slave till you draw blood.


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With an interfering wife, it is as well to use your seal, and where there are many hands, lock things up.


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Whatever stores you issue, do it by number and weight, spendings and takings, put everything in writing.


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Do not be ashamed to correct a stupid person or a fool, or an old dotard who bickers with young people. Then you will show yourself really educated and win the approval of everyone.


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Unknown to her, a daughter keeps her father awake, the worry she gives him drives away his sleep: in her youth, in case she never marries, married, in case she should be disliked,


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as a virgin, in case she should be defiled and found with child in her father's house, having a husband, in case she goes astray, married, in case she should be sterile!


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Your daughter is headstrong? Keep a sharp look-out that she does not make you the laughing-stock of your enemies, the talk of the town, the object of common gossip, and put you to public shame.


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Next, I shall remind you of the works of the Lord, and tell of what I have seen. By the words of the Lord his works come into being and all creation obeys his will.


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The Lord has not granted the Holy Ones the power to tell of all his marvels which the Almighty Lord has solidly constructed for the universe to stand firm in his glory.


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He has fathomed both the abyss and the human heart and seen into their devious ways; for the Most High knows all there is to know and sees the signs of the times.


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He has embellished the magnificent works of his wisdom, he is from everlasting to everlasting, nothing can be added to him, nothing taken away, he needs no one's advice.


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Pride of the heights, a clear vault of the sky -- such is the beauty of the heavens, a glorious sight.


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The sun, as he emerges, proclaims at his rising, 'How wonderful a thing, the work of the Most High!'


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We have to blow the furnace to produce any heat, the sun burns the mountains three times as much; breathing out blasts of fire, flashing his rays, he dazzles the eyes.


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The month derives its name from hers, she waxes wonderfully in her phases, banner of the hosts on high, shining in the vault of heaven.


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at the sight of him, the mountains quake. At his will the south wind blows, or the storm from the north and the whirlwind.


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He sprinkles snow like birds alighting, it comes down like locusts settling. The eye marvels at the beauty of its whiteness, and the mind is amazed at its falling.


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The cold wind blows from the north, and ice forms on the water; it forms on every piece of standing water, covering it like a breastplate.


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Where shall we find sufficient power to glorify him, since he is the Great One, above all his works,


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Exalt the Lord in your praises as high as you may -- still he surpasses you. Exert all your strength when you exalt him, do not grow tired -- you will never come to the end.


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Some wielded authority as kings and were renowned for their strength; others were intelligent advisers and uttered prophetic sayings.


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Others directed the people by their advice, by their understanding of the popular mind, and by the wise words of their teaching;


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While others have left no memory, and disappeared as though they had not existed. They are now as though they had never been, and so too, their children after them.


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Enoch pleased the Lord and was transferred to heaven, an example for the conversion of all generations.


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Noah was found perfectly upright, in the time of retribution he became the heir: because of him a remnant was preserved for the earth at the coming of the Flood.


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Everlasting covenants were made with him that never again should every living creature perish by flood.


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He observed the Law of the Most High, and entered into a covenant with him. He confirmed the covenant in his own flesh, and proved himself faithful under ordeal.


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The Lord therefore promised him on oath to bless the nations through his descendants, to multiply him like the dust on the ground, to exalt his descendants like the stars, and to give them the land as their heritage, from one sea to the other, from the River to the ends of the earth.


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the blessing of all humanity; he caused the covenant to rest on the head of Jacob. He confirmed him in his blessings and gave him the land as his inheritance; he divided it into portions, and shared it out among the twelve tribes.


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From Jacob's stock he produced a generous man who found favour in the eyes of all humanity, beloved by God and people, Moses, of blessed memory.


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By the word of Moses, he made prodigies cease and raised him high in the respect of kings; he gave him commandments for his people, and showed him something of his glory.


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he gave him the commandments face to face, the law of life and knowledge, to teach Jacob his ordinances and Israel his decrees. He raised up Aaron, a holy man like Moses, his brother, of the tribe of Levi.


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He made an everlasting covenant with him, and gave him the priesthood of the people. He adorned him with impressive vestments, he dressed him in a robe of glory.


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He clothed him in glorious perfection and invested him with rich ornaments, the breeches, the long robe, the ephod.


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To surround the robe he gave him pomegranates, and many gold bells all round to chime at every step, for their sound to be heard in the Temple as a reminder to the children of his people;


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and a sacred vestment of gold and aquamarine and scarlet, the work of an embroiderer; the pectoral of judgement, the urim and thummim, of plaited crimson, the work of a craftsman;


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precious stones cut like seals mounted in gold, the work of a jeweller, as a reminder with their engraved inscriptions of the number of the tribes of Israel;


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and a golden diadem on his turban, engraved with the seal of consecration; superb ornamentation, magnificent work, adornment to delight the eye.


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There had never been such lovely things before him, and no one else has ever put them on, but only his own sons, and his descendants for all time.


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Moses consecrated him and anointed him with holy oil; and this was an everlasting covenant for him, and for his descendants as long as the heavens endure, that he should preside over worship, act as priest, and bless the people in the name of the Lord.


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He chose him out of all the living to offer sacrifices to the Lord, incense and perfume as a memorial to make expiation for the people.


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He entrusted him with his commandments, committed to him the statutes of the Law for him to teach Jacob his decrees and enlighten Israel on his Law.


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Others plotted against him, they were jealous of him in the desert, Dathan and Abiram and their men, Korah and his crew in fury and rage.


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The Lord saw it and was displeased, his raging fury made an end of them; he worked miracles on them, consuming them by his flaming fire.


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And he added to Aaron's glory, he gave him an inheritance; he allotted him the offerings of the first-fruits, before all else, as much bread as he could want.


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But of the people's territory he inherits nothing, he alone of all the people has no share, 'For I myself am your share and heritage.'


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Phinehas son of Eleazar is third in glory because of his zeal in the fear of the Lord, because he stood firm when the people revolted, with a staunch and courageous heart; and in this way made expiation for Israel.


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Hence a covenant of peace was sealed with him, making him governor of both sanctuary and people, and securing to him and his descendants the high priestly dignity for ever.


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There was also a covenant with David son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, a royal succession by exclusively linear descent, but the succession of Aaron passes to all his descendants.


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May God endow your hearts with wisdom to judge his people uprightly, so that the virtues of your ancestors may never fade, and their glory may pass to all their descendants!


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Mighty in war was Joshua son of Nun, successor to Moses in the prophetic office, who well deserved his name, and was a great saviour of the chosen people, wreaking vengeance on the enemies who opposed him, and so bringing Israel into its inheritance.


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He called on the Most High, the Mighty One, while pressing the enemies from all directions, and the great Lord answered him with hard and violent hailstones.


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He fell on that enemy nation, and at the Descent destroyed all resistance to make the nations acknowledge his warlike prowess and that he was waging war on behalf of the Lord.


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For he was a follower of the Mighty One, in the time of Moses showing his devotion, he and Caleb son of Jephunneh, by opposing the whole community, by preventing the people from sinning, and by silencing the mutters of rebellion.


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Hence these two alone were preserved out of six hundred thousand men on the march, and brought into their inheritance, into a land where milk and honey flow.


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And the Lord conferred strength on Caleb too, which stayed by him into old age, so that he could invest the highlands of the country which his descendants kept as their inheritance,


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The Judges too, each when he was called, all men whose hearts were never disloyal, who never turned their backs on the Lord -- may their memory be blessed!


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May their bones flourish again from the tomb, and may the names of those illustrious men be worthily borne by their sons!


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Samuel was the beloved of his Lord; prophet of the Lord, he instituted the kingdom, and anointed rulers over his people.


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He called on the Lord, the Mighty One, when his enemies pressed in from all directions, by offering a sucking lamb.


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Before the time of his everlasting rest he bore witness to the Lord and his anointed, 'Of no property, not even a pair of sandals, have I ever deprived a soul.' Nor did anyone accuse him.


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And, having fallen asleep, he prophesied again, warning the king of his end; he spoke from the depths of the earth in prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of the people.


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While still a boy, did he not slay the giant and take away the people's shame, by hurling a stone from his sling and cutting short the boasting of Goliath?


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For he called on the Lord Most High, who gave strength to his right arm to put a mighty warrior to death and assert the strength of his own people.


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Hence they gave him credit for ten thousand, and praised him while they blessed the Lord, by offering him a crown of glory.


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For he destroyed the enemies on every front, he annihilated his foes, the Philistines, and crushed their strength for ever.


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In all his activities he gave thanks to the Holy One Most High in words of glory; he put all his heart into his songs out of love for his Creator.


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he gave the feasts their splendour, the festivals their solemn pomp, causing the Lord's holy name to be praised and the sanctuary to resound from dawn.


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The Lord took away his sins, making his strength ever greater; he gave him a royal covenant, and a glorious throne in Israel.


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Solomon reigned in a time of peace, and God gave him peace all round so that he could raise a house to his name and prepare an everlasting sanctuary.


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In the name of the Lord God, of him who is called the God of Israel, you amassed gold like so much tin, and made silver as common as lead.


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You stained your honour, you profaned your stock, so bringing retribution on your children and affliction for your folly:


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But the Lord never goes back on his mercy, never cancels any of his words, will neither deny offspring to his elect nor stamp out the line of the man who loved him. And hence, he has granted a remnant to Jacob and to David a root sprung from him.


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Solomon rested with his ancestors, leaving one of his stock as his successor, the stupidest member of the nation, brainless Rehoboam, who drove the people to rebel.


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Next, Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, and set Ephraim on the way of evil; from then on their sins multiplied so excessively as to drive them out of their country;


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designated in the prophecies of doom to allay God's wrath before the fury breaks, to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children, and to restore the tribes of Jacob.


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Blessed, those who will see you, and those who have fallen asleep in love; for we too shall certainly have life.


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Such was Elijah, who was enveloped in a whirlwind; and Elisha was filled with his spirit; throughout his life no ruler could shake him, and no one could subdue him.


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Despite all this the people did not repent, nor did they give up their sins, until they were herded out of their country and scattered all over the earth;


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only a few of the people were left, with a ruler of the House of David. Some of them did what pleased the Lord, others piled sin on sin.


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Hezekiah fortified his city, and laid on a water-supply inside it; with iron he tunnelled through the rock and constructed storage-tanks.


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In his days Sennacherib invaded and sent Rabshakeh; he lifted his hand against Zion, and boasted loudly in his arrogance.


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but they called on the merciful Lord, stretching out their hands towards him. Swiftly the Holy One heard them from heaven and delivered them by the agency of Isaiah;


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For Hezekiah did what is pleasing to the Lord, and was steadfast in the ways of David his father, enjoined on him by the prophet Isaiah, a great man trustworthy in his vision.


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The memory of Josiah is like blended incense prepared by the perfumer's art; it is as sweet as honey to all mouths, and like music at a wine feast.


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Apart from David, Hezekiah and Josiah, they all heaped wrong on wrong, they abandoned the Law of the Most High: the kings of Judah disappeared;


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as Jeremiah had predicted; for they had ill-treated him, though consecrated a prophet in his mother's womb, to tear up and afflict and destroy, but also to build up and to plant.


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Ezekiel saw a vision of glory which God showed to him above the chariot of the great winged creatures,


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As for the twelve prophets, may their bones flower again from the tomb, since they have comforted Jacob and redeemed him in faith and hope.


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so too was Joshua son of Jozadak; they who in their days built the Temple and raised a sanctuary sacred to the Lord, destined to everlasting glory.


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Great too is the memory of Nehemiah, who rebuilt our walls which lay in ruins, erected the bolted gates and rebuilt our houses.


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And no one else ever born has been like Joseph, the leader of his brothers, the prop of his people; his bones received a visitation.


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It was the High Priest Simon son of Onias who repaired the Temple during his lifetime and in his day fortified the sanctuary.


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like the sun shining on the Temple of the Most High, like the rainbow gleaming against brilliant clouds,


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like fire and incense in the censer, like a massive golden vessel encrusted with every kind of precious stone,


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when he took his ceremonial robe and put on his magnificent ornaments, when he went up to the holy altar and filled the sanctuary precincts with his grandeur;


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when he received the portions from the hands of the priests, himself standing by the altar hearth, crowned with the circle of his brothers, as a cedar of Lebanon is by its foliage, as though surrounded by the trunks of palm trees.


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When all the sons of Aaron in their glory, with the offerings of the Lord in their hands, stood before the whole assembly of Israel,


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while he completed the rites at the altars, nobly presenting the offerings to the Almighty, Most High!


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He would reach out his hand to the cup and pour a libation of wine, pouring it at the foot of the altar, a fragrance pleasing to the Most High, King of All;


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then the sons of Aaron would shout and blow their metal trumpets, making a mighty sound ring out as a reminder before the Most High;


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and immediately the people all together would fall on their faces to the ground, in adoration of their Lord, the Almighty, God Most High,


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as the people pleaded with the Lord Most High and prayed in the presence of the Merciful, until the service of the Lord was completed and the ceremony at an end.


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Then he would come down and raise his hands over the whole assembly of the Israelites, to give them the Lord's blessing from his lips, being privileged to pronounce his name;


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And now bless the God of all things, the doer of great deeds everywhere, who has exalted our days from the womb and has acted mercifully towards us.


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Instruction in wisdom and knowledge is what has been written in this book by Jesus son of Sira Eleazar of Jerusalem, who has poured a rain of wisdom from his heart.


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If he practises them he will be strong enough for anything, since the light of the Lord is his path.


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I shall give thanks to you, Lord and King, and praise you, God my Saviour, I give thanks to your name;


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for you have been my guard and support and redeemed my body from destruction, from the snare of the lying tongue, from lips that fabricate falsehood; in the presence of my assailants, you were on my side; you have been my support, you have redeemed me,


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true to your abounding kindness -- and the greatness of your name -- you liberated me from the fangs of those seeking to devour me, from the clutches of those seeking my life, from the many ordeals which I have endured,


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treacherous denunciations to the king. My soul has been close to death, my life had gone down to the brink of Sheol.


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I was completely surrounded, there was no one to help me; I looked for someone to help me, there was no one.


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Then I remembered your mercy, Lord, and your deeds from earliest times, how you deliver those who wait for you patiently, and save them from the clutches of their enemies.


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I called on the Lord, the father of my Lord, 'Do not desert me in the days of ordeal, in the days of the proud, when we are helpless. I shall praise your name unceasingly and gratefully sing its praises.'


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From her blossoming to the ripening of her grape my heart has taken its delight in her. My foot has pursued a straight path, I have sought her ever since my youth.


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For I was determined to put her into practice, have earnestly pursued the good, and shall not be put to shame.


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My soul has fought to possess her, I have been scrupulous in keeping the Law; I have stretched out my hands to heaven and bewailed how little I knew of her;


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I have directed my soul towards her, and in purity I have found her; having my heart fixed on her from the outset, I shall never be deserted;


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Do your work before the appointed time and at the appointed time he will give you your reward. (Subscript:) Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sira.


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The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he received in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah.


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Listen, you heavens; earth, attend, for Yahweh is speaking, 'I have reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.


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The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; Israel does not know, my people do not understand.'


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Disaster, sinful nation, people weighed down with guilt, race of wrong-doers, perverted children! They have abandoned Yahweh, despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from him.


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Where shall I strike you next, if you persist in treason? The whole head is sick, the whole heart is diseased,


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from the sole of the foot to the head there is nothing healthy: only wounds, bruises and open sores not dressed, not bandaged, not soothed with ointment,


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your country a desolation, your towns burnt down, your soil, foreigners lay it waste before your eyes, a desolation like devastation by foreigners.


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The daughter of Zion is left like a shanty in a vineyard, like a shed in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.


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Had Yahweh Sabaoth not left us a few survivors, we should be like Sodom, we should be the same as Gomorrah.


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'What are your endless sacrifices to me?' says Yahweh. 'I am sick of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of calves. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.


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Bring no more futile cereal offerings, the smoke from them fills me with disgust. New Moons, Sabbaths, assemblies -- I cannot endure solemnity combined with guilt.


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When you stretch out your hands I turn my eyes away. You may multiply your prayers, I shall not be listening. Your hands are covered in blood,


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Learn to do good, search for justice, discipline the violent, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.


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'Come, let us talk this over,' says Yahweh. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.


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The faithful city, what a harlot she has become! Zion, once full of fair judgement, where saving justice used to dwell, but now assassins!


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Your princes are rebels, accomplices of brigands. All of them greedy for presents and eager for bribes, they show no justice to the orphan, and the widow's cause never reaches them.


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Hence, the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth, the Mighty One of Israel, says this, 'Disaster, I shall get the better of my enemies, I shall avenge myself on my foes.


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'I shall turn my hand against you, I shall purge your dross as though with potash, I shall remove all your alloy.


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'And I shall restore your judges as at first, your counsellors as in bygone days, after which you will be called City of Saving Justice, Faithful City.'


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How ashamed you will be of the terebinths which gave you such delight; and how you will blush for the gardens which you chose!


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the strong will become like tinder, his work like the spark; both will go up in flames together, with no one to put them out.


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It will happen in the final days that the mountain of Yahweh's house will rise higher than the mountains and tower above the heights. Then all the nations will stream to it,


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many peoples will come to it and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.' For the Law will issue from Zion and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.


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Then he will judge between the nations and arbitrate between many peoples. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, no longer will they learn how to make war.


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You have rejected your people, the House of Jacob, for it has long been full of sorcerers like the Philistines, and is overrun with foreigners.


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The country is full of silver and gold and treasures unlimited, the country is full of horses, its chariots are unlimited;


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the country is full of idols. They bow down before the work of their hands, before what their own fingers have made.


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Go into the rock, hide in the dust, in terror of Yahweh, at the brilliance of his majesty, when he arises to make the earth quake.


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Human pride will lower its eyes, human arrogance will be humbled, and Yahweh alone will be exalted, on that day.


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That will be a day for Yahweh Sabaoth, for all who are majestic and haughty, for all who are proud, to be brought low,


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Human pride will be humbled, human arrogance brought low, and Yahweh alone will be exalted, on that day.


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they will go into the caverns of the rocks and into the fissures of the earth in terror of Yahweh, at the brilliance of his majesty, when he arises to make the earth quake.


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That day, people will fling to moles and bats the silver idols and golden idols which have been made for them to worship,


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and go into the crevices of the rocks and the clefts in the cliffs, in terror of Yahweh, at the brilliance of his majesty, when he arises to make the earth quake.


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Have no more to do with humankind, which has only the breath in its nostrils. How much is this worth?


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Now the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth is about to deprive Jerusalem and Judah of resources and provisions -- all reserves of food, all reserves of water-


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People will be ill-treated by one another, each by his neighbour; the young will insult the aged, and the low, the respected.


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Yes, a man will catch hold of his brother in their father's house, to say, 'You have a cloak, so you be leader, and rule this heap of ruins.'


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And, that day, the other will protest, 'I am no healer; in my house there is neither food nor clothing; do not make me leader of the people.'


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For Jerusalem has collapsed and Judah has fallen, because their words and deeds affront Yahweh and insult his glorious gaze.


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Their complacency bears witness against them, they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not conceal it, all the worse for them, for they have hatched their own downfall.


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O my people, their oppressors pillage them and extortioners rule over them! O my people, your rulers mislead you and efface the paths you ought to follow!


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Yahweh is about to try the elders and the princes of his people, 'You are the ones who have ravaged the vineyard, the spoils of the poor are in your houses.


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By what right do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?' says the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth.


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Yahweh says: Because Zion's daughters are proud and walk with heads held high and enticing eyes -- with mincing steps they go, jingling the bangles on their feet-


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Then, instead of perfume, a stink; instead of belt, a rope, instead of hair elaborately dressed, a shaven scalp, instead of gorgeous clothes, sacking round the waist, and brand marks instead of beauty.


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That day, seven women will catch hold of one man and say, 'We will eat our own food, and wear our own clothing, but just let us bear your name. Take our disgrace away.'


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That day, Yahweh's seedling will turn to beauty and glory, what the earth brings forth will turn to the pride and ornament of Israel's survivors.


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Those who are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem will be called holy, all those in Jerusalem noted down to live.


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When the Lord has washed away the filth of Zion's daughters and with the wind of judgement and the wind of burning cleansed Jerusalem of the blood shed in her,


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Yahweh will create, over every house on Mount Zion and over those who assemble there, a cloud by day, and by night smoke with the brightness of a flaring fire. For over all will be the Glory as canopy


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Let me sing my beloved the song of my friend for his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.


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He dug it, cleared it of stones, and planted it with red grapes. In the middle he built a tower, he hewed a press there too. He expected it to yield fine grapes: wild grapes were all it yielded.


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What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done? Why, when I expected it to yield fine grapes, has it yielded wild ones?


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Very well, I shall tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I shall take away its hedge, for it to be grazed on, and knock down its wall, for it to be trampled on.


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I shall let it go to waste, unpruned, undug, overgrown by brambles and thorn-bushes, and I shall command the clouds to rain no rain on it.


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Now, the vineyard of Yahweh Sabaoth is the House of Israel, and the people of Judah the plant he cherished. He expected fair judgement, but found injustice, uprightness, but found cries of distress.


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Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is nowhere left and they are the sole inhabitants of the country.


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Yahweh Sabaoth has sworn this in my hearing, 'Many houses will be brought to ruin, great and fine ones left untenanted;


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for ten acres of vineyard will yield only one barrel, and ten bushel of seed will yield only one bushel.'


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Woe to those who get up early to go after strong drink, and stay up late at night inflamed with wine.


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Nothing but harp and lyre, tambourine and pipe, and wine for their drinking bouts. Never a thought for the works of Yahweh, never a glance for what his hands have done.


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That is why my people is in exile, for want of perception; her dignitaries starving, her populace parched with thirst.


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That is why Sheol opens wide its throat and gapes with measureless jaw and down go her noblemen and populace and her loud revellers merry to the last!


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Yahweh Sabaoth is the more respected for his judgement, God the Holy One has displayed his holiness by his justice!


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Now the lambs will graze in their old pastures, and the fields laid waste by fat cattle will feed the kids.


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Woe to those who drag guilt along by the reins of duplicity, drag along sin as though with a cart rope;


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to those who say, 'Why doesn't he do his work quickly so that we can see it; why doesn't the Holy One of Israel's design hurry up and come true so that we can experience it?'


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Woe to those who call what is bad, good, and what is good, bad, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.


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Yes, as the flame devours the stubble, as the straw flares up and disappears, their root will be like decay and their shoot be carried off like dust, for having rejected the law of Yahweh Sabaoth, for having despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.


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This is why Yahweh's anger has blazed out against his people; and he has raised his hand against them to strike them; why the mountains have shuddered and why corpses are lying like dung in the streets. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!


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He hoists a signal for a distant nation, he whistles them up from the ends of the earth; and see how swift, how fleet they come!


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None of them tired, none of them stumbling, none of them asleep or drowsy, none of them with belt unfastened, none of them with broken sandal-strap.


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Their arrows are sharpened, their bows all strung, their horses' hoofs you would think were flint and their wheels, a whirlwind!


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Their roar is like that of a lioness, like fierce young lions they roar, growling they seize their prey and carry it off, with no one to prevent it,


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growling at it, that day, like the growling of the sea. Only look at the country: darkness and distress, and the light turned to darkness by the clouds.


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In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; his train filled the sanctuary.


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Above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings: two to cover its face, two to cover its feet and two for flying;


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and they were shouting these words to each other: Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth. His glory fills the whole earth.


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Then I said: 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh Sabaoth.'


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Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in its hand a live coal which it had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.


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With this it touched my mouth and said: 'Look, this has touched your lips, your guilt has been removed and your sin forgiven.'


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I then heard the voice of the Lord saying: 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I, send me.'


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He said: 'Go, and say to this people, "Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive!"


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Make this people's heart coarse, make their ears dull, shut their eyes tight, or they will use their eyes to see, use their ears to hear, use their heart to understand, and change their ways and be healed.'


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I then said, 'Until when, Lord?' He replied, 'Until towns are in ruins and deserted, houses untenanted and a great desolation reigns in the land,


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And suppose one-tenth of them are left in it, that will be stripped again, like the terebinth, like the oak, cut back to the stock; their stock is a holy seed.'


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In the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah, Razon king of Aram advanced on Jerusalem with Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, to attack it; but he was unable to attack it.


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The House of David was informed: 'Aram has halted in Ephraimite territory.' At this, his heart and his people's hearts shook like forest trees shaking in the wind.


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Yahweh then said to Isaiah, 'Go out with your son Shear-Jashub, and meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the Fuller's Field,


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and say to him, "Pay attention and keep calm. Do not be frightened or demoralised by these two smouldering sticks of firewood, by the fierce anger of Razon, Aram and the son of Remaliah,


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Let us mount an attack on Judah, destroy it, force it onto our side and install the son of Tabeel there as king.


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for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Razon; another sixty-five years, and Ephraim will cease to be a people.


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The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not take your stand on me you will not stand firm." '


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He then said: Listen now, House of David: are you not satisfied with trying human patience that you should try my God's patience too?


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The Lord will give you a sign in any case: It is this: the young woman is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.


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Before the child knows how to refuse the bad and choose the good, the lands whose two kings are frightening you will be deserted.


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Yahweh will bring times for you, your people and your ancestral House, such as have not been seen since Ephraim broke away from Judah (the king of Assyria).


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When that day comes, Yahweh will whistle up mosquitoes from the distant streams of Egypt and bees from the land of Assyria,


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and they will all come and settle on the streams in the gullies, in the holes in the rocks, on all the thorn-bushes and on all the water-points.


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That day the Lord will shave, with a razor hired from the other side of the River (with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the leg, and take off the beard, too.


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and because of the abundant milk they give (on curds will he feed) all who are left in the country will feed on curds and honey.


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When that day comes, wherever there used to be a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver, all will be brambles and thorn-bushes;


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to be ventured into only with arrows and bow, for the country will be nothing but brambles and thorn-bushes.


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No more will you venture on any hillside formerly under the hoe for fear of the brambles and thorn-bushes; it will be fit only for pasturing the cattle, a tramping-ground for sheep.


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Yahweh said to me, 'Take a large tablet and on it with an ordinary stylus write, "Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz".


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I then had intercourse with the prophetess, who then conceived and gave birth to a son. Yahweh said to me, 'Call him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,


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for before the child knows how to say "mother" or "father", the wealth of Damascus and the booty of Samaria will be carried away while the king of Assyria looks on.'


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'Since this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah which flow smoothly, and has trembled before Razon and the son of Remaliah,


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now, against it, the Lord will bring the mighty, swelling waters of the River (the king of Assyria and all his glory); the River will flood up all its channels and overflow all its banks;


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it will flow into Judah, flooding everything and passing on; it will reach right up to the neck, and the spreading of its wings will cover the whole extent of your country, Immanuel!


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Realise this, peoples, and be afraid, listen, all members of far-off nations! Arm yourselves yet be afraid! Arm yourselves yet be afraid!


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Devise plans as you may: they will come to nothing! Make what pronouncements you like; it will not come about! For God is with us!'


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For this was how Yahweh spoke to me when his hand seized hold of me and he taught me not to follow the path of this people, saying,


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'Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy; do not dread what they dread, have no fear of that.


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He will be a sanctuary, a stumbling-stone, a rock to trip up the two Houses of Israel; a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem,


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Look, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me shall become signs and portents in Israel on behalf of Yahweh Sabaoth who dwells on Mount Zion.


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And should people say to you, 'Go and consult ghosts and wizards that whisper and mutter' -- a people should certainly consult its gods and the dead on behalf of the living!


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As regards instruction and testimony, without doubt this is how they will talk, and hence there will be no dawn for them.


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Oppressed and starving he will wander the country; and, once starving, he will become frenzied and curse his king and his God; turning his gaze upward,


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For is not everything dark as night for a country in distress? As the past humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, so the future will glorify the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, the territory of the nations.


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The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on the inhabitants of a country in shadow dark as death light has blazed forth.


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You have enlarged the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at harvest time, as they exult when they are dividing the spoils.


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For the yoke that weighed on it, the bar across its shoulders, the rod of its oppressor, these you have broken as on the day of Midian.


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For all the footgear clanking over the ground and all the clothing rolled in blood, will be burnt, will be food for the flames.


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For a son has been born for us, a son has been given to us, and dominion has been laid on his shoulders; and this is the name he has been given, 'Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace'


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to extend his dominion in boundless peace, over the throne of David and over his kingdom to make it secure and sustain it in fair judgement and integrity. From this time onwards and for ever, the jealous love of Yahweh Sabaoth will do this.


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and the people will all soon know it, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in the pride of their arrogant hearts,


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'The bricks have fallen down but we shall rebuild with dressed stone; the sycamores have been felled but we shall replace them with cedars.'


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Aram to the east, Philistines to the west, to devour Israel with gaping jaws. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!


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Hence the Lord will no longer take delight in their young people, or pity on their orphans and widows, since all of them are godless and evil, and everything they say is madness. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!


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Yes, wickedness has been burning like a fire, devouring bramble and thorn-bush, setting the forest thickets ablaze -- up they go in billowing smoke!


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The country has been set on fire by the fury of Yahweh Sabaoth, and the people are like food for the flames. No one spares a thought for his brother.


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They have sliced to the right and are still hungry, they have eaten to the left and are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm.


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Manasseh devours Ephraim, Ephraim Manasseh, together they turn against Judah. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!


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to deny justice to the weak and to cheat the humblest of my people of fair judgement, to make widows their prey and to rob the orphan.


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What will you do on the day of punishment, when disaster comes from far away? To whom will you run for help and where will you leave your riches,


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to avoid squatting among the captives or falling among the slain? After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!


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I was sending him against a godless nation, commissioning him against the people who enraged me, to pillage and plunder at will and trample on them like the mud in the streets.


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But this was not his intention nor did his heart plan it so, for he dreamed of putting an end to them, of liquidating nations without number!


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As my hand has found the kingdoms of the false gods, where there were more images than in Jerusalem and Samaria,


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When the Lord has completed all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the fruit of the king of Assyria's boastful heart and the insolence of his haughty looks.


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For he thinks: 'By the strength of my own arm I have done this and by my own wisdom: how intelligent I have been! I have abolished the frontiers between peoples, I have plundered their treasures, like a hero, I have subjugated their inhabitants.


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My hand has found, as though a bird's nest, the riches of the peoples. Like someone collecting deserted eggs, I have collected the whole world while no one has fluttered a wing or opened a beak to squawk.'


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Does the axe claim more credit than the man who wields it, or the saw more strength than the man who handles it? As though a staff controlled those who raise it, or the club could raise what is not made of wood!


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That is why Yahweh Sabaoth is going to inflict leanness on his stout men, and beneath his glory kindle a fever burning like a fire.


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The light of Israel will become a fire and its Holy One a flame burning and devouring his thorn-bushes and brambles in a day.


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He will consume his luxuriant forest and productive ground, he will ravage body and soul: it will be like a consumptive wasting away;


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When that day comes, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the House of Jacob will stop relying on the man who strikes them and will truly rely on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.


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Israel, though your people are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return: a destruction has been decreed which will make justice overflow,


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That is why the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth says this: My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria! He may strike you with the rod, he may raise the club against you (on the way from Egypt),


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Yahweh Sabaoth will brandish a whip at him as he struck Midian at Oreb's Rock, will brandish his rod at the Sea as he raised it on the way from Egypt.


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When that day comes, his burden will fall from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed . . .


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They have passed through the defile, they have bivouacked at Geba. Ramah quaked, Gibeah of Saul has fled.


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This very day, as he halts at Nob, he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.


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See how the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth violently lops off the foliage! The ones standing highest are cut down, the proudest are laid low!


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On him will rest the spirit of Yahweh, the spirit of wisdom and insight, the spirit of counsel and power, the spirit of knowledge and fear of Yahweh:


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his inspiration will lie in fearing Yahweh. His judgement will not be by appearances. his verdict not given on hearsay.


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He will judge the weak with integrity and give fair sentence for the humblest in the land. He will strike the country with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips bring death to the wicked.


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The wolf will live with the lamb, the panther lie down with the kid, calf, lion and fat-stock beast together, with a little boy to lead them.


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The cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like the ox.


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No hurt, no harm will be done on all my holy mountain, for the country will be full of knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea.


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That day, the root of Jesse, standing as a signal for the peoples, will be sought out by the nations and its home will be glorious.


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When that day comes, the Lord will raise his hand a second time to ransom the remnant of his people, those still left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, Cush and Elam, from Shinar, Hamath and the islands of the Sea.


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He will hoist a signal for the nations and assemble the outcasts of Israel; he will gather the scattered people of Judah from the four corners of the earth.


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Then Ephraim's jealousy will cease and Judah's enemies be suppressed; Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah nor Judah any longer hostile to Ephraim,


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but together they will swoop on the Philistines' back, to the west, and together pillage the people of the east. Edom and Moab will be subject to their sway and the Ammonites will obey them.


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Then Yahweh will dry up the gulf of the Sea of Egypt, he will raise his hand against the River with the heat of his breath. He will divide it into seven streams for them to cross dry-shod.


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And there will be a highway for the remnant of his people for those still left, from Assyria, as there was for Israel when he came out of Egypt.


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And, that day, you will say: 'I praise you, Yahweh, you have been angry with me but your anger is now appeased and you have comforted me.


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Look, he is the God of my salvation: I shall have faith and not be afraid, for Yahweh is my strength and my song, he has been my salvation.'


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and, that day, you will say, 'Praise Yahweh, invoke his name. Proclaim his deeds to the people, declare his name sublime.


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Cry and shout for joy, you who live in Zion, For the Holy One of Israel is among you in his greatness.'


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I have issued orders to my sacred warriors, I have summoned my heroes to serve my anger, my proud champions.


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The noise of a great crowd in the mountains, like an immense people, the tumultuous sound of kingdoms, of nations mustering: it is Yahweh Sabaoth marshalling the troops for battle.


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They come from a distant country, from the far horizons, Yahweh and the instruments of his fury to lay the whole country waste.


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they are panic-stricken, seized with pains and convulsions; they writhe like a woman in labour, they look at one another appalled, with feverish faces.


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Look, the Day of Yahweh is coming, merciless, with wrath and burning anger, to reduce the country to a desert and root out the sinners from it.


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For in the sky the stars and Orion will shed their light no longer, the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will no longer give its light.


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I am going to punish the world for its wickedness and the wicked for their guilt, and put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humble the haughtiness of despots.


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This is why I am going to shake the heavens, why the earth will reel on its foundations, under the wrath of Yahweh Sabaoth, the day when his anger ignites.


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Then like a hunted gazelle, like sheep that nobody gathers in, everyone will head back to his people, everyone will flee to his native land.


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Look, against them I am stirring up the Medes who care nothing for silver, who set no value by gold.


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Bows will annihilate the young men, they will have no pity for the fruit of the womb, or mercy in their eyes for children.


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And Babylon, that pearl of kingdoms, that splendid jewel of the Chaldaeans, will, like Sodom and Gomorrah, be overthrown by God.


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Never again will anyone live there or reside there for all generations to come. Never again will the Arab pitch his tent there, or the shepherds bring their flocks to rest.


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But beasts of the desert will make their haunt there and owls fill their houses, there ostriches will settle their home, there goats will dance.


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Hyenas will howl in its towers, jackals in its delightful palaces, for its doom is about to come and its days will not last long.


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Yahweh will have pity on Jacob, he will choose Israel once more and resettle them on their native soil. Foreigners will join them, attaching themselves to the House of Jacob.


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Peoples will take them and escort them home, and the House of Israel will take them as slaves, men and women on Yahweh's soil. They will enslave those who enslaved them and will master their oppressors.


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When that day comes, and Yahweh gives you rest from your suffering and torment and the grim servitude to which you have been subjected,


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you will recite this satire on the king of Babylon and say: 'How did the tyrant end? How did his arrogance end?


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furiously lashing peoples with continual blows, angrily hammering nations, pursuing without respite.


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the cypresses, the cedars of Lebanon, rejoice aloud at your fate, "Now that you have been laid low, no one comes up to fell us."


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'On your account, Sheol below is astir to greet your arrival. He has roused the ghosts to greet you, all the rulers of the world. He has made all the kings of the nations get up from their thrones.


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They will all greet you with the words, "So, you too are now as weak as we are! You, too, have become like us.


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Your pride has been flung down to Sheol with the music of your lyres; under you a mattress of maggots, over you a blanket of worms.


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How did you come to fall from the heavens, Daystar, son of Dawn? How did you come to be thrown to the ground, conqueror of nations?


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You who used to think to yourself: I shall scale the heavens; higher than the stars of God I shall set my throne. I shall sit on the Mount of Assembly far away to the north.


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'When they see you, they will scrutinise you and consider what you have become, "Is this the man who made the world tremble, who overthrew kingdoms?


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but you have been thrown away, unburied, like a loathsome branch, covered with heaps of the slain pierced by the sword who fall on the rocks of the abyss like trampled carrion.


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'You will not rejoin them in the grave, for you have brought your country to ruin and destroyed your people. The offspring of the wicked leave no name behind them.


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Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their father! Never again must they rise to conquer the world and cover the face of the earth with their cities.


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'I will rise against them, declares Yahweh Sabaoth, and deprive Babylon of name, remnant, offspring and posterity, declares Yahweh.


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I shall turn it into the haunt of hedgehogs, a swamp. I shall sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares Yahweh Sabaoth.'


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Yahweh Sabaoth has sworn it, 'Yes, what I have planned will take place, what I have decided will be so:


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'I shall break Assyria in my country, I shall trample on him on my mountains. Then his yoke will slip off them, his burden will slip from their shoulders.'


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This is the decision taken in defiance of the whole world; this, the hand outstretched in defiance of all nations.


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Once Yahweh Sabaoth has decided, who will stop him? Once he stretches out his hand, who can withdraw it?


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All Philistia, do not rejoice because the rod which used to beat you is now broken, for the serpent stock will produce a viper, its offspring will be a flying dragon.


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While the first-born of the poor are grazing and the destitute are resting in safety, I shall make your stock die of hunger and then slaughter what remains of you.


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Howl, gate! Shriek, city! Totter, all Philistia! For a smoke is coming from the north, and there are no deserters in those battalions.


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What reply will be given then to the messengers of that nation? - That Yahweh founded Zion and there the poor of his people will find refuge.


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Proclamation about Moab: Laid waste in a night, Ar-Moab lies silent; Laid waste in a night, Kir-Moab lies silent.


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The daughter of Dibon has climbed to the high places to weep; on Nebo and in Medeba Moab laments. Every head shaven, every beard cut off,


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they wear sackcloth in their streets; on their roofs and in their squares, everyone is lamenting and collapsing in tears.


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Heshbon and Elealeh are crying out in distress, their voices can be heard as far as Jahaz. That is why the warriors of Moab are shivering, his soul trembles at the sound.


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His heart cries out in distress for Moab, whose fugitives are already at Zoar, nearly at Eglath-Shelishiyah. They climb the slope of Luhith, weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim they utter heart-rending cries.


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The Waters of Nimrim have become a waste land, the grass dried up, the plants withered away, nothing green any more.


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That is why they are carrying what they could save of their stores across the Ravine of the Willows.


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For the cry for help re-echoes round the territory of Moab; their wailing, right to Eglaim, to Beer-Elim, their wailing;


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Dimon's waters are swollen with blood, and I have worse in store for Dimon: a lion for those of Moab who survive, for those left on its soil.


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Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela by the desert, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion,


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for soon, like a fluttered bird, like nestlings cast out, will be the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.


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Hold a council, make a decision. At noon spread your shadow as if it were night. Hide those who have been driven out, do not betray the fugitive,


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let those who have been driven out of Moab come and live with you; be their refuge in the face of the devastator. Once the oppression is past, and the devastation has stopped and those now trampling on the country have gone away,


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the throne will be made secure in faithful love and on it will sit in constancy within the tent of David, a judge seeking fair judgement and pursuing uprightness.


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We have heard about Moab's pride, about how very proud it is, about its arrogance, its pride, its rage, its bravado, which will come to nothing!


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And so Moab is wailing for Moab, wailing, every one of them. For the raisin cakes of Kir-Hareseth you mourn, stricken with grief.


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For Heshbon's vineyards are withering, the vine of Sibmah whose red grapes used to overcome the overlords of the nations. It used to reach to Jazer, had wound its way into the desert, its shoots grew so numerous they spread across the sea.


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And so I weep, as Jazer weeps, for the vine of Sibmah. I water you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. For over your harvest and vintage the cheering has died away;


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joy and gladness have vanished from the orchards. No more revelry in the vineyards, no more happy shouting; no more the treader treads wine in the presses, the cheering has ceased.


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Moab will be seen, wearing itself out on the high places and going to its temple to pray, but it will accomplish nothing.


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And now Yahweh has spoken in these terms, 'Within three years, as a hired worker reckons them, the glory of Moab will be humbled, despite its teeming population. It will be reduced to nothing, an insignificant remnant.'


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Its towns, abandoned for ever, will be pastures for flocks; there they will rest with no one to disturb them.


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Ephraim will be stripped of its defences and Damascus of its sovereignty; and the remnant of Aram will be treated like the glory of the Israelites -- declares Yahweh Sabaoth.


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as when a reaper gathers in the standing corn, harvesting the ears of corn with his arm, or when they glean the ears in the Valley of Rephaim,


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nothing will remain but pickings, as when an olive tree is beaten; two or three berries left on the topmost bough, four or five berries on the branches of the tree -- declares Yahweh, God of Israel.


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He will no longer look to altars, his own handiwork, or to what his own fingers have made: the sacred poles and incense-altars.


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That day, its cities of refuge will be abandoned as were the woods and heaths at the Israelites' advance: there will be desolation.


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Since you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and failed to keep the Rock, your refuge, in mind, you plant pleasure-gardens, you sow exotic seeds;


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the day you plant them, you get them to sprout, and, next morning, your seedlings are in flower; but the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.


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Disaster! The thunder of vast hordes, a thunder like the thunder of the seas, the roar of nations roaring like the roar of mighty floods,


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of nations roaring like the roar of ocean! He rebukes them and far away they flee, driven like chaff on the mountains before the wind, like an eddy of dust before the storm.


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At evening all is terror, by morning all have disappeared. Such will be the lot of those who plunder us, such, the fate of our despoilers.


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who send ambassadors by sea, in little reed-boats across the waters! Go, swift messengers to a nation tall and bronzed, to a people feared far and near, a mighty and masterful nation whose country is criss-crossed with rivers.


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All you who inhabit the world, you who people the earth, when the signal is hoisted on the mountains, you will see, when the ram's-horn is sounded, you will hear.


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For this is what Yahweh has told me, 'I shall sit here quietly looking down, like the burning heat in the daytime, like a dewy mist in the heat of harvest.'


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For, before the harvest, once the flowering is over and blossom turns into ripening grape, the branches will be cut off with pruning knives, and the shoots taken off, cut away.


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All has been abandoned to the mountain birds of prey and the wild animals: the birds of prey will summer on them, and all the wild animals winter on them.


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Then, an offering will be brought to Yahweh Sabaoth on behalf of a people tall and bronzed, on behalf of a people feared far and near, on behalf of a mighty and masterful nation whose country is criss-crossed with rivers: to the place where the name of Yahweh Sabaoth resides, Mount Zion.


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Proclamation about Egypt: Look! Yahweh, riding a swift cloud, is coming to Egypt. The false gods of Egypt totter before him and Egypt's heart quails within her.


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I shall stir up Egypt against Egypt, they will fight one another, brother against brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.


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Egypt's spirit will fail within her and I shall confound her deliberations. They will consult false gods and wizards, ghosts and sorcerers.


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And I shall hand Egypt over to the clutches of a cruel master, a ruthless king will rule them -- declares Yahweh Sabaoth.


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the Nile-plants on the banks of the Nile; all the vegetation of the Nile, will wither, blow away and be no more.


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The fishermen will groan, it will be mourning for all who cast hook in the Nile; those who spread nets on the waters will lose heart.


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Yes, the princes of Zoan are fools, Pharaoh's wisest councillors make up a stupid council. How dare you say to Pharaoh, 'I am descended from sages, I am descended from bygone kings'?


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Where are these sages of yours? Let them tell you, so that all may know, the plans Yahweh Sabaoth has made against Egypt!


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The princes of Zoan are fools, the princes of Noph, self-deceivers, the top men of her provinces have led Egypt astray.


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Yahweh has infused them with a giddy spirit; they have led Egypt astray in all she undertakes like a drunkard straying about as he vomits.


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That day Egypt will be like women, trembling and terrified at the threatening hand of Yahweh Sabaoth, when he raises it against her.


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The land of Judah will become Egypt's shame; whenever she is reminded of it, she will be terrified, because of the plan which Yahweh Sabaoth has laid against her.


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That day in Egypt there will be five towns speaking the language of Canaan and pledging themselves to Yahweh Sabaoth; one of them will be called City of the Sun.


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That day there will be an altar dedicated to Yahweh in the centre of Egypt and, close to the frontier, a pillar dedicated to Yahweh,


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and this will be a sign and a witness to Yahweh Sabaoth in Egypt. When they cry to Yahweh for help because of oppressors, he will send them a Saviour and leader to deliver them.


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Yahweh will reveal himself to Egypt, and the Egyptians will acknowledge Yahweh that day and will offer sacrifices and cereal offerings, and will make vows to Yahweh and perform them.


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And if Yahweh strikes Egypt, having struck he will heal, and they will turn to Yahweh who will hear their prayers and heal them.


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That day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. Assyria will have access to Egypt and Egypt have access to Assyria. Egypt will serve with Assyria.


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and Yahweh Sabaoth will bless them in the words, 'Blessed be my people Egypt, Assyria my creation, and Israel my heritage.'


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The year the general-in-chief, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and stormed and captured it


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at that time Yahweh spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz and said, 'Go, undo the sackcloth round your waist and take the sandals off your feet.' And he did so, and walked about, naked and barefoot.


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Yahweh then said, 'As my servant Isaiah has been walking about naked and barefoot for the last three years as a sign and portent for Egypt and Cush,


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so the king of Assyria will lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, their buttocks bared, to the shame of Egypt.


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and the inhabitants of this coast will say on that day, "Look what has happened to our hope, to those to whom we fled for help, to escape from the king of Assyria. How are we going to escape?" '


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Proclamation about the coastal desert: As whirlwinds sweeping over the Negeb, he comes from the desert, from a fearsome country.


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A harsh vision has been shown me, 'The traitor betrays and the despoiler despoils. Advance, Elam, lay siege, Media!' I have cut short all groaning.


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This is why my loins are racked with pain, why I am seized with pangs like the pangs of a woman in labour; I am too distressed to hear, too afraid to look.


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He will see cavalry, horsemen two by two, men mounted on donkeys, men mounted on camels; let him watch alertly, be very alert indeed!'


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Then the look-out shouted, 'On the watchtower, Lord, I stay all day and at my post I stand all night.


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Now the cavalry is coming, horsemen two by two.' He shouted again and said, 'Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and all the images of her gods he has shattered to the ground!'


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You whom I have threshed, grain of my threshing-floor, what I have heard from Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, I am telling you now.


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Proclamation about Dumah: From Seir, someone shouts to me, 'Watchman, what time of night? Watchman, what time of night?'


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The watchman answers, 'Morning is coming, then night again. If you want to ask, ask! Come back! Come here!'


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Proclamation about the wastelands: In the thickets, on the wastelands, you spend the night, you caravans of Dedanites.


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For this is what the Lord has told me, 'In one year's time as a hired worker reckons it, all the glory of Kedar will be finished


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and, of the valiant archers, the Kedarites, hardly any will be left, for Yahweh, God of Israel, has spoken.'


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Prophecy on the Valley of Vision: Now what is the matter with you for you all to be up on the housetops,


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full of excitement, boisterous town, joyful city? Your slain have not fallen to the sword nor died in battle.


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Your leaders have all fled together, captured without a bow between them, all who could be found have been captured at a blow, far though they had fled.


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That is why I said, 'Turn your eyes away from me, let me weep bitterly; do not try to comfort me over the ruin of the daughter of my people.'


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For this is a day of rout, panic and confusion, the work of the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth in the Valley of Vision. The wall is sapped, cries for help ring out to the mountains.


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thus falls the defence of Judah. That day you turned your gaze to the weapons in the House of the Forest.


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You saw how many breaches there were in the City of David. You collected the waters of the lower pool.


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Between the two walls you made a reservoir for the waters of the old pool. But you did not look to the Creator of these things, you did not look to the One who fashioned them long ago.


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That day the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth called on you to weep and mourn, to shave your heads, to put on sackcloth.


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But instead there is joy and merriment, killing of oxen, slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat, drinking of wine, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall be dead.'


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Then Yahweh Sabaoth revealed this to my ears, 'This guilt will never be forgiven you, until you are dead,' says the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth.


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'What do you own here, who gave you the right for you to hew yourself a tomb here?' He is hewing himself a tomb, is digging a resting-place for himself in the rock.


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will screw you up into a ball, a ball thrown into a vast space. There you will die, with your splendid chariots, disgrace to your master's palace!


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I shall dress him in your tunic, I shall put your sash round his waist, I shall invest him with your authority; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.


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I shall place the key of David's palace on his shoulder; when he opens, no one will close, when he closes, no one will open.


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I shall drive him like a nail into a firm place; and he will become a throne of glory for his family.


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'On him will depend all the glory of his family, the descendants and offspring, all the vessels of small capacity too, from cups to pitchers.


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That day, declares Yahweh Sabaoth, the nail driven into a firm place will give way, will be torn out and fall. And the whole load hanging on it will be lost. For Yahweh has spoken.'


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Proclamation about Tyre: Howl, ships of Tarshish, for all has been destroyed- no more houses, no way of getting in: the news has reached them from Kittim.


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to the wide ocean. The grain of the Canal, the harvest of the Nile, formed her revenue. She was the market for the nations.


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Blush, Sidon (citadel of the seas), for this is what the sea has said, 'I have felt no birth-pangs, never given birth, never reared boys nor brought up girls.'


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Is this your proud city founded far back in the past, whose steps led her far afield to found her colonies?


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Who took this decision against Tyre, who used to hand out crowns, whose traders were princes, whose merchants, men honoured in the city?


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Yahweh Sabaoth took this decision to wither the pride of all beauty and humiliate those honoured in the city.


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He has raised his hand against the sea, he has shaken kingdoms, Yahweh has ordained the destruction of the fortresses of Canaan.


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He has said, 'Exult no more, ill-treated virgin daughter of Sidon! Get up, cross to Kittim, no respite for you there, either.'


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Look at the land of the Chaldaeans, a people who used not to exist! Assyria assigned it to the creatures of the wilds; they raised their siege-towers against it, demolished its bastions, reduced it to ruin.


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When that day comes, Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the length of one king's life. But when the seventy years are over, Tyre will become like the whore in the song:


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'Take your harp, walk the town, whore whom men have forgotten! Play sweetly, song after song, to make them remember you.'


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At the end of the seventy years Yahweh will visit Tyre. She will receive her pay again and play the whore with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.


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But her profits and wages will be dedicated to Yahweh. They will not be stored or hoarded, but her profits will go to those who live in Yahweh's presence, for them to have as much food as they want and splendid clothes.


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See how Yahweh lays the earth waste, makes it a desert, buckles its surface, scatters its inhabitants,


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priest and people alike, master and slave, mistress and maid, seller and buyer, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.


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The earth is defiled by the feet of its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the decree, broken the everlasting covenant.


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That is why the curse has consumed the earth and its inhabitants pay the penalty, that is why the inhabitants of the earth have been burnt up and few people are left.


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The cheerful sound of tambourines is silent, the sound of revelling is over, the cheerful sound of the harp is silent.


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People shout in the streets to try to get wine; all joy has vanished, happiness has been banished from the country.


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For at the heart of earth's life, among the peoples, it is as at the beating of the olive trees, as at the gleaning of the grapes when the grape harvest is over.


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'Yes, in the east, give glory to Yahweh, in the islands of the sea, to the name of Yahweh, God of Israel!'


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We have heard psalms from the remotest parts of earth, 'Glory to the Upright One!' But I thought, 'What an ordeal, what an ordeal! What misery for me!' The traitors have betrayed, the traitors have acted most treacherously.


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And whoever flees from the cry of fear will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare. Yes, the sluice-gates above are open, the foundations of the earth are quaking.


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A cracking, the earth cracks open, a jolting, the earth gives a jolt, a lurching, the earth lurches backwards and forwards.


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The earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard, it will be shaken like a shanty; so heavy will be its sin on it, it will fall, never to rise again.


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When that day comes, Yahweh will punish the armies of the sky above and on earth the kings of the earth;


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they will be herded together, herded together like prisoners in a dungeon and shut up in gaol, and, after long years, punished.


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The moon will be confused and the sun ashamed, for Yahweh Sabaoth is king on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and the Glory will radiate on their elders.


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Yahweh, you are my God, I shall praise you to the heights, I shall praise your name; for you have accomplished marvels, plans long-conceived, faithfully, firmly.


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For you have made the town a heap of stones, the fortified city a ruin. The foreigners' citadel is a city no longer, it will never be rebuilt.


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For you have been a refuge for the weak, a refuge for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm, shade from the heat; for the breath of the pitiless is like a winter storm.


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Like heat in a dry land you calm the foreigners' tumult; as heat under the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the pitiless dies away.


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On this mountain, for all peoples, Yahweh Sabaoth is preparing a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines, of succulent food, of well-strained wines.


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On this mountain, he has destroyed the veil which used to veil all peoples, the pall enveloping all nations;


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he has destroyed death for ever. Lord Yahweh has wiped away the tears from every cheek; he has taken his people's shame away everywhere on earth, for Yahweh has spoken.


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And on that day, it will be said, 'Look, this is our God, in him we put our hope that he should save us, this is Yahweh, we put our hope in him. Let us exult and rejoice since he has saved us.'


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For Yahweh's hand will rest on this mountain, and Moab will be trodden under his feet as straw is trodden into the dung-heap.


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He may stretch his hands wide on the mountain like a swimmer stretching out his hands to swim. But he will humble his pride despite what his hands may attempt.


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And the impregnable fortress of your walls, he has overthrown, laid low, flung to the ground, in the dust.


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That day, this song will be sung in Judah: 'We have a fortress city, the walls and ramparts provide safety.


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He has brought low the dwellers on the heights, the lofty citadel; he lays it low, brings it to the ground, flings it down in the dust.


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Following the path of your judgements, Yahweh, we set our hopes in you, your name, your memory are all our soul desires.


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At night my soul longs for you and my spirit within me seeks you out; for when your judgements appear on earth the inhabitants of the world learn what saving justice is.


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If pity is shown to the wicked without his learning what saving justice is, he will act wrongly in the land of right conduct and not see the majesty of Yahweh.


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Yahweh, your hand is raised but they do not see! The antagonists of your people will look and grow pale; with your fiery wrath you will devour your enemies.


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The dead will not come back to life, the shadows will not rise again, for you have punished them, annihilated them, wiping out their very memory.


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You have made the nation larger, Yahweh, made the nation larger and won yourself glory, you have rolled back the frontiers of the country.


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Yahweh, in distress they had recourse to you, they expended themselves in prayer, since your punishment was on them.


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As a pregnant woman near her time of delivery writhes and cries out in her pangs, so have we been, Yahweh, in your eyes:


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we have been pregnant, we have writhed, but we have given birth only to wind: we have not given salvation to the earth, no inhabitants for the world have been brought to birth.


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Your dead will come back to life, your corpses will rise again. Wake up and sing, you dwellers in the dust, for your dew will be a radiant dew, but the earth will give birth to the shades.


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Go, my people, go to your private room, shut yourselves in. Hide yourselves a little while until the retribution has passed.


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For see, Yahweh emerges from his dwelling to punish the inhabitants of earth for their guilt; and the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer hide its slain.


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That day Yahweh will punish, with his unyielding sword, massive and strong, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will kill that dragon that lives in the sea.


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I, Yahweh, am its guardian, from time to time I water it; so that no harm befall it, I guard it night and day.


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-I do not have a wall. Who can reduce me to brambles and thorn-bushes? -I shall make war and trample on it and at the same time burn it.


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Or should they beg for my protection, let them make their peace with me, peace let them make with me.


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In days to come, Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and the surface of the world be one vast harvest.


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Has he struck him as he was struck by those who struck him? Has he murdered him as he was murdered by those who murdered him?


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By expelling, by excluding him, you have executed a sentence, he has blown him away with a breath as rough as the east wind.


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For that is how Jacob's guilt will be forgiven, such will be the result of renouncing his sin, when all the altar-stones have been smashed to pieces like lumps of chalk, when the sacred poles and incense-altars stand no longer.


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For the fortified city is abandoned now, deserted, forsaken as a desert where calves browse, where they lie down, destroying its branches.


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When boughs go dry, they get burnt, women come and use them for firewood. Now, this is a people that does not understand, and so its Maker will not take pity on it, he who formed it will not show it any mercy.


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When that day comes, Yahweh will start his threshing from the course of the River to the Torrent of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, Israelites!


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When that day comes, the great ram's-horn will be sounded, and those lost in Assyria will come, and those banished to Egypt, and they will worship Yahweh on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.


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Woe to the haughty crown of Ephraim's drunkards, to the fading flower of its proud splendour sited at the head of the lush valley, to those prostrated by wine!


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See, a strong and mighty man in the Lord's service, like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like immense flood-waters overflowing, with his hand he throws them to the ground.


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and the faded flower of its proud splendour sited at the head of the lush valley. Like a fig ripe before summer comes: whoever spots it forthwith picks and swallows it.


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That day Yahweh Sabaoth will be a crown of splendour and a proud diadem for the remnant of his people,


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a spirit of fair judgement for him who sits in judgement, and the strength of those who repel the assault on the gate.


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These too have been confused by wine, have gone astray owing to liquor. Priest and prophet have become confused by liquor, are sodden with wine, have strayed owing to liquor, have become confused in their visions, have strayed in their decisions.


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'Whom does he think he is lecturing? Whom does he think his message is for? Babies just weaned? Babies just taken from the breast?


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He used to say to them, 'Here you can rest! Here you can let the weary rest! Here all is quiet.' But they refused to listen.


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Now Yahweh is going to say this to them, 'Sav lasav, sav lasav, kav lakav, kav lakav, zeer sham, zeer sham.' So that when they walk they will fall over backwards and so be broken, trapped and taken captive.


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Because you have said, 'We have made a treaty with Death and have struck a pact with Sheol. When the scourging flood comes over, it will not touch us, for we have made lies our refuge and hidden under falsehood.'


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So the Lord Yahweh says this, 'Now I shall lay a stone in Zion, a granite stone, a precious corner-stone, a firm foundation-stone: no one who relies on this will stumble.


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And I will make fair judgement the measure, and uprightness the plumb-line.' But hail will sweep away the refuge of lies and floods wash away the hiding-place;


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your treaty with Death will be broken and your pact with Sheol will not hold. When the scourging flood comes over, you will be trodden down by it;


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every time it comes over, it will seize on you, for it will come over, morning after morning, day by day and night by night. Nothing but fear will make you understand what you hear.


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Yes, as on Mount Perazim, Yahweh will rise, as in the Valley of Gibeon, he will storm to do his work, his mysterious work, to do his deed, his extraordinary deed.


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Stop scoffing, then, or your bonds will be tightened further, for I have heard it: it has been irrevocably decided as regards the whole country by the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth.


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Once he has levelled its surface, does he not scatter fennel, sow cummin? Then he puts in wheat, millet, barley and, round the edges, spelt,


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Fennel must not be crushed with a sledge, nor cart-wheels driven over cummin; fennel must be beaten with a stick, and cummin with a flail.


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When you are threshing wheat, you do not waste time crushing it; you get the horse and cart-wheel moving, but you do not grind it fine.


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Woe, Ariel, Ariel, city where David encamped. Let year after year pass, let the feasts make their full round,


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then I shall inflict trouble on Ariel, and there will be sighing and sobbing, and I shall make it truly Ariel.


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You will be laid low, will speak from the underworld, your words will rise like a murmur from the dust. Your voice from the earth will be like a ghost's, it will whisper as though coming from the dust.


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The horde of your enemies will be like fine dust, the horde of the warriors like flying chaff. And suddenly, in an instant,


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you will be visited by Yahweh Sabaoth with thunder, earthquake, mighty din, hurricane, tempest, flame of devouring fire.


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It will be like a dream, like a vision at night: the horde of all the nations at war with Ariel, all those fighting, besieging and troubling it.


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It will be like the dream of a hungry man: he eats, then wakes up with an empty belly; or like the dream of a thirsty man: he drinks, then wakes up exhausted with a parched throat. So will it be with the horde of all the nations making war on Mount Zion.


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Be stupefied and stunned, go blind, unseeing, drunk but not on wine, staggering but not through liquor.


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For Yahweh has infused you with a spirit of lethargy, he has closed your eyes (the prophets), he has veiled your heads (the seers).


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For to you every vision has become like the words of a sealed book. You give it to someone able to read and say, 'Read that.' He replies, 'I cannot, because it is sealed.'


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You then give the book to someone who cannot read, and say, 'Read that.' He replies, 'I cannot read.'


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The Lord then said: Because this people approaches me only in words, honours me only with lip-service while their hearts are far from me, and reverence for me, as far as they are concerned, is nothing but human commandment, a lesson memorised,


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very well, I shall have to go on astounding this people with prodigies and wonders: for the wisdom of its wise men is doomed, the understanding of any who understand will vanish.


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Woe to those who burrow down to conceal their plans from Yahweh, who scheme in the dark and say, 'Who can see us? Who knows who we are?'


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How perverse you are! Is the potter no better than the clay? Something that was made, can it say of its maker, 'He did not make me'? Or a pot say of the potter, 'He does not know his job'?


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Is it not true that in a very short time the Lebanon will become productive ground, so productive you might take it for a forest?


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That day the deaf will hear the words of the book and, delivered from shadow and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.


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The lowly will find ever more joy in Yahweh and the poorest of people will delight in the Holy One of Israel;


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for the tyrant will be no more, the scoffer has vanished and all those on the look-out for evil have been destroyed:


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those who incriminate others by their words, those who lay traps for the arbitrator at the gate and groundlessly deprive the upright of fair judgement.


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That is why Yahweh, God of the House of Jacob, Abraham's redeemer, says this, 'No longer shall Jacob be disappointed, no more shall his face grow pale,


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for when he sees his children, my creatures, home again with him, he will acknowledge my name as holy, he will acknowledge the Holy One of Jacob to be holy and will hold the God of Israel in awe.


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Woe to the rebellious children -- declares Yahweh -- who make plans which do not come from me and make alliances not inspired by me, and so add sin to sin!


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They are leaving for Egypt, without consulting me, to take refuge in Pharaoh's protection, to shelter in Egypt's shadow.


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Everyone has been disappointed by a people who cannot help, who bring neither aid nor profit, only disappointment and confusion.


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Proclamation about the beasts of the Negeb: Into the land of distress and of anguish, of lioness and roaring lion, of viper and flying dragon, they bear their riches on donkeys' backs, their treasures on camels' humps, to a nation that cannot help:


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Now go, inscribe this on a tablet, write it on a scroll, so that it may serve for time to come for ever and for ever.


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To the seers they say, 'See nothing!' To the prophets, 'Do not prophesy the truth to us; tell us flattering things; have illusory visions;


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So the Holy One of Israel says this, 'Since you have rejected this word and put your trust in fraud and disloyalty and rely on these,


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for you this guilt will prove to be a breach opening up, a bulge at the top of a wall which suddenly and all at once comes crashing down.


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He will shatter it like an earthenware pot, ruthlessly knocking it to pieces, so that of the fragments not one shard can be found with which to take up fire from the hearth or scoop water from the storage-well.'


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For Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, says this, 'Your salvation lay in conversion and tranquillity, your strength in serenity and trust and you would have none of it.


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"No," you said, "we shall flee on horses." And so flee you will! And again, "We shall ride on swift ones." And so your pursuers will be swift!


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A thousand will quake at the threat of one and when five threaten you will flee, until what is left of you will be like a flagstaff on a mountain top, like a signal on a hill.'


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But Yahweh is waiting to be gracious to you, the Exalted One, to take pity on you, for Yahweh is a God of fair judgement; blessed are all who hope in him.


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Yes, people of Zion living in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be gracious to you when your cry for help rings out; as soon as he hears it, he will answer you.


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When the Lord has given you the bread of suffering and the water of distress, he who is your teacher will hide no longer, and you will see your teacher with your own eyes.


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Your ears will hear these words behind you, 'This is the way, keep to it,' whether you turn to right or left.


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You will hold unclean the silverplating of your idols and the goldplating of your images. You will throw them away like the polluted things they are, shouting after them, 'Good riddance!'


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He will send rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the bread that the ground provides will be rich and nourishing. That day, your cattle will graze in wide pastures.


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Oxen and donkeys that work the land will eat for fodder wild sorrel, spread by the shovel-load and fork-load.


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On every lofty mountain, on every high hill there will be streams and water-courses, on the day of the great slaughter when the strongholds fall.


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Then moonlight will be bright as sunlight and sunlight itself be seven times brighter -- like the light of seven days in one -- on the day Yahweh dresses his people's wound and heals the scars of the blows they have received.


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See, the name of Yahweh comes from afar, blazing his anger, heavy his threat. His lips are brimming over with fury, his tongue is like a devouring fire.


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His breath is like a river in spate coming up to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, to harness the peoples in a bridle, that will lead them astray.


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Your song will be like that on a festal night, and there will be joy in your hearts as when to the sound of the flute people make a pilgrimage to the mountain of Yahweh, the Rock of Israel.


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Yahweh will make his majestic voice ring out, he will show the weight of his arm in the heat of his anger, with a devouring fire, with thunderbolt, downpour and hailstones.


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each time he goes by, will fall the punishing rod that Yahweh will lay on him, to the sound of tambourines and harps, in the battles which he will wage against him with uplifted hand.


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Yes, Topheth has been ready for a long time now, that too is ready for the king, deep and wide his pyre, fire and wood in plenty. Yahweh's breath, like a stream of brimstone, will set fire to it.


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Woe to those going down to Egypt for help, who put their trust in horses, who rely on the quantity of chariots, and on great strength of cavalrymen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult Yahweh.


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Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster and he will not go back on his word; he will rise against the breed of evil-doers and against those who protect wrong-doers.


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The Egyptian is human, not divine, his horses are flesh, not spirit; Yahweh will stretch out his hand: the protector will stumble, the protected will fall and all will perish together.


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Yes, this is what Yahweh has said to me: As a lion or lion cub growls over its prey, when scores of shepherds are summoned to drive it off, without being frightened by their shouting or cowed by the noise they make, just so will Yahweh Sabaoth descend to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.


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Like hovering birds, so will Yahweh Sabaoth protect Jerusalem; by protecting it, he will save it, by supporting it, he will deliver it.


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For, that day, each of you will throw away the false gods of silver and the false gods of gold which your own sinful hands have made.


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Assyria will fall by the sword, not that of a man, will be devoured by the sword, of no human being, he will flee before the sword and his young warriors will be enslaved.


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In his terror he will abandon his rock, and his panic-stricken officers desert the standard -- declares Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace, in Jerusalem.


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each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams on arid ground, like the shade of a solid rock in a desolate land.


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the heart of the hasty will learn to think things over, and the tongue of stammerers will speak promptly and clearly.


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For the fool speaks folly and his heart is set on villainy; he is godless in his actions and his words ascribe error to Yahweh; he starves the hungry of their food and refuses drink to the thirsty.


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Everything to do with the rascal is evil, he devises infamous plans to ruin the poor with lying words even when the needy has right on his side;


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Stand up, you haughty women, listen to my words; you over-confident daughters, pay attention to what I say.


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Within one year and a few days you will tremble, you over-confident women; grape-harvesting will be finished, gathering will never happen again.


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Shudder, you haughty women, tremble, you over-confident women; strip, undress, put sackcloth round your waists.


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for my people's soil where the bramble-bush will be growing and for all the happy houses, for the rejoicing city.


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For the citadel will be abandoned and the thronged city deserted, Ophel and the Keep will be denuded for ever, the playground of wild donkeys and the pasture of flocks,


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until the spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes an orchard, and an orchard that seems like a forest.


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and the product of uprightness will be peace, the effect of uprightness being quiet and security for ever.


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Woe to you, destroying though not yourself destroyed, betraying though not yourself betrayed; when you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed, when you have stopped betraying, you will be betrayed.


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Yahweh, show us your mercy, we hope in you. Be our arm every morning and our salvation in time of distress.


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Your spoil is gathered in as a grasshopper gathers in, like a swarm of locusts people descend on it.


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Yahweh is exalted, for he is enthroned above, he has filled Zion with fair judgement and saving justice.


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You can count on this all your days: wisdom and knowledge are the riches that save, the fear of Yahweh is his treasure.


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The highways are deserted, no travellers any more on the roads. Agreements are broken, witnesses held in contempt, there is respect for no one.


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The land pines away in mourning, the Lebanon is withering with shame, Sharon has become like the wasteland, Bashan and Carmel are shuddering.


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The peoples will be burnt up as though by quicklime, like cut thorns they will be burnt on the fire.


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The sinners in Zion are panic-stricken and fear seizes on the godless, 'Which of us can survive the devouring fire, which of us survive everlasting burning?'


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The one who acts uprightly and speaks honestly, who scorns to get rich by extortion, who rejects bribes out of hand, who refuses to listen to plans involving bloodshed and shuts his eyes rather than countenance crime:


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such a man will live on the heights, the craggy rocks will be his refuge, he will be fed, he will not want for water.


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Your heart will meditate on past terrors, 'Where is the man who did the counting? Where is the man who did the weighing? Where is the man who counted off the towers?'


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No more will you see that insolent people, that people of unintelligible speech, of barbarous and meaningless tongue.


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Gaze at Zion, city of our feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem as a home that is secure, a tent not to be moved, none of its tent-pegs ever to be pulled out, none of its guy-ropes ever to be broken.


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There it is that Yahweh shows us his power, like a place of rivers and very wide canals on which will row no galley, over which will pass no majestic ship.


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Your tackle has given way, it cannot support the mast, it cannot hoist the pennon. And so there is much booty to be shared out; the lame fall to plundering,


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and no one living there will say, 'I am sickly'; the people living there will find their guilt forgiven.


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Come near and listen, you nations, pay attention, you peoples. Let the earth and its contents listen, the world and its entire population.


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For Yahweh is angry with all the nations, enraged with all their hordes. He has vowed them to destruction, handed them over to slaughter.


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Their dead will be thrown away, the stench will rise from their corpses, the mountains will run with their blood,


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the entire array of heaven will fall apart. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll and all their array will fade away, as fade the leaves falling from the vine, as fade those falling from the fig tree.


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For my sword has drunk deep in the heavens: see how it now falls on Edom, on the people vowed to destruction, to punish them.


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Yahweh's sword is gorged with blood, it is greasy with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.


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The wild oxen will fall with them, the bullocks with the bulls; their land will be drenched with blood and their dust will be greasy with fat.


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Its streams will turn into pitch, its dust into brimstone, its country will turn into blazing pitch.


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Never quenched night or day, its smoke rising for ever, it will lie waste age after age, no one will travel through it for ever and ever.


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It will be the haunt of pelican and hedgehog, the owl and the raven will live there; over it Yahweh will stretch the measuring line of chaos and the plumb-line of emptiness.


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There will be no more nobles to proclaim the royal authority; there will be an end of all its princes.


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Brambles will grow in its bastions, nettles and thorn-bushes in its fortresses, it will be the lair of jackals, an enclosure for ostriches.


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Wild cats will meet hyenas there, satyr will call to satyr, there Lilith too will lurk and find somewhere to rest.


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The snake will nest and lay eggs there, will hatch and gather its young into the shade; and there the vultures will assemble, each one with its mate.


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Search in Yahweh's book, and read, not one of these will be missing, not one of them lacking a mate; for thus his mouth has ordained it, and his spirit has brought them together.


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He has thrown the lot for each, his hand has measured out their share; they will possess it for ever, and live there age after age.


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let it burst into flower, let it rejoice and sing for joy. The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; then they will see the glory of Yahweh, the splendour of our God.


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and say to the faint-hearted, 'Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God, vengeance is coming, divine retribution; he is coming to save you.'


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then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy; for water will gush in the desert and streams in the wastelands,


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the parched ground will become a marsh and the thirsty land springs of water; the lairs where the jackals used to live will become plots of reed and papyrus.


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And through it will run a road for them and a highway which will be called the Sacred Way; the unclean will not be allowed to use it; He will be the one to use this road, the fool will not stray along it.


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No lion will be there, no ferocious beast set foot on it, nothing of the sort be found; it will be used by the redeemed.


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For those whom Yahweh has ransomed will return, they will come to Zion shouting for joy, their heads crowned with joy unending; rejoicing and gladness will escort them and sorrow and sighing will take flight.


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From Lachish the king of Assyria sent the cupbearer-in-chief with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The cupbearer-in-chief took up position near the conduit of the upper pool on the road to the Fuller's Field.


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The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph went out to him.


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There you are, relying on that broken reed, Egypt, which pricks and pierces the hand of the person who leans on it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him.


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You may say to me: We rely on Yahweh our God. But haven't his high places and altars been suppressed by Hezekiah, who told Judah and Jerusalem: This is the altar before which you must worship?


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How could you repulse a single one of the least of my master's soldiers? And yet you have relied on Egypt for chariots and horsemen.


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And lastly, have I marched on this country to lay it waste without warrant from Yahweh? Yahweh himself said to me: March on this country and lay it waste."


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Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the cupbearer-in-chief, 'Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the Judaean language within earshot of the people on the ramparts.'


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The cupbearer-in-chief then drew himself up and shouted loudly in the Judaean language, 'Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.


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surrender to me, and every one of you will be free to eat the fruit of his own vine and of his own fig tree and to drink the water of his own storage-well until I come and take you away to a country like your own, a land of corn and good wine, a land of bread and vineyards.


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Do not let Hezekiah delude you by saying: Yahweh will save us. Has any god of any nation been able to save his country from the king of Assyria's clutches?


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Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Where are the national gods of Samaria? Did they save Samaria from my clutches?


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Of all the national gods, which ones have saved their countries from my clutches, that Yahweh should be able to save Jerusalem from my clutches?" '


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They, however, kept quiet and said nothing in reply, since the king had given the order, 'You are not to answer him.'


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The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph, with their clothes torn, went to Hezekiah and reported what the cupbearer-in-chief had said.


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He sent Eliakim master of the palace, Shebna the secretary and the elders of the priests, wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.


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They said to him, 'This is what Hezekiah says, "Today is a day of suffering, of punishment, of disgrace. Children come to birth and there is no strength to bring them forth.


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May Yahweh your God hear the words of the cupbearer-in-chief whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to insult the living God, and may Yahweh your God punish the words he has heard! Offer your prayer for the remnant still left." '


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he said to them, 'Say to your master, "Yahweh says this: Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard or the blasphemies which the king of Assyria's minions have uttered against me.


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The cupbearer turned about and rejoined the king of Assyria, who was then attacking Libnah, the cupbearer having learnt that the king had already left Lachish


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on hearing that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to attack him. Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,


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'Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this, "Do not let your God on whom you are relying deceive you with the promise: Jerusalem will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches.


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You have learnt by now what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, putting them under the curse of destruction. Are you likely to be saved?


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'Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, enthroned on the winged creatures, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world, you made heaven and earth.


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Isaiah son of Amoz then sent the following message to Hezekiah, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "In answer to the prayer which you have addressed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.


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Here is the pronouncement which Yahweh has made about him: She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion; she tosses her head at you, the daughter of Jerusalem!


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Whom have you insulted, whom did you blaspheme? Against whom raised your voice and lifted your haughty eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel.


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Through your minions you have insulted the Lord, thinking: With my many chariots I have climbed the mountain-tops, the utmost peaks of Lebanon. I have felled its mighty cedars, its finest cypresses, have reached its furthest peak, its forest garden.


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Do you hear? Long ago I prepared this, from days of old I actually planned it, now I carry it out. You were to lay walled cities in heaps of ruins;


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But whether you stand up or sit down, whether you go out or come in, I know it (and how you rave against me).


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Because you have raved against me and your arrogance has reached my ears, I shall put a hook through your nostrils and a muzzle on your lips, and make you return by the road by which you came.


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And this will be the sign for you: This year will be eaten the self-sown grain, next year what sprouts in the fallow; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.


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for a remnant will issue from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. Yahweh Sabaoth's jealous love will accomplish this." '


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'This, then, is what Yahweh says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city, will shoot no arrow at it, confront it with no shield, throw up no earthwork against it.


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About then, Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, 'Yahweh says this, "Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live." '


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'Go and say to Hezekiah, "Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shall cure you: in three days' time you will go up to the Temple of Yahweh. I shall add fifteen years to your life.


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I shall save you and this city from the king of Assyria's clutches and defend this city for my sake and my servant David's sake." '


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Look, I shall make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the steps -- the steps to Ahaz's roof-room-go back ten steps.' And the sun went back the ten steps by which it had declined.


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I thought: In the noon of my life I am to depart. At the gates of Sheol I shall be held for the rest of my days.


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I thought: I shall never see Yahweh again in the land of the living, I shall never see again a single one of those who live on earth.


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My home has been pulled up, and thrown away like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver, I have rolled up my life, he has cut me from the loom. From dawn to dark, you have been making an end of me;


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till daybreak, I cried for help; like a lion, he has crushed all my bones, from dawn to dark, you have been making an end of me.


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I twitter like a swallow, I moan like a dove, my eyes have grown dim from looking up. Lord, I am overwhelmed, come to my help.


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How can I speak and what can I say to him? He is the one to act. I must eke out the rest of my years in bitterness of soul.


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The Lord is over them; they live, and everything in them lives by his spirit. You will cure me. Restore me to life.


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At once, my bitterness turns to well-being. For you have preserved my soul from the pit of nothingness, you have thrust all my sins behind you.


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For Sheol cannot praise you, nor Death celebrate you; those who go down to the pit can hope no longer in your constancy.


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The living, the living are the ones who praise you, as I do today. Fathers tell their sons about your constancy.


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Yahweh, come to my help and we will make our harps resound all the days of our life in the Temple of Yahweh.


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At that time, the king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard of his illness and his recovery.


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The prophet Isaiah then came to King Hezekiah and asked him, 'What have these men said, and where have they come to you from?' Hezekiah answered, 'They have come from a distant country, from Babylon.'


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"Sons sprung from you, sons begotten by you, will be abducted to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." '


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Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'This word of Yahweh that you announce is reassuring,' for he was thinking, 'There is going to be peace and security during my lifetime.'


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'Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her period of service is ended, that her guilt has been atoned for, that, from the hand of Yahweh, she has received double punishment for all her sins.'


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A voice cries, 'Prepare in the desert a way for Yahweh. Make a straight highway for our God across the wastelands.


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Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be levelled, every cliff become a plateau, every escarpment a plain;


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then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed and all humanity will see it together, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.'


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A voice said, 'Cry aloud!' and I said, 'What shall I cry?' -'All humanity is grass and all its beauty like the wild flower's.


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The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of Yahweh blows on them. (The grass is surely the people.)


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Go up on a high mountain, messenger of Zion. Shout as loud as you can, messenger of Jerusalem! Shout fearlessly, say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God.'


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Here is Lord Yahweh coming with power, his arm maintains his authority, his reward is with him and his prize precedes him.


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He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.


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Who was it measured the water of the sea in the hollow of his hand and calculated the heavens to the nearest inch, gauged the dust of the earth to the nearest bushel, weighed the mountains in scales, the hills in a balance?


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Whom has he consulted to enlighten him, to instruct him in the path of judgement, to teach him knowledge and show him how to understand?


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See, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, they count as a grain of dust on the scales. See, coasts and islands weigh no more than fine powder.


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Someone too poor to afford a sacrifice chooses a piece of wood that will not rot; he then seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not totter.


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Did you not know, had you not heard? Was it not told you from the beginning? Have you not understood how the earth was set on its foundations?


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He who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, the inhabitants of which are like grasshoppers, stretches out the heavens like a cloth, spreads them out like a tent to live in.


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Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the soil, than he blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like chaff.


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Lift your eyes and look: he who created these things leads out their army in order, summoning each of them by name. So mighty is his power, so great his strength, that not one fails to answer.


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How can you say, Jacob, how can you repeat, Israel, 'My way is hidden from Yahweh, my rights are ignored by my God'?


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Did you not know? Had you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, he created the remotest parts of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming.


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but those who hope in Yahweh will regain their strength, they will sprout wings like eagles, though they run they will not grow weary, though they walk they will never tire.


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Coasts and islands, fall silent before me, and let the peoples renew their strength, let them come forward and speak; let us assemble for judgement.


text:
'Who has raised from the east him whom saving justice summons in its train, him to whom Yahweh delivers up the nations and subjects kings, him who reduces them to dust with his sword, and to driven stubble with his bow,


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Who has acted thus, who has done this? He who calls each generation from the beginning: I, Yahweh, who am the first and till the last I shall still be there.'


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The coasts and islands have seen and taken fright, the remotest parts of earth are trembling: they are approaching, they are here!


text:
The woodworker encourages the smelter, the polisher encourages the hammerer, saying of the soldering, 'It is sound'; and he fastens it with nails to keep it steady.


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whom I have taken to myself, from the remotest parts of the earth and summoned from countries far away, to whom I have said, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you, I have not rejected you,'


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do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be alarmed, for I am your God. I give you strength, truly I help you, truly I hold you firm with my saving right hand.


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Look, all those who rage against you will be put to shame and humiliated; those who picked quarrels with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish.


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You will look for them but will not find them, those who used to fight you; they will be destroyed and brought to nothing, those who made war on you.


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For I, Yahweh, your God, I grasp you by your right hand; I tell you, 'Do not be afraid, I shall help you.'


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Do not be afraid, Jacob, you worm! You little handful of Israel! I shall help you, declares Yahweh; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.


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Look, I am making you into a threshing-sledge, new, with double teeth; you will thresh and beat the mountains to dust and reduce the hills to straw.


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You will winnow them and the wind will carry them off, the gale will scatter them; whereas you will rejoice in Yahweh, will glory in the Holy One of Israel.


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The oppressed and needy search for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yahweh, shall answer them, I, the God of Israel, shall not abandon them.


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I shall open up rivers on barren heights and water-holes down in the ravines; I shall turn the desert into a lake and dry ground into springs of water.


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I shall plant the desert with cedar trees, acacias, myrtles and olives; in the wastelands I shall put cypress trees, plane trees and box trees side by side;


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so that people may see and know, so that they may all observe and understand that the hand of Yahweh has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.


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'Let them produce and reveal to us what is going to happen. What happened in the past? Reveal it so that we can consider it and know what the outcome will be. Or tell us about the future,


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reveal what is to happen next, and then we shall know that you are gods. At least, do something, be it good or bad, so that we may feel alarm and fear.


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Look, you are less than nothingness, and what you do is less than nothing; to choose you is an outrage.'


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I have raised him from the north and he has come, from the east he has been summoned by name. He tramples on rulers like mud, like a potter treading clay.


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Who revealed this from the beginning for us to know, and in the past for us to say, 'That is right'? No one in fact revealed it, no one proclaimed it, no one has heard you speak.


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Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have sent my spirit upon him, he will bring fair judgement to the nations.


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he does not break the crushed reed or snuff the faltering wick. Faithfully he presents fair judgement;


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he will not grow faint, he will not be crushed until he has established fair judgement on earth, and the coasts and islands are waiting for his instruction.


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Thus says God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and spread them out, who hammered into shape the earth and what comes from it, who gave breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:


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I, Yahweh, have called you in saving justice, I have grasped you by the hand and shaped you; I have made you a covenant of the people and light to the nations,


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to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.


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See how the former predictions have come true. Fresh things I now reveal; before they appear I tell you of them.


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Sing a new song to Yahweh! Let his praise be sung from remotest parts of the earth by those who sail the sea and by everything in it, by the coasts and islands and those who inhabit them.


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Let the desert and its cities raise their voices, the encampments where Kedar lives. Let the inhabitants of the Rock cry aloud for joy and shout from the mountain tops.


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Yahweh advances like a hero, like a warrior he rouses his fire. He shouts, he raises the war cry, he shows his might against his foes.


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'From long ago I have been silent, I have kept quiet, held myself in check, groaning like a woman in labour, panting and gasping for air.


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I shall ravage mountain and hill, shall wither all their vegetation; I shall turn the torrents into firm ground and dry up the marshes.


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I shall lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they do not know I shall conduct them. I shall turn the darkness into light before them and the quagmires into solid ground. This I shall do -- without fail.'


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Those who trust in idols will recoil, they will blush for shame, who say to metal images, 'You are our gods.'


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Who so blind as my servant, so deaf as the messenger I send? (Who so blind as the friend I have taken to myself, so deaf as Yahweh's servant?)


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Yet here is a people pillaged and plundered, all of them shut up in caves, imprisoned in dungeons. They have been pillaged, with no one to rescue them, plundered, with no one to say, 'Give it back!'


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Who surrendered Jacob to the plunderer and Israel to the pillagers? Was it not Yahweh, against whom we had sinned, in whose ways they would not walk and whose Law they would not obey?


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On him he poured out his blazing anger and the fury of war; it enveloped him in flames and yet he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not learn a lesson.


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And now, thus says Yahweh, he who created you, Jacob, who formed you, Israel: Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine.


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Should you pass through the waters, I shall be with you; or through rivers, they will not swallow you up. Should you walk through fire, you will not suffer, and the flame will not burn you.


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For I am Yahweh, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I have given Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.


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Since I regard you as precious, since you are honoured and I love you, I therefore give people in exchange for you, and nations in return for your life.


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Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I shall bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west.


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To the north I shall say, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back!' Bring back my sons from far away, and my daughters from the remotest part of the earth,


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Let all the nations assemble, let the peoples gather here! Which of them has proclaimed this and revealed things to us in the past? Let them bring their witnesses to justify themselves, let others hear and say, 'It is true.'


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You yourselves are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and the servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that it is I. No god was formed before me, nor will be after me.


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I have revealed, have saved, and have proclaimed, not some foreigner among you. You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, I am God,


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Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, I shall knock down all the prison bars, and the Chaldaeans' shouts of joy will change to lamentations.


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who led out chariot and horse together with an army of picked troops: they lay down never to rise again, they were snuffed out, put out like a wick.


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Look, I am doing something new, now it emerges; can you not see it? Yes, I am making a road in the desert and rivers in wastelands.


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The wild animals will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches, for bestowing water in the desert and rivers on the wastelands for my people, my chosen one, to drink.


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You have not brought me lambs as your burnt offerings and have not honoured me with your sacrifices. I have not subjected you to cereal offering, I have not wearied you by demanding incense.


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You have not bought expensive reed for me or sated me with the fat of your sacrifices. Instead by your sins you have trected me like a slave, you have wearied me with your crimes,


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That is why I deposed the chief men of my sanctuary, why I put Jacob under the curse of destruction and subjected Israel to insult.


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Thus says Yahweh who made you, who formed you in the womb; he will help you. Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.


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For I shall pour out water on the thirsty soil and streams on the dry ground. I shall pour out my spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring,


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One person will say, 'I belong to Yahweh,' another will call himself by Jacob's name. On his hand another will write 'Yahweh's' and be surnamed 'Israel'.


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Thus says Yahweh, Israel's king, Yahweh Sabaoth, his redeemer: I am the first and I am the last; there is no God except me.


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Who is like me? Let him call out, let him affirm it and convince me it is so; let him say what has been happening since I instituted an eternal people, and predict to them what will happen next!


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Have no fear, do not be afraid: have I not told you and revealed it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God except me? There is no Rock; I know of none.


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The makers of idols are all nothingness; the works they delight in serve no purpose. And these are the witness against them: they see nothing, they know nothing; and so they will be put to shame.


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Watch how all its devotees will be put to shame, and the men who made it too, who are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forward and feel both fear and shame!


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The blacksmith makes an axe over the charcoal, beats it into shape with a hammer, works on it with his strong arm. Then he feels hungry and his strength deserts him; having drunk no water, he is exhausted.


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The wood carver takes his measurements, outlines the image with chalk, executes it with the chisel, following the outline with a compass. He makes it look like a human being, with human standards of beauty, so that it can reside in a house.


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He has cut down cedars, has selected an oak and a terebinth which he has grown for himself among the trees in the forest and has planted a pine tree which the rain has nourished.


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Once it is suitable to burn, he takes some of it to warm himself; having kindled it, he bakes bread. But he also makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol from it and bows down before it.


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Half of it he burns on the fire, over this half he roasts meat, eats it and is replete; at the same time he warms himself and says, 'Ah, how warm I am, watching the flames!'


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With the remainder he makes a god, his idol, bows down before it, worships it and prays to it. 'Save me,' he says, 'for you are my god.'


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They know nothing, they understand nothing, since their eyes are incapable of seeing and their hearts of reflecting.


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Not one of them looks into his heart, not one of them has the knowledge and wit to think, 'I burned half of it on the fire and cooked food over the embers. Am I right to make something disgusting out of what is left? Am I right to bow down before a block of wood?'


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He hankers after ashes, his deluded heart has led him astray; he will not save himself, he will not think, 'What I have in my hand is nothing but a lie!'


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Remember these things, Jacob, and Israel, since you are my servant. I formed you, you are my servant; Israel, I shall not forget you.


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I have dispelled your acts of revolt like a cloud and your sins like a mist. Come back to me, for I have redeemed you.


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Heavens, shout for joy, for Yahweh has acted! Underworld, shout aloud! Shout for joy, you mountains, forests and all your trees! For Yahweh has redeemed Jacob and displayed his glory in Israel.


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Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, he who formed you in the womb: I, Yahweh, have made all things, I alone spread out the heavens. When I hammered the earth into shape, who was with me?


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I, who foil the omens of soothsayers and make fools of diviners, who confound sages turning their knowledge into folly,


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who confirm the word of my servant and make the plans of my envoys succeed; who say to Jerusalem, 'You will be inhabited,' and to the towns of Judah, 'You will be rebuilt and I shall restore the ruins of Jerusalem';


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who say to Cyrus, 'My shepherd.' He will perform my entire will by saying to Jerusalem, 'You will be rebuilt,' and to the Temple, 'You will be refounded.'


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Thus says Yahweh to his anointed one, to Cyrus whom, he says, I have grasped by his right hand, to make the nations bow before him and to disarm kings, to open gateways before him so that their gates be closed no more:


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I myself shall go before you, I shall level the heights, I shall shatter the bronze gateways, I shall smash the iron bars.


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I shall give you secret treasures and hidden hoards of wealth, so that you will know that I am Yahweh, who call you by your name, the God of Israel.


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It is for the sake of my servant Jacob and of Israel my chosen one, that I have called you by your name, have given you a title though you do not know me.


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I am Yahweh, and there is no other, there is no other God except me. Though you do not know me, I have armed you


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so that it may be known from east to west that there is no one except me. I am Yahweh, and there is no other,


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I form the light and I create the darkness, I make well-being, and I create disaster, I, Yahweh, do all these things.


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Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds pour down saving justice, let the earth open up and blossom with salvation, and let justice sprout with it; I, Yahweh, have created it!


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Woe to anyone who argues with his Maker, one earthenware pot among many! Does the clay say to its potter, 'What are you doing? Your work has no hands!'


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Thus says Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker: I am asked for signs regarding my sons, I am given orders about the work I do.


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It was I who made the earth and I created human beings on it, mine were the hands that spread out the heavens and I have given the orders to all their array.


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I myself have raised him in saving justice and I shall make all paths level for him. He will rebuild my city and bring my exiles home without ransom or indemnity, says Yahweh Sabaoth.


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Thus says Yahweh: The produce of Egypt, the commerce of Cush and the men of Seba, tall of stature, will come over to you and belong to you. They will follow you, walking in chains, they will bow before you, they will pray to you, 'With you alone is God, and there is no other! The gods do not exist.'


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Israel will be saved by Yahweh, saved everlastingly. You will never be ashamed or humiliated for ever and ever.


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For thus says Yahweh, the Creator of the heavens -- he is God, who shaped the earth and made it, who set it firm; he did not create it to be chaos, he formed it to be lived in: I am Yahweh, and there is no other.


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I have not spoken in secret, in some dark corner of the underworld. I did not say, 'Offspring of Jacob, search for me in chaos!' I am Yahweh: I proclaim saving justice, I say what is true.


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Assemble, come, all of you gather round, survivors of the nations. They have no knowledge, those who parade their wooden idols and pray to a god that cannot save.


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Speak up, present your case, let them put their heads together! Who foretold this in the past, who revealed it long ago? Was it not I, Yahweh? There is no other god except me, no saving God, no Saviour except me!


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By my own self I swear it; what comes from my mouth is saving justice, it is an irrevocable word: All shall bend the knee to me, by me every tongue shall swear,


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saying, 'In Yahweh alone are saving justice and strength,' until all those who used to rage at him come to him in shame.


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Bel is crouching, Nebo cowering, their idols are being put on animals, on beasts of burden, the loads you have been carrying are a burden to a weary beast.


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They are cowering and crouching together, no one can save this burden, they themselves have gone into captivity.


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Listen to me, House of Jacob, all who remain of the House of Israel, whom I have carried since the womb, whom I have supported since you were conceived.


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Until your old age I shall be the same, until your hair is grey I shall carry you. As I have done, so I shall support you, I myself shall carry and shall save you.


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They lavish gold from their purses and weigh out silver on the scales. They engage a goldsmith to make a god, then bow low and actually adore!


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They lift it on their shoulders and carry it, and put it down where it is meant to stand, so that it never moves from the spot. You may cry out to it in distress, it never replies, it never saves anyone in trouble.


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Remember the things that happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.


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From the beginning I revealed the future, in advance, what has not yet occurred. I say: My purpose will come about, I shall do whatever I please;


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I call a bird of prey from the east, my man predestined, from a distant land. What I have said, I shall do, what I have planned, I shall perform.


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I am bringing my justice nearer, it is not far away, my salvation will not delay. I shall place my salvation in Zion and my glory in Israel.


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Step down! Sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground, no throne, daughter of the Chaldaeans, for never again will you be called tender and delicate.


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Take the grinding mill, crush up the meal. Remove your veil, tie up your skirt, bare your legs, cross the rivers.


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Let your nakedness be displayed and your shame exposed. I am going to take vengeance and no one will stand in my way.


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Sit in silence, bury yourself in darkness, daughter of the Chaldaeans, for never again will you be called the mistress of kingdoms.


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Being angry with my people, I rejected my heritage, surrendering them into your clutches. You showed them no mercy, you made your yoke very heavy on the aged.


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You thought, 'I shall be a queen for ever.' You did not reflect on these matters or think about the future.


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Now listen to this, voluptuous woman, lolling at ease and thinking to yourself, 'I am the only one who matters. I shall never be widowed, never know bereavement.'


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Yet both these things will befall you, suddenly, in one day. Bereavement and widowhood will suddenly befall you in spite of all your witchcraft and the potency of your spells.


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Confident in your wickedness, you thought, 'No one can see me.' Your wishes and your knowledge were what deluded you, as you thought to yourself, 'I am the only one who matters.'


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Hence, disaster will befall you which you will not know how to charm away, calamity overtake you which you will not be able to avert, ruination will suddenly befall you, such as you have never known.


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Keep to your spells then, and all your sorceries, at which you have worked so hard since you were young. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will strike terror!


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You have had many tiring consultations: let the astrologers come forward now and save you, the star-gazers who announce month by month what will happen to you next.


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Look, they are like wisps of straw, the fire will burn them up. They will not save their lives from the power of the flame. No embers these, for keeping warm, no fire to sit beside!


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Such will your wizards prove to be for you, for whom you have worked so hard since you were young; each wandering his own way, none of them can save you.


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Listen to this, House of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and issued from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Yahweh and invoke the God of Israel, though not in good faith or uprightness;


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for they call themselves after the holy city and rely on the God of Israel, Yahweh Sabaoth is his name.


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Things now past I revealed long ago, they issued from my mouth, I proclaimed them; suddenly I acted and they happened.


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As I told you about it long before, before it happened I revealed it to you, so that you could not say, 'My statue did it, my idol, my metal image, ordained this.'


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You have heard and seen all this, why won't you admit it? Now I am going to reveal new things to you, secrets that you do not know;


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they have just been created, not long ago, and until today you have heard nothing about them, so that you cannot say, 'Yes, I knew about this.'


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No, you have not heard, you have not known, for a long time your ear has not been attentive, for I knew how treacherous you were; you have been called a rebel since the womb.


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For the sake of my name I shall defer my anger, for the sake of my honour I shall be patient with you, rather than destroy you.


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Look, I have purchased you, but not for silver, I have chosen you out of the cauldron of affliction.


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For my sake and my sake only shall I act, for why should my name be profaned? I will not yield my glory to another.


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My hand laid the foundations of earth and my right hand spread out the heavens. I summon them and they all present themselves together.


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Assemble, all of you, and listen; which of them has revealed this? Yahweh loves him; he will do his pleasure on Babylon and the race of the Chaldaeans;


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Come near and listen to this: from the first, I never spoke obscurely; when it happened, I was there, and now Lord Yahweh has sent me with his spirit.


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Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God and teach you for your own good, I lead you in the way you ought to go.


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If only you had listened to my commandments! Your prosperity would have been like a river and your saving justice like the waves of the sea.


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Your descendants would have been numbered like the sand, your offspring as many as its grains. Their name would never be cancelled or blotted out from my presence.


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Come out from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldaeans! Declare this with cries of joy, proclaim it, carry it to the remotest parts of earth, say, 'Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob.'


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Those he led through the arid country never went thirsty; he made water flow for them from the rock, he split the rock and out streamed the water.


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Coasts and islands, listen to me, pay attention, distant peoples. Yahweh called me when I was in the womb, before my birth he had pronounced my name.


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He made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow and concealed me in his quiver.


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But I said, 'My toil has been futile, I have exhausted myself for nothing, to no purpose.' Yet all the while my cause was with Yahweh and my reward with my God.


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And now Yahweh has spoken, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and to re-unite Israel to him;-I shall be honoured in Yahweh's eyes, and my God has been my strength.-


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He said, 'It is not enough for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel; I shall make you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of earth.'


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Thus says Yahweh, the redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, to the one who is despised, detested by the nation, to the slave of despots: Kings will stand up when they see, princes will see and bow low, because of Yahweh who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.


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Thus says Yahweh: At the time of my favour I have answered you, on the day of salvation I have helped you. I have formed you and have appointed you to be the covenant for a people, to restore the land, to return ravaged properties,


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to say to prisoners, 'Come out,' to those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' Along the roadway they will graze, and any bare height will be their pasture.


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They will never hunger or thirst, scorching wind and sun will never plague them; for he who pities them will lead them, will guide them to springs of water.


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Look! Here they come from far away, look, these from the north and the west, those from the land of Sinim.


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Shout for joy, you heavens; earth, exult! Mountains, break into joyful cries! For Yahweh has consoled his people, is taking pity on his afflicted ones.


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Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no pity for the child she has borne? Even if these were to forget, I shall not forget you.


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Raise your eyes and look around you: all are assembling, coming to you. By my life, declares Yahweh, you will put them all on like jewels, like a bride, you will fasten them on.


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For your desolate places and your ruins and your devastated country from now on will be too cramped for your inhabitants, and your devourers will be far away.


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Once more they will say in your hearing, the children of whom you were bereft, 'The place is too cramped for me, make room for me to live.'


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Then you will think to yourself, 'Who has borne me these? I was bereft and barren, exiled, turned out of my home; who has reared these? I was left all alone, so where have these come from?'


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Thus says Lord Yahweh: Look, I am beckoning to the nations and hoisting a signal to the peoples: they will bring your sons in their arms and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.


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Kings will be your foster-fathers and their princesses, your foster-mothers. They will fall prostrate before you, faces to the ground, and lick the dust at your feet. And you will know that I am Yahweh; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.


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But thus says Yahweh: The warrior's captive will indeed be snatched away and the tyrant's booty will indeed be set free; I myself shall fight those who fight you and I myself shall save your children.


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I shall make your oppressors eat their own flesh, they will be as drunk on their own blood as on new wine. And all humanity will know that I am Yahweh, your Saviour, your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.


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Thus says Yahweh: Where is your mother's writ of divorce by which I repudiated her? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Look, you have been sold for your own misdeeds, your mother was repudiated for your acts of rebellion.


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Why was there no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand too short to redeem? Have I not strength to save? Look, with a threat I can dry the sea, and turn rivers to desert; the fish in them go rotten for want of water and die of thirst.


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Lord Yahweh has given me a disciple's tongue, for me to know how to give a word of comfort to the weary. Morning by morning he makes my ear alert to listen like a disciple.


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I have offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; I have not turned my face away from insult and spitting.


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Lord Yahweh comes to my help, this is why insult has not touched me, this is why I have set my face like flint and know that I shall not be put to shame.


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He who grants me saving justice is near! Who will bring a case against me? Let us appear in court together! Who has a case against me? Let him approach me!


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Look, Lord Yahweh is coming to my help! Who dares condemn me? Look at them, all falling apart like moth-eaten clothes!


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Which of you fears Yahweh and listens to his servant's voice? Which of you walks in darkness and sees no light? Let him trust in the name of Yahweh and lean on his God!


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Look, all you who light a fire and arm yourselves with firebrands, walk by the light of your fire and the firebrands you have kindled! This is what you will get from me: you will lie down in torment!


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Listen to me, you who pursue saving justice, you who seek Yahweh. Consider the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug.


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Consider Abraham your father and Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him he was the only one but I blessed him and made him numerous.


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Yes, Yahweh has pity on Zion, has pity on all her ruins; he will turn her desert into an Eden and her wastelands into the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.


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Pay attention to me, my people, listen to me, my nation, for a law will come from me, and I shall make my saving justice the light of peoples.


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My justice is suddenly approaching, my salvation appears, my arm is about to judge the peoples. The coasts and islands will put their hope in me and put their trust in my arm.


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Raise your eyes to the heavens, look down at the earth; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth wear out like clothing and its inhabitants die like vermin, but my salvation will last for ever and my saving justice remain inviolable.


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Listen to me, you who know what saving justice means, a people who take my laws to heart: do not fear people's taunts, do not be alarmed by their insults,


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for the moth will eat them like clothing, the grub will devour them like wool, but my saving justice will last for ever and my salvation for all generations.


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Awake, awake! Clothe yourself in strength, arm of Yahweh. Awake, as in the olden days, generations long ago! Was it not you who split Rahab in half, who pierced the Dragon through?


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Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great Abyss; who made the sea-bed into a road for the redeemed to go across?


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This is why those whom Yahweh has ransomed will return, they will enter Zion shouting for joy, their heads crowned with a joy unending; joy and gladness will escort them and sorrow and sighing will take flight.


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I, I am your consoler. Why then should you be afraid of mortal human beings, of a child of man, whose fate is that of the grass?


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You forget about Yahweh your Creator who spread out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations; you have never stopped trembling all day long before the fury of the oppressor when he was bent on destruction. Where is the oppressor's fury now?


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The despairing captive is soon to be set free; he will not die in the dungeon, nor will his food run out.


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I put my words into your mouth, I hid you in the shadow of my hand, to spread out the heavens and lay the earth's foundations and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'


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Awake, awake! To your feet, Jerusalem! You who from Yahweh's hand have drunk the cup of his wrath. The chalice, the stupefying cup, you have drained to the dregs.


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There is no one to guide her of all the children she has borne, no one to grasp her hand of all the children she has reared.


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Double disaster has befallen you -- who is there to sympathise? Pillage and ruin, famine and sword -- who is there to console you?


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Your children are lying helpless at the end of every street like an antelope trapped in a net; they are filled to the brim with Yahweh's wrath, with the rebuke of your God.


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Thus says your Lord Yahweh, your God, defender of your people: Look, I am taking the stupefying cup from your hand, the chalice, the cup of my wrath, you will not have to drink again.


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I shall hand it to your tormentors who used to say to you, 'On the ground! So that we can walk over you!' And you would flatten your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk on.


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Awake, awake! Clothe yourself in strength, Zion. Put on your finest clothes, Jerusalem, Holy City; for the uncircumcised and the unclean will enter you no more.


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Shake off your dust; get up, captive Jerusalem! The chains have fallen from your neck, captive daughter of Jerusalem!


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For the Lord Yahweh says this, 'Long ago my people went to Egypt and settled there as aliens; finally Assyria oppressed them for no reason.


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So now what is to be done,' declares Yahweh, 'since my people have been carried off for nothing, their masters howl in triumph,' declares Yahweh, 'and my name is held in contempt all day, every day?


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Because of this my people will know my name, because of this they will know when the day comes, that it is I saying, Here I am!'


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How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of the messenger announcing peace, of the messenger of good news, who proclaims salvation and says to Zion, 'Your God is king!'


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The voices of your watchmen! Now they raise their voices, shouting for joy together, for with their own eyes they have seen Yahweh returning to Zion.


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Break into shouts together, shouts of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.


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Yahweh has bared his holy arm for all the nations to see, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.


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Go away, go away, leave that place, do not touch anything unclean. Get out of her, purify yourselves, you who carry Yahweh's vessels!


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For you are not to hurry away, you are not to leave like fugitives. No, Yahweh marches at your head and the God of Israel is your rearguard.


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As many people were aghast at him -- he was so inhumanly disfigured that he no longer looked like a man-


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so many nations will be astonished and kings will stay tight-lipped before him, seeing what had never been told them, learning what they had not heard before.


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Like a sapling he grew up before him, like a root in arid ground. He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts;


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he was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard.


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Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God;


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whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises.


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We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh brought the acts of rebellion of all of us to bear on him.


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Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers he never opened his mouth.


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Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken. Which of his contemporaries was concerned at his having been cut off from the land of the living, at his having been struck dead for his people's rebellion?


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He was given a grave with the wicked, and his tomb is with the rich, although he had done no violence, had spoken no deceit.


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It was Yahweh's good pleasure to crush him with pain; if he gives his life as a sin offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his life, and through him Yahweh's good pleasure will be done.


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After the ordeal he has endured, he will see the light and be content. By his knowledge, the upright one, my servant will justify many by taking their guilt on himself.


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Hence I shall give him a portion with the many, and he will share the booty with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and for being counted as one of the rebellious, whereas he was bearing the sin of many and interceding for the rebellious.


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Shout for joy, barren one who has borne no children! Break into cries and shouts of joy, you who were never in labour! For the children of the forsaken one are more in number than the children of the wedded wife, says Yahweh.


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Widen the space of your tent, extend the curtains of your home, do not hold back! Lengthen your ropes, make your tent-pegs firm,


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for you will burst out to right and to left, your race will dispossess the nations and repopulate deserted towns.


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Do not fear, you will not be put to shame again, do not worry, you will not be disgraced again; for you will forget the shame of your youth and no longer remember the dishonour of your widowhood.


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For your Creator is your husband, Yahweh Sabaoth is his name, the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer, he is called God of the whole world.


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Yes, Yahweh has called you back like a forsaken, grief-stricken wife, like the repudiated wife of his youth, says your God.


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In a flood of anger, for a moment I hid my face from you. But in everlasting love I have taken pity on you, says Yahweh, your redeemer.


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For me it will be as in the days of Noah when I swore that Noah's waters should never flood the world again. So now I swear never to be angry with you and never to rebuke you again.


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For the mountains may go away and the hills may totter, but my faithful love will never leave you, my covenant of peace will never totter, says Yahweh who takes pity on you.


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Unhappy creature, storm-tossed, unpitied, look, I shall lay your stones on agates and your foundations on sapphires.


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In saving justice you will be made firm, free from oppression: you will have nothing to fear; free from terror: it will not approach you.


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Should anyone attack you, that will not be my doing, and whoever does attack you, for your sake will fall.


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I created the smith who blows on the charcoal-fire to produce a weapon for his use; I also created the destroyer to ruin it.


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No weapon forged against you will succeed. Any voice raised against you in court you will refute. Such is the lot of the servants of Yahweh, the saving justice I assure them, declares Yahweh.


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Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come! Buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money, free!


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Why spend money on what cannot nourish and your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.


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Pay attention, come to me; listen, and you will live. I shall make an everlasting covenant with you in fulfilment of the favours promised to David.


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Look, you will summon a nation unknown to you, a nation unknown to you will hurry to you for the sake of Yahweh your God, because the Holy One of Israel has glorified you.


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Let the wicked abandon his way and the evil one his thoughts. Let him turn back to Yahweh who will take pity on him, to our God, for he is rich in forgiveness;


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For the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.


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For, as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilising it and making it germinate to provide seed for the sower and food to eat,


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so it is with the word that goes from my mouth: it will not return to me unfulfilled or before having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do.


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Yes, you will go out with joy and be led away in safety. Mountains and hills will break into joyful cries before you and all the trees of the countryside clap their hands.


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Cypress will grow instead of thorns, myrtle instead of nettles. And this will be fame for Yahweh, an eternal monument never to be effaced.


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Thus says Yahweh: Make fair judgement your concern, act with justice, for soon my salvation will come and my saving justice be manifest.


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Blessed is anyone who does this, anyone who clings to it, observing the Sabbath, not profaning it, and abstaining from every evil deed.


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No foreigner adhering to Yahweh should say, 'Yahweh will utterly exclude me from his people.' No eunuch should say, 'Look, I am a dried-up tree.'


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For Yahweh says this: To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and choose to do my good pleasure and cling to my covenant,


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I shall give them in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I shall give them an everlasting name that will never be effaced.


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As for foreigners who adhere to Yahweh to serve him, to love Yahweh's name and become his servants, all who observe the Sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant:


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these I shall lead to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.


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Lord Yahweh who gathers the exiles of Israel declares: There are others I shall gather besides those already gathered.


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Its watchmen are all blind, they know nothing. Dumb watchdogs all, unable to bark, they dream, lie down, and love to sleep.


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Greedy dogs, never satisfied, such are the shepherds, who understand nothing; they all go their own way, each to the last man after his own interest.


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'Come, let me fetch wine; we will get drunk on strong drink, tomorrow will be just as wonderful as today and even more so!'


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The upright person perishes and no one cares. The faithful is taken off and no one takes it to heart. Yes, because of the evil times the upright is taken off;


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At whom are you jeering, at whom are you making faces and sticking out your tongue? Are you not the spawn of rebellion, a lying race?


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Lusting among the terebinths, and under every spreading tree, sacrificing children in the ravines, below the clefts in the rocks.


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The smooth stones of the ravines will be your portion, yes, these will be your lot. To these you have poured libations, have brought your cereal offering. Can all this appease me?


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On a mountain high and lofty you have put your bed. Thither, too, you have climbed to offer sacrifice.


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Behind door and doorpost you have set your reminder. Yes, far from me, you exposed yourself, climbed on to your bed, and made the most of it. You struck a profitable bargain with those whose bed you love, whoring with them often, with your eyes on the sacred symbol.


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You went to Molech with oil, you were prodigal with your perfumes; you sent your envoys far afield, down to Sheol itself.


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Though tired by so much travelling, you never said, 'It is no use.' Finding your strength revive, you never gave up.


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Who was it you dreaded, and feared, that you should betray me, no longer remember me and not spare a thought for me? Was I not silent for a long time? So you cannot have been afraid of me.


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When you cry for help, let those thronging round you save you! The wind will carry them all away, one puff will take them off. But whoever trusts in me will inherit the country, he will own my holy mountain.


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for thus says the High and Exalted One who lives eternally and whose name is holy, 'I live in the holy heights but I am with the contrite and humble, to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite.


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'For I do not want to be forever accusing nor always to be angry, or the spirit would fail under my onslaught, the souls that I myself have made.


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'Angered by his wicked cupidity, I hid and struck him in anger, but he rebelliously went the way of his choice.


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'I saw how he behaved, but I shall heal him, I shall lead him, fill him with consolation, him and those who mourn for him,


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The wicked, however, are like the restless sea that cannot be still, whose waters throw up mud and dirt.


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Shout for all you are worth, do not hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet. To my people proclaim their rebellious acts, to the House of Jacob, their sins.


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They seek for me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that has acted uprightly and not forsaken the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are upright, they long to be near God:


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'Why have we fasted, if you do not see, why mortify ourselves if you never notice?' Look, you seek your own pleasure on your fastdays and you exploit all your workmen;


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look, the only purpose of your fasting is to quarrel and squabble and strike viciously with your fist. Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high.


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Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a day when a person inflicts pain on himself? Hanging your head like a reed, spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh?


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Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke. to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes?


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Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin?


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Then your light will blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice will go ahead of you and Yahweh's glory come behind you.


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Then you will cry for help and Yahweh will answer; you will call and he will say, 'I am here.' If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words,


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if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkest hour will be like noon.


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Yahweh will always guide you, will satisfy your needs in the scorched land; he will give strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never run dry.


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Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you will build on age -- old foundations. You will be called 'Breach-mender', 'Restorer of streets to be lived in'.


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If you refrain from breaking the Sabbath, from taking your own pleasure on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath 'Delightful', and the day sacred to Yahweh 'Honourable', if you honour it by abstaining from travel, from seeking your own pleasure and from too much talk,


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then you will find true happiness in Yahweh, and I shall lead you in triumph over the heights of the land. I shall feed you on the heritage of your father Jacob, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.


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but your guilty deeds have made a gulf between you and your God. Your sins have made him hide his face from you so as not to hear you,


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since your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with guilt; your lips utter lies, your tongues murmur wickedness.


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No one makes upright accusations or pleads sincerely. All rely on empty words, utter falsehood, conceive trouble and give birth to evil.


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They are hatching adders' eggs and weaving a spider's web; eat one of their eggs and you die, crush one and a viper emerges.


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Their webs are useless for clothing, their deeds are useless for wearing; their deeds are deeds of guilt, violence fills their hands.


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Their feet run to do evil; they are quick to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of guilt, wherever they go there is havoc and ruin.


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They do not know the way of peace, there is no fair judgement in their course, they have made their own crooked paths, and no one treading them knows any peace.


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Thus fair judgement is remote from us nor can uprightness overtake us. We looked for light and all is darkness, for brightness and we walk in gloom.


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Like the blind we feel our way along walls, we grope our way like people without eyes. We stumble as though noon were twilight, among the robust we are like the dead.


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We growl, all of us, like bears, like doves we make no sound but moaning, waiting for the fair judgement that never comes, for salvation, but that is far away.


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How often we have rebelled against you and our sins bear witness against us. Our rebellious acts are indeed with us, we are well aware of our guilt:


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rebellion and denial of Yahweh, turning our back on our God, talking violence and revolt, murmuring lies in our heart.


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Fair judgement is driven away and saving justice stands aloof, for good faith has stumbled in the street and sincerity cannot enter.


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Good faith has vanished; anyone abstaining from evil is victimised. Yahweh saw this and was displeased that there was no fair judgement.


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He saw there was no one and wondered there was no one to intervene. So he made his own arm his mainstay, his own saving justice his support.


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He put on saving justice like a breastplate, on his head the helmet of salvation. He put on the clothes of vengeance like a tunic and wrapped himself in jealousy like a cloak.


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To each he repays his due, retribution to his enemies, reprisals on his foes, to the coasts and islands he will repay their due.


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From the west, Yahweh's name will be feared, and from the east, his glory, for he will come like a pent-up stream impelled by the breath of Yahweh.


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'For my part, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh. My spirit with which I endowed you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not leave your mouth, or the mouths of your children, or the mouths of your children's children, says Yahweh, henceforth and for ever.'


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Look! though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples, on you Yahweh is rising and over you his glory can be seen.


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Lift up your eyes and look around: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons coming from far away and your daughters being carried on the hip.


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At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart will throb and dilate, since the riches of the sea will flow to you, the wealth of the nations come to you;


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camels in throngs will fill your streets, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; everyone in Saba will come, bringing gold and incense and proclaiming Yahweh's praises.


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All the flocks of Kedar will gather inside you, the rams of Nebaioth will be at your service as acceptable victims on my altar, and I shall glorify my glorious house.


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Why, the coasts and islands put their hope in me and the vessels of Tarshish take the lead in bringing your children from far away, and their silver and gold with them, for the sake of the name of Yahweh your God, of the Holy One of Israel who has made you glorious.


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Foreigners will rebuild your walls and their kings will serve you. For though I struck you in anger, in mercy I have pitied you.


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Your gates will always be open, never closed, either day or night, for the riches of the nations to be brought you and their kings to be let in.


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For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be utterly destroyed.


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The glory of the Lebanon will come to you, cypress, plane-tree, box-tree, one and all, to adorn the site of my sanctuary, for me to honour the place where I stand.


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Your oppressors' children will humbly approach you, at your feet all who despised you will fall addressing you as 'City of Yahweh', 'Zion of the Holy One of Israel'.


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Instead of your being forsaken and hated, avoided by everyone, I will make you an object of eternal pride, a source of joy from age to age.


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You will suck the milk of nations, you will suck the wealth of kings, and you will know that I, Yahweh, am your Saviour, that your redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.


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For bronze I shall bring gold and for iron I shall bring silver, and for wood, bronze, and for stone, iron; I shall make Peace your administration and Saving Justice your government.


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Violence will no longer be heard of in your country, nor devastation and ruin within your frontiers. You will call your walls 'Salvation' and your gates 'Praise'.


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No more will the sun give you daylight, nor moonlight shine on you, but Yahweh will be your everlasting light, your God will be your splendour.


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Your sun will set no more nor will your moon wane, for Yahweh will be your everlasting light and your days of mourning will be over.


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Your people, all of them upright, will possess the country for ever, the shoot I myself have planted, my handiwork, for my own glory.


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The smallest will grow into a thousand, the weakest one into a mighty nation. When the time is ripe, I, Yahweh, shall quickly bring it about.


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The spirit of Lord Yahweh is on me for Yahweh has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken-hearted,


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to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison, to proclaim a year of favour from Yahweh and a day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn


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(to give to Zion's mourners), to give them for ashes a garland, for mourning-dress, the oil of gladness, for despondency, festal attire; and they will be called 'terebinths of saving justice', planted by Yahweh to glorify him.


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They will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise what has long lain waste, they will restore the ruined cities, all that has lain waste for ages past.


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but you will be called 'priests of Yahweh' and be addressed as 'ministers of our God'. You will feed on the wealth of nations, you will supplant them in their glory.


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To make up for your shame, you will receive double; instead of disgrace, shouts of joy will be their lot; yes, they will have a double portion in their country and everlasting joy will be theirs.


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For I am Yahweh: I love fair judgement, I hate robbery and wrong-doing, and I shall reward them faithfully and make an everlasting covenant with them.


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Their race will be famous throughout the nations and their offspring throughout the peoples. All who see them will admit that they are a race whom Yahweh has blessed.


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I exult for joy in Yahweh, my soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me in garments of salvation, he has wrapped me in a cloak of saving justice, like a bridegroom wearing his garland, like a bride adorned in her jewels.


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For as the earth sends up its shoots and a garden makes seeds sprout, so Lord Yahweh makes saving justice and praise spring up in the sight of all nations.


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About Zion I will not be silent, about Jerusalem I shall not rest until saving justice dawns for her like a bright light and her salvation like a blazing torch.


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The nations will then see your saving justice, and all kings your glory, and you will be called a new name which Yahweh's mouth will reveal.


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No more will you be known as 'Forsaken' or your country be known as 'Desolation'; instead, you will be called 'My Delight is in her' and your country 'The Wedded'; for Yahweh will take delight in you and your country will have its wedding.


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Like a young man marrying a virgin, your rebuilder will wed you, and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you.


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On your walls, Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never fall silent, day or night. No peace for you, as you keep Yahweh's attention!


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Yahweh has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: Never again shall I give your grain to feed your enemies. Never again will foreigners drink the wine for which you have toiled.


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Pass through, pass through the gates. Clear a way for my people! Level up, level up the highway, remove the stones! Hoist a signal to the peoples!


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This is what Yahweh has proclaimed to the remotest part of earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Look, your salvation is coming; with him comes his reward, his achievement precedes him!'


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They will be called 'The Holy People', 'Yahweh's Redeemed', while you will be called 'Sought-after', 'City-not-forsaken'.


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Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah in crimson garments, so magnificently dressed, marching so full of strength? - It is I, whose word is saving justice, whose power is to save.


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-I have trodden the winepress alone; of my people, not one was with me. So I trod them down in my anger, I trampled on them in my wrath. Their blood squirted over my garments and all my clothes are stained.


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I looked: there was no one to help me; I was appalled but could find no supporter! Then my own arm came to my rescue and my own fury supported me.


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I crushed the peoples in my anger, I shattered them in my fury and sent their blood streaming to the ground.


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I shall recount Yahweh's acts of faithful love, Yahweh's praises, in return for all that Yahweh has done for us, for his great kindness to the House of Israel, for all that he has done in his mercy, for the abundance of his acts of faithful love.


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For he said, 'Truly they are my people, children who will not betray me,' and he became their Saviour.


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In all their troubles, it was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them. In his love and pity he himself redeemed them, lifted them up and carried them throughout the days of old.


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But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit. Then he became their enemy and himself waged war on them.


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But he called the past to mind, Moses his servant. Where is he who saved them from the sea, the Shepherd of his flock? Where was he who put his holy Spirit among them,


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whose glorious arm led the way by Moses' right hand? Who divided the waters before them to win himself everlasting renown,


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as cattle going down to the plain. Yahweh's Spirit led them to rest. This was how you guided your people to win yourself glorious renown.


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Look down from heaven and see from your holy and glorious dwelling. Where is your zeal and your might? Are your deepest feelings, your mercy to me, to be restrained?


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After all, you are our Father. If Abraham will not own us, if Israel will not acknowledge us, you, Yahweh, are our Father, 'Our Redeemer' is your name from of old.


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Why, Yahweh, do you let us wander from your ways and let our hearts grow too hard to fear you? Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.


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We have long been like those you do not rule, people who do not bear your name. Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down -- in your presence the mountains would quake,


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as fire sets brushwood alight, as fire makes water boil -- to make your name known to your foes; the nations would tremble at your presence,


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at the unexpected miracles you would do. (Oh, that you would come down, in your presence the mountains would quake!)


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Never has anyone heard, no ear has heard, no eye has seen any god but you act like this for the sake of those who trust him.


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You come to meet those who are happy to act uprightly; keeping your ways reminds them of you. Yes, you have been angry and we have been sinners; now we persist in your ways and we shall be saved.


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We have all been like unclean things and our upright deeds like filthy rags. We wither, all of us, like leaves, and all our misdeeds carry us off like the wind.


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There is no one to invoke your name, to rouse himself to hold fast to you, for you have hidden your face from us and given us up to the power of our misdeeds.


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And yet, Yahweh, you are our Father; we the clay and you our potter, all of us are the work of your hands.


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Yahweh, do not let your anger go too far and do not remember guilt for ever. Look, please, we are all your people;


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Our holy and glorious Temple, in which our ancestors used to praise you, has been burnt to the ground; all our delight lies in ruins.


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Yahweh, can you restrain yourself at all this? Will you stay silent and afflict us beyond endurance?


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I have let myself be approached by those who did not consult me, I have let myself be found by those who did not seek me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am!' to a nation that did not invoke my name.


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Each day I stretched out my hands to a rebellious people who follow a way which is not good, as the fancy takes them;


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living in tombs, spending the night in dark corners, eating the meat of pigs, putting unclean foods on their plates.


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'Keep your distance,' they say, 'do not touch me, lest my sanctity come near you!' Such words are like stifling smoke to me, an ever-burning fire.


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Look, it is inscribed before me: I shall not be silent until I have repaid them, repaid them in full,


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punished your guilt and your ancestors' guilt together, Yahweh declares. For having burnt incense on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, I shall pay them back in full for what they have done.


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Yahweh says this: As when a bunch of grapes is found still to have juice in it, people say, 'Do not destroy it, for it contains a blessing,' so I shall act for my servants' sake, I shall not destroy them all.


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I shall produce descendants from Jacob and heirs to my mountains from Judah, my chosen ones will own them and my servants will live there.


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Sharon will be a pasture for flocks, the Valley of Achor a feeding ground for cattle, for those of my people who have sought me.


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But as for those of you who abandon Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who lay the table for Gad, who fill cups of mixed wine for Meni,


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you I shall destine to the sword and all of you will stoop to be slaughtered, because I called and you would not answer, I spoke and you would not listen; you have done what I consider evil, you chose to do what displeases me.


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Therefore Lord Yahweh says this: You will see my servants eating while you go hungry; you will see my servants drinking while you go thirsty; you will see my servants rejoicing while you are put to shame;


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you will hear my servants shouting for joy of heart, while you shriek for sorrow of heart and howl with a broken spirit.


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And you will leave your name behind as a curse for my chosen ones, 'May Lord Yahweh strike you dead!' But to his servants he will give another name.


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Whoever blesses himself on earth will bless himself by the God of truth, and whoever swears an oath on earth will swear by the God of truth, for past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.


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For look, I am going to create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered and will come no more to mind.


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Rather be joyful, be glad for ever at what I am creating, for look, I am creating Jerusalem to be 'Joy' and my people to be 'Gladness'.


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I shall be joyful in Jerusalem and I shall rejoice in my people. No more will the sound of weeping be heard there, nor the sound of a shriek;


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never again will there be an infant there who lives only a few days, nor an old man who does not run his full course; for the youngest will die at a hundred, and at a hundred the sinner will be accursed.


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They will not build for others to live in, or plant for others to eat; for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen ones will themselves use what they have made.


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They will not toil in vain, nor bear children destined to disaster, for they are the race of Yahweh's blessed ones and so are their offspring.


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The wolf and the young lamb will feed together, the lion will eat hay like the ox, and dust be the serpent's food. No hurt, no harm will be done on all my holy mountain, Yahweh says.


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Thus says Yahweh: With heaven my throne and earth my footstool, what house could you build me, what place for me to rest,


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when all these things were made by me and all belong to me? - declares Yahweh. But my eyes are drawn to the person of humbled and contrite spirit, who trembles at my word.


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Some slaughter a bull, some kill a human being, some sacrifice a lamb, some strangle a dog, some present an offering of pig's blood, some burn memorial incense, a revolting blessing; all these people have chosen their own ways and take delight in their disgusting practices.


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I too take delight in making fools of them, I shall bring what they most fear down on them because I have called and no one would answer, I spoke and no one listened. They have done what I regard as evil, have chosen what displeases me.


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Listen to the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at his word. Your brothers, who hate and reject you because of my name, have said, 'Let Yahweh show his glory, let us witness your joy!' But they will be put to shame.


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Listen! An uproar from the city! A voice from the Temple! The voice of Yahweh bringing retribution on his enemies.


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Before being in labour she has given birth. Before the birth pangs came, she has been delivered of a child.


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Who ever heard of such a thing, who ever saw anything like this? Can a country be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? For Zion, scarcely in labour, has brought forth her children!


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Shall I open the womb and not bring to birth? says Yahweh. Shall I, who bring to birth, close the womb? says your God.


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Rejoice with Jerusalem, be glad for her, all you who love her! Rejoice, rejoice with her, all you who mourned her!


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So that you may be suckled and satisfied from her consoling breast, so that you may drink deep with delight from her generous nipple.


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For Yahweh says this: Look, I am going to send peace flowing over her like a river, and like a stream in spate the glory of the nations. You will be suckled, carried on her hip and fondled in her lap.


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At the sight your heart will rejoice, and your limbs regain vigour like the grass. To his servants Yahweh will reveal his hand, but to his enemies his fury.


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For see how Yahweh comes in fire, his chariots like the whirlwind, to assuage his anger with burning, his rebukes with flaming fire.


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For by fire will Yahweh execute fair judgement, and by his sword, on all people; and Yahweh's victims will be many.


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As for those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to enter the gardens, following the one in the centre, who eat the flesh of pigs, revolting things and rats: their deeds and their thoughts will perish together, declares Yahweh.


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I shall give them a sign and send some of their survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coasts and islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory to the nations,


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and from all the nations they will bring all your brothers as an offering to Yahweh, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, Yahweh says, like Israelites bringing offerings in clean vessels to Yahweh's house.


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For as the new heavens and the new earth I am making will endure before me, declares Yahweh, so will your race and your name endure.


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From New Moon to New Moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, all humanity will come and bow in my presence, Yahweh says.


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And on their way out they will see the corpses of those who rebelled against me; for their worm will never die nor their fire be put out, and they will be held in horror by all humanity.


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The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests living at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.


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The word of Yahweh came to him in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign;


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then in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the deportation of Jerusalem, in the fifth month.


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'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you; I appointed you as prophet to the nations.'


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But Yahweh replied, 'Do not say, "I am only a child," for you must go to all to whom I send you and say whatever I command you.


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Then Yahweh stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me: 'There! I have put my words into your mouth.


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Look, today I have set you over the nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to knock down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.'


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The word of Yahweh came to me, asking, 'Jeremiah, what do you see?' I answered, 'I see a branch of the Watchful Tree.'


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A second time the word of Yahweh came to me, asking, 'What do you see?' I answered, 'I see a cooking pot on the boil, with its mouth tilting from the north.'


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for I am now summoning all the families of the kingdoms of the north, Yahweh declares. They will come, and each will set his throne in front of the gates of Jerusalem, all round, against its walls and against all the towns of Judah.


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I shall pronounce my judgements on them because of all their wickedness, since they have abandoned me, offering incense to other gods and worshipping what their own hands have made.


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'As for you, prepare yourself for action. Stand up and tell them all I command you. Have no fear of them and in their presence I will make you fearless.


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For look, today I have made you into a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of bronze to stand against the whole country: the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests and the people of the country.


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They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you, Yahweh declares, to rescue you.'


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'Go and shout this in Jerusalem's ears: 'Yahweh says this: "I remember your faithful love, the affection of your bridal days, when you followed me through the desert, through a land unsown.


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Israel was sacred to Yahweh; the first-fruits of his harvest; all who ate this incurred guilt, disaster befell them, Yahweh declares." '


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Yahweh says this, 'What did your ancestors find wrong in me for them to have deserted me so far as to follow Futility and become futile themselves?


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They never said, "Where is Yahweh, who brought us out of Egypt and led us through the desert, through a land of plains and ravines, through a land of drought, of shadow dark as death, a land through which no one passes and where no human being lives?"


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I brought you to a country of plenty, to enjoy its produce and good things; but when you entered you defiled my country and made my heritage loathsome.


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The priests never asked, "Where is Yahweh?" Those skilled in the Law did not know me, the shepherds too rebelled against me and the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed the Useless Ones.


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So I must state my case against you once more, Yahweh declares, and state my case against your children's children:


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Cross to the isles of the Kittim and look, send to Kedar and carefully observe, see if anything like this has happened before!


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Does a nation change its gods? - and these are not gods at all! Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for the Useless One!


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For my people have committed two crimes: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug water-tanks for themselves, cracked water-tanks that hold no water.


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Lions have roared at him, they have made their voices heard. They have left this country a desert, his towns lie burnt and uninhabited.


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Have you not brought this on yourself, by abandoning Yahweh your God, when he was guiding you on your way?


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What is the good of going to Egypt now to drink the water of the Nile? What is the good of going to Assyria to drink the water of the River?


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Your wickedness will bring its own punishment, your infidelities will bring you to book, so give thought and see how evil and bitter it is to abandon Yahweh your God and not to stand in awe of me, the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth declares.


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'It is long ago now since you broke your yoke, burst your bonds and said, "I will not serve!" Yet on every high hill and under every green tree you have sprawled and played the whore.


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Yet I had planted you, a red vine of completely sound stock. How is it you have turned into seedlings of a vine that is alien to me?


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Even though you scrub yourself with soda and put in quantities of soap, the stain of your guilt would still be visible to me, the Lord Yahweh declares.


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How dare you say, "I am not defiled, I have not run after the Baals?" Look at your behaviour in the Valley, realise what you have done.


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A wild she-donkey, at home in the desert, snuffing the breeze in desire; who can control her when she is on heat? Males need not trouble to look for her, they will find her in her month.


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Beware! Your own foot will go unshod, your own throat grow dry! But you said, "It is no use! No! For I love the Strangers and they are the ones I shall follow."


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'Like a thief ashamed at being caught, so will the House of Israel be: they, their kings, their chief men, their priests and their prophets,


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who say to a piece of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave birth to me." For they turn to me their backs, never their faces; yet when trouble comes they shout, "Get up! Save us!"


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Where are your gods you made for yourself? Let them get up if they can save you when trouble comes! For you have as many gods as you have towns, Judah!


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In vain I have struck your children, they have not accepted correction; your own sword has devoured your prophets like a marauding lion.


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Now you of this generation, listen to what Yahweh says: Have I been a desert for Israel, or a land of gloom? Why do my people say, "We are our own masters, we will come to you no more"?


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Does a girl forget her ornaments, a bride her sash? And yet my people have forgotten me, days beyond number.


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'How well you set your course in pursuit of love! And so you have schooled your ways to wicked deeds.


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The very skirts of your robe are stained with the blood of the poor, of innocent men you never caught breaking and entering! And in spite of all this,


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you say, "I am innocent, let his anger turn from me!" Now I pass sentence on you for saying, "I have not sinned."


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'How frivolously you undertake a change of course! But you will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.


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You will have to leave there too with your hands on your head, for Yahweh has rejected those that you rely on, you will come to no good with them.'


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'If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and becomes someone else's, has he the right to go back to her? Has not that piece of land been totally polluted? And you, having played the whore with many lovers, you claim the right to come back to me! Yahweh demands.


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'Lift your eyes to the bare heights and look! Where have you not offered your sex! You waited by the roadside for them like an Arab in the desert. You have polluted the country with your prostitution and your vices:


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this is why the showers have been withheld, the late rains have not come. 'But you maintained a prostitute's bold front, with no trace of a blush.


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Will he keep up his anger for ever, maintain his wrath to the end?" You say this but still go on sinning, being so obstinate.'


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In the days of King Josiah, Yahweh said to me, 'Have you seen what disloyal Israel has done? How she has made her way up every high hill and to every green tree, and played the whore there?


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I thought, "After doing all this she will come back to me." But she did not come back. Her faithless sister Judah saw this.


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She also saw that I had repudiated disloyal Israel for all her adulteries and given her her divorce papers. Her faithless sister Judah, however, was not afraid: she too went and played the whore.


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And with her shameless whoring, she polluted the country; she committed adultery with stones and pieces of wood.


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Worse than all this: Judah, her faithless sister, has come back to me not in sincerity, but only in pretence, Yahweh declares.'


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So go and shout words towards the north, and say: "Come back, disloyal Israel, Yahweh declares, I shall frown on you no more, since I am merciful, Yahweh declares. I shall not keep my anger for ever.


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Only acknowledge your guilt: how you have rebelled against Yahweh your God, how you have prostituted yourself with the Strangers under every green tree and have not listened to my voice, Yahweh declares.


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"Come back, disloyal children, Yahweh declares, for I alone am your Master, and I will take you, one from a town, two from a family, and bring you to Zion.


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Then, when you have increased and grown numerous in the country, Yahweh declares, no one will ever again say: The ark of the covenant of Yahweh! It will not enter their minds, they will not remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made.


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When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called: The Throne of Yahweh, and all the nations will converge on her, on Yahweh's name, on Jerusalem, and will no longer follow their own stubborn and wicked inclinations.


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"When those days come, the House of Judah will join the House of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the country I gave your ancestors as their heritage."


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'And I was thinking: How am I to rank you as my children? I shall give you a country of delights, the fairest heritage of all the nations! I thought: You will call me Father and will never cease to follow me.


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A noise is heard on the bare heights: the weeping and entreaty of the Israelites, for they have gone wildly astray, have forgotten Yahweh their God.


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'Come back, disloyal sons, I want to cure your disloyalty.' 'We are here, we are coming to you, for you are Yahweh our God.


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The hills are a delusion after all, so is the tumult of the mountains. Yahweh our God is, after all, the saving of Israel.


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Shame has devoured what our ancestors worked for ever since we were young, their flocks and herds, their sons and their daughters.


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Let us lie down in our shame, let our confusion cover us, for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our ancestors, from our youth until today, and have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God.'


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'If you come back, Israel, Yahweh declares, if you come back to me, if you take your Horrors out of my sight, if you go roving no more,


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if you swear, "As Yahweh lives!" truthfully, justly, uprightly, then the nations will bless themselves by him and glory in him.


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'For Yahweh says this to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, "Clear the ground that lies neglected, do not sow among thorns.


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Circumcise yourselves for Yahweh, apply circumcision to your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will leap out like a fire and burn with no one to quench it, in return for the wickedness of your deeds." '


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Announce it in Judah, proclaim it in Jerusalem, say, 'Sound the trumpet in the countryside, shout the message aloud: Mobilise! Take to the fortified towns!


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Signpost the way to Zion! Run! Do not delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, an immense calamity.


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The lion is up from his thicket, the destroyer of nations is on his way, he has come from his home to reduce your land to a desert; your towns will be in ruins, uninhabited.


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So wrap yourselves in sackcloth, lament and wail, since Yahweh's burning anger has not turned away from us.


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'That day,' Yahweh declares, 'the king's heart will fail him, the princes' hearts will fail them too, the priests will stand aghast, the prophets stupefied.'


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Then I said, 'Ah, Lord Yahweh, how sadly you deceived this people and Jerusalem when you used to say, "You will have peace," whereas the sword is now at our throats!


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When that time comes, this will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: The scorching wind from the desert heights comes towards the daughter of my people -and not to winnow or to cleanse!


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Look, he is advancing like the clouds, his chariots like a hurricane, his horses swifter than eagles. Disaster for us! We are lost!


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Wash your heart clean of wickedness, Jerusalem, and so be saved. How long will you go on harbouring your pernicious thoughts?


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Report it to the nations, proclaim it to Jerusalem, 'Enemies are coming from a distant country, shouting their war cry against the towns of Judah;


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they surround her like watchmen round a field because she has rebelled against me', Yahweh declares.


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'Your own behaviour and actions have brought this on yourself. Your wickedness, how bitter, has stabbed you to the heart!'


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In the pit of my stomach how great my agony! Walls of my heart! My heart is throbbing! I cannot keep quiet, for I have heard the trumpet call, the battle cry.


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Ruin on ruin is the news: the whole land is laid waste, my tents are suddenly destroyed, in one moment all that sheltered me.


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'This is because my people are stupid, they do not know me, they are slow-witted children, they have no understanding, they are clever enough at doing wrong, but do not know how to do right.'


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I looked -- the fruitful land was a desert, all its towns in ruins before Yahweh, before his burning anger.


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Yes, Yahweh has said this, 'The whole country will be laid waste, though I shall not annihilate it completely.


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For this, the earth will go into mourning and the heavens above grow dark. For I have spoken, I have decided, I shall not change my mind or go back on it.'


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At the din of horseman and archer the entire city takes to flight: some plunge into the thickets, others scale the rocks; every town is abandoned, not a single person is left there.


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And, once despoiled, what are you going to do? You may dress yourself in scarlet, put on ornaments of gold, enlarge your eyes with paint but you make yourself pretty in vain. Your former lovers disdain you, your life is what they are seeking.


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Yes, I hear screams like those of a woman in labour, anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first child; they are the screams of the daughter of Zion, gasping, hands outstretched, 'Unhappy me! I am dying, the murderers have killed me!'


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Rove the streets of Jerusalem, now look and enquire, see in her squares if you can find an individual, one individual who does right and seeks the truth, and I will pardon her, Yahweh says.


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Yahweh, do your eyes not look for truth? You have struck them; they have not felt it. You have annihilated them, for they ignored the lesson. They have set their faces harder than rock, they have refused to repent.


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I thought, 'These are only the poor! They behave stupidly since they do not know Yahweh's way or the ruling of their God.


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I shall approach the great men and speak to them, for these will know Yahweh's way and the ruling of their God.' But these, too, have broken the yoke, have burst the bonds.


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And so, a lion from the forest will slaughter them, a wolf from the plains will despoil them, a leopard will be lurking round their towns: anyone who goes out will be torn to pieces -- because of their many crimes, their countless infidelities.


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'Why should I pardon you? Your sons have abandoned me, to swear by gods that are not gods at all. I fed them full, and they became adulterers, they hurried to the brothel.


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Scale her terraces! Destroy! But do not annihilate her completely! Strip off her branches, for Yahweh does not own them!


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How treacherously they have treated me, the House of Israel and the House of Judah! Yahweh declares.


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'They have denied Yahweh, they have said, "He is nothing; no evil will overtake us, we shall not see sword or famine.


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And the prophets? Nothing but wind; the word is not in them; let those very things happen to them!" '


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Because of this, Yahweh, God Sabaoth, says this, 'Since you have said such things, now I shall make my words a fire in your mouth, and make this people wood, for the fire to devour.


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Now I shall bring on you a nation from afar, House of Israel, Yahweh declares, an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you grasp what they say.


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They will devour your harvest and your food, devour your sons and daughters, devour your flocks and herds, devour your vines and fig trees, and demolish your fortified towns in which you trust -- with the sword!'


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'And when you ask, "Why has Yahweh our God done all this to us?" you will give them this answer, "As you abandon me to serve alien gods in your own country, so you must serve aliens in a country not your own."


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"Now listen to this, stupid, brainless people who have eyes and do not see, who have ears and do not hear!


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Have you no fear of me? Yahweh demands. Will you not tremble before me who set the sand as limit to the sea, as an everlasting barrier it cannot pass? Its waves may toss but not prevail, they may roar but cannot pass beyond.


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Nor do they say to themselves: Now we ought to fear Yahweh our God who gives the rain, of autumn and of spring, at the right season, and reserves us the weeks appointed for harvest.


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Yes, there are wicked men among my people who watch like fowlers on the alert; they set traps and they catch human beings.


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Like a cage full of birds so are their houses full of loot; they have grown rich and powerful because of it,


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they are fat, they are sleek, in wickedness they go to any lengths: they have no respect for rights, for orphans' rights, and yet they succeed! They have not upheld the cause of the needy.


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the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests exploit the people. And my people love it! But when the end comes, what will you do?


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Flee in a body, Benjaminites, right away from Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa! Light the beacon on Beth-ha-Cherem! For disaster lowers from the north, an immense calamity.


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Shepherds are advancing on her with their flocks. They have pitched their tents all round her, each grazes his part.


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Prepare for holy war against her! To arms! We shall attack at noon! Disaster for us! The light is fading, the evening shadows lengthen.


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For Yahweh Sabaoth says this, 'Cut down trees, throw up an earthwork outside Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished, with nothing but oppression in her.


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As a well keeps its water fresh so she keeps her wickedness fresh. Violence and ruin are what you hear in her, wounds and blows always forced on my attention.


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Reform, Jerusalem, or I shall turn my attention away from you and reduce you to a desert, a land without people.'


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this, 'They will glean, glean what is left of Israel like a vine. Like a grape-picker, pass your hand again over the branches!'


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To whom should I speak, whom warn, for them to hear? Look, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen. Look, for them Yahweh's word is something to sneer at, they have no taste for it.


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So I am full of Yahweh's wrath, I am weary of holding it in. Then pour it on the children in the streets, and on the bands of youths as well, for husband and wife will both be taken, the greybeard and the man weighed down with years.


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Their houses will pass to other men, so will their fields and wives. Yes, I shall stretch my hand over those living in this country, Yahweh declares.


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For, from the least to greatest, they are all greedy for gain; prophet no less than priest, all of them practise fraud.


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They should be ashamed of their loathsome deeds. Not they! They feel no shame, they do not even know how to blush. And so as others fall, they too will fall, will be thrown down when I come and punish them, Yahweh says.


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Yahweh says this, 'Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths: which was the good way? Take it and you will find rest for yourselves. But they have said, "We will not take it."


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I posted look-outs on your behalf: Listen to the sound of the trumpet! But they said, "We will not listen."


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Listen, earth! Watch, I shall bring disaster on this people: it is the fruit of the way they think, since they have not listened to my words nor to my law, but have rejected it.


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What do I care about incense imported from Sheba, or fragrant cane from a distant country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, your sacrifices do not please me.'


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And so, Yahweh says this, 'In front of this people I shall now lay obstacles for them to stumble over; father and son alike, neighbour and friend will perish.'


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Yahweh says this, 'Look, a people is coming from the land of the north, from the far ends of the earth a great nation is rising;


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they are armed with bow and spear, they are cruel and pitiless; their noise is like the roaring of the sea; they are riding horses, they are ready to fight against you as one man, against you, daughter of Zion.


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We have heard the news, our hands fall limp, anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labour.


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Do not go out into the countryside, do not venture onto the roads, for the enemy's sword is there, terror on every side.


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Put on sackcloth, daughter of my people, roll in ashes; mourn as for an only son, a very bitter dirge. For on us suddenly the destroyer is coming.


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All of them are total rebels peddlers of slander, hard as bronze and iron, all agents of corruption.


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The bellows blast away to make the fire burn away the lead. In vain the smelter does his work, for the dross is not purged out.


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'Stand at the gate of the Temple of Yahweh and there proclaim this message. Say, "Listen to the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah who come in by these gates to worship Yahweh.


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Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Amend your behaviour and your actions and I will let you stay in this place.


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Do not put your faith in delusive words, such as: This is Yahweh's sanctuary, Yahweh's sanctuary, Yahweh's sanctuary!


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if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in this place and if you do not follow other gods, to your own ruin,


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Steal, would you, murder, commit adultery, perjure yourselves, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods of whom you know nothing? -


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and then come and stand before me in this Temple that bears my name, saying: Now we are safe to go on doing all these loathsome things!


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Do you look on this Temple that bears my name as a den of bandits? I, at any rate, can see straight, Yahweh declares.


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"Now go to the place which used to be mine at Shiloh, where I once gave my name a home; see what I have done to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel!


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And now, since you have done all these things, Yahweh declares, and refused to listen when I spoke so urgently, so persistently, or to answer when I called you,


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I shall treat this Temple that bears my name, and in which you put your heart, the place that I gave you and your ancestors, just as I treated Shiloh,


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'You, for your part, must not intercede for this people, nor raise either plea or prayer on their behalf; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.


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The children collect the wood, the fathers light the fire, the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; and, to spite me, they pour libations to alien gods.


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So, Lord Yahweh says this, "My anger, my wrath will be poured down on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the countryside and the fruits of the soil; it will burn, and not be quenched."


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'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat all the meat.


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For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I said nothing to them, gave them no orders, about burnt offerings or sacrifices.


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My one command to them was this: Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. In everything, follow the way that I mark out for you, and you shall prosper.


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But they did not listen, they did not pay attention; they followed their own devices, their own stubborn and wicked inclinations, and got worse rather than better.


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From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I have sent you all my servants the prophets, persistently sending them day after day.


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But they have not listened to me, have not paid attention; they have deliberately resisted, behaving worse than their ancestors.


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So you will tell them all this, but they will not listen to you; you will call them, but they will not answer you."


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Then you are to say to them, "This is the nation that will neither listen to the voice of Yahweh its God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.


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"Cut off your tresses, throw them away! On the bare heights raise a dirge, for Yahweh has rejected, has abandoned, a brood that enrages him!"


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'Yes, the people of Judah have done what displeases me, Yahweh declares. They have set up their Horrors in the Temple that bears my name, to defile it,


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and have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters: a thing I never ordered, that had never entered my thoughts.


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So now the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer say Topheth or Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter. Topheth will become a burial ground, for lack of other space;


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the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of earth, and there will be no one to drive them off.


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I shall silence the shouts of rejoicing and mirth and the voices of bridegroom and bride, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the country will be reduced to desert.'


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'When that time comes, Yahweh declares, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its chief men, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will be taken from their tombs.


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They will be spread out before the sun, the moon, the whole array of heaven, whom they have loved and served, followed, consulted and worshipped. They will not be gathered or reburied but will be left lying on the surface like dung.


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And death will seem preferable to life to all the survivors of this wicked race, wherever I have driven them, Yahweh Sabaoth declares.


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'You are to tell them, "Yahweh says this: If someone falls, can he not stand up again? If people stray, can they not turn back?


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Why does this people persist in acts of infidelity, why does Jerusalem persist in continuous infidelity? They cling to illusion, they refuse to turn back.


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I have listened attentively: they have never said anything like that. Not one repents of wickedness saying: What have I done? Each one keeps returning to the course like a horse charging into battle.


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Even the stork in the sky knows the appropriate season; turtledove, swallow and crane observe their time of migration. But my people do not know Yahweh's laws!" '


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How can you say, 'We are wise, since we have Yahweh's Law?' Look how it has been falsified by the lying pen of the scribes!


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The wise are put to shame, alarmed, caught out because they have rejected Yahweh's word. What price their wisdom now?


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So I shall give their wives to other men, their fields to new masters, for, from the least to greatest, they are all greedy for gain; prophet no less than priest, all of them practise fraud.


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Without concern they dress the wound of the daughter of my people, saying, 'Peace! Peace!' whereas there is no peace.


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They should be ashamed of their loathsome deeds. Not they! They feel no shame, they do not even know how to blush. And so as others fall, they too will fall, will be thrown down when the time for punishing them comes, Yahweh says.


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I shall put an end to them, Yahweh declares, no more grapes on the vine, no more figs on the fig tree only withered leaves: I have found them people to trample on them!


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Why are we sitting still? Mobilise! Take to the fortified towns and there fall silent, since Yahweh our God means to silence us by giving us poisoned water to drink because we have sinned against him.


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From Dan you can hear the snorting of his horses; at the neighing of his stallions the whole country quakes; they are coming to devour the country and its contents, the town and those that live in it.


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Yes, now I am sending you poisonous snakes against which no charm exists; and they will bite you, Yahweh declares.


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Hark, from the daughter of my people the cry for help, ringing far and wide throughout the land! 'Is Yahweh no longer in Zion, her King no longer there?' (Why have they provoked me with their idols, with their futile foreign gods?)


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Is there no balm in Gilead any more? Is no doctor there? Then why is there no progress in the cure of the daughter of my people?


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Who will turn my head into a fountain, and my eyes into a spring of tears, that I can weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people?


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Who will find me a wayfarer's shelter in the desert, for me to quit my people, and leave them far behind? For all of them are adulterers, a conspiracy of traitors.


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They bend their tongues like a bow; not truth but falsehood holds sway in the land; yes, they go from crime to crime, but me they do not know, Yahweh declares.


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Let each be on his guard against his friend; do not trust a brother, for every brother aims but to supplant, and every friend is a peddler of slander.


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Each one cheats his friend, never telling the truth; they have trained their tongues to lie and devote all their energies to doing wrong.


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And, so, Yahweh Sabaoth declares, now I shall purge them and test them, no other way to treat the daughter of my people!


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Their tongue is a deadly arrow, their words are in bad faith; with his mouth each wishes his neighbour peace, while in his heart plotting a trap for him.


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I raise the wail and lament for the mountains, the dirge for the desert pastures, for they have been burnt: no one passes there, the sound of flocks is heard no more. Birds of the sky and animals, all have fled, all are gone.


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I shall make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair for jackals, and the towns of Judah an uninhabited wasteland.


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Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has Yahweh's mouth spoken to explain it? Why is the country annihilated, burnt like the desert where no one passes?


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Yahweh says, 'This is because they have forsaken my Law which I gave them and have not listened to my voice or followed it,


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but have followed their own stubborn hearts, have followed the Baals as their ancestors taught them.'


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So Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, 'Now I shall give this people wormwood to eat and poisoned water to drink.


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I shall scatter them among nations unknown to their ancestors or to them; and I shall pursue them with the sword until I have annihilated them.'


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this, 'Prepare to call for the mourning women! Send for those who are best at it!


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Let them lose no time in raising the lament over us! Let our eyes rain tears, our eyelids run with weeping!


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A lament makes itself heard in Zion, "What ruin is ours, what utter shame! For we must leave the country, our homes have been knocked down!" '


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Now listen, you women, to Yahweh's word, let your ears take in the word his own mouth speaks. Teach your daughters how to wail and teach one another this dirge,


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'Death has climbed in at our windows, and made its way into our palaces; it has cut down the children in the street, the young people in the squares-


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Speak! Yahweh declares this -- human corpses are strewn like dung in the open field, like sheaves left by the reaper, with no one to gather them.'


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Yahweh says this, 'Let the sage not boast of wisdom, nor the valiant of valour, nor the wealthy of riches!


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But let anyone who wants to boast, boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yahweh, who acts with faithful love, justice, and uprightness on earth; yes, these are what please me,' Yahweh declares.


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'Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh:


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Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the men with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all those nations, and the whole House of Israel too, are uncircumcised at heart.'


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'Do not learn the ways of the nations or take alarm at the heavenly signs, alarmed though the nations may be at them.


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Yes, the customs of the peoples are quite futile: wood, nothing more, cut out of a forest, worked with a blade by a carver's hand,


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Like scarecrows in a melon patch, they cannot talk, they have to be carried, since they cannot walk. Have no fear of them: they can do no harm -- nor any good either!'


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Who would not revere you, King of nations? Yes, this is your due. Since of all the wise among the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is not a single one like you.


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silver leaf imported from Tarshish and gold from Ophir, the work of carver or goldsmith; then dressed up in violet and purple, all the work of skilled men.


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But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, the everlasting King. The earth quakes when he is wrathful, the nations cannot endure his fury.


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'Tell them this, "The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth will vanish from the earth and from under these heavens." '


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By his power he made the earth, by his wisdom set the world firm, but his discernment spread out the heavens.


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When he thunders there is a roaring of waters in heaven; he raises clouds from the remotest parts of the earth, makes the lightning flash for the downpour, and brings the wind from his storehouse.


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At this all people stand stupefied, uncomprehending, every goldsmith blushes for his idols; his castings are but delusion, with no breath in them.


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They are futile, a laughable production; when the time comes for them to be punished, they will vanish.


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The Heritage of Jacob is not like these, for he is the maker of everything, and Israel is the tribe that is his heritage. His name is Yahweh Sabaoth.


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For Yahweh says this, 'Now I shall throw out the inhabitants of the country, this time, and bring distress on them, so that they may find me!'


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Disaster is on me! What a wound! My injury is incurable! And I used to think, 'If this is the worst, I can bear it!'


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But now my tent is destroyed, all my ropes are snapped, my sons have left me and are no more; no one is left to put my tent up again or to hang the side-cloths.


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The shepherds are the ones who have been stupid: they have not searched for Yahweh. This is why they have not prospered and why their whole flock has been dispersed.


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Listen! A terrible noise! A mighty uproar from the land of the north to reduce the towns of Judah to desert, to a lair for jackals!


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I know, Yahweh, no one's course is in his control, nor is it in anyone's power, as he goes his way, to guide his own steps.


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Pour out your anger on the nations who do not acknowledge you, and on the families that do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob, have devoured and made an end of him and reduced his home to desolation.


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'Hear the terms of this covenant; tell them to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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Tell them, "Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Cursed be anyone who will not listen to the terms of this covenant


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which I ordained for your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of that iron-foundry. Listen to my voice, I told them, carry out all my orders, then you will be my people and I shall be your God,


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so that I may fulfil the oath I swore to your ancestors, that I may give them a country flowing with milk and honey, as is the case today." ' I replied, 'So be it, Yahweh!'


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Then Yahweh said to me, 'Proclaim all these terms in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, "Listen to the terms of this covenant and obey them.


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For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I solemnly warned them, and have persistently warned them until today, saying: Listen to my voice.


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But they did not listen, did not pay attention; instead, each followed his own stubborn and wicked inclinations. And against them, in consequence, I put into action the words of this covenant which I had ordered them to obey and which they had not obeyed." '


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Yahweh said to me, 'Plainly there is conspiracy among the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.


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They have reverted to the sins of their ancestors who refused to listen to my words: they too are following other gods and serving them. The House of Israel and the House of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their ancestors.


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And so, Yahweh says this, "I shall now bring a disaster on them which they cannot escape; they will call to me for help, but I shall not listen to them.


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The towns of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem will then go and call for help to the gods to whom they burn incense, but these will be no help at all to them in their time of distress!


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"For you have as many gods as you have towns, Judah! You have built as many altars to Shame, as many incense altars to Baal, as Jerusalem has streets!


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"You, for your part, must not intercede for this people, nor raise either plea or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when their distress forces them to call to me for help."


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'What is my beloved doing in my house? She has achieved her wicked plans. Can vows and consecrated meat turn disaster from you for you to be so happy?


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"Green olive-tree covered in fine fruit", was Yahweh's name for you. With a shattering noise he has set fire to it, its branches are broken.'


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And Yahweh Sabaoth, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you because of the evil the House of Israel and the House of Judah have done, provoking me by burning incense to Baal.


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I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughterhouse, not knowing the schemes they were plotting against me, 'Let us destroy the tree in its strength, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name may no longer be remembered!'


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Yahweh Sabaoth, whose judgement is upright, tester of motives and thoughts, I shall see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you.


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Against the people of Anathoth who are determined to kill me and say to me, 'Do not prophesy in the name of Yahweh or you will die at our hands!'


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Yahweh says this, 'I am about to punish them. Their young people will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.


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Not one will be left when I bring disaster on the people of Anathoth, when the year for punishing them comes.'


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Your uprightness is too great, Yahweh, for me to dispute with you. But I should like to discuss some points of justice with you: Why is it that the way of the wicked prospers? Why do all treacherous people thrive?


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You plant them, they take root, they flourish, yes, and bear fruit. You are on their lips, yet far from their heart.


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You know me, Yahweh, you see me, you probe my heart, which is close to yours. Drag them off like sheep for the slaughterhouse, reserve them for the day of butchery.


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(How long will the land be in mourning, and the grass wither all over the countryside? The animals and birds are dying as a result of the wickedness of the inhabitants.) For they say, 'God does not see our fate.'


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'If you find it exhausting to race against me on foot, how will you compete against horses? In a country at peace you feel secure, but how will you fare in the thickets of the Jordan?


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'For even your brothers and your own family will betray you. They will pursue you in full cry. Put no faith in them when they speak you fair!'


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I have abandoned my house, left my heritage, I have delivered what I dearly loved into the clutches of its enemies.


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To me, my heritage has behaved like a lion in the forest, it roared at me ferociously: so I now hate it.


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I see my heritage as a brightly-coloured bird of prey attacked by birds of prey on every side! Go, assemble all the wild animals, make them come and dine!


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Many shepherds have laid my vineyard waste, have trampled over my plot of land, the plot of land which was my joy, reducing my favourite estate to a deserted wilderness.


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They have made it a waste; wasted, it mourns before me. The whole country has been devastated and no one takes it to heart.


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The devastators have arrived on all the bare heights of the desert (for Yahweh wields a devouring sword); from one end of the country to the other, there is no peace for any living thing.


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Wheat they have sown, thorns they reap: they have worn themselves out, to no profit. They are disappointed in their harvests, because of Yahweh's burning anger.


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Yahweh says this, 'As regards all my evil neighbours who have laid hands on the heritage I granted my people Israel, look, I shall uproot them from their soil, (though I shall uproot the House of Judah from among them).


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But having uprooted them, I shall take pity on them again and bring them back each to its own heritage, each to its own country,


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and if they carefully learn my people's ways and swear by my name, "As Yahweh lives", as they have taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be re-established among my people.


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Yahweh said this to me, 'Go and buy a linen waistcloth and put it round your waist. But do not dip it in water.'


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'Take the waistcloth that you have bought and are wearing round your waist. Up, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole in the rock.'


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A long time later, Yahweh said to me, 'Up, go to the Euphrates and fetch the waistcloth I ordered you to hide there.'


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So I went to the Euphrates, and I searched, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And there was the waistcloth ruined, no use for anything.


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'Yahweh says this, "In the same way I shall ruin the pride of Judah, the immense pride of Jerusalem.


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This evil people, these people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow their own stubborn inclinations and run after other gods, serving and worshipping them -- this people will become like this waistcloth, no good for anything.


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For just as a waistcloth clings to a man's waist, so I made the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah cling to me, Yahweh declares, to be my people, my glory, my honour and my pride. But they have not listened."


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'You will also say this to them, "Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Any jug can be filled with wine." And if they answer you, "Do you think we do not know that any jug can be filled with wine?"


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you are to say, "Yahweh says this: Look, I shall fill all the inhabitants of this country, the kings who occupy the throne of David, the priests, the prophets and all the citizens of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.


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Then I shall smash them one against the other, parents and children all together, Yahweh declares. Mercilessly, relentlessly, pitilessly, I shall destroy them." '


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Give glory to Yahweh your God before the darkness comes, before your feet stumble on the darkened mountains. You hope for light, but he will turn it to shadow dark as death, will change it to blackness.


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If you do not listen to this warning, I shall weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and stream with tears, for Yahweh's flock is being led into captivity.


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Tell the king and the queen mother, 'Sit in a lower place, since your glorious crown has fallen from your head.


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The towns of the Negeb are shut off with no one to give access to them. All Judah has been deported, deported wholesale.'


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Raise your eyes and look at these now coming from the north. Where is the flock once entrusted to you, the flock which was your pride?


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What will you say when they come and punish you, you yourself having taught them? Against you, in the lead, will come your friends. Then will not anguish grip you as it grips a woman in labour?


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And should you ask yourself, 'Why is all this happening to me?' it is because of your great guilt that your skirts have been pulled up and you have been manhandled.


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Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? And you, can you do right, being so accustomed to wrong?


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This is your share, the part allotted you, from me, Yahweh declares, because you have forgotten me and put your trust in Delusion.


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Oh! Your adulteries, your shrieks of pleasure, your vile prostitution! On the hills, in the fields, I have seen your Horrors. Jerusalem, disaster is coming for you! How much longer till you are made clean?'


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The nobles send their servants for water, they come to the water-tanks, find no water, and return with their pitchers empty. Dismayed and bewildered, they cover their heads.


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Because the soil is all cracked since the country has had no rain; the farmers are dismayed, they cover their heads.


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the wild donkeys standing on the bare heights gasp for air like jackals: their eyes grow dim for lack of pasture.'


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Although our sins witness against us, Yahweh, for your name's sake, intervene! Yes, our acts of infidelity have been many, we have sinned against you!


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Yahweh, hope of Israel, its Saviour in time of distress, why are you like a stranger in this country, like a traveller staying only for one night?


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Why are you like someone bemused, like a warrior who has no power to rescue? And yet, Yahweh, you are among us, we are called by your name. Do not desert us!


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Yahweh says this about this people, 'They take such pleasure in darting hither and thither, they cannot restrain their feet! But Yahweh takes pleasure in them no longer; now he will keep their guilt in mind and punish their sins.'


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If they fast, I will not listen to their plea; if they offer burnt offerings and cereal offerings I will not accept them. Rather, I shall make an end of them by sword, famine and plague.'


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'Ah, Lord Yahweh,' I answered, 'here are the prophets telling them, "You will not see the sword, famine will not touch you; I promise you true peace in this place." '


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Then Yahweh said to me, 'The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I have not sent them, I gave them no orders, I never spoke to them. Delusive visions, hollow predictions, daydreams of their own, that is what they prophesy to you.


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Therefore, Yahweh says this: The prophets who prophesy in my name when I have not sent them, and tell you there will be no sword or famine in this country, these same prophets will meet their end by sword and famine.


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And as for the people to whom they prophesy, they will be tossed into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and the sword, with not a soul to bury them: neither them nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. I shall pour their own wickedness down on them.


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'So say this word to them: May my eyes shed tears night and day, unceasingly, since the daughter of my people has sustained a fearsome wound, a crippling injury.


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If I go into the countryside, there lie those killed by the sword; if I go into the city, I see people tortured with hunger; even prophets and priests roam the country at their wits' end.'


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Have you rejected Judah altogether? Does your very soul revolt at Zion? Why have you struck us down without hope of cure? We were hoping for peace -- no good came of it! For the moment of cure -- nothing but terror!


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For your name's sake do not reject us, do not dishonour the throne of your glory. Remember us; do not break your covenant with us.


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Can any of the nations' Futile Ones make it rain? Can the heavens of their own accord give showers? Are you not the one, Yahweh our God? In you is our hope, since you make all these things.


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Yahweh said to me, 'Even if Moses and Samuel pleaded before me, I could not sympathise with this people! Drive them out of my sight; away with them!


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And if they ask you, "Where shall we go?" tell them this, "Yahweh says this: Those for the plague, to the plague; those for the sword, to the sword; those for famine, to famine; those for captivity, to captivity!


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"I shall consign them to four kinds of thing, Yahweh declares: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of heaven and wild animals of earth to devour and to destroy.


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I shall make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and what he did in Jerusalem." '


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Who is there to pity you, Jerusalem, who to grieve for you, who to go out of his way and ask how you are?


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'You yourself have rejected me, Yahweh declares, you have turned your back on me; so I have stretched my hand over you and destroyed you. Tired of relenting,


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I have winnowed them with a winnow at the country's gates. They have been bereft, I have destroyed my people, but they refuse to leave their ways.


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I have made their widows outnumber the sand of the sea. On the mother of young warriors I bring the destroyer in broad daylight. Suddenly I bring anguish and terror down on her.


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The mother of seven sons grows faint and gasps for breath. It is still day, but already her sun has set, she is dismayed and distracted; and the rest of them I shall consign to the sword, to their enemies, Yahweh declares.'


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A disaster for me, mother, that you bore me to be a man of strife and dissension for the whole country. I neither lend nor borrow, yet all of them curse me.


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Have I not genuinely done my best to serve you, Yahweh? Have I not interceded with you in time of disaster and distress!


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Your wealth and your treasures I shall hand over to plunder, without repayment, because of all your sins, throughout your territory.


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I shall enslave you to your enemies in a country which you do not know, for my anger has kindled a fire that will burn you up.'


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Yahweh, you know! Remember me, take care of me, and avenge me on my persecutors. However long your anger endures, do not snatch me away. Realise that I suffer insult for your sake.


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When your words came, I devoured them: your word was my delight and the joy of my heart; for I was called by your Name, Yahweh, God Sabaoth.


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I never sat in the company of scoffers amusing myself; with your hands on me I held myself aloof, since you had filled me with indignation.


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Why is my suffering continual, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly, for me you are a deceptive stream with uncertain waters!


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To which Yahweh replied, 'If you repent, I shall restore you to plead before me. If you distinguish between the precious and the base, you shall be as my own mouth. They will come back to you, but you must not go back to them.


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As far as these people are concerned, I shall make you a fortified wall of bronze. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, because I am with you to save you and rescue you, Yahweh declares.


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For Yahweh says this regarding the sons and daughters to be born in this place, about the mothers who give birth to them, and about the fathers who beget them in this land,


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"They will die of deadly diseases, unlamented and unburied; they will be like dung spread on the ground; they will meet their end by sword and famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of earth."


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'Yes, Yahweh says this, "Go into no house where there is mourning, do not go and lament or grieve with them; for I have withdrawn my peace from this people, Yahweh declares, and faithful love and pity too.


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High or low, they will die in this country, without burial or lament; there will be no gashing, no shaving of the head for them.


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No bread will be broken for the mourner to comfort him for the dead; no cup of consolation will be offered him for his father or his mother.


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For Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: In this place, before your eyes, in your own days, I will silence the shouts of rejoicing and mirth and the voices of bridegroom and bride.


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"When you tell these people this and they ask you: Why has Yahweh decreed such complete and total disaster for us? What have we done wrong? What sin have we committed against Yahweh our God?


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then you are to answer: It is because your ancestors abandoned me, Yahweh declares, and followed other gods, and served and worshipped them. They abandoned me and did not keep my Law.


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And you for your part have behaved even worse than your ancestors. Look, each of you follows his own stubborn and wicked inclinations, without listening to me.


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And so, I shall eject you from this country into a country unknown to you or to your ancestors, and there you can serve other gods, day and night, for I shall show you no more favour."


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'Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer say, "As Yahweh lives who brought the Israelites out of Egypt!"


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but, "As Yahweh lives who brought the Israelites back from the land of the north and all the countries to which he had driven them." I shall bring them back to the very soil I gave their ancestors.'


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'Watch, I shall send for many fishermen, Yahweh declares, and these will fish them up; next, I shall send for many huntsmen, and these will hunt them out of every mountain, every hill, and out of the holes in the rocks.


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For my eyes watch all their ways, these are not hidden from me, and their guilt does not escape my gaze.


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I shall requite their guilt and their sin twice over, since they have polluted my country with the carcases of their Horrors, and filled my heritage with their Abominations.'


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Yahweh, my strength, my stronghold, my refuge in time of distress! To you the nations will come from the remotest parts of the earth and say, 'Our fathers inherited nothing but Delusion, Futility of no use whatever.


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'Now listen, I will make them acknowledge, this time I will make them acknowledge my hand and my might; and then they will know that Yahweh is my name.'


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'The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with a diamond point on the tablet of the heart and on the horns of their altars,


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while their children remember their altars and their sacred pole beside the green trees, on the lofty hills.


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My mountain on the plain, your wealth and all your treasures I shall hand over to be plundered, because of the sin of your high places throughout your territory.


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You will have to relinquish your heritage which I gave you; I will enslave you to your enemies in a country which you do not know, for my fiery anger kindled by you will burn for ever.'


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Yahweh says this, 'Accursed be anyone who trusts in human beings, who relies on human strength and whose heart turns from Yahweh.


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Such a person is like scrub in the wastelands: when good comes, it does not affect him since he lives in the parched places of the desert, uninhabited, salt land.


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Such a person is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it has nothing to fear, its foliage stays green; untroubled in a year of drought, it never stops bearing fruit.


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I, Yahweh, search the heart, test the motives, to give each person what his conduct and his actions deserve.


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'The partridge will hatch eggs it has not laid. No different is the person who gets riches unjustly: his days half done, they will desert him and he prove a fool after all.'


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Yahweh, hope of Israel, all who abandon you will be put to shame, those who turn from you will be registered in the underworld, since they have abandoned Yahweh, the fountain of living water.


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Yet I have never urged you to send disaster, I never desired the fatal day, this you know; what came from my lips was not concealed from you.


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Let my persecutors be confounded, not me, let them, not me, be terrified. On them bring the day of disaster, destroy them, destroy them twice over!


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Yahweh said this to me, 'Go and stand at the Gate of the Sons of the People by which the kings of Judah go in and out -- and at all the gates of Jerusalem.


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Say to them, "Listen to the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah too, and all you inhabitants of Jerusalem who pass through the gates.


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Yahweh says this: As you value your lives, on no account carry a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem.


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Bring no burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, and do no work. Keep the Sabbath day holy, as I ordered your ancestors.


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They would not hear, would not pay attention; they deliberately refused to listen or accept instruction.


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But if you listen carefully to me, Yahweh declares, and bring no burden in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, if you keep the Sabbath holy and do no work on that day,


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then, through the gates of this city, kings and princes occupying the throne of David will continue to make their entry, riding in chariots or on horseback, they, their chief men, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city will be inhabited for ever.


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They will come from the towns of Judah, from the districts round Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin, from the lowlands, from the highlands, from the Negeb, to offer burnt offering and sacrifice, and cereal offering and incense, to offer thanksgiving sacrifices in the Temple of Yahweh.


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But if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy, and to refrain from entering the gates of Jerusalem with burdens on the Sabbath day, then I shall set fire to its gates; fire will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched." '


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'Get up and make your way down to the potter's house, and there I shall tell you what I have to say.'


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But the vessel he was making came out wrong, as may happen with clay when a potter is at work. So he began again and shaped it into another vessel, as he thought fit.


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'House of Israel, can I not do to you what this potter does? Yahweh demands. Yes, like clay in the potter's hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.


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but should the nation I have threatened abandon its wickedness, I then change my mind about the disaster which I had intended to inflict on it.


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but should that nation do what displeases me and refuse to listen to my voice, I then change my mind about the good which I was intending to confer on it.


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So now, say this to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "Yahweh says this: Listen, I am preparing a disaster for you, I am working out a plan against you. So now, each one of you, turn back from your evil ways, amend your conduct and actions."


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They, however, will say, "It is no use! We shall follow our own plans; each of us will act on his own wicked inclinations." '


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Therefore, Yahweh says this, 'Ask, please, among the nations if anyone has heard anything like this. The Virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.


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Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the rocks of its slopes? Do the rivers of foreign lands, their cold flowing waters, ever run dry?


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And yet my people have forgotten me! They burn incense to a Nothing! They have been made to stumble in their ways, the ancient paths, to walk in paths, on an unmade road,


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to make their country an object of horror, everlastingly derided: every passer-by will be appalled at it and shake his head.


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Like the east wind, I shall scatter them before the enemy. I shall show them my back, not my face, the day they are ruined.'


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'Come on,' they said, 'let us concoct a plot against Jeremiah, for the Law will not perish for lack of priests, nor advice for lack of wise men, nor the word for lack of prophets. Come on, let us slander him and pay no attention to anything he says.'


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Should evil be returned for good? Now they are digging a pit for me. Remember how I pleaded before you and spoke good of them, to turn your retribution away from them.


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So, hand their sons over to famine, abandon them to the edge of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widowed. Let their husbands die of plague, their young men be cut down by the sword in battle.


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Let cries re-echo from their houses as you bring raiders suddenly on them. For they have dug a pit to catch me, they have laid snares to trap my feet.


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But you, Yahweh, know all about their murderous plot against me. Do not forgive their guilt, do not efface their sin from your sight. Let them be hurled down before you, deal with them while you are angry!


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Then Yahweh said to Jeremiah, 'Go and buy a potter's earthenware jug. Take some of the people's elders and some of the senior priests with you.


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Go out towards the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, just outside the Gate of the Potsherds. There proclaim the words I shall say to you.


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You must say, "Kings of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem! Listen to the word of Yahweh! Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: I am about to bring such a disaster on this place that the ears of every one who hears of it will ring.


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For they have abandoned me and have made this place unrecognisable, and offered incense here to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew before. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent;


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for they have built high places for Baal to burn their sons as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing I never ordered, never mentioned, that had never entered my thoughts.


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So now the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer call this place Topheth, or Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter.


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Because of this place, I shall empty Judah and Jerusalem of sound advice; I shall make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those determined to kill them; I shall give their corpses as food to the birds of the sky and the animals of earth.


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And I shall make this city an object of horror and derision; every passer-by will be appalled at it and whistle at the sight of all the wounds it has sustained.


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I shall make them eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters: they will eat one another during the siege, in the shortage to which their enemies, and those determined to kill them, will reduce them."


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and say to them, "Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I am going to break this people and this city just as one breaks a potter's pot, so that it can never be mended again. "Topheth will become a burial ground, for lack of other burial space.


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That is how I shall treat this place, Yahweh declares, and its inhabitants, by making this city like Topheth.


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The houses of Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah, all the houses on the roofs of which they offered incense to the whole array of heaven and poured libations to other gods, will be unclean, like this place Topheth." '


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Jeremiah then came back from Topheth where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Temple of Yahweh and said to all the people,


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'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Yes, on this city, and on all the towns belonging to it, I shall bring all the disaster which I had decreed for it, since they have stubbornly refused to listen to my words." '


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Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief of police in the Temple of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah making this prophecy.


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Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah and then put him in the stocks, in the Upper Benjamin Gate leading into the Temple of Yahweh.


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Next day, Pashhur had Jeremiah taken out of the stocks; Jeremiah then said to him, 'Not Pashhur but Terror-on-every-Side is Yahweh's name for you.


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For Yahweh says this, "I am going to hand you over to terror, you and all your friends; they will fall by the sword of their enemies, your own eyes will see it. The whole of Judah, too, I shall hand over to the king of Babylon; he will carry them off captive to Babylon and put them to the sword.


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And all the wealth of this city, all its stores, all its valuables, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I shall hand over to their enemies who will plunder them, round them up and carry them off to Babylon.


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As for you, Pashhur, and your whole household, you will go into captivity; you will go to Babylon; there you will die, and there be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies." '


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You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger. I am a laughing-stock all day long, they all make fun of me.


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For whenever I speak, I have to howl and proclaim, 'Violence and ruin!' For me, Yahweh's word has been the cause of insult and derision all day long.


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I would say to myself, 'I will not think about him, I will not speak in his name any more,' but then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not do it.


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I heard so many disparaging me, 'Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!' All those who were on good terms with me watched for my downfall, 'Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we shall get the better of him and take our revenge!'


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But Yahweh is at my side like a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, vanquished, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.


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Yahweh Sabaoth, you who test the upright, observer of motives and thoughts, I shall see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you.


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Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of one in need from the clutches of evil doers.


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A curse on the man who brought my father the news, 'A son, a boy has been born to you!' making him overjoyed.


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May this man be like the towns that Yahweh overthrew without mercy; may he hear the warning-cry at dawn and the shout of battle at high noon,


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The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur son of Malchiah to him, with the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, to say this,


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'Please consult Yahweh for us, since Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war on us: perhaps Yahweh will work one of his many miracles for us and force him to withdraw.'


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"Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: I shall bring back the weapons of war which you are now carrying, and with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldaeans now besieging you; from outside the walls, I shall stack them in the centre of this city.


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And I shall fight against you myself with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, fury and great wrath.


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I shall strike down the inhabitants of this city, human and animal; they will die of a great plague.


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Then, Yahweh declares, I shall deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, the people and those of this city who have escaped the plague, the sword, or the famine, into the clutches of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the clutches of their enemies and into the clutches of those determined to kill them; mercilessly, relentlessly, pitilessly, he will put them to the sword."


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'And you must say to this people, "Yahweh says this: Look, I offer you a choice between the way of life and the way of death.


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Anyone who stays in this city will die by sword, by famine, or by plague; but anyone who leaves it and surrenders to the Chaldaeans now besieging you will live; he will escape with his life.


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For I am determined on disaster, and not prosperity, for this city, Yahweh declares. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down." '


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House of David! Yahweh says this: Each morning give fair judgement, rescue anyone who has been wronged from the hands of his oppressor, or else my wrath will leap out like a fire, it will burn and no one will be able to quench it, because of the wickedness of your actions.


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My quarrel is with you, resident of the valley, Rock-in-the-Plain, Yahweh declares, with you that say, 'Who would dare attack us and enter our lairs?'


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I shall punish you as your actions deserve, Yahweh declares, I shall set fire to its forest and it will devour all around it.


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"Listen to the word of Yahweh, king of Judah now occupying the throne of David, you, your officials and your people who go through these gates.


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Yahweh says this: Act uprightly and justly; rescue from the hands of the oppressor anyone who has been wronged, do not exploit or ill-treat the stranger, the orphan, the widow; shed no innocent blood in this place.


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For if you are scrupulous in obeying this command, then kings occupying the throne of David will continue to make their entry through the gates of this palace riding in chariots or on horseback, they, their officials and their people.


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But if you do not listen to these words, then I swear by myself, Yahweh declares, this palace shall become a ruin!


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"Yes, this is what Yahweh says about the palace of the king of Judah: You are like Gilead to me, like a peak of Lebanon. All the same, I will reduce you to a desert, to uninhabited towns.


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I dedicate men to destroy you, each man with his weapons; they will cut down your finest cedars and throw them on the fire.


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"And when many nations pass this city, they will say to one another: Why has Yahweh treated this great city like this?


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And the answer will be: Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God to worship other gods and serve them." '


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Do not weep for the man who is dead, do not raise the dirge for him. Weep rather for the one who has gone away, since he will never come back, never see his native land again.


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For this is what Yahweh has said about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded Josiah his father and was forced to leave this place, 'He will never come back to it


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but will die in the place to which he has been taken captive; and he will never see this country again.


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'Disaster for the man who builds his house without uprightness, his upstairs rooms without fair judgement, who makes his fellow-man work for nothing, without paying him his wages,


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who says, "I shall build myself a spacious palace with airy upstairs rooms," who makes windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it vermilion.


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Are you more of a king because of your passion for cedar? Did your father go hungry or thirsty? But he did what is just and upright, so all went well for him.


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He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then all went well. Is not that what it means to know me? Yahweh demands.


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You on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.'


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That is why Yahweh says this about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: 'No lamenting for him, "My poor brother! My poor sister!" No lamenting for him, "His poor lordship! His poor majesty!"


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'Climb the Lebanon range and shriek, raise your voice in Bashan, shriek from the Abarim, for all your lovers have been ruined!


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I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, "I will not listen!" From your youth this has been how you behaved, refusing to listen to my voice.


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The wind will shepherd all your shepherds away and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will blush deep with shame at the thought of all your wickedness.


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You who have made the Lebanon your home and made your nest among the cedars, how you will groan when anguish overtakes you, pangs like those of a woman in labour!


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'As I live, Yahweh declares, even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I would still wrench you off!


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I shall hand you over to those determined to kill you, to those you dread, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to the Chaldaeans.


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I shall hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country; you were not born there but you will both die there.


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Is he a shoddy broken pot, this man Coniah, a crock that no one wants? Why are he and his offspring ejected, hurled into a country they know nothing of?


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Yahweh says this, 'List this man as: Childless; a man who made a failure of his life, since none of his offspring will succeed in occupying the throne of David, or ruling in Judah again.'


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This, therefore, is what Yahweh, God of Israel, says about the shepherds who shepherd my people, "You have scattered my flock, you have driven them away and have not taken care of them. Right, I shall take care of you for your misdeeds, Yahweh declares!


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But the remnant of my flock I myself shall gather from all the countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; they will be fruitful and increase in numbers.


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For them I shall raise up shepherds to shepherd them and pasture them. No fear, no terror for them any more; not one shall be lost, Yahweh declares!


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Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall raise an upright Branch for David; he will reign as king and be wise, doing what is just and upright in the country.


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In his days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety. And this is the name he will be called, 'Yahweh-is-our-Saving-Justice.' "


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'So, look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer say, "As Yahweh lives who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,"


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but, "As Yahweh lives who led back and brought home the offspring of the House of Israel from the land of the north and all the countries to which he had driven them, to live on their own soil." '


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On the prophets. My heart is broken within me, I tremble in all my bones; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome with wine, because of Yahweh and his holy words:


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'For the country is full of adulterers; yes, because of a curse, the country is in mourning and the pasturage in the desert has dried up; they are prompt to do wrong, make no effort to do right.


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Yes, even prophet and priest are godless, I have detected their wickedness in my own House, Yahweh declares.


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Because of this, their way will prove treacherous going for them; in the darkness where they are driven, there they will fall. For I shall bring disaster on them, when the year for punishing them comes, Yahweh declares.


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'In the prophets of Samaria I have seen insanity: they prophesied in the name of Baal and led my people Israel astray.


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But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: adultery, persistent lying, such abetting of the wicked that no one renounces his wickedness. To me they are all like Sodom and its inhabitants are like Gomorrah.


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So this is what Yahweh Sabaoth says about the prophets, "Now I shall give them wormwood to eat and make them drink poisoned water, since from the prophets of Jerusalem godlessness has spread throughout the land."


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'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Do not listen to what those prophets prophesy to you; they are deluding you, they retail visions of their own, and not what comes from Yahweh's mouth.


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To those who despise me, they keep saying: Yahweh has spoken: you will have peace! and to all who follow their own stubborn inclinations: No disaster will touch you."


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But who has been present in Yahweh's council and seen, and heard his word? Who has paid attention to his word and listened to it?


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Look, Yahweh's hurricane, his wrath, bursts out, a fearsome hurricane, to burst on the heads of the wicked;


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Yahweh's anger will not withdraw until he has performed, has carried out, what he has in mind. In the final days, you will understand this clearly,


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Had they been present in my council, they could have proclaimed my words to my people and turned them from their evil way and from the wickedness of their deeds!


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Can anyone hide somewhere secret without my seeing him? Yahweh demands. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Yahweh demands.


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'I have heard what the prophets say who make their lying prophecies in my name. "I have had a dream," they say, "I have had a dream!"


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How long are there to be those among the prophets who prophesy lies and are in fact prophets of their own delusions?


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They are doing their best, by means of the dreams that they keep telling each other, to make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name in favour of Baal.


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Let the prophet who has had a dream tell it for a dream! And let him who receives a word from me, deliver my word accurately! 'What have straw and wheat in common? Yahweh demands.


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'So, then, I have a quarrel with the prophets, Yahweh declares, that steal my words from one another.


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I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophecies out of lying dreams, Yahweh declares, who recount them, and lead my people astray by their lies and their bragging. I certainly never sent them or commissioned them, and they serve no good purpose for this people, Yahweh declares.


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'And when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, asks you, "What is Yahweh's burden?" you must answer, "You are the burden, and I shall get rid of you, Yahweh declares!"


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'As for the prophet, the priest, or anyone else, who says, "Yahweh's burden", I shall punish that man, and his household too.


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This is what you must say to one another, among yourselves, "What answer has Yahweh given?" or "What has Yahweh said?"


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But stop using the expression "Yahweh's burden", for what each man says will be his own responsibility. And you twist the words of the living God, of Yahweh Sabaoth, our God.


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But if you say, "Yahweh's burden", then Yahweh says this, "Since you use the expression 'Yahweh's burden', when I have warned you to stop saying, 'Yahweh's burden',


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believe me, I shall pick you up and fling you from my presence, you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors.


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Yahweh gave me a vision: set out in front of the Temple of Yahweh were two baskets of figs. This was after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had led Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, away into exile from Jerusalem, with the chief men of Judah, the blacksmiths and metalworkers, and had taken them to Babylon.


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One basket contained excellent figs, like those that ripen first; the other contained very bad figs, so bad they were uneatable.


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Yahweh said to me, 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' 'Figs,' I answered, 'the good ones excellent, the bad ones very bad, so bad as to be uneatable.'


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'Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this, "As these figs are good, so I mean to concern myself with the welfare of the exiles of Judah whom I have sent from this place to the country of the Chaldaeans.


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My eyes will watch over them for their good, to bring them back to this country, to build them up and not to break them down, to plant them and not to uproot them.


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I shall give them a heart to acknowledge that I am Yahweh. They will be my people and I shall be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.


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As for the bad figs, the figs so bad as to be uneatable-yes, Yahweh says this -- that is how I shall treat Zedekiah king of Judah, his chief men and what is left of Jerusalem, those who remain in this country and those living in Egypt.


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I shall make them an object of horror, a disaster, to all the kingdoms of the earth, a thing of shame, a byword, a laughing-stock, a curse, wherever I shall drive them.


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Sword, famine and plague I shall send against them until they have vanished from the soil I gave to them and to their ancestors." '


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The word that was addressed to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah (that is to say the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon).


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The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed it before all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:


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'For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until today, the word of Yahweh has been addressed to me and I have never tired of speaking to you (but you have not listened.


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Furthermore, Yahweh has untiringly sent you all his servants the prophets, but you have not listened or paid attention).


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The message was this, "Turn back, each one of you, from your evil behaviour and your evil actions, and you will go on living on the soil Yahweh long ago gave to you and your ancestors for ever.


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(And do not follow other gods to serve and worship them, do not provoke me with things you yourselves have made, and then I shall not harm you.)


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But you have not listened to me (Yahweh declares, so that you have now provoked me with things you yourselves have made, and thus harmed yourselves)."


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I shall now send for all the families of the north (Yahweh declares, that is, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant) and bring them down on this country and its inhabitants (and on all these surrounding nations); I shall curse them with utter destruction and make them an object of horror, of scorn, and ruin them for ever.


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From them I shall banish the shouts of rejoicing and mirth, the voices of bridegroom and bride, the sound of the handmill and the light of the lamp;


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and this whole country will be reduced to ruin and desolation, and these nations will be enslaved to the king of Babylon for seventy years.


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(But when the seventy years are over, I shall punish the king of Babylon and that nation, Yahweh declares, for the wrong they have done, that is, the country of the Chaldaeans, and make it desolate for ever),


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and against that country I shall perform all the words with which I have threatened it, that is, everything written in this book." '


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What Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ('For these in their turn are to be enslaved to powerful nations and great kings, and I shall pay them back as their deeds and handiwork deserve.')


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For Yahweh, the God of Israel, said this to me, 'Take this cup of the wine of wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it;


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(Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and its chief men, to make them a ruin, an object of horror and derision and a curse, as is the case today):


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with the whole conglomeration of peoples there (all the kings of the country of Uz); all the kings of the country of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and what is still left of Ashdod;


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all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another: in short, all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. (As for the king of Sheshak, he will drink last of all.)


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'You will say to them, "Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Drink! Get drunk! Vomit! Fall, never to rise again, before the sword that I am sending among you!"


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If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, you will say to them, "Yahweh Sabaoth says this: You must drink!


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Look, for a start, I am bringing disaster on the city that bears my name, so are you likely to go unpunished? You certainly will not go unpunished, for next I shall summon a sword against all the inhabitants of the land, Yahweh declares."


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'For your part, you are to prophesy all these words to them. Say to them: "Yahweh roars from on high, he thunders from his holy dwelling-place, loudly he roars at his own fold, shouts aloud like those who tread the grape at all the inhabitants of the land.


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The noise resounds to the remotest parts of the earth. For Yahweh is indicting the nations, arraigning all humanity for judgement; the wicked he assigns to the sword, Yahweh declares.


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Look, disaster is spreading from nation to nation, a mighty tempest is rising from the far ends of the earth.


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"Those slaughtered by Yahweh that day will be scattered across the world from end to end. No dirge will be raised for them; no one will gather them or bury them; they will stay lying on the surface like dung.


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"Howl, shepherds, shriek, roll on the ground, you lords of the flock, for your days have come to be slaughtered and to be scattered, and like a choice vase you will fall.


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Listen! A shriek from the shepherds, a howl from the lords of the flock! For Yahweh has laid their pasture waste,


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The lion has left his lair and their country is a wasteland now, owing to the devastating fury, owing to his furious anger." '


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At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh,


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'Yahweh says this, "Stand in the court of the Temple of Yahweh. To all the people from the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of Yahweh you will say everything I have ordered you to say, not omitting one syllable.


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Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intend because of their misdeeds."


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Say to them, "Yahweh says this: If you will not listen to me and follow my Law which I have given you,


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and pay attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I have never tired of sending to you, although you never have paid attention,


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I shall treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the world." '


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When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that Yahweh had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets and all the people seized hold of him and said, 'You will die for this!


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Why have you made this prophecy in Yahweh's name, "This Temple will become like Shiloh, and this city become an uninhabited ruin"?' And the people all crowded in on Jeremiah in the Temple of Yahweh.


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Hearing of this, the chief men of Judah came up from the royal palace to the Temple of Yahweh and took their seats at the entry of the New Gate of the Temple of Yahweh.


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The priests and prophets then said to the chief men and all the people, 'This man deserves to die, since he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.'


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Jeremiah, however, replied to all the chief men and all the people as follows, 'Yahweh himself sent me to prophesy against this Temple and this city all the things you have heard.


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So now amend your behaviour and actions, listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, and Yahweh will relent about the disaster that he has decreed for you.


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But be sure of this, that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood on yourselves, on this city and on its inhabitants, since Yahweh has truly sent me to you to say all this for you to hear.'


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The chief men and all the people then said to the priests and prophets, 'This man does not deserve to die: he has spoken to us in the name of Yahweh our God.'


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'Micah of Moresheth,' they said, 'who prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, had this to say to all the people of Judah, "Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Zion will become ploughland, Jerusalem a heap of rubble and the Temple Mount a wooded height."


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'Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death for this? Did they not rather, fearing Yahweh, plead with him, to such effect that Yahweh relented about the disaster which he had decreed for them? Are we now to burden our souls with such a crime?'


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There was another man, too, who used to prophesy in Yahweh's name, Uriah son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-Jearim. He prophesied exactly the same things against this city and this country as Jeremiah.


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When King Jehoiakim with all his officers and all the chief men heard what he said, the king was determined to put him to death. On hearing this, Uriah took fright and, fleeing, escaped to Egypt.


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who brought Uriah back from Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him put to the sword and his body thrown into the common burial ground.


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But Jeremiah had a protector in Ahikam son of Shaphan, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.


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(At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh:)


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Then send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, through their envoys accredited to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.


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Give them the following message for their masters, "Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: You must tell your masters this:


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I by my great power and outstretched arm made the earth, the human beings and the animals that are on earth, and I give them to whom I please.


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For the present, I have handed all these countries over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; I have even put the wild animals at his service.


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(All the nations will serve him, his son and his grandson, until the time for his own country comes in its turn, when mighty nations and great kings will enslave him.)


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Any nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and will not bow its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon, I shall punish that nation with sword, famine and plague, Yahweh declares, until I have destroyed it by his hand.


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For your own part, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, dreamers, magicians and sorcerers, who tell you: You will not be enslaved by the king of Babylon.


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They prophesy lies to you, the result of which will be that you will be banished from your soil, that I shall drive you out, and you will perish.


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The nation, however, that is prepared to bend its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I shall leave in peace on its own soil, Yahweh declares, to farm it and stay on it." '


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To Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke in exactly the same terms. 'Bend your necks', I told him, 'to the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people and you will survive.


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(Why so anxious to die, you and your people, by sword, famine and plague, with which Yahweh has threatened the nation refusing to serve the king of Babylon?)


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Do not listen to the words the prophets say to you, "You will not be enslaved by the king of Babylon." They prophesy lies to you.


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Since I have not sent them, Yahweh declares, they prophesy untruths to you in my name. The result will be that I shall drive you out, you will perish, and so will the prophets who prophesy to you.'


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I also spoke to the priests and to all this people as follows, 'Yahweh says this, "Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you as follows: Look, the vessels of the Temple of Yahweh will very shortly be brought back from Babylon. They prophesy lies to you.


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(Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and you will survive. Why should this city become a ruin?)


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If they are real prophets, if Yahweh's word is really with them, they ought now to be pleading with Yahweh Sabaoth that the remaining vessels in the Temple of Yahweh, in the palace of the king of Judah and elsewhere in Jerusalem, do not go to Babylon too!


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For this is what Yahweh Sabaoth says about (the pillars, the Sea, the stands and) the other vessels still remaining in this city,


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those not carried off by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon when he took Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (with all the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem).


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Yes, this is what Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says about the vessels still remaining in the Temple of Yahweh, in the palace of the king of Judah and elsewhere in Jerusalem:


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They will be carried off to Babylon (and stay there until the day I punish them), Yahweh declares. (Then I shall bring them back and restore them to this place.)" '


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That same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, a Gibeonite, spoke as follows to Jeremiah in the Temple of Yahweh in the presence of the priests and of all the people,


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In exactly two years' time I shall bring back all the vessels of the Temple of Yahweh which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from here and carried off to Babylon.


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And I shall also bring back Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah and all the exiles of Judah who have gone to Babylon, Yahweh declares, for I shall break the yoke of the king of Babylon." '


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The prophet Jeremiah then replied to the prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people present in the Temple of Yahweh.


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'So be it!' the prophet Jeremiah said, 'May Yahweh do so! May he fulfil the words that you have prophesied and bring all the vessels of the Temple of Yahweh and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon.


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Listen carefully, however, to this word that I am now going to say for you and all the people to hear:


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From remote times, the prophets who preceded you and me prophesied war, disaster and plague for many countries and for great kingdoms;


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the prophet who prophesies peace can be recognised as one truly sent by Yahweh only when his word comes true.'


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In front of all the people Hananiah then said, 'Yahweh says this, "This is how, in exactly two years' time, I shall break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and take it off the necks of all the nations." ' At this, the prophet Jeremiah went away.


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After the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke he had snatched off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah,


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'Go to Hananiah and tell him this, "Yahweh says this: You have broken the wooden yokes only to make iron yokes to replace them!


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For Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: An iron yoke is what I now lay on the necks of all these nations to enslave them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. (They will be enslaved to him; I have even given him the wild animals.)" '


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The prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, 'Listen carefully, Hananiah: Yahweh has not sent you; and thanks to you this people is now relying on what is false.


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And so, Yahweh says this, "I am going to send you off the face of the earth: you will die this year (since you have preached rebellion against Yahweh)." '


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This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to those who were left of the elders in exile, to the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.


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This was after King Jeconiah had left Jerusalem with the queen mother, the eunuchs, the chief men of Judah and Jerusalem, and the blacksmiths and metalworkers.


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The letter was entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:


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marry and have sons and daughters; choose wives for your sons, find husbands for your daughters so that these can bear sons and daughters in their turn; you must increase there and not decrease.


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Work for the good of the city to which I have exiled you; pray to Yahweh on its behalf, since on its welfare yours depends.


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For Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Do not be deceived by the prophets who are with you or by your diviners; do not listen to the dreams you have,


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For Yahweh says this: When the seventy years granted to Babylon are over, I shall intervene on your behalf and fulfil my favourable promise to you by bringing you back to this place.


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Yes, I know what plans I have in mind for you, Yahweh declares, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.


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I shall let you find me (Yahweh declares. I shall restore your fortunes and gather you in from all the nations and wherever I have driven you, Yahweh declares. I shall bring you back to the place from which I exiled you).


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this is what Yahweh says about the king now occupying the throne of David and all the people living in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile:


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I am now going to send them sword, famine and plague; I shall make them like rotten figs, so bad as to be uneatable.


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I shall pursue them with sword, famine and plague. I shall make them an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, a thing of horror, scorn and derision to all the nations where I have driven them,


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because they have refused to listen to my words, Yahweh declares, although I have persistently sent them all my servants the prophets; but they would not listen, Yahweh declares.


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'This is what Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who prophesy lies to you in my name: I shall hand them over now to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon who will put them to death before your very eyes.


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This curse, based on their fate, will be used by all the exiles of Judah in Babylon: May Yahweh treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, roasted alive by the king of Babylon,


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because they have done a scandalous thing in Israel, committing adultery with their neighbour's wives and speaking lying words in my name without orders from me. I know all the same and am witness to it, Yahweh declares.'


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Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Since you, on your own initiative, have sent a letter to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah (and to all the priests), saying:


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Yahweh has appointed you priest in place of the priest Jehoiada to keep order in the Temple of Yahweh, to put any crazy fellow posing as a prophet in the stocks and collar,


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Why, he has even sent us a message in Babylon, saying: It will be a long time. Build houses, settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.'. . .


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'Send this message to all the exiles, "This is what Yahweh says about Shemaiah of Nehelam: Since Shemaiah has prophesied to you without my sending him, and since he has caused you to rely on what is false


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for that reason, Yahweh declares, I shall punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants; no male member of his family will survive among this people to see the happiness that I will bestow on my people (Yahweh declares, since he has preached rebellion against Yahweh)." '


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'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "Write for yourself in a book all the words I have spoken to you.


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For look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall bring back the captives of my people Israel (and Judah), Yahweh says. I shall make them come back and take possession of the country I gave to their ancestors." '


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Now ask and see: can a man bear children? Then why do I see each man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labour? Why has every face grown pale?


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Disaster! This is the great day, no other like it: a time of distress for Jacob, though he will be saved from it.


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(That day, Yahweh Sabaoth declares, I shall break the yoke now on your neck and snap your chains; and foreigners will enslave you no more,


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but Israel and Judah will serve Yahweh their God, and David their king whom I shall raise up for them.)


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So do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Yahweh declares, Israel, do not be alarmed: for look, I shall rescue you from distant countries and your descendants from the country where they are captive. Jacob will return and be at peace, secure, with no one to trouble him.


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For I am with you to save you, Yahweh declares, I shall make an end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I shall not make an end of you, only discipline you in moderation, not to let you go quite unpunished.


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All your lovers have forgotten you, they look for you no more. Yes, I have struck you as an enemy strikes, with cruel punishment (because of your great guilt and countless sins).


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Why cry out because of your wound? Your pain is incurable! Because of your great guilt and countless sins, I have treated you like this.


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But all those who devoured you will be devoured, all your enemies, all, go into captivity, those who despoiled you will be despoiled, and all who pillaged you be pillaged.


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For I shall restore you to health and heal your wounds, Yahweh declares, you who used to be called 'Outcast', 'Zion for whom no one cares'.


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Yahweh says this: Look, I shall restore the tents of Jacob and take pity on his dwellings: the town will be rebuilt on its mound, the stronghold where it ought to stand.


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From them will come thanksgiving and shouts of joy. I shall make them increase, they will not decrease; I shall make them honoured, no more to be humbled.


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Their sons will be as once they were, their community fixed firmly before me, and I shall punish all their oppressors.


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Their prince will be one of their own, their ruler come from their own people, and I shall permit him to approach me freely; for who, otherwise, would be so bold as to approach me, Yahweh demands?


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Look, Yahweh's hurricane, his wrath, bursts out, a roaring hurricane, to burst on the heads of the wicked;


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Yahweh's burning anger will not turn aside until he has performed, has carried out, what he has in mind. In the final days, you will understand this.


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When that time comes, Yahweh declares, I shall be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.


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Yahweh says this: They have found pardon in the desert, those who have survived the sword. Israel is marching to his rest.


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Yahweh has appeared to me from afar; I have loved you with an everlasting love and so I still maintain my faithful love for you.


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I shall build you once more, yes, you will be rebuilt, Virgin of Israel! Once more in your best attire, and with your tambourines, you will go out dancing gaily.


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Once more you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria (those who plant will themselves enjoy the fruit).


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Yes, a day will come when the watchmen shout on the mountains of Ephraim, 'Up! Let us go up to Zion, to Yahweh our God!'


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For Yahweh says this: Shout with joy for Jacob! Hail the chief of nations! Proclaim! Praise! Shout, 'Yahweh has saved his people, the remnant of Israel!'


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Watch, I shall bring them back from the land of the north and gather them in from the far ends of the earth. With them, the blind and the lame, women with child, women in labour, all together: a mighty throng will return here!


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In tears they will return, in prayer I shall lead them. I shall guide them to streams of water, by a smooth path where they will not stumble. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born son.


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Listen, nations, to the word of Yahweh. On the farthest coasts and islands proclaim it, say, 'He who scattered Israel is gathering him, will guard him as a shepherd guarding his flock.'


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They will come, shouting for joy on the heights of Zion, thronging towards Yahweh's lavish gifts, for wheat, new wine and oil, sheep and cattle; they will be like a well-watered garden, they will sorrow no more.


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The young girl will then take pleasure in the dance, and young men and old alike; I shall change their mourning into gladness, comfort them, give them joy after their troubles;


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I shall refresh my priests with rich food, and my people will gorge themselves on my lavish gifts, Yahweh declares.


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Yahweh says this: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.


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Yahweh says this: Stop your lamenting dry your eyes, for your labour will have a reward, Yahweh declares, and they will return from the enemy's country.


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There is hope for your future after all, Yahweh declares, your children will return to their homeland.


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I have indeed heard Ephraim's grieving, 'You flogged me, I took a flogging, like a young, untrained bull. Bring me back, let me come back, for you are Yahweh my God!


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For, since I turned away, I have repented; having understood, I beat my breast. I was deeply ashamed, I blushed, aware of the disgrace incurred when I was young.'


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Is Ephraim, then, so dear a son to me, a child so favoured, that whenever I mention him I remember him lovingly still? That is why I yearn for him, why I must take pity on him, Yahweh declares.


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Set up your signposts, raise yourself landmarks, fix your mind on the road, the way by which you went. Come home, Virgin of Israel, come home to these towns of yours.


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How long will you hesitate, rebellious daughter? For Yahweh is creating something new on earth: the Woman sets out to find her Husband again.


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Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, 'In the country of Judah and in its towns, they will use these words once more, when I bring their captives home: "Yahweh bless you, home of saving justice, holy mountain!"


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'And in this country, Judah and all its towns, the ploughmen and those who wander with their flocks, will live together,


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'Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall sow the House of Israel and the House of Judah with the seed both of people and of cattle.


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And as I once watched over them to uproot, to knock down, to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so now I shall watch over them to build and to plant, Yahweh declares.


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'In those days people will no longer say: "The fathers have eaten unripe grapes; the children's teeth are set on edge."


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But each will die for his own guilt. Everyone who eats unripe grapes will have his own teeth set on edge.


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'Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall make a new covenant with the House of Israel (and the House of Judah),


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but not like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, a covenant which they broke, even though I was their Master, Yahweh declares.


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No, this is the covenant I shall make with the House of Israel when those days have come, Yahweh declares. Within them I shall plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I shall be their God and they will be my people.


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There will be no further need for everyone to teach neighbour or brother, saying, "Learn to know Yahweh!" No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest, Yahweh declares, since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sin to mind.'


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Yahweh who provides the sun to shine by day, who regulates moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs the sea, making its waves roar, he whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth, says this,


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'Were this established order ever to pass away before me, Yahweh declares, then the race of Israel would also cease being a nation for ever before me!'


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Yahweh says this, 'Were the heavens above ever to be measured, the foundations of the earth below ever to be fathomed, then I too would reject the whole race of Israel for all that they have done, Yahweh declares.'


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'Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when the City will be rebuilt for Yahweh, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.


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Then once again the measuring line will stretch straight to the Hill of Gareb, turning then to Goah.


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And the whole valley, with its corpses and ashes, and all the ground beside the ravine of the Kidron as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, eastwards, will be consecrated to Yahweh. It will never be destroyed or demolished again.


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The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.


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The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the Court of the Guard in the king of Judah's palace,


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where Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, 'Why do you keep prophesying like this, "Yahweh says this: I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will capture it;


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and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape the clutches of the Chaldaeans, but will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon, speak to him personally and see him face to face.


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He will take Zedekiah away to Babylon and there he will stay (until I attend to him, Yahweh declares. If you fight the Chaldaeans you will not succeed!)" '


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"Look, Hanamel the son of your uncle Shallum will come to you and say: Buy my field at Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to purchase it."


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And, as Yahweh had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me, in the Court of the Guard and said, "Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, for you have the right of inheritance and right of redemption; buy it." I knew then that this was Yahweh's order.


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Accordingly, I bought the field from my cousin Hanamel of Anathoth and weighed him out the money: seventeen silver shekels.


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and handed over the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, of the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase, and of all the Judaeans who then happened to be in the Court of the Guard.


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"Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Take these deeds, the sealed deed of purchase and its open copy, and put them in an earthenware pot, so that they may be preserved for a long time.


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For Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this country."


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"Ah, Lord Yahweh, you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. To you nothing is impossible.


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You show faithful love to thousands but repay the fathers' guilt in full to their children after them. Great and mighty God, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth,


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great in purpose, mighty in deed, whose eyes are open on all human ways, rewarding every individual as that person's ways and actions deserve!


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You performed signs and wonders in Egypt, as you still do in Israel and among humanity today. You have won the name for yourself which is yours today.


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You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with mighty hand and outstretched arm and fearsome terror.


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Then you gave them this country which you had promised on oath to their ancestors, a country flowing with milk and honey.


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They then entered it, taking possession of it, but they would not listen to your voice nor follow your Law: they would do nothing you ordered them to do; and so you made this total disaster befall them.


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Look! The earthworks are already in place to take the city and, by means of sword, famine and plague, the city is now within the clutches of the Chaldaeans attacking it. What you said has now come true, as you see.


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Yet you yourself, Lord Yahweh, told me: Buy the field, pay for it, have it witnessed although the city is already in the Chaldaeans' clutches." '


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'So, Yahweh says this, "I shall hand this city over to the Chaldaeans and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will capture it;


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the Chaldaeans attacking this city will enter it, fire it and burn it to the ground, with the houses on whose roofs incense has been offered to Baal and libations poured to other gods, to provoke my anger.


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For the people of Israel and Judah alike have done nothing but what displeases me since they were young. (The people of Israel in fact have done nothing but provoke my anger by their actions, Yahweh declares.)


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Yes, from the day when this city was built until today, it has been such cause of anger and wrath to me that I mean to remove it from my sight,


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on account of all the wickedness the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done to provoke my anger; they, their kings, their chief men, their priests, their prophets, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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They turned to me their backs, never their faces; and though I taught them so urgently, so untiringly, they would not listen and accept correction.


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and built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters alive in honour of Molech: a thing I have never ordered, that had never entered my thoughts -- that they would cause Judah to sin by anything so loathsome!


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"So now, this is what Yahweh, God of Israel, says about this city of which you now say: By means of sword, famine and plague, it is already within the king of Babylon's clutches:


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Look, I shall gather them in from all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, my fury and great wrath. I shall bring them back to this place and make them live in safety.


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I shall give them singleness of heart and singleness of conduct so that they will always fear me, for their own good and that of their children after them.


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I shall make an everlasting covenant with them, never to cease in my efforts for their welfare, and I shall put respect for me in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from me again.


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My joy will lie in them and in doing them good, and I shall plant them firmly in this country, with all my heart and soul.


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For Yahweh says this: Just as I have brought this complete and total disaster on this people, so I shall bring them all the good things I have promised them.


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Fields will again be bought in this country of which you now say: It is a wasteland without human or animal, already in the clutches of the Chaldaeans.


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People will buy fields, pay money, draw up deeds, seal them and have them witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the districts round Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, of the highlands, of the lowlands and of the Negeb. For I shall bring back their captives, Yahweh declares." '


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Jeremiah was still confined to the Court of the Guard when the word of Yahweh came to him a second time, as follows,


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For this is what Yahweh, God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah which are about to be destroyed by means of the earthworks and the sword;


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about those now fighting the Chaldaeans, only to fill the city with corpses, those whom I have slaughtered in my furious anger, those whose wickedness has made me hide my face from this city:


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Look, I shall bring them remedy and cure; I shall cure them and reveal a new order of peace and loyalty to them.


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I shall bring back the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel and shall rebuild them as before.


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I shall cleanse them of all their guilt, by which they have offended me, I shall forgive all their guilty actions, by which they have offended me and rebelled against me.


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And, for me, Jerusalem will become a name of joy and praise and pride for all the nations on earth to see; when they hear of all the prosperity that I shall give, they will be seized with fear and trembling at all the prosperity and the peace that I provide for it."


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'Yahweh says this, "In this place of which you now say: It is a ruin, without human or animal, in the towns of Judah and desolate streets of Jerusalem where there is neither human nor animal, once more will be heard


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shouts of rejoicing and mirth, the voices of bridegroom and bride, and the singing of those who bring thanksgiving sacrifices to the Temple of Yahweh: Give thanks to Yahweh Sabaoth, for Yahweh is good, for his faithful love is everlasting. For I shall bring back the country's captives, as before, Yahweh says."


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'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "In this ruinous place, without human or animal, in all its towns, once again there will be pastures for the shepherds to rest their flocks.


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In the towns of the highlands, of the lowlands and the Negeb, in the territory of Benjamin, in the districts round Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, once again the flocks shall pass under the hand of someone who counts them, Yahweh says.


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"Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall fulfil the promise of happiness I made to the House of Israel and the House of Judah:


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In those days and at that time, I shall make an upright Branch grow for David, who will do what is just and upright in the country.


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In those days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety. And this is the name the city will be called: Yahweh-is-our-Saving-Justice."


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'For Yahweh says this, "David will never lack a male descendant to occupy the throne of the House of Israel,


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nor will the levitical priests ever lack male descendants to stand before me and offer the burnt offering, to burn the cereal offering and offer sacrifice every day." '


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'Yahweh says this, "If you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night do not come at their due time,


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then my covenant with David my servant might also be broken and he would have no son to reign on his throne, and so also might my covenant with the levitical priests, who are my ministers.


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As surely as the array of heaven cannot be counted, nor the sand of the sea be measured, so surely shall I increase the heirs of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me." '


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'Have you not noticed what these people say, "The two families which Yahweh chose he has now rejected"? So they despise my people, whom they no longer think of as a nation.


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Yahweh says this, "If I have not created day and night and fixed the laws governing heaven and earth,


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why, then I shall reject the descendants of Jacob and of David my servant and cease to choose rulers from his descendants for the heirs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! For I shall bring back their captives and take pity on them." '


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The word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his whole army, with all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples, were waging war on Jerusalem and all its towns,


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'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, Yahweh says this: I am going to hand this city over to the power of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.


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And you yourself will not escape his clutches but will certainly be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon face to face and speak to him personally. Then you will go to Babylon.


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Even so, listen to the word of Yahweh, Zedekiah king of Judah! This is what Yahweh says about you: You will not die by the sword;


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you will die in peace. And as spices were burnt for your ancestors, the kings who in times past preceded you, so spices will be burnt for you and a dirge sung for you: Alas for his highness! I have spoken, Yahweh declares." '


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while the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and all such towns of Judah as still held out, namely Lachish and Azekah, these being the only fortified towns of Judah remaining.


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The word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to issue a proclamation freeing their slaves:


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each man was to free his Hebrew slaves, men and women, no one was any longer to keep a brother Judaean in slavery.


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All the chief men and all the people who had entered into the covenant had agreed that everyone should free his slaves, men or women, and no longer keep them as slaves: they had agreed on this and set them free.


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Afterwards, however, they changed their minds, recovered the slaves, men and women, whom they had set free, and reduced them to slavery again.


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'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; it said:


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At the end of seven years each one of you is to free his brother Hebrew who has sold himself to you: he may be your slave for six years, then you must send him away free. But your ancestors did not listen to me and would not pay attention.


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Now, today you repented and did what pleases me by proclaiming freedom for your neighbour; you made a covenant before me in the Temple that bears my name.


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And then you changed your minds and, profaning my name, each of you has recovered his slaves, men and women, whom you had sent away free to live their own lives, and has forced them to become your slaves again."


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'So Yahweh says this: "You have disobeyed me, by failing to grant freedom to brother and neighbour. Very well, I in my turn, Yahweh declares, shall leave sword, famine and plague free to deal with you and I shall make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.


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As for the people who have broken my covenant, who have not observed the terms of the covenant which they made before me, I shall treat them like the calf that people cut in two to pass between its pieces.


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The chief men of Judah and Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the country people who have passed between the pieces of the calf,


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I shall hand over to their enemies and those determined to kill them, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of earth.


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As for Zedekiah king of Judah and his chief men, I shall hand them to their enemies, to those determined to kill them, and to the army of the king of Babylon which has just withdrawn.


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Listen, I shall give the order, Yahweh declares, and bring them back to this city to attack it and capture it and burn it down. And I shall make an uninhabited waste of the towns of Judah." '


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'Go to the clan of the Rechabites and speak to them; bring them into one of the rooms of the Temple of Yahweh and offer them wine to drink.'


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So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, with his brothers and all his sons, the whole Rechabite clan,


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and brought them to the Temple of Yahweh into the room of Ben-Johanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was next to that of the chief men, above the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum, guardian of the threshold.


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I then set pitchers full of wine, and some cups, before the members of the Rechabite clan and said, 'Drink some wine.'


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But they replied, 'We do not drink wine, because our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab gave us this order, "You must not drink wine, neither you nor your sons for ever;


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nor must you build houses, sow seed, plant vineyards or own them, but must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live long on the soil to which you are alien."


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We have punctiliously obeyed the orders of our ancestor, Jonadab son of Rechab, never drinking wine ourselves, nor our wives, our sons or our daughters,


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living in tents. We have obeyed the orders of our ancestor Jonadab, respecting them in every particular.


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However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this country, we decided, "We must get away! We will go to Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldaeans and Aramaeans." So that is why we are living in Jerusalem.'


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'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you never learn the lesson and listen to my words, Yahweh demands?


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The words of Jonadab son of Rechab, ordering his sons to drink no wine, have been observed; obedient to their ancestor's command, they drink none even today . But to me, who spoke to you so urgently, so untiringly, you have not listened.


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I have urgently and untiringly sent you all my servants the prophets to say: Turn back, each one of you, from your evil behaviour and amend your actions, do not follow other gods to serve them, and you will go on living on the soil I gave to you and your ancestors. But you have not paid attention or listened to me.


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Thus the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have kept the command their ancestor gave them, but this people has not listened to me.


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And so, Yahweh, God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, on Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem I am going to bring all the disaster which I have decreed for them, because I spoke to them and they would not listen, called to them and they would not answer." '


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Then Jeremiah said to the Rechabite clan, 'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Because you have obeyed the orders of your ancestor Jonadab and observed all his rules and done everything he ordered you to do,


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therefore, Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to stand before me for ever." '


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In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh,


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'Take a scroll and on it write all the words I have spoken to you about Israel, Judah and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, in the time of Josiah, until today.


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Perhaps when the House of Judah hears about all the disaster I intend to inflict on them, they will turn, each one of them, from their evil behaviour, so that I can forgive their sinful guilt.'


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Jeremiah then summoned Baruch son of Neriah, who at his dictation wrote down on the scroll all the words Yahweh had spoken to him.


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you yourself must go and, from the scroll you wrote at my dictation, read all Yahweh's words to the people in his Temple on the day of the fast, and in this way you can read them in the hearing also of all the Judaeans who come in from their towns.


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Perhaps their prayers will move Yahweh and they will turn one and all from their evil behaviour, for great is the furious anger with which Yahweh has threatened this people.'


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Baruch son of Neriah duly carried out the order that the prophet Jeremiah had given him, to read all Yahweh's words from the book in his Temple.


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Now, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people of Jerusalem and all the people who could get to Jerusalem from the towns of Judah were summoned to a fast before Yahweh.


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Baruch then read Jeremiah's words from the book; this happened in the room of Gemariah son of the scribe Shaphan, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Temple of Yahweh, where all the people could hear.


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went down to the royal palace, to the scribe's room. All the chief men were in session: the scribe Elishama, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah and all the other chief men;


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and to them Micaiah reported all the words he heard as Baruch was reading the book aloud to the people.


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The chief men then by common consent sent Jehudi son of Netaniah to Baruch, with Shelemiah son of Cushi, to say, 'Come, and bring the scroll with you which you have been reading to the people.'


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Bringing the scroll with him, Baruch son of Neriah appeared before them. 'Sit down,' they said, 'and read it out.' So Baruch read it to them.


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Having heard all the words they turned to one another in alarm and said to Baruch, 'We must certainly inform the king of this.'


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The chief men said to Baruch, 'You and Jeremiah had better go into hiding; and do not tell anyone where you are.'


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Whereupon they went off to the king in the palace court, depositing the scroll in the room of the scribe Elishama. They then informed the king of the whole affair.


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The king sent Jehudi for the scroll, and he brought it from the room of the scribe Elishama and read it to the king and all the chief men standing round the king.


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The king was sitting in his winter apartments -- it was the ninth month -- with a fire burning in a brazier in front of him.


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Each time Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the fire in the brazier until the whole of the scroll had been burnt in the brazier fire.


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But in spite of hearing all these words, neither the king nor any of his courtiers took alarm or tore their clothes;


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and although Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had urged the king not to burn the scroll he would not listen to them,


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but ordered the king's son Jerahmeel and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But Yahweh had hidden them.


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Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, after the king had burnt the scroll containing the words Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation,


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'Take another scroll and write down all the words that were written on the first scroll burnt by Jehoiakim king of Judah.


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And as regards Jehoiakim king of Judah, you are to say, "Yahweh says this: You have burnt that scroll, saying: Why have you written down: The king of Babylon will certainly come and lay this country waste and leave it without human or animal?


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So, this is what Yahweh says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to occupy the throne of David, and his corpse will be tossed out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.


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I shall punish him, his offspring and his courtiers for their guilt; on them, on the citizens of Jerusalem and on the people of Judah I shall bring the total disaster which I had decreed for them but to which they have paid no attention."


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Jeremiah then took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, who in it at Jeremiah's dictation wrote all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burnt, with many similar words in addition.


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Zedekiah son of Josiah became king, succeeding Coniah son of Jehoiakim. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made him king of Judah.


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But neither he nor his courtiers nor the people of the country paid any attention to the words Yahweh spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.


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King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah with this message, 'Intercede for us with Yahweh our God.'


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Meanwhile Pharaoh's army was on the move from Egypt and the Chaldaeans besieging Jerusalem had raised the siege when they heard the news.


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'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "To the king of Judah who sent you to consult me make this reply: Is Pharaoh's army marching to your aid? It will withdraw to its own country, Egypt.


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Yahweh says this: Do not cheer yourselves up by thinking: The Chaldaeans are leaving us for good. They are not leaving.


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Even if you cut to pieces the whole Chaldaean army now fighting against you until there were only the wounded left, they would stand up again, each man in his tent, to burn this city down." '


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At the time when the Chaldaean army, threatened by Pharaoh's army, had raised the siege of Jerusalem,


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Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem for the territory of Benjamin to see about a piece of his property among the people there.


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He was at the Benjamin Gate when the guard commander there, a certain Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, arrested the prophet Jeremiah, shouting, 'You are deserting to the Chaldaeans!'


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Jeremiah answered, 'It is a lie! I am not deserting to the Chaldaeans.' But Irijah would not listen to Jeremiah and took him under arrest to the chief men.


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And the chief men, furious with Jeremiah, had him beaten and shut up in the house of the scribe Jonathan, which had been turned into a prison.


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Later, King Zedekiah had him sent for, and the king questioned him privately in his palace. 'Is there any word from Yahweh?' he asked. 'There is,' Jeremiah answered, and added, 'you will be handed over to the king of Babylon.'


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Jeremiah then said to King Zedekiah, 'What wrong have I done you, or your courtiers or this people, for you to have put me in prison?


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Where are your prophets now who prophesied, "The king of Babylon will not attack you or this country"?


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So now I beg you to hear me, my lord king! I beg you to approve my request! Do not have me taken back to the house of the scribe Jonathan, or I shall die there.'


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King Zedekiah then gave an order, and Jeremiah was confined in the Court of the Guard and given a loaf of bread a day from the Street of the Bakers as long as there was bread left in the city. So Jeremiah stayed in the Court of the Guard.


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But Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard the words which Jeremiah was saying to all the people,


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'Yahweh says this, "Anyone who stays in this city will die by sword, famine or plague; but anyone who leaves it and surrenders to the Chaldaeans will live; he will escape with his life.


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Yahweh says this: This city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it." '


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The chief men then said to the king, 'You must have this man put to death: he is unquestionably disheartening the remaining soldiers in the city, and all the people too, by talking like this. This man is seeking not the welfare of the people but their ruin.'


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So they took Jeremiah and put him into the storage-well of the king's son Malchiah in the Court of the Guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the storage-well, only mud, and into the mud Jeremiah sank.


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But Ebed-Melech the Cushite, a eunuch attached to the palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put into the storage-well. As the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,


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'My lord king,' he said, 'these men have done a wicked thing by treating the prophet Jeremiah like this: they have thrown him into the storage-well. He will starve to death there, since there is no more food in the city.'


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At this the king gave Ebed-Melech the Cushite the following order: 'Take thirty men with you from here and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the storage-well before he dies.'


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Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went into the palace to the Treasury wardrobe; out of it he took some torn, worn-out rags which he lowered on ropes to Jeremiah in the storage-well.


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Ebed-Melech the Cushite then said to Jeremiah, 'These torn, worn-out rags are for you to put under your armpits to pad the ropes.' Jeremiah did this.


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Then they hauled Jeremiah up with the ropes and pulled him out of the storage-well. And Jeremiah stayed in the Court of the Guard.


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King Zedekiah had the prophet Jeremiah summoned to him at the third entrance to the Temple of Yahweh. 'I want to ask you for a word,' the king said to Jeremiah, 'keep nothing back from me.'


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Jeremiah answered Zedekiah, 'If I do proclaim it to you, are you not sure to have me put to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.'


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King Zedekiah then secretly swore this oath to Jeremiah, 'As Yahweh lives, giver of this life of ours, I will have you neither put to death nor handed over to these men who are determined to kill you.'


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Jeremiah then said to Zedekiah, 'Yahweh, God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this, "If you go out and surrender to the king of Babylon's generals, your life will be safe and this city will not be burnt down; you and your family will survive.


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But if you do not go out and surrender to the king of Babylon's generals, this city will be handed over to the Chaldaeans and they will burn it down; nor will you yourself escape their clutches." '


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King Zedekiah then said to Jeremiah, 'I am afraid of the Judaeans who have already gone over to the Chaldaeans: I might be handed over to them and they would ill-treat me.'


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'You will not be handed over to them,' Jeremiah replied. 'Please listen to Yahweh's voice as I have relayed it to you, and then all will go well with you and your life will be safe.


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the sight of all the women left in the king of Judah's palace being led off to the king of Babylon's generals and saying: "They have misled you, they have triumphed over you, those friends of yours! Your feet have sunk in the mud! They are up and away!"


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'Yes, all your wives and children will be led off to the Chaldaeans, and you yourself will not escape their clutches but will be a prisoner in the clutches of the king of Babylon. And as for this city, it will be burnt down.'


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If the chief men hear that I have been talking to you, and come and say, "Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; keep nothing back from us, or we shall put you to death,"


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you must reply, "I presented this request to the king: that he would not have me sent back to Jonathan's house to die." '


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And in fact all the chief men came to Jeremiah and questioned him. He told them exactly what the king had ordered him to say. They then left him in peace, since the conversation had not been overheard.


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And Jeremiah stayed in the Court of the Guard until the day Jerusalem was captured. And he was there when Jerusalem actually was captured.


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In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem with his entire army, and they laid siege to it.


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The king of Babylon's officials, all having made their entry, took their seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar-Nebo, Sar-Sechim a high dignitary of state, Nergal-Sharezer the chief astrologer, and all the king of Babylon's other officials . . .


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On seeing them, Zedekiah king of Judah and all the fighting men fled, leaving the city under cover of dark, by way of the king's garden through the gate between the two walls, and made their way towards the Arabah.


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But the Chaldaean troops pursued them and caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath, where he passed sentence on him.


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The king of Babylon had Zedekiah's sons slaughtered before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also had all the leading men of Judah put to death.


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The Chaldaeans burnt down the royal palace and the private houses, and demolished the walls of Jerusalem.


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Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported the remainder of the population left behind in the city, the deserters who had gone over to him, and the rest of the artisans to Babylon.


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But Nebuzaradan commander of the guard left some of the poor people behind in the country of Judah, those who had nothing, at the same time giving them vineyards and fields.


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With regard to Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given the following orders to Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard,


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He entrusted this mission to (Nebuzaradan commander of the guard,) Nebushazban the high dignitary of state, Nergal-Sharezer the chief astrologer and all the king of Babylon's other officials.


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These despatched men to take Jeremiah from the Court of the Guard and turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan for safe conduct home. So he remained among the people.


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'Go and say to Ebed-Melech the Cushite, "Yahweh, God of Israel says this: Look, I am about to perform my words about this city for its ruin and not for its prosperity. That day they will come true before your eyes.


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But I shall rescue you that day, Yahweh declares, and you will not be handed over to the hands of the men you fear.


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Yes, I shall certainly rescue you: you will not fall to the sword; you will escape with your life, because you have put your trust in me, Yahweh declares."


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The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after Nebuzaradan commander of the guard had released him from Ramah, where he had found him in chains with all the other captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being deported to Babylon:


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The commander of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, 'Yahweh your God foretold calamity for this country,


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and now he has brought it. He has done what he threatened to do, because you had sinned against Yahweh and would not listen to his voice; so all this has happened to you.


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Look, today I am having your hands unchained. If you like to come with me to Babylon, come: I shall look after you. If you do not want to come with me to Babylon, do not. Look, you have the whole country before you: go wherever you think it best and most suitable to go.'


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And before Jeremiah retired, he added, 'You can go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed governor of the towns of Judah, and stay with him among the people, or go anywhere else you think suitable.' With that, the commander of the guard gave him provisions and a present, and dismissed him.


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Jeremiah went to Mizpah, to Gedaliah son of Ahikam and stayed with him, among those people still left in the country.


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When the military leaders who with their men were still in the field, all heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor of the country, making him responsible for the men, women and children, and those of the poor country people who had not been deported to Babylon,


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they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, Jezaniah son of the Maacathite, they and their men.


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To them and to their men Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, swore an oath. 'Do not be afraid', he said, 'of serving the Chaldaeans, stay in the country, serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well with you.


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I for my part, as the man answerable to the Chaldaeans when they come to us, shall stay here at Mizpah, whereas you can harvest the wine, summer fruit and oil, fill your storage jars and settle in the towns which you have seized.'


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Similarly, when all the Judaeans living in Moab, with the Ammonites, in Edom and elsewhere, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan as their governor,


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the Judaeans all came back from wherever they had been driven. On their return to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, they harvested an immense quantity of wine and summer fruit.


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Now Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders still in the field, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah


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and said to him, 'Are you aware that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to assassinate you?' But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them.


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Johanan son of Kareah then spoke in secret to Gedaliah at Mizpah, as follows: 'Please let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one will be any the wiser. Why should he assassinate you and cause the dispersal of all the Judaeans who have rallied round you. Why should the remnant of Judah perish?'


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But Gedaliah son of Ahikam replied to Johanan son of Kareah, 'You will do no such thing, for what you say about Ishmael is false.'


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In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with officers of the king and ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. And as they were taking their meal together, there at Mizpah,


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Ishmael son of Nethaniah stood up with his ten men, and attacking Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with their swords, they killed the man whom the king of Babylon had made governor of the country.


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And all the Judaeans who were with him, that is with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldaean soldiers who happened to be there, Ishmael killed too.


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eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, with their beards shaved off, their clothing torn, and covered in self-inflicted gashes; they were bringing cereal offerings and incense with them to present to the Temple of Yahweh.


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Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out of Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he met them he said, 'Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.'


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But once they were well inside the town, Ishmael son of Nethaniah slaughtered them, with the help of his men, and had them thrown into the storage-well.


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There were ten of them, however, who said to Ishmael, 'Do not kill us: we have stocks of wheat and barley, oil and honey, hidden away in the fields.' So he spared them and did not kill them with their brothers.


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The storage-well into which Ishmael threw the corpses of all the men he had killed was a large one, the one which King Asa had built as a precaution against Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the slaughtered men.


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Ishmael then took all the rest of the people prisoner who were at Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the remaining people in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, had entrusted to Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them prisoner and set out, intending to cross over to the Ammonites.


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When Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders who were with him heard about all the crimes committed by Ishmael son of Nethaniah,


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they mustered all their men and set out to attack Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught up with him at the great Pool of Gibeon.


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At the sight of Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders with him, all the people with Ishmael were delighted.


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All the people whom Ishmael had taken as prisoners from Mizpah turned about, went back and joined Johanan son of Kareah.


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Ishmael son of Nethaniah, however, escaped from Johanan with eight of his men and fled to the Ammonites.


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Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders with him then rallied all the remaining people whom Ishmael son of Nethaniah had taken as prisoners from Mizpah after killing Gedaliah son of Ahikam: men -- fighting men-women, children and eunuchs, whom they brought back from Gibeon.


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to get away from the Chaldaeans. They were now terrified of them, since Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam whom the king of Babylon had made governor of the country.


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Then all the military leaders, in particular Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from least to greatest, approached


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the prophet Jeremiah and said, 'Please hear our petition and intercede with Yahweh your God for us and for all this remnant -- and how few of us are left out of many, your own eyes can see-


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The prophet Jeremiah replied, 'I hear you; I will indeed pray to Yahweh your God as you ask; and whatever answer Yahweh your God gives you, I will tell you, keeping nothing back from you.'


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They in their turn said to Jeremiah, 'May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not follow the instructions that Yahweh your God sends us through you.


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Whether we like it or not, we shall obey the voice of Yahweh our God to whom we are sending you, so that we may prosper by obeying the voice of Yahweh our God.'


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He then summoned Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders who were with him, and all the people from least to greatest,


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"If you will only stay in this country, I shall build you and not overthrow you; I shall plant you and not uproot you, for I am sorry about the disaster I have inflicted on you.


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Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you fear now; do not fear him, Yahweh declares, for I am with you to save you and rescue you from his clutches.


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and say: No, Egypt is where we shall go, where we shall not see war or hear the trumpet-call or go short of food; that is where we want to live;


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in that case, remnant of Judah, listen to Yahweh's word: Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: If you are determined to go to Egypt, and if you do go and settle there,


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Yes, all those who are determined to go to Egypt and settle there, will die by sword, famine and plague: not a single one of them will survive or escape the disaster I shall inflict on them.


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Yes, Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Just as my furious anger was poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my fury be poured out on you if you go to Egypt: you will become an object of execration and horror, a curse, a laughing-stock; and you will never see this place again."


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Remnant of Judah, Yahweh has told you, "Do not go into Egypt." Understand clearly that today I have given you a solemn warning.


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You were not being sincere when you sent me to Yahweh your God and said, "Intercede for us with Yahweh our God; tell us exactly what Yahweh our God says and we will do it."


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Today I have told you, but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God or any part of the message he sent me to give you.


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So understand this clearly: you will die by sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go and settle.'


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When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, which Yahweh their God had sent him to tell them -- all the words quoted above-


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Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and all those arrogant men, said to Jeremiah, 'You are lying. Yahweh our God did not send you to say, "Do not go to Egypt and settle there."


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It was Baruch son of Neriah, who keeps inciting you against us, to hand us over to the Chaldaeans so that they can put us to death or deport us to Babylon.'


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So neither Johanan nor any of the military leaders nor any of the people obeyed the voice of Yahweh by staying in the country of Judah.


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Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders led off the entire remnant of Judah, those who had come back from all the nations where they had been driven to live in the country of Judah:


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men, women, children, the royal princesses too, and every single person that Nebuzaradan commander of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, including the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah.


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'Take some large stones and bury them in the cement on the terrace outside the entrance of Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanhes, where the Judaeans can see you.


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Then say to them, "Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Look, I shall send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will place his throne on these stones I have buried, and spread his canopy above them.


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When he comes, he will defeat Egypt: Those for the plague, to the plague; those for captivity, to captivity; those for the sword, to the sword!


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"He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn these gods or take them prisoner; like a shepherd wrapping his cloak round him, so he will wrap Egypt round him, and then leave without anyone laying hands on him.


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He will break the obelisks of the temple of the Sun in Egypt, and burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt." '


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The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judaeans living in Egypt, those, that is, living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph and the territory of Pathros.


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'Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this, "You have seen all the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah; today they lie in ruins and uninhabited.


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This was because of the wicked deeds they committed to provoke my anger, by going and offering incense and serving other gods whom neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors knew anything about,


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although I urgently and untiringly sent you all my servants the prophets to say: You must not do this loathsome thing, which I hate.


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But they would not listen or pay attention, and turn from their wickedness and stop offering incense to other gods.


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And so my furious anger overflowed, burning down the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, which were reduced to ruins and wasteland, as they still are today.


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And now, Yahweh, God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Why bring complete disaster on yourselves by cutting yourselves off from Judah -- your men, women, children and babes in arms -- so as to leave yourselves no remnant,


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by provoking my wrath by your actions, offering incense to other gods in Egypt where you have come to settle, as though bent on your own destruction and on becoming a curse and a laughing-stock for all the nations of the earth?


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Have you forgotten the wicked deeds of your ancestors, of the kings of Judah and of your princes, your own wicked deeds and those of your wives, committed in the country of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?


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To this day they have felt neither contrition nor fear; they have not observed my Law or my statutes, which I prescribed for you, as for your ancestors.


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So, Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, I have determined on disaster and shall destroy Judah completely.


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I shall take the remnant of Judah who were determined to come to Egypt and settle there, and in Egypt they will perish; they will fall to the sword or perish of famine, from least to greatest; by sword and famine they will die and be an object of execration and horror, a curse, a laughing-stock.


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Of the remnant of Judah which has come to settle in Egypt, not a single one will escape or survive to return to the country of Judah where they long to return and live. For none of them will return, except a few refugees." '


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At this, all the men who knew that their wives offered incense to other gods, and all the women who were standing there, a great crowd (and all the people living in Egypt, in Pathros), answered Jeremiah as follows,


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but intend to go on doing all we have vowed to do: offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring libations in her honour, as we used to do, we and our ancestors, our kings and our chief men, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: we had food in plenty then, we lived well, we suffered no disasters.


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But since we gave up offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring libations in her honour, we have been destitute and have perished either by sword or by famine.


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Besides, when we offer incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour libations in her honour, do you think we make cakes for her with her features on them, and pour libations to her, without our husbands' knowledge?'


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'The incense you offered in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, you, your ancestors, your kings, your chief men and the people at large -- was this not what Yahweh kept remembering, and found so repellent


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that Yahweh could not endure your misdeeds and your loathsome practices any longer, with the result that your country has become the uninhabited ruin, the object of horror and cursing it is today?


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Because you offered incense, because you sinned against Yahweh, refusing to listen to the voice of Yahweh, or to observe his Law, his statutes and his decrees -- that is why the present disaster has overtaken you.'


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Further, Jeremiah said to all the people, and particularly to all the women, 'Listen to the word of Yahweh, all you Judaeans in Egypt,


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Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this, "You and your wives, what your mouths promised, your hands have indeed performed! You said: We shall punctiliously fulfil the vows we have made and offer incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour libations in her honour. Very well, keep your vows, perform them punctiliously!


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But listen to the word of Yahweh, all you Judaeans living in Egypt: I swear by my great name, Yahweh says, that my name will no longer be uttered by any man of Judah throughout Egypt; no one will say: As Lord Yahweh lives.


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No, I am going to keep my eye on them for disaster, not for prosperity, and all the Judaeans in Egypt will perish either by the sword or by famine until they are wiped out.


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Yet, though few in number, those who escape the sword will return to the country of Judah from Egypt. Then the entire remnant of Judah which has come and settled in Egypt will know whose word comes true, mine or theirs.


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"And here is the sign for you, Yahweh declares, that I shall punish you in this place: so that you will know that the words with which I threaten you will come true:


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Yahweh says this: Look, I shall hand Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies and to those determined to kill him, just as I handed Zedekiah king of Judah over to his enemy Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was determined to kill him." '


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The word that the prophet Jeremiah addressed to Baruch son of Neriah when the latter wrote these words down in a book at Jeremiah's dictation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,


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"You have been thinking: what disaster for me, and Yahweh has added further grief to my troubles! I am worn out with groaning, and find no relief!"


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Say to him as follows, "Yahweh says this: Now I am knocking down what I have built, am uprooting what I have planted, over the whole country!


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And you ask for special treatment! Do not ask, for I am now going to bring disaster on all humanity, Yahweh declares, but you I shall allow to escape with your life, wherever you may go." '


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On Egypt. Against the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was at Carchemish on the River Euphrates when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated it in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah.


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Harness the horses: into the saddle, horsemen! To your ranks! On with your helmets! Sharpen your spears, put on your breastplates!


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Why do I see them retreating, panic-stricken? Their heroes, beaten back, are fleeing headlong, with not a look behind. Terror on every side, Yahweh declares!


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No flight for the swift, no escape for the strong! Up in the north on the River Euphrates, they have collapsed, have fallen.


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Why, Egypt rose like the Nile, his waters foaming like a torrent. 'I shall rise', he said, 'and drown the earth; sweep away town and its inhabitants!


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Charge, horses! Forward, chariots! Let the warriors advance, men from Cush and Put with shield in hand, men from Lud who bend the bow!'


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For this is the Day of Lord Yahweh Sabaoth, a day of vengeance when he takes revenge on his foes: the sword will devour until gorged, until drunk with their blood, for Lord Yahweh Sabaoth is holding a sacrificial feast in the land of the north, on the River Euphrates.


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Go up to Gilead and fetch balm, virgin daughter of Egypt! You multiply remedies in vain, nothing can cure you!


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The nations have heard of your shame, your wailing fills the world, for warrior has stumbled against warrior, and both have fallen together.


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The word that came from Yahweh to the prophet Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced to attack Egypt.


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Publish it in Egypt, proclaim it in Migdol, proclaim it in Noph and Tahpanhes! Say, 'Stand your ground, be prepared, for the sword is devouring all round you!'


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he has caused many to fall! Falling over one another, they say, 'Up, and back to our own people, to the country where we were born, away from the devastating sword!'


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As I live, the King declares, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth, he is coming, a very Tabor among mountains, a Carmel high above the sea!


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Get your bundle ready for exile, fair inhabitant of Egypt! Noph will be reduced to a desert, desolate, uninhabited.


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The mercenaries she had with her, these too were like fattened calves: but they too have taken to their heels, have all run away, not held their ground, for their day of disaster has overtaken them, their time for being punished.


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Hear her hissing like a snake as they advance in force to fall on her with their axes, like woodcutters,


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they will fell her forest, Yahweh declares, however impenetrable it was for they are more numerous than locusts, there is no counting them.


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Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, has said, 'Look, I shall punish Amon of No, Pharaoh, Egypt, its gods, its kings, Pharaoh and those who put their trust in him.


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I shall hand him over to those who are determined to kill him, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to his generals. But afterwards, Egypt will be inhabited again as in the past, Yahweh declares.


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But do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Israel, do not be alarmed: for look, I shall rescue you from afar and your descendants from the country where they are captive. Jacob will return and be at peace, secure, with no one to trouble him.


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Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Yahweh declares, for I am with you: I shall make an end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I shall not make an end of you, I shall discipline you only as you deserve, not leaving you quite unpunished.


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'Yahweh says this: Look, the waters are rising from the north to become an overwhelming flood, overwhelming the country and all in it, the town and its inhabitants! People cry for help, and there is wailing from all the country's inhabitants


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at the thunder of his chargers' hoofs, the crash of his chariots, the grinding of his wheels. Fathers forget about their children, their hands fall limp


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because the day has come for all the Philistines to be destroyed, for Tyre and Sidon to be stripped to the last of their allies. Yes, Yahweh is destroying the Philistines, the remnant from the Isle of Caphtor.


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Baldness has befallen Gaza, Ashkelon has been reduced to silence. You who remain in the valley, how long will you gash yourselves?


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Yet how can it rest when Yahweh has given it an order, Ashkelon and the sea coast, the targets assigned to it?


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On Moab. Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Wretched Nebo, for it has been ravaged, Kiriathaim has been shamed and taken, shame and distraction on the citadel,


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the pride of Moab is no more! At Heshbon they plotted her downfall, 'Come, let us put an end to her as a nation!' And you too, inhabitants of Madmen, will be silenced, the sword will be after you.


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Up the slope of Luhith, weeping they go. On the road down to Horonaim is heard the shriek of disaster,


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Yes, since you relied on your deeds and your wealth, you will be captured too. Chemosh will go into exile, with all his priests and princes.


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The despoiler will descend on every town, not one will escape; the Valley will be ravaged, the Plain be plundered as Yahweh has said.


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Give Moab wings so that she can fly away, for her towns will be laid in ruins where no one will ever live again.


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(Accursed be he who does Yahweh's work negligently! Accursed be he who deprives his sword of blood!)


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From his youth Moab lived at ease, he settled on his lees, never having been decanted, never having gone into exile: and so he kept his own flavour, his aroma was unchanged.


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And so the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall send him decanters to decant him; they will empty his pitchers and break his wine jars to bits.


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Moab will be shamed by Chemosh then, as the House of Israel was shamed by Bethel in which they put their trust.


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Moab has been ravaged, his cities scaled, the flower of his youth goes down to the slaughter, declares the King, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth.


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Grieve for him, all you living near him, all you who knew his name. Say, 'How shattered it is, that mighty rod, that splendid sceptre!'


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Come down from your glory, sit on the parched ground, daughter of Dibon, for the despoiler of Moab has advanced on you, he has destroyed your strongholds.


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Stand by the roadside, keep watch, daughter of Aroer. Question fugitive and runaway, ask, 'What has happened?'


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'Moab has been shattered and shamed. Wail and shriek! Shout along the Arnon, Moab has been laid waste!'


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Make him drunk! He has set himself up against Yahweh; let Moab wallow in his vomit and become a laughing-stock in his turn.


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Was Israel not a laughing-stock to you? Was he caught red-handed with the thieves, for you to shake your head whenever you mention him?


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Leave the towns, make the rocks your home, inhabitants of Moab. Learn from the dove that makes its nest in the walls of the gaping gorge.


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We have heard about Moab's pride, so very proud! What arrogance! What pride! What conceit! What a haughty heart!


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More than for Jazer I weep for you, vineyard of Sibmah: your shoots stretched beyond the sea, they reached all the way to Jazer. On your harvest and vintage the despoiler has descended.


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Gladness and joy have vanished from the orchards of Moab. I have dried up the wine in the presses, the treader of grapes treads no more, the joyful shouting has ceased.


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The cries of Heshbon and Elealeh can be heard as far as Jahaz. The shrieks resound from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-Shelishiyah, for even the Waters of Nimrim have become a wasteland.


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And in Moab I shall make an end, Yahweh declares, of anyone offering sacrifice on the high places and anyone offering incense to his gods.


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That is why my heart sobs like a flute for Moab, sobs like a flute for the people of Kir-Heres, since the wealth he had acquired is lost.


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Yes, every head is shaved, every beard cut off, gashes are on every hand, sackcloth round every waist.


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On all the housetops of Moab and in all its squares there is nothing but lamenting, for I have broken Moab like an unwanted pot, Yahweh declares.


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How shattered he is! Wail! Moab so shamefully in retreat! Moab has become a laughing-stock, a thing of horror to all his neighbours.


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The towns have been captured, the strongholds seized. (And the heart of Moab's warriors, that day, will be like that of a woman in labour pains.)


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And anyone who escapes from terror will fall into the pit, and anyone who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare. Yes, I shall bring all this on Moab when the year comes for punishing them, Yahweh declares.


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In the shelter of Heshbon the fugitives have paused, exhausted. But fire will burst from Heshbon, a flame from the palace of Sihon, consuming the brows of Moab, the head of a turbulent brood.


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Disaster for you, Moab! The people of Chemosh are lost! For your sons have been taken into exile and your daughters into captivity.


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But I shall bring back Moab's captives in the final days, Yahweh declares. Thus far the judgement on Moab.


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To the Ammonites. Yahweh says this: Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why should Milcom have inherited Gad and his people have settled in its towns?


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And so the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall make the war cry ring out for Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites. She will become a desolate mound and her daughter towns will be burnt down. Then Israel will inherit from his heirs, Yahweh says.


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Wail, Heshbon, for Ar has been laid waste! Shriek, daughters of Rabbah! Wrap yourself in sackcloth, raise the dirge, run to and fro among the sheep-pens! For Milcom is going into exile, with all his priests and princes.


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How you used to glory in your Valley, rebellious daughter, confident in your resources, 'Who will dare to attack me?'


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Look, I shall bring terror on you, Lord Yahweh Sabaoth declares, from all directions; you shall be driven away, everyone for himself, with no one to rally the fugitives.


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To Edom. Yahweh says this: Is there no wisdom left in Teman? Have the shrewd run out of commonsense, has their wisdom vanished?


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Away! Take to your heels! Go into hiding, inhabitants of Dedan, for I shall bring ruin on Esau when the time comes for me to punish him.


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If grape-pickers were to come to you, would they not leave a few gleanings? If robbers came during the night, would they not steal only as much as they wanted?


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But I for my part have stripped Esau, have laid his hiding places bare: he can hide no longer. His race is destroyed, so are his brothers and neighbours; he is no more!


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For Yahweh says this, 'Look, those who would not have had to drink the cup will have to drink it all the same; so why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but will certainly have to drink.


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For by my own self I have sworn, Yahweh declares, that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a laughing-stock, a desert, a curse, and all its towns ruins for ever.'


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I have received a message from Yahweh, a herald has been sent throughout the nations, 'Muster! March against this people! Prepare for battle!'


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Your reputation for ferocity, your proud heart has misled you. You whose home is in the crannies of the Rock, who cling to the top of the peak! Though you make your nest as high as the eagle's, I shall bring you down from there, Yahweh declares.


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Edom will become an object of horror; everyone going near will be appalled, and whistle at the sight of all her wounds.


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As at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring towns, no one will live there any more, Yahweh says, no human being settle there again.


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Look, like a lion he climbs from the thickets of the Jordan to the perennial pasture! In a flash, I shall make them run away, and there appoint someone I shall choose. For who is there like me? Who can hale me into court? Name me the shepherd who can stand up to me.


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So now hear the plan that Yahweh has laid against Edom, the schemes he has in mind against the inhabitants of Teman: they will certainly be dragged away like the smallest of the flock! Their pastures will certainly be sacked before their eyes!


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Look, like an eagle, he will soar and hover, spreading his wings over Bozrah. And the heart of Edom's warriors, that day, will be like that of a woman in labour pains.


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To Damascus. Hamath and Arpad are shamed, for they have heard bad news. They are convulsed with anxiety like the sea that cannot be calmed.


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Damascus is aghast, she prepares for flight, she is seized with trembling (anguish and sorrow have laid hold on her as on a woman in labour).


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And so in her squares her young men will fall, and all her fighting men will perish, that day, Yahweh Sabaoth declares.


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To Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which were conquered by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Yahweh says this: Up! March on Kedar, destroy the sons of the east!


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Let their tents and their flocks be captured, their tent-cloths and all their gear; let their camels be seized and the shout go up, 'Terror on every side!'


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Away! Get into hiding as fast as you can, inhabitants of Hazor, Yahweh declares, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has made a plan against you, he has a scheme in mind against you,


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Up! March on a nation at its ease, living secure, Yahweh declares, that has no gates, no bars, that lives in a remote place!


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Their camels will be the plunder, their countless sheep the spoil. I shall scatter them to the winds, those Crop-Heads, and bring ruin on them from every side, Yahweh declares.


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Hazor will become the lair of jackals, desolate for ever. No one will live there any more, no human being settle there again.


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The word of Yahweh that came to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.


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I shall bring four winds on Elam from the four corners of the sky, and I shall scatter them to all these winds: there will not be a single nation to which people expelled from Elam do not go.


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I shall make the Elamites tremble before their enemies, before those determined to kill them. I shall bring disaster on them, my burning anger, Yahweh declares. I shall pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them all.


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The word that Yahweh spoke against Babylon, against the country of the Chaldaeans, through the prophet Jeremiah.


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Announce it to the nations, proclaim it, hoist a signal and proclaim it, making no secret of it, say, 'Babylon is captured, Bel disgraced, Marduk shattered. (Her idols are disgraced, her Obscenities shattered.)'


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For a nation is marching on her from the north, to turn her country into a desert: no one will live there any more; human and animal have fled and gone.


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In those days and at that time the people of Israel will return (they and the people of Judah); they will come weeping in search of Yahweh their God.


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They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces towards her, 'Come, let us bind ourselves to Yahweh by an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten!'


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Lost sheep, such were my people; their shepherds led them astray, the mountains misled them; from mountain to hill they went, forgetful of their fold.


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Whoever came across them devoured them, their enemies said, 'We are not to blame, since they have sinned against Yahweh, the Home of Justice, against Yahweh, the Hope of their ancestors.'


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For look, I shall raise a league of mighty nations to attack Babylon, from the land of the north. They will take up position against her; by them she will be taken. Their arrows, like an experienced soldier's, never return in vain.


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Rejoice! Have your triumph, you plunderers of my heritage! Be playful like a heifer let out to grass! Neigh like stallions!


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But your mother is covered with shame, disgraced is the woman who bore you; she is the least of nations now; a desert, a parched land, a wasteland.


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Because of Yahweh's anger, no one will live there any more, she will become a total solitude. All who pass by Babylon will be appalled and whistle at the sight of all her wounds.


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Take position against Babylon, surround her, all you who bend the bow. Shoot at her! Do not spare your arrows, for she has sinned against Yahweh!


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Raise the war cry against her from all sides. She surrenders! Her bastions fall! Her walls collapse! This is Yahweh's vengeance! Take revenge on her. Treat her as she has treated others.


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Deprive Babylon of the man who sows, of the man who wields the sickle at harvest. Away from the devastating sword, let everyone return to his own people, let everyone flee to his own country!


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Israel was a straying sheep pursued by lions. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and latterly Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon crunched his bones.


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So Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, I shall punish the king of Babylon and his country as I punished the king of Assyria.


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I will bring Israel back to his pastures to browse on Carmel and in Bashan, on the highlands of Ephraim and in Gilead, and he will be satisfied.


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In those days and at that time, Yahweh declares, you may look for Israel's guilt, it will not be there, for Judah's sins, you will not find them, for I shall pardon the remnant that I leave.


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March on the country of Merathaim, march on it and on the inhabitants of Pekod; slaughter and curse with destruction every last one of them, Yahweh declares, carry out my orders to the letter!


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How utterly shattered that hammer of the whole world! What a thing of horror Babylon has become throughout the nations!


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I set a snare for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You have been found and overpowered for having defied Yahweh.


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Yahweh has opened his armoury and taken out the weapons of his fury. For Lord Yahweh Sabaoth has work to do in the country of the Chaldaeans.


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Fall on her from every side, open her granaries, pile her in heaps, curse her with destruction, until nothing is left of her.


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Slaughter all her bulls, down to the slaughterhouse with them! Disaster on them, their day has come, their time for being punished.


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Listen! Fugitives and runaways from the country of Babylon arrive in Zion and proclaim the revenge of Yahweh our God, revenge for his Temple!


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Call up the archers against Babylon! All you who bend the bow, invest her on all sides, leave her no way of escape. Repay her as her deeds deserve; treat her as she has treated others, for she was arrogant to Yahweh, to the Holy One of Israel.


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And so in her squares her young men will fall, and all her fighting men will perish, that day, Yahweh declares.


