# verses

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My quarrel is with you, 'Arrogance!' Lord Yahweh Sabaoth declares, your day has come, the time for me to punish you.


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'Arrogance' will stumble, she will fall, no one will lift her up: I shall set fire to her towns and it will devour all around it.


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this: The people of Israel are oppressed (and the people of Judah too), all their captors hold them fast, they will not let them go.


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But their redeemer is strong: Yahweh Sabaoth is his name. He will take up their cause, to give our country rest but make the inhabitants of Babylon tremble.


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A sword against the Chaldaeans, Yahweh declares, against the inhabitants of Babylon, against her princes and her sages!


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A sword against her diviners: may they lose their wits! A sword against her warriors: may they panic!


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A sword against her horses, her chariots and the conglomeration of people inside her: may they be like women! A sword against her treasures: may they be plundered!


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Drought on her waters: may they dry up! For it is a country of idols, and they are mad about those bogeys of theirs!


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Hence wild cats and jackals will live there, and ostriches make their home there. She will never again be inhabited, for ever, but remain uninhabited age after age.


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As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and their neighbouring towns, Yahweh declares, no one will live there any more, no human being settle there again.


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Look, a people is coming from the north, a mighty nation; from the far ends of the earth many kings are stirring.


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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 ride horses, ready as one man to fight you, daughter of Babylon!


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The king of Babylon has heard the news, his hands fall limp, anguish has seized him, pain like that of a woman in labour.


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Look, like a lion he climbs 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 Babylon, the schemes he has in mind against the country of the Chaldaeans: they will certainly be dragged away like the smallest in the flock! Their pastures will certainly be sacked before their eyes!


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Yahweh says this: Against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-Kamai I shall rouse a destructive wind.


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I shall send winnowers to Babylon to winnow her and leave her country bare, for she will be beleaguered on all sides, on the day of disaster.


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Let no archer bend his bow! Let no man swagger in his breastplate!-No quarter for her young men! Curse her whole army with destruction!


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In the country of the Chaldaeans the slaughtered will fall, in the streets of Babylon, those run through by the sword.


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For Israel and Judah have not been bereft of their God, Yahweh Sabaoth, although their country was full of sin against the Holy One of Israel.


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Escape from Babylon (save your lives, each one of you); do not perish for her guilt, for now is the time for Yahweh's vengeance: he will pay her her reward!


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Babylon was a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, she made the whole world drunk, the nations drank her wine and then went mad.


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Babylon has suddenly fallen, is broken: wail for her! Fetch balm for her wounds, perhaps she can be cured!


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-'We tried to cure Babylon; she has got no better. Leave her alone and let us each go to his own country.' -Yes, her sentence reaches to the sky, rises to the very clouds.


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Yahweh has shown the uprightness of our cause. Come, let us tell in Zion what Yahweh our God has done.


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Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! Yahweh has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because he has a plan against Babylon to destroy it; this is Yahweh's revenge, revenge for his Temple.


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Against the walls of Babylon raise the standard! Strengthen the guard! Post the sentries! Take up concealed positions! For Yahweh has both planned and done what he promised he would to the inhabitants of Babylon.


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Enthroned beside abundant waters, rich in treasures, you now meet your end, the finish of your pillaging.


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By his own self Yahweh Sabaoth has sworn: I shall fill you with men as though with grasshoppers, and over you they will raise the triumph-shout.


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By his power he made the earth, by his wisdom set the world firm, by 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 furthest limits of the earth, makes the lightning flash for the downpour, and brings the wind from his storehouse.


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At this everyone stands 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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with you crushed man and woman, with you crushed old man and young, with you crushed young man and girl,


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with you crushed shepherd and flock, with you crushed ploughman and team, with you crushed governors and magistrates,


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and I shall repay Babylon and the inhabitants of Chaldaea, before your eyes, for all the wrongs they have done to Zion, Yahweh declares.


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I am setting myself against you, mountain of destruction, Yahweh declares, destroyer of the whole world! I shall reach out my hand for you and send you tumbling from the crags and make you a burnt-out mountain.


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No corner-stone will be taken from you again and no foundation-stone, for you will be a desert for ever, Yahweh declares.


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Raise the standard throughout the world, sound the trumpet among the nations! Consecrate nations to make war on her; summon kingdoms against her: Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz; appoint a recruiting-officer for her enemies, bring up the cavalry, bristling like locusts.


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Consecrate nations to make war on her: the kings of Media, her governors, all her magistrates and the whole territory under their rule.


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Then the earth trembled and writhed, for Yahweh's plan against Babylon was being executed: to change the country of Babylon into an unpopulated desert.


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The warriors of Babylon have done with fighting, they have stayed inside their fortresses; their courage exhausted, they are now like women. Her houses are on fire, her gates are shattered.


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Courier follows close on courier, messenger on messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been taken from all sides,


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For Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: the daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor when it is being trodden: a little while, and then the time for harvesting her will come.


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He devoured me, consumed me, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, left me like an empty dish, like the Dragon he has swallowed me whole, filled his belly with my titbits and threw me out.


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'On Babylon be the wounds I suffered!' the daughter of Zion will say. 'On the inhabitants of Chaldaea be my blood!' Jerusalem will say.


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So, Yahweh says this: Look, I am taking up your cause to make sure you are avenged. I shall dry her river up, make her springs run dry.


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Babylon will become a heap of stones, the lair of jackals, a thing of horror and of scorn, with no one living in it.


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Are they feverish? I will prepare them a drink and make them drink until they are tipsy and fall into an everlasting sleep, never to wake again, Yahweh declares.


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What! Has Sheshak been taken, been conquered, the pride of the whole world? What a thing of horror Babylon has become throughout the nations!


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Her towns have been turned into wasteland, a parched land, a desert, a country where no one lives and where nobody goes.


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I shall punish Bel in Babylon and make him disgorge what he has swallowed. In future the nations will stream to him no more. The very walls of Babylon will fall.


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But do not be faint-hearted! Do not take fright at rumours hawked round the country: one rumour spreads one year, next year another follows; violence rules on earth and one tyrant succeeds another.


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So look, the days are coming when I shall punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire country will be humbled, with all her slaughtered lying on home-soil.


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The heaven and earth and all within them will shout for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers from the north are coming to her, Yahweh declares.


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Babylon in her turn must fall, you slaughtered ones of Israel, just as through Babylon there fell men slaughtered all over the world.


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You who have escaped her sword, leave her, do not wait! Remember Yahweh from afar, let Jerusalem come into your mind.


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-'We were ashamed when we heard of the outrage, we were covered in confusion because foreigners had entered the Temple of Yahweh's holy places.'


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-So look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall punish her idols, and the wounded will groan throughout her country.


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Were Babylon to scale the heavens or reinforce her towering citadel, destroyers would still come to her on my orders, Yahweh declares.


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Yes, Yahweh is laying Babylon waste and silencing her monstrous din, whose waves used to roar like the ocean and their tumultuous voices rang out.


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For the destroyer has fallen on Babylon, her warriors are captured, their bows are broken. Yes, Yahweh is a God of retribution, he never fails to repay.


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I shall make her princes and her sages drink, her governors, her magistrates, her warriors; they will fall into an everlasting sleep, never to wake again, declares the King, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth.


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this: The walls of Babylon the Great will be rased to the ground, and her lofty gates will be burnt down. Thus peoples toil for nothing and nations wear themselves out, for the flames.


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This is the order that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah when Seraiah left for Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was lord chamberlain.


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Now, on one sheet, Jeremiah had written down the entire disaster that was to befall Babylon, that is, all these words recorded here against Babylon.


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Jeremiah then said to Seraiah, 'When you reach Babylon, see to it that you read all these words aloud.


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Then say, "You, Yahweh, have promised to destroy this place, so that no one will live here ever again, neither human nor animal, and it will be desolate for ever."


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Then, when you have finished reading this sheet, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,


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with the words, "So shall Babylon sink, never to rise again from the disaster which I am going to bring on her." ' Thus far the words of Jeremiah.


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That this should happen to Jerusalem and Judah was due to Yahweh's anger, resulting in his casting them away from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.


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a breach was made in the city wall. The king and all the fighting men then fled, leaving the city under cover of dark, by way of the gate between the two walls, which is near the king's garden -- the Chaldaeans had surrounded the city -- and made his way towards the Arabah.


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The Chaldaean troops pursued the king and caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, where all his troops deserted.


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But the Chaldaeans captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath, where he passed sentence on him.


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He had Zedekiah's sons slaughtered before his eyes; he also had all the chief men of Judah put to death at Riblah.


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He then put out Zedekiah's eyes and, loading him with chains, the king of Babylon carried him off to Babylon where he kept him prisoner until his dying day.


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In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month -- it was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon -- Nebuzaradan commander of the guard, a member of the king of Babylon's staff, entered Jerusalem.


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The Chaldaean troops who accompanied the commander of the guard demolished all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.


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Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported (some of the poor people and) the remainder of the population left in the city, the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans.


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But Nebuzaradan commander of the guard left some of the poor country-people behind as vineyard workers and ploughmen.


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The Chaldaeans broke up the bronze pillars from the Temple of Yahweh, the wheeled stands and the bronze Sea, which were in the Temple of Yahweh, and took all the bronze away to Babylon.


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They also took the ash containers, the scoops, the knives, the sprinkling bowls, the incense bowls, and all the bronze furnishings used in worship.


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The commander of the guard also took the bowls, the censers, the sprinkling bowls, the ash containers, the lamp-stands, the goblets and the saucers: everything that was made of gold and everything made of silver.


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As regards the two pillars, the one Sea, the twelve bronze oxen supporting the Sea, and the wheeled stands, which King Solomon had made for the Temple of Yahweh, there was no reckoning the weight of bronze in all these objects.


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As regards the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, its circumference was twelve cubits, it was four fingers thick, and hollow inside;


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on it stood a capital of bronze, the height of the capital being five cubits; round the capital were filigree and pomegranates, all in bronze. So also for the second pillar.


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There were ninety-six pomegranates round the sides, making a hundred pomegranates round the filigree in all.


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In the city he took prisoner an official who was in command of the fighting men, seven of the king's personal friends who were discovered in the city, the secretary to the army commander responsible for military conscription, and sixty men of distinction discovered in the city.


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and at Riblah, in the territory of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them put to death. Thus Judah was deported from its country.


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The number of people deported by Nebuchadnezzar was as follows. In the seventh year: three thousand and twenty-three Judaeans;


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in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two persons were deported from Jerusalem;


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in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported seven hundred and forty-five Judaeans. In all: four thousand six hundred persons.


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But in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year he came to the throne, pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.


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He treated him kindly and allotted him a seat above those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.


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So Jehoiachin laid aside his prisoner's garb and for the rest of his life always ate at the king's table.


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And his upkeep was permanently ensured by the king, day after day, for the rest of his life until the day he died.


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How deserted she sits, the city once thronged with people! Once the greatest of nations, she is now like a widow. Once the princess of states, she is now put to forced labour.


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All night long she is weeping, tears running down her cheeks. Not one of all her lovers remains to comfort her. Her friends have all betrayed her and become her enemies.


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Judah has gone into exile after much pain and toil. Living among the nations she finds no respite; her persecutors all overtake her where there is no way out.


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The roads to Zion are in mourning; no one comes to her festivals now. Her gateways are all deserted; her priests groan; her young girls are grief-stricken; she suffers bitterly.


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Her foes now have the upper hand, her enemies prosper, for Yahweh has made her suffer for her many, many crimes; her children have gone away into captivity driven in front of the oppressor.


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And from the daughter of Zion all her splendour has departed. Her princes were like stags which could find no pasture, exhausted, as they flee before the hunter.


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Jerusalem remembers her days of misery and distress; when her people fell into the enemy's clutches there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked on and laughed at her downfall.


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Jerusalem has sinned so gravely that she has become a thing unclean. All who used to honour her despise her, having seen her nakedness; she herself groans aloud and turns her face away.


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Her filth befouls her skirts -- she never thought to end like this, and hence her astonishing fall with no one to comfort her. Yahweh, look at my misery, for the enemy is triumphant!


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The enemy stretched out his hand for everything she treasured; she saw the heathen enter her sanctuary, whom you had forbidden to enter your Assembly.


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All her people are groaning, looking for something to eat; they have bartered their treasures for food, to keep themselves alive. Look, Yahweh, and consider how despised I am!


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All you who pass this way, look and see: is any sorrow like the sorrow inflicted on me, with which Yahweh struck me on the day of his burning anger?


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He sent fire from on high deep into my bones; he stretched a net for my feet, he pulled me back; he left me shattered, sick all day long.


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He has watched out for my offences, with his hand he enmeshes me, his yoke is on my neck, he has deprived me of strength. The Lord has put me into clutches which I am helpless to resist.


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The Lord has rejected all my warriors within my walls, he has summoned a host against me to crush my young men; in the winepress the Lord trampled the young daughter of Judah.


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And that is why I weep; my eyes stream with water, since a comforter who could revive me is far away. My children are shattered, for the enemy has proved too strong.


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Zion stretches out her hands, with no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded Jacob's enemies to surround him; they treat Jerusalem as though she were unclean.


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Yahweh is in the right, for I rebelled against his command. Listen, all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My young girls and my young men have gone into captivity. Qophp


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I called to my lovers; they failed me. My priests and my elders expired in the city, as they searched for food to keep themselves alive.


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Look, Yahweh. I am in distress! My inmost being is in ferment; my heart turns over inside me -- how rebellious I have been! Outside, the sword bereaves; inside it is like death.


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Listen, for I am groaning, with no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my disaster, they are glad about what you have done. Bring the Day you once foretold, so that they may be like me!


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Let all their wickedness come before you, and treat them as you have treated me for all my crimes; numberless are my groans, and I am sick at heart.


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In his anger, with what darkness has the Lord enveloped the daughter of Zion! He has flung the beauty of Israel from heaven to the ground, without regard for his footstool on the day of his anger.


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The Lord pitilessly engulfed all the homes of Jacob; in his fury he tore down the fortresses of the daughter of Judah; he threw to the ground, he desecrated the kingdom and its princes.


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In his burning anger he broke all the might of Israel, withdrew his protecting right hand at the coming of the enemy, and blazed against Jacob like a fire that burns up everything near it.


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Like an enemy he bent his bow, and his right hand held firm; like a foe he slaughtered all those who were a delight to see; on the tent of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like fire.


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The Lord behaved like an enemy; he engulfed Israel, he engulfed all its citadels, he destroyed its fortresses and for the daughter of Judah multiplied weeping on wailing.


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He wrecked his domain like a garden, destroyed his assembly-points, Yahweh erased the memory of festivals and Sabbaths in Zion; in the heat of his anger he treated king and priest with contempt.


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The Lord has rejected his altar, he has come to loathe his sanctuary and has given her palace walls into the clutches of the enemy; from the uproar they made in Yahweh's temple it might have been a festival day!


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Yahweh has resolved to destroy the walls of the daughter of Zion, stretching out the line, not staying his hand until he has engulfed everything, thus bringing mourning on wall and rampart; alike they crumbled.


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Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has broken and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are among the gentiles, there is no instruction, furthermore her prophets cannot find any vision from Yahweh.


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Mute, they sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have put dust on their heads and wrapped themselves in sackcloth. The young girls of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.


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My eyes are worn out with weeping, my inmost being is in ferment, my heart plummets at the destruction of my young people, as the children and babies grow faint in the streets of the city.


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They keep saying to their mothers, 'Where is some food?' as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as they breathe their last on their mothers' breasts.


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To what can I compare or liken you, daughter of Jerusalem? Who can rescue and comfort you, young daughter of Zion? For huge as the sea is your ruin: who can heal you?


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The visions your prophets had for you were deceptive whitewash; they did not lay bare your guilt so as to change your fortunes: the visions they told you were deceptive.


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All who pass your way clap their hands at the sight; they whistle and shake their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, 'Is this the city they call Perfection of Beauty, the joy of the whole world?'


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Your enemies open their mouths in chorus against you; they whistle and grind their teeth; they say, 'We have swallowed her up. This is the day we were waiting for; at last we have seen it!'


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Yahweh has done what he planned, has carried out his threat, as he ordained long ago: he has destroyed without pity, increasing the might of your foes -- and letting your foes get the credit.


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Cry then to the Lord, rampart of the daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night; allow yourself no respite, give your eyes no rest!


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Up, cry out in the night-time as each watch begins! Pour your heart out like water in Yahweh's presence! Raise your hands to him for the lives of your children (who faint with hunger at the end of every street)!


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Look, Yahweh, and consider: whom have you ever treated like this? Should women eat their little ones, the children they have nursed? Should priest and prophet be slaughtered in the Lord's sanctuary?


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Children and old people are lying on the ground in the streets; my young men and young girls have fallen by the sword; you have killed them, on the day of your anger, you have slaughtered them pitilessly.


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As though to a festival you called together terrors from all sides, so that, on the day of Yahweh's anger, none escaped and none survived. Those whom I had nursed and reared, my enemy has annihilated them all.


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How the gold has tarnished, how the fine gold has changed! The sacred stones lie scattered at the corner of every street.


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The children of Zion, as precious as finest gold -- to think that they should now be reckoned like crockery made by a potter!


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The very jackals give the breast, and suckle their young: but the daughter of my people is as cruel as the ostriches of the desert.


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The tongue of the baby at the breast sticks to its palate for thirst; little children ask for bread, no one gives them any.


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Those who used to eat only the best, now lie dying in the streets; those who were reared in the purple claw at the rubbish heaps,


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for the wickedness of the daughter of my people exceeded the sins of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand being laid on it.


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Once her young people were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; rosier than coral their bodies, their hue like sapphire.


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Now their faces are blacker than soot, they are not recognised in the streets, the skin has shrunk over their bones, as dry as a stick.


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Happier those killed by the sword than those killed by famine: they waste away, sunken for lack of the fruits of the earth.


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With their own hands, kindly women cooked their children; this was their food when the daughter of my people was ruined.


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Yahweh indulged his fury, he vented his fierce anger, he lit a fire in Zion which devoured her foundations.


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The kings of the earth never believed, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy would ever penetrate the gates of Jerusalem.


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Owing to the sins of her prophets and the crimes of her priests, who had shed the blood of the upright, in the heart of the city,


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they wandered blindly through the streets, polluted with blood, so that no one dared to touch their clothes.


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'Keep away! Unclean!' people shouted, 'Keep away! Keep away! Don't touch!' If they left and fled to the nations, they were not allowed to stay there either.


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The face of Yahweh destroyed them, he will look on them no more. There was no respect for the priests, no deference for the elders.


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Continually we were wearing out our eyes, watching for help -- in vain. From our towers we watched for a nation which could not save us anyway.


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Men dogged our steps, to keep us out of our streets. Our end was near, our days were done, our end had come.


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Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they hounded our steps through the mountains, they lay in ambush for us in the wilds.


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The breath of our nostrils, Yahweh's anointed, was caught in their traps, he of whom we said, 'In his shadow we shall live among the nations.'


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Rejoice, exult, daughter of Edom, you who reside in Uz! To you in turn the cup will pass; you will get drunk and strip yourself naked!


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Your wickedness is atoned for, daughter of Zion, he will never banish you again. But your wickedness, daughter of Edom, will he punish, your sins he will lay bare!


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This is the text of the book written in Babylon by Baruch son of Neraiah, son of Mahseiah, son of Zedekiah, son of Hasadiah, son of Hilkiah,


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in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month, at the time when the Chaldaeans had captured Jerusalem and burned it down.


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Baruch read the text of this book aloud to Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and to all the people who had come to hear the reading,


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to the nobles and the sons of the king, and to the elders; to the whole people, that is, to the least no less than to the greatest, to all who lived in Babylon beside the river Sud.


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and sent it to Jerusalem to the priest Jehoiakim son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, and the other priests, and all the people who were with him in Jerusalem.


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Also on the tenth day of Sivan he was given the utensils of the house of the Lord, which had been removed from the Temple, to take them back to the land of Judah; these were silver utensils which Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, had had made


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after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported Jeconiah from Jerusalem to Babylon, together with the princes, the metalworkers, the nobles and the common people.


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Now, they wrote, we are sending you money to pay for burnt offerings, offerings for sin, and incense. Prepare oblations and offer them on the altar of the Lord our God;


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and pray for the long life of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and of his son Belshazzar, that they may endure on earth as long as the heavens endure;


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and that the Lord may give us strength and enlighten our eyes, so that we may lead our lives under the protection of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and of his son Belshazzar, and that we may serve them for a long time and win their favour.


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Also pray to the Lord our God for us, because we have sinned against him, and the anger, the fury of the Lord, has still not turned away from us.


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Lastly, you must read the booklet which we are sending you, publicly in the house of the Lord on the feastday and appropriate days.


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You must say: Saving justice is the Lord's, we have only the look of shame we bear, as is the case today for the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,


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have disobeyed him, and have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God telling us to follow the commandments which the Lord had ordained for us.


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From the day when the Lord brought our ancestors out of Egypt until today we have been disobedient to the Lord our God, we have been disloyal, refusing to listen to his voice.


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And we are not free even today of the disasters and the curse which the Lord pronounced through his servant Moses the day he brought our ancestors out of Egypt to give us a land flowing with milk and honey.


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We have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God in all the words of those prophets he sent us;


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but, each following the dictates of our evil heart, we have taken to serving alien gods, and doing what is displeasing to the Lord our God.


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And so the Lord has carried out the sentence which he passed on us, on our judges who governed Israel, on our kings and leaders and on the people of Israel and of Judah;


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what he did to Jerusalem has never been paralleled under the wide heavens -- in conformity with what was written in the Law of Moses;


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Furthermore, he has handed them over into the power of all the kingdoms that surround us, to be the contempt and execration of all the neighbouring peoples among whom the Lord scattered them.


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Instead of being masters, they found themselves enslaved, because we had sinned against the Lord our God by not listening to his voice.


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And yet we have not tried to win the favour of the Lord by each of us renouncing the dictates of our own wicked heart;


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so the Lord has been alert to our misdeeds and has brought disaster down on us, since the Lord is upright in everything he had commanded us to do,


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and we have not listened to his voice so as to follow the commandments which the Lord had ordained for us.


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And now, Lord, God of Israel, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with signs and wonders, with great power and with outstretched arm, to win yourself a name such as you have today,


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Let your anger turn from us since we are no more than a little remnant among the nations where you have dispersed us.


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Listen, Lord, to our prayers and our entreaties; deliver us for your own sake and let us win the favour of the people who have deported us,


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so that the whole world may know that you are the Lord our God, since Israel and his descendants bear your name.


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open your eyes, Lord, and look; the dead down in Sheol, whose breath has been taken from their bodies, are not the ones to give glory and due recognition to the Lord;


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whoever is overcome with affliction, who goes along bowed down and frail, with failing eyes and hungering soul, that is the one to give you glory and due recognition, Lord.


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We do not rely on the merits of our ancestors and of our kings to offer you our humble plea, Lord our God.


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No, you have sent down your anger and your fury on us, as you threatened through your servants the prophets when they said,


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'The Lord says this: Bend your necks and serve the king of Babylon, and you will remain in the country which I gave to your ancestors.


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then 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, and the whole country will be reduced to desert, with no inhabitants.'


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But we would not listen to your voice and serve the king of Babylon, and so you carried out what you had threatened through your servants the prophets: that the bones of our kings and of our ancestors would be dragged from their resting places.


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They were indeed tossed out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. And people died in dreadful agony, from famine, sword and plague.


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And so, because of the wickedness of the House of Israel and the House of Judah, you have made this House, that bears your name, what it is today.


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And yet, Lord our God, you have treated us in a way worthy of all your goodness and boundless tenderness,


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just as you had promised through your servant Moses, the day you told him to write your Law in the presence of the Israelites, and said,


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'If you do not listen to my voice, this great and innumerable multitude will certainly be reduced to a tiny few among the nations where I shall scatter them-


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for I knew that, being an obstinate people, they would not listen to me. But in the country of their exile, they will come to themselves


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they will stop being obstinate and, remembering what became of their ancestors who sinned before the Lord, will turn from their evil deeds.


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Then I shall bring them back to the country which I promised on oath to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and make them masters in it. I shall make their numbers grow; they will not dwindle again.


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And I shall make an everlasting covenant with them; so that I am their God and they are my people. And never again shall I drive my people Israel out of the country which I have given them.'


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Almighty Lord, God of Israel, hear the prayer of the dead of Israel, of the children of those who have sinned against you and have not listened to the voice of the Lord their God; hence the disasters which dog us.


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since you have put respect for you in our hearts to encourage us to call on your name. We long to praise you in our exile, for we have rid our hearts of the wickedness of our ancestors who sinned against you.


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Look, today we are still in exile where you have scattered us as something contemptible, accursed, condemned, for all the misdeeds of our ancestors who had abandoned the Lord our God.


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Learn where knowledge is, where strength, where understanding, and so learn where length of days is, where life, where the light of the eyes and where peace.


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those who sported with the birds of heaven, those who accumulated silver and gold on which all people rely, and whose possessions had no end,


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more recent generations have seen the day and peopled the earth in their turn, but the way of knowledge they have not found;


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they have not recognised the paths she treads. Nor have their children had any grasp of her, remaining far from her way.


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the children of Hagar in search of worldly wisdom, the merchants of Midian and Teman, the tale-spinners and the philosophers have none of them found the way to wisdom or remembered the paths she treads.


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But the One who knows all discovers her, he has grasped her with his own intellect, he has set the earth firm for evermore and filled it with four-footed beasts,


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He has uncovered the whole way of knowledge and shown it to his servant Jacob, to Israel his well-beloved;


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She is the book of God's commandments, the Law that stands for ever; those who keep her shall live, those who desert her shall die.


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You were sold to the nations, but not for extermination. You provoked God; and so were delivered to your enemies,


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for when she saw God's anger falling on you, she said: Listen, you neighbours of Zion: God has sent me great sorrow.


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Do not, any of you, exult over me, a widow, deserted by so many; I am bereaved because of the sins of my children, who turned away from the Law of God,


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who did not want to know his precepts and would not follow the ways of his commandments or tread the paths of discipline as his justice directed.


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Come here, neighbours of Zion! Remember my sons' and daughters' captivity, which the Eternal brought down on them.


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How he brought a distant nation down on them, a ruthless nation speaking a foreign language, they showed neither respect for the aged, nor pity for the child;


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I have taken off the clothes of peace and put on the sackcloth of entreaty; all my life I shall cry to the Eternal.


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Take courage, my children, call on God: he will deliver you from tyranny, from the clutches of your enemies;


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for I look to the Eternal for your rescue, and joy has come to me from the Holy One at the mercy soon to reach you from your Saviour, the Eternal.


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In sorrow and tears I watched you go away, but God will give you back to me in joy and gladness for ever.


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As the neighbours of Zion have now witnessed your captivity, so will they soon see your rescue by God, which will come upon you with great glory and splendour of the Eternal.


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My children, patiently bear the anger brought on you by God. Your enemy has persecuted you, but soon you will witness his destruction and set your foot on his neck.


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for as he has been bringing down those disasters on you, so will he rescue you and give you eternal joy.


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Disaster will come to the cities where your children were slaves; disaster to whichever one received your children,


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for just as she rejoiced at your fall and was happy to see you ruined, so will she grieve over her own desolation.


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Look, the children you watched go away are on their way home; reassembled from east and west, they are on their way home at the Holy One's command, rejoicing in God's glory.


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Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of God's glory for evermore,


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wrap the cloak of God's saving justice around you, put the diadem of the Eternal One's glory on your head,


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and the name God gives you for evermore will be, 'Peace-through-Justice, and Glory-through-Devotion'.


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Arise, Jerusalem, stand on the heights and turn your eyes to the east: see your children reassembled from west and east at the Holy One's command, rejoicing because God has remembered.


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Though they left you on foot driven by enemies, now God brings them back to you, carried gloriously, like a royal throne.


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For God has decreed the flattening of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills, the filling of the valleys to make the ground level so that Israel can walk safely in God's glory.


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for God will guide Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with the mercy and saving justice which come from him. A copy of the letter which Jeremiah sent to those about to be led captive to Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to tell them what he had been commanded by God:


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'Because of the sins which you have committed before God you are to be deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of the Babylonians.


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Once you have reached Babylon you will stay there for many years, as long as seven generations; after which I shall bring you home in peace.


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Now in Babylon you will see gods made of silver, of gold, of wood, being carried shoulder-high, and filling the gentiles with fear.


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as you see their worshippers prostrating themselves before and behind them. Instead, say in your hearts, "Master, it is you that we must worship."


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'Overlaid with gold and silver, their tongues polished smooth by a craftsman, they are counterfeit and have no power to speak.


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As though for a girl fond of finery, these people take gold and make crowns for the heads of their gods.


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And sometimes, the priests filch gold and silver from their gods to spend on themselves, even giving some of it to the prostitutes on the terrace.


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They dress up these gods of silver, gold and wood, in clothes, like human beings; on their own they cannot protect themselves from either tarnish or woodworm;


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when they have been dressed in purple cloaks, their faces have to be dusted, because of the temple dust which settles thick on them.


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One holds a sceptre like the governor of a province, yet is powerless to put to death anyone who offends him;


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another holds sword and mace in his right hand, yet is powerless to defend himself against war or thieves.


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'Just as a pot in common use becomes useless once it is broken, so are these gods enshrined inside their temples.


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Just as the doors are locked on all sides on someone who has offended a king and is under sentence of death, so the priests secure the temples of these gods with gates and bolts and bars for fear of burglary.


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They are like one of the temple beams, which are said to be gnawed away from within; the termites creep out of the ground and eat them and their clothes too, and they feel nothing.


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'The gold with which they are parading their futility before the world is supposed to make them look beautiful, but if someone does not rub off the tarnish, these gods will not be shining much on their own, and even while they were being cast, they felt nothing.


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Being unable to walk, they have to be carried on men's shoulders, which shows how futile they are. It is humiliating for their worshippers, too, who have to stand them up again if they fall over.


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Once they have been stood up, they cannot move on their own; if they tilt askew, they cannot right themselves; offerings made to them might as well be made to the dead.


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Whatever is sacrificed to them, the priests re-sell and pocket the profit; while their wives salt down part of it, but give nothing to the poor or to the helpless. As to the sacrifices themselves, why, women during their periods and women in childbed are not afraid to touch them!


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'Indeed, how can they even be called gods, when women do the offering to these gods of silver, gold and wood?


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In their temples, the priests stay sitting down, their garments torn, heads and beard shaved and heads uncovered;


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Whether these gods are treated badly or well, they are incapable of paying back either treatment; as incapable too of making or unmaking kings,


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equally incapable of distributing wealth or money. If anyone fails to honour a vow he has made to them, they cannot call him to account.


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These wooden gods overlaid with gold and silver are about as much use as rocks cut out of the mountain side. Their worshippers will be confounded!


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'The Chaldaeans themselves do them no honour; if they find someone who is dumb and cannot speak, they present him to Bel, entreating him for the gift of speech, as though he could perceive it!


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And they are incapable of drawing the conclusion and abandoning those gods -- such is their lack of perception.


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when one of these has been picked up by a passer-by and been to bed with him, she then gloats over her neighbour for not having been thought as worthy as herself and for not having had her string broken.


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how can anyone fail to realise that they are not gods, if they cannot save themselves from war or from disasters?


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And since they are only made of wood overlaid with gold or silver, it will later become apparent that they are spurious; it will be obvious to everyone, to nations as to kings, that they are not gods but the work of human hands, and that there is no divine activity in them.


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nor regulate their own affairs, nor rescue anyone who suffers a wrong; they are as helpless as crows between sky and ground.


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If fire falls on the temple of these wooden gods overlaid with gold or silver, their priests fly to safety while they for their part stay there like beams, to be burnt.


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'These wooden gods overlaid with gold or silver cannot evade thieves or marauders; strong men may rob them of their gold and silver and make off with the robes they are dressed in; yet they are powerless to help even themselves.


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Better to be a king displaying his prowess, a household pot of use to its owner, than to be these counterfeit gods; or merely the door of a house, protecting what is inside, than these counterfeit gods; or a wooden pillar in a palace than these counterfeit gods.


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similarly, the lightning, as it flashes, is a fine sight; in the same way, the wind blows across every country,


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the clouds execute the order God gives them to pass over the whole earth, and the fire, sent from above to consume mountain and forest, carries out its orders.


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So, no one can think or say that they are gods, powerless as they are to administer justice or to do anyone any good.


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'Their wooden gods overlaid with gold and silver are like a scarecrow in a field of cucumbers -- protecting nothing.


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Or again, their wooden gods overlaid with gold and silver are like a thorn-bush in a garden -- any kind of bird may perch on it -- or like a corpse thrown out into the dark.


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From the purple and linen rotting on their backs you can tell that they are not gods; and in the end, eaten away, they will be the dishonour of the country.


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In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, as I was among the exiles by the River Chebar, heaven opened and I saw visions from God.


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the word of Yahweh was addressed to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in Chaldaea by the River Chebar. There the hand of Yahweh came on him.


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I looked; a stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with flashing fire and brilliant light round it, and in the middle, in the heart of the fire, a brilliance like that of amber,


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and in the middle what seemed to be four living creatures. They looked like this: They were of human form.


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Below their wings, they had human hands on all four sides corresponding to their four faces and four wings.


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They touched one another with their wings; they did not turn as they moved; each one moved straight forward.


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As to the appearance of their faces, all four had a human face, and a lion's face to the right, and all four had a bull's face to the left, and all four had an eagle's face.


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Their wings were spread upwards, each had one pair touching its neighbour's, and the other pair covering its body.


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And each one moved straight forward; they went where the spirit urged them, they did not turn as they moved.


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Between these living creatures were what looked like blazing coals, like torches, darting backwards and forwards between the living creatures; the fire gave a brilliant light, and lightning flashed from the fire,


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Now, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel touching the ground beside each of the four-faced living creatures.


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The appearance and structure of the wheels were like glittering chrysolite. All four looked alike, and their appearance and structure were such that each wheel seemed to have another wheel inside it.


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When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures left the ground, the wheels too left the ground.


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They moved in whichever direction the spirit chose to go, and the wheels rose with them, since the wheels shared the spirit of the animals.


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When the living creatures moved on, they moved on; when the former halted, the latter halted; when the former left the ground, the wheels too left the ground, since the wheels shared the spirit of the animals.


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Over the heads of the living creatures was what looked like a solid surface glittering like crystal, spread out over their heads, above them,


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and under the solid surface, their wings were spread out straight, touching one another, and each had a pair covering its body.


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I also heard the noise of their wings; when they moved, it was like the noise of flood-waters, like the voice of Shaddai, like the noise of a storm, like the noise of an armed camp; and when they halted, they lowered their wings;


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Beyond the solid surface above their heads, there was what seemed like a sapphire, in the form of a throne. High above on the form of a throne was a form with the appearance of a human being.


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I saw a brilliance like amber, like fire, radiating from what appeared to be the waist upwards; and from what appeared to be the waist downwards, I saw what looked like fire, giving a brilliant light all round.


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The radiance of the encircling light was like the radiance of the bow in the clouds on rainy days. The sight was like the glory of Yahweh. I looked and fell to the ground, and I heard the voice of someone speaking to me.


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As he said these words the spirit came into me and put me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.


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He said, 'Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to the rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been in revolt against me up to the present day.


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Because they are stubborn and obstinate children, I am sending you to them, to say, "Lord Yahweh says this."


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And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or of what they say, though you find yourself surrounded with brambles and sitting on scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or alarmed by their looks, for they are a tribe of rebels.


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But you, son of man, are to listen to what I say to you; do not be a rebel like that rebellious tribe. Open your mouth and eat what I am about to give you.'


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He un- rolled it in front of me; it was written on, front and back; on it was written 'Lamentations, dirges and cries of grief '.


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He then said, 'Son of man, eat what you see; eat this scroll, then go and speak to the House of Israel.'


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and then said, 'Son of man, feed on this scroll which I am giving you and eat your fill.' So I ate it, and it tasted sweet as honey.


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You are not being sent to a nation that speaks a difficult foreign language; you are being sent to the House of Israel.


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Not to big nations that speak difficult foreign languages, and whose words you would not understand -- if I sent you to them, they would listen to you;


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but the House of Israel will not listen to you because it will not listen to me. The whole House of Israel is defiant and obstinate.


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I am making your resolution as hard as a diamond, harder than flint. So do not be afraid of them, do not be overawed by them, for they are a tribe of rebels.'


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then go to your exiled countrymen and talk to them. Say to them, "Lord Yahweh says this," whether they listen or not.'


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The spirit lifted me up, and behind me I heard a great vibrating sound, 'Blessed be the glory of Yahweh in his dwelling-place!'


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This was the sound of the living creatures' wings beating against each other, and the sound of the wheels beside them: a great vibrating sound.


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The spirit lifted me up and took me, and I went, bitter and angry, and the hand of Yahweh lay heavy on me.


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I came to Tel Abib, to the exiles beside the River Chebar where they were living, and there I stayed with them in a stupor for seven days.


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'Son of man, I have appointed you as watchman for the House of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me.


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If I say to someone wicked, "You will die," and you do not warn this person; if you do not speak to warn someone wicked to renounce evil and so save his life, it is the wicked person who will die for the guilt, but I shall hold you responsible for that death.


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If, however, you do warn someone wicked who then fails to renounce wickedness and evil ways, the wicked person will die for the guilt, but you yourself will have saved your life.


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When someone upright renounces uprightness to do evil and I set a trap for him, it is he who will die; since you failed to warn him, he will die for his guilt, and the uprightness he practised will no longer be remembered; but I shall hold you responsible for his death.


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If, however, you warn someone upright not to sin and this person does not sin, such a one will live, thanks to your warning, and you too will have saved your life.'


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While I was there the hand of Yahweh came on me; he said, 'Get up, go out into the valley, and there I shall speak to you.'


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I got up and went out into the valley; the glory of Yahweh was resting there, like the glory I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell to the ground.


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The spirit of Yahweh then entered me and put me on my feet and spoke to me. He said, 'Go and shut yourself in your house.


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I am going to make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth; you will be dumb, and no longer able to reprove them, for they are a tribe of rebels.


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When I speak to you, however, I shall open your mouth and then you will say to them, "Lord Yahweh says this: Let anyone prepared to listen, listen; let anyone who refuses, refuse!"-for they are a tribe of rebels.'


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'For your part, son of man, take a brick and lay it in front of you; on it scratch a city, Jerusalem.


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You are then to besiege it, trench round it, build earthworks, pitch camps and bring up battering-rams all round.


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Then take an iron pan and place it as though it were an iron wall between you and the city. Then fix your gaze on it; it is being besieged and you are besieging it. This is a sign for the House of Israel.


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'Lie down on your left side and take the guilt of the House of Israel on yourself. You will bear their guilt for as many days as you lie on that side.


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Allowing one day for every year of their guilt, I ordain that you bear it for three hundred and ninety days; this is how you will bear the House of Israel's guilt.


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And when you have finished doing this, you are to lie down again, on your right side, and bear the guilt of the House of Judah for forty days. I have set the length for you as one day for one year.


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Look, I am going to tie you up and you will not be able to turn over from one side to the other until the period of your seclusion is over.


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'Now take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt; put them all in the same pot and make them into bread for yourself. You are to eat it for as many days as you are lying on your side -- three hundred and ninety days.


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Of this food, you are to weigh out a daily portion of twenty shekels and eat it a little piece at a time.


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And Yahweh said, 'This is how the Israelites will have to eat their defiled food, wherever I disperse them among the nations.'


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I then said, 'Lord Yahweh, my soul is not defiled. From my childhood until now, I have never eaten an animal that has died a natural death or been savaged; no tainted meat has ever entered my mouth.'


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'Very well,' he said, 'I grant you cow-dung instead of human dung; you are to bake your bread on that.'


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He then said, 'Son of man, I am going to cut off Jerusalem's food supply; in their extremity, the food they eat will be weighed out; to their horror, the water they drink will be rationed,


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until there is no food or water left, and they fall into a stupor and waste away because of their guilt.'


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'Son of man, take a sharp sword, use it like a barber's razor and run it over your head and beard. Then take scales and divide the hair you have cut off.


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Burn one-third inside the city, while the days of the siege are working themselves out. Then take another third and chop it up with the sword all round the city. The last third you are to scatter to the wind, while I unsheathe the sword behind them.


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and of these again take a few, and throw them on the fire and burn them. From them fire will come on the whole House of Israel.


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'The Lord Yahweh says this, "This is Jerusalem, which I have placed in the middle of the nations, surrounded with foreign countries.


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She has rebelled more perversely against my observances than the nations have, and against my laws than the surrounding countries have; for they have rejected my observances and not kept my laws."


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'Therefore, the Lord Yahweh says this, "Because your disorders are worse than those of the nations round you, since you do not keep my laws or respect my observances, and since you do not respect even the observances of the surrounding nations,


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very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: I, too, am against you and shall execute my judgements on you for the nations to see.


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Because of all your loathsome practices I shall do such things as I have never done before, nor shall ever do again.


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Those of you who are parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I shall execute judgement on you and disperse what remains of you to the winds.


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For, as I live -- declares Lord Yahweh -- as sure as you have defiled my sanctuary with all your horrors and all your loathsome practices, so I too shall reject you without a glance of pity, I shall not spare you.


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A third of your citizens will die of plague or starve to death inside you; a third will fall by the sword round you; and a third I shall scatter to the winds, unsheathing the sword behind them.


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I shall sate my anger and bring my fury to rest on them until I am avenged; and when I have sated my fury on them, then they will know that I, Yahweh, spoke out of jealousy for you.


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Yes, I shall reduce you to a ruin, an object of derision to the surrounding nations, in the eyes of all who pass by.


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You will be an object of derision and insults, an example, an object of amazement to the surrounding nations, when I execute judgement on you in furious anger and furious punishments. I, Yahweh, have spoken.


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On them I shall send the deadly arrows of famine, which will destroy you -- for I shall send them to destroy you; then I shall make the famine worse and cut off your food supply.


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I shall send famine and wild animals on you to rob you of your children; plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I shall bring the sword down on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken." '


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Say, "Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh. The Lord Yahweh says this to mountains and hills and ravines and valleys: Look, I am going to summon the sword against you and destroy your high places.


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Your altars will be wrecked, and your incense burners smashed; I shall fling your butchered inhabitants down in front of your foul idols;


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I shall lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their foul idols and scatter their bones all round your altars.


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Wherever you live, the towns will be destroyed and the high places wrecked, to the ruin and wrecking of your altars, the shattering and abolition of your foul idols, the smashing of your incense burners and the utter destruction of all your works.


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"But I shall spare some of you to escape the sword among the nations, when you have been dispersed in their lands;


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and your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are held captive, since I shall have broken their adulterous hearts for having deserted me, and destroyed their eyes for having turned adulterously towards their foul idols. They will loathe themselves for all the wrong they have caused by their loathsome practices.


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Then they will know that I am Yahweh and that I was not talking lightly when I said that I would inflict these disasters on them."


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'The Lord Yahweh says this, "Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and say: Alas for all the loathsome sins of the House of Israel, which is about to fall by sword, famine and plague!


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Far off, they will die by plague; near at hand they will fall by the sword; and any who survive or are spared will die of famine. This is how I shall sate my fury on them.


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Then you will know that I am Yahweh, when their butchered corpses lie among their foul idols, all round their altars, on every high hill, on every mountain top, under every green tree, under every leafy oak, wherever they offer a smell pleasing to all their idols.


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I shall point my finger at them and reduce the country to an empty wasteland from the desert to Riblah, everywhere they live, and they will know that I am Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, say, "Lord Yahweh says this to the land of Israel: Finished! The end is coming for the four corners of the country.


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This is the end for you; I shall unleash my anger on you, and judge you as your conduct deserves and call you to account for all your loathsome practices.


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I shall show you no pity, I shall not spare you; I shall repay you for your conduct and for the loathsome practices in which you persist. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.


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Now it is your turn, you who dwell in this country. Doom is coming, the day is near; no joy now, only tumult, on the mountains.


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Now I shall soon vent my fury on you and sate my anger on you: I shall judge you as your conduct deserves and repay you for all your loathsome practices.


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I shall show neither pity nor mercy, but shall repay you for your conduct and the loathsome practices in which you persist. Then you will know that I am Yahweh and that I strike.


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"Now is the day, your turn has come, it has come, it appears, the sceptre has blossomed, pride is at its peak.


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Doom is coming, the day is near. Neither should buyer rejoice, nor seller regret, for the fury rests on everyone alike.


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The seller will not be able to go back on his bargain; each persists in his sins; they take no defensive measures.


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"Outside, the sword; inside, plague and famine. Whoever is living in the countryside will die by the sword; whoever is living in the city will be devoured by famine and plague.


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And those who escape will escape to the mountains and there, like doves of the valleys, I shall slaughter them all, each one for his sin.


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They will put on sackcloth, each one trembling. Every face will be ashamed and every head be shaved.


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They will throw their silver away in the streets and their gold they will regard as a pollution; neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of Yahweh's fury. Never again will they have enough to eat, never again will they fill their bellies, since that was the occasion for their guilt.


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They used to pride themselves on the beauty of their jewellery, out of which they made their loathsome images, their horrors; so now I have made it pollute them.


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I shall hand it over as plunder to foreigners, as loot to the most evil people on earth. They will profane it.


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I shall turn my face away from them, while my treasure-house is profaned and robbers will force their way in and profane it.


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"Forge yourself a chain; for the country is full of bloody executions and the city full of deeds of violence,


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so I shall bring the cruellest of the nations to seize their houses. I shall put an end to the pride of their e'lite, and their sanctuary will be profaned.


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Disaster will follow on disaster, rumour on rumour; they will pester the prophet for a vision; the priest will be at a loss over the law and the elders on how to advise.


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The king will go into mourning, the prince be plunged in grief, the hands of the country people tremble. I shall treat them as their conduct deserves, and judge them as their own verdicts merit. Then they will know that I am Yahweh!" '


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In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting at home and the elders of Judah were sitting with me, when suddenly the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell on me there.


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I looked, and there was a form with the appearance of a human being. Downwards from what seemed to be the waist there was fire; and upwards from the waist there was a brilliance like the glitter of amber.


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Something like a hand was stretched out and it took me by a lock of my hair; and the spirit lifted me between heaven and earth and, in visions from God, took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner north gate, where stands the idol that provokes jealousy.


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He said, 'Son of man, raise your eyes to the north.' I raised my eyes to the north, and there, to the north of the altar gate, stood this statue of jealousy at the entrance.


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He said, 'Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the monstrous, loathsome things that the House of Israel is practising here, to drive me out of my sanctuary? And you will see practices more loathsome still.'


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He said, 'Son of man, bore through the wall.' I bored through the wall, until I had made an opening.


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I went in and looked and there was every kind of reptile and repulsive animal, and all the foul idols of the House of Israel, carved all round the walls.


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Seventy elders of the House of Israel were worshipping the idols -- among them Jaazaniah son of Shaphan -- each one with his censer in his hand, from which rose a fragrant cloud of incense.


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He said, 'Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the House of Israel do in the dark, each in his personal image-shrine? They say, "Yahweh cannot see us; Yahweh has abandoned the country." '


text:
He next took me to the entrance of the north gate of the Temple of Yahweh where women were sitting, weeping for Tammuz.


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He then led me to the inner court of the Temple of Yahweh. And there, at the entrance to Yahweh's sanctuary, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men, with their backs to Yahweh's sanctuary and their faces turned towards the east. They were prostrating themselves to the east, before the rising sun.


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He said to me, 'Son of man, do you see that? Is it not bad enough for the House of Judah to be doing the loathsome things they are doing here? But they fill the country with violence and provoke my anger further; look at them now putting that branch to their nostrils.


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And so I shall react in fury; I shall show neither pity nor mercy. They may cry as loudly as they like to me; I will not listen.'


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Then he shouted loudly for me to hear, 'The scourges of the city are approaching, each carrying his weapon of destruction!'


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Immediately six men advanced from the upper north gate, each holding a deadly weapon. Among them was a man dressed in linen, with a scribe's ink-horn in his belt. They came in and halted in front of the bronze altar.


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The glory of the God of Israel rose from above the winged creature where it had been, towards the threshold of the Temple. He called to the man dressed in linen with a scribe's ink-horn in his belt


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and Yahweh said to him, 'Go all through the city, all through Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of all who grieve and lament over all the loathsome practices in it.'


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I heard him say to the others, 'Follow him through the city and strike. Not one glance of pity; show no mercy;


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old men, young men, girls, children, women, kill and exterminate them all. But do not touch anyone with a cross on his forehead. Begin at my sanctuary.' So they began with the old men who were in the Temple.


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He said to them, 'Defile the Temple; fill the courts with corpses; then go out!' They went out and hacked their way through the city.


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While they were hacking them down, I was left alone; I fell on my face, crying out, 'Ah, Lord Yahweh, are you going to annihilate all that is left of Israel by venting your fury on Jerusalem?'


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He said, 'The guilt of the House of Israel and Judah is immense; the country is full of bloodshed, the city full of perversity, for they say, "Yahweh has abandoned the country, Yahweh cannot see."


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Then, I too shall neither give one glance of pity nor show any mercy. I shall repay them for what they have done.'


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The man dressed in linen with the scribe's ink-horn in his belt then came back and made his report, 'I have carried out your orders.'


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Then, in vision I saw that above the solid surface over the heads of the winged creatures there was above them something like sapphire, which seemed to be like a throne.


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He then said to the man dressed in linen, 'Go in between the wheels below the winged creatures; take a handful of burning coal from between the winged creatures and scatter it over the city.' He went in as I watched.


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The winged creatures were on the right of the Temple as the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.


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The glory of Yahweh rose from above the winged creatures, towards the threshold of the Temple; the Temple was filled by the cloud and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of Yahweh.


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The noise of the winged creatures' wings could be heard even in the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.


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When he had given the order to the man dressed in linen, 'Take the fire from between the wheels, between the winged creatures,' the man went in and stood by one of the wheels.


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One of the winged creatures then reached his hand out towards the fire between the winged creatures, took some of it and put it into the hands of the man dressed in linen, who took it and came out again.


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And I looked, and there were four wheels beside the winged creatures, one wheel beside each winged creature, and the appearance of the wheels was like the sparkle of chrysolite.


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In whichever of the four directions they moved, they did not need to turn as they moved, but whichever way the head was facing there they followed; they did not turn as they moved,


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and their entire bodies, their backs, their hands, their wings, as well as the wheels, had eyes all the way round (the wheels of all four).


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Each had four faces; the first was a winged creature's face, the second a human face, the third a lion's face and the fourth an eagle's face.


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When the winged creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the winged creatures raised their wings to leave the ground, the wheels did not turn beside them.


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When the former halted the latter halted; when the former rose, the latter rose with them, since they shared the same living spirit.


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These raised their wings and rose from the ground as I watched, and the wheels were beside them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of Yahweh, with the glory of the God of Israel over them, above.


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This was the winged creature I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar; I knew that they were winged creatures.


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The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the Temple of Yahweh, the gate that looks eastwards. There at the entrance to the gate stood twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.


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He said to me, 'Son of man, these are the wicked schemers who are spreading their bad advice through this city.


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They say, "There will be no house-building yet awhile. The city is the cooking pot and we are the meat."


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The spirit of Yahweh fell on me, and he said to me, 'Say, "Yahweh says this: I know what you are saying, House of Israel, I know how insolent you are.


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You have filled this city with more and more of your victims; you have strewn its streets with victims.


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And so the Lord Yahweh says this: Your victims, whom you have put in it, are the meat, and the city is the cooking pot; but I shall take you out of it.


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you will fall by the sword on the soil of Israel; I shall execute justice on you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.


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This city will be no cooking pot for you, nor will you be the meat inside; I shall execute justice on you on the soil of Israel;


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and you will know that I am Yahweh, whose laws you have not obeyed and whose judgements you have not kept; instead, you have adopted the customs of the nations round you." '


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Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah dropped dead. I fell to the ground and cried out, 'Ah, Lord Yahweh, are you going to annihilate the remnant of Israel?'


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'Son of man, to your brothers one and all, to your kinsfolk and to the whole House of Israel, the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, "Keep well away from Yahweh. This country has now been made over to us!"


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So say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Yes, I have sent them far away among the nations and I have dispersed them to foreign countries; and for a while I have been a sanctuary for them in the country to which they have gone."


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So say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I shall gather you back from the peoples, I shall collect you in from the countries where you have been scattered and give you the land of Israel.


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I shall give them a single heart and I shall put a new spirit in them; I shall remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,


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so that they can keep my laws and respect my judgements and put them into practice. Then they will be my people and I shall be their God.


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But those whose hearts are set on their horrors and loathsome practices I shall repay for their conduct -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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The winged creatures then raised their wings and the wheels moved with them, with the glory of the God of Israel over them, above.


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And the glory of Yahweh rose from the centre of the city and halted on the mountain to the east of the city.


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Then the spirit lifted me up and took me, in vision, in the spirit of God, to the exiles in Chaldaea, and the vision which I had seen faded.


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'Son of man, you are living among a tribe of rebels who have eyes and never see, they have ears and never hear, because they are a tribe of rebels.


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So, son of man, pack an exile's bundle and set off for exile by daylight while they watch. You will leave your home and go somewhere else while they watch. Then perhaps they will see that they are a tribe of rebels.


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You will pack your baggage like an exile's bundle, by daylight, while they watch, and leave like an exile in the evening, while they watch.


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While they watch, you will shoulder your pack and go out into the dark; you will cover your face so that you cannot see the ground, since I have made you an omen for the House of Israel.'


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I did as I had been told. I packed my baggage like an exile's bundle, by daylight; and in the evening I made a hole through the wall with my hands; then I went out into the dark and shouldered my pack while they watched.


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'Son of man, did not the House of Israel, did not that tribe of rebels, ask you, "What are you doing?"


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Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: This prophecy concerns Jerusalem and the whole House of Israel who live there."


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Say, "I am an omen for you; as I have done, so will be done to them; they will be deported into exile.


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Their prince will shoulder his pack in the dark and go out through the wall; a hole will be made to let him out; he will cover his face, so that he cannot see the country.


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I shall throw my net over him and catch him in my mesh; I shall take him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldaeans, though he will not see it; and there he will die.


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And all those in attendance on him, his army and all his troops, I shall scatter to all the winds and unsheathe the sword behind them.


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Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I scatter them throughout the nations and disperse them in foreign countries.


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But I shall let a few of them escape the sword, famine and plague, to describe all their loathsome practices to the peoples among whom they will go, so that these too may know that I am Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, you are to tremble as you eat your food and shudder apprehensively as you drink your water,


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and you are to say to the people of the country, "The Lord Yahweh says this to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They will shudder apprehensively as they eat their food, and drink their water in fear, so that the country and its population may be freed from the violence of its inhabitants.


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When the populous cities have been destroyed and the country has been reduced to desert, then you will know that I am Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, what do you understand by the saying pronounced over the land of Israel, "Days go by and visions fade"?


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'Very well, tell them, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I shall put an end to this saying; it will never be used in Israel again." Instead, tell them: "The days are coming when every vision will come true,


text:
since I, Yahweh, shall speak. And what I shall say will come true without delay; for what I shall say, I shall perform in your own lifetime, you tribe of rebels -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, the House of Israel is now saying, "The vision that this man sees concerns the distant future; he is prophesying for times far ahead."


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Very well, tell them, "The Lord Yahweh says this: There will be no further delay in the fulfilling of any of my words. What I have said shall be done now -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel; prophesy, and say to those who make up prophecies out of their own heads, "Hear what Yahweh says:


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The Lord Yahweh says this: Disaster is in store for the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!


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"You have not ventured into the breach; you have not built up the wall round the House of Israel, to hold fast in battle on the Day of Yahweh.


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Theirs are futile visions and false predictions, who say: A prophecy from Yahweh, when Yahweh has not sent them; yet they expect their words to come true.


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Have not the visions you see been futile, have not the predictions you make been false, although you say: A prophecy of Yahweh, when I have not spoken?


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"Very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: Because of your futile words and false predictions, I am now against you -- declares Lord Yahweh.


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My hand will be against the prophets who have futile visions and give false predictions; they will not be admitted to the council of my people, their names will not be entered in the roll of the House of Israel, they will not set foot on the soil of Israel; and they will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.


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This is because they have misled my people by saying Peace! when there is no peace. When my people were repairing a wall, these men came and plastered it over!


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and down will come the wall! Will not people ask you: What has become of the plaster you slapped on it?


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Well then, the Lord Yahweh says this: I am going to unleash a stormy wind in my fury, torrential rain in my anger, hailstones in my destructive fury,


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and I shall shatter the wall you plastered and knock it down and lay its foundations bare. It will fall and you will perish under it; then you will know that I am Yahweh."


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'When I have sated my anger on the wall and those who plastered it, I shall say to you, "The wall is gone, and so are those who plastered over it,


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the prophets of Israel who prophesy about Jerusalem and have visions of peace for her when there is no peace -- declares the Lord Yahweh."


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'Also, son of man, turn to the women of your people who make up prophecies out of their own heads; prophesy against them.


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Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Disaster is in store for women who sew ribbons round each wrist and make head-cloths for people of all sizes, in their hunt for souls! Are you to hunt the souls of my people and keep your own souls safe?


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You dishonour me in front of my people for a few handfuls of barley, a few bits of bread, killing those who ought not to die and sparing those who ought not to live, lying to my people who love listening to lies.


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"Very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I am now against your ribbons, with which you hunt souls like birds, and I shall tear them off your arms and free those souls whom you hunt like birds.


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I shall tear your head-cloths to pieces and rescue my people from your clutches; no longer will they be fair game for you to ensnare. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.


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"For having intimidated with lies the heart of the upright whom I had done nothing to alarm, and for having encouraged the wicked not to give up wicked ways and so be saved,


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very well, you will have no more futile visions and make no more predictions, for I shall rescue my people from your clutches, and you will know that I am Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, these men have enshrined their foul idols in their hearts and placed the cause of their sinning right before their eyes. Why should I let myself be consulted by them?


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So speak to them; tell them this, "Lord Yahweh says this: Every member of the House of Israel who enshrines his foul idols in his heart and places the cause of his sinning right before his eyes, and who then approaches the prophet, will get this answer from me, Yahweh, as the multiplicity of his idols deserves,


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and in this way I hope to win back the hearts of the House of Israel who have all been estranged from me by their foul idols."


text:
'So say to the House of Israel, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Come back, turn away from your foul idols, turn your backs on all your loathsome practices;


text:
for if any member of the House of Israel -- or any foreigner living in Israel -- deserts me to enshrine his foul idols in his heart and places the cause of his sinning right before his eyes and then approaches a prophet to consult me through him, he will get his answer from me, Yahweh.


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I shall set my face against that person; I shall make him an example and a byword; I shall rid my people of him, and you will know that I am Yahweh.


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And if the prophet is seduced into saying something, I, Yahweh, shall have seduced that prophet; I shall point my finger at him and rid my people Israel of him.


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Both will be punished for their guilt; the prophet's punishment will be the same as that of the person who consults him,


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so that the House of Israel will never stray from me again or defile themselves again with these crimes, but be my people and I their God -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, when a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I point my finger at it and destroy its supply of food, inflicting famine on it and denuding it of human and animal,


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even if the three men, Noah, Danel and Job, were living in it, they would save no one but themselves by their uprightness -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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Were I to unleash wild beasts on that country to rob it of its children and reduce it to a desert which no one would dare to cross because of the animals,


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even if these three men were living there, as I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- they would not be able to save either son or daughter; they alone would be saved, and the country would become a desert.


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Were I to bring the sword down on that country and say, "Sword, cross the country!" so as to denude it of human and animal,


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even if these three men were living there, as I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- they would not be able to save either son or daughter; they alone would be saved.


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If I were to send the plague on that country and vent my fury on it by bloodshed, so as to denude it of human and animal,


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even if Noah and Danel and Job were living there, as I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- they would be able to save neither son nor daughter, only themselves by their uprightness.


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'The Lord Yahweh says this, "Even if I send my four dreadful scourges on Jerusalem-sword, famine, wild beasts and plague -- to denude it of human and animal,


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even so, there will be a remnant left, a few men and women who come through; when they come to you and you see their conduct and actions, you will take comfort in spite of the disaster which I have brought on Jerusalem, in spite of all I have brought on her.


text:
They will comfort you, when you see their conduct and actions, and so you will know that I have not done in vain all I have done to her -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


text:
There it is, thrown on the fire for fuel. The fire burns off both ends; the middle is charred; can it be kept for anything now?


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So, the Lord Yahweh says this: As the wood of the vine among the forest trees, which I have thrown on the fire for fuel, so shall I treat the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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I shall set my face against them. They have escaped one fire, but fire will devour them yet. And you will know that I am Yahweh, when I set my face against them.


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Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: By origin and birth you belong to the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.


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At birth, the very day you were born, there was no one to cut your navel-string, or wash you in water to clean you, or rub you with salt, or wrap you in swaddling clothes.


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No one looked at you with pity enough to do any of these things out of sympathy for you. You were exposed in the open fields in your own dirt on the day you were born.


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"I saw you kicking on the ground in your blood as I was passing, and I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live!


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and I made you grow like the grass of the fields. You developed, you grew, you reached marriageable age. Your breasts became firm and your hair grew richly, but you were stark naked.


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Then I saw you as I was passing. Your time had come, the time for love. I spread my cloak over you and covered your nakedness; I gave you my oath, I made a covenant with you -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- and you became mine.


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You were loaded with gold and silver and dressed in linen and silk and brocade. Your food was the finest flour, honey and oil. You grew more and more beautiful; and you rose to be queen.


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The fame of your beauty spread through the nations, since it was perfect, because I had clothed you with my own splendour -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"But you became infatuated with your own beauty and used your fame to play the whore, lavishing your debauchery on all comers.


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You took some of your clothes to make for yourself high places bright with colours and there you played the whore.


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You also took your jewellery, made with my gold and silver which I had given you, and made yourself male images to serve your whorings.


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You took your embroidered clothes and used these to dress them up, and you offered them my oil and my incense.


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And the bread I gave you, the finest flour, the oil and honey with which I fed you, you offered them as a pleasing smell. "What is more -- declares the Lord Yahweh-


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you took the sons and daughters you had borne me and sacrificed them as food to the images. Was not your whoring enough in itself,


text:
And in all your loathsome practices and your whorings you never called your early days to mind, when you were stark naked, kicking on the ground in your own blood.


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At the entry to every alley you made yourself a high place, defiling your beauty and opening your legs to all comers in countless acts of fornication.


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You have also fornicated with your big-membered neighbours, the Egyptians, provoking my anger with further acts of fornication.


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So now I have raised my hand against you, I have cut down on your food, I have put you at the mercy of your enemies, the Philistine women, who blush at your lewd behaviour.


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Still unsatisfied, you prostituted yourself to the Assyrians; you played the whore with them, but were not satisfied even then.


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You committed further acts of fornication in the country of merchants, with the Chaldaeans, and these did not satisfy you either.


text:
"How simple-minded you are!-declares the Lord Yahweh -- for although you do all the things that a professional prostitute would,


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in building a mound and making yourself a high place in every street, you do not act like a proper prostitute because you disdain to take a fee.


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All prostitutes accept presents, but you give presents to all your lovers, you bribe them to come from all over the place to fornicate with you!


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In fornicating, you are the opposite of other women, since no one runs after you to fornicate with you; since you give the fee and do not get one, you are the very opposite!


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The Lord Yahweh says this: For having squandered your money and let yourself be seen naked while whoring with your lovers and all the foul idols of your loathsome practices and for giving them your children's blood-


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for all this, I shall assemble all the lovers to whom you have given pleasure, all the ones you liked and also all the ones you disliked; yes, I shall assemble them round you and strip you naked in front of them, and let them see you naked from head to foot.


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I shall pass on you the sentence that adulteresses and murderesses receive; I shall hand you over to their jealous fury;


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I shall hand you over to them; they will destroy your mound and pull down your high place; they will tear off your clothes, take away your jewels and leave you stark naked.


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Then they will call an assembly of citizens to deal with you, who will stone you to death and hack you to pieces with their swords,


text:
and burn down your premises and execute justice on you, while many other women look on; and I shall put an end to your whoring: no more paid lovers for you!


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Once my fury is exhausted with you, then my jealousy will leave you; I shall be calm and not angry any more.


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Since you never called to mind your early days and have done nothing but provoke me, now I in my turn shall bring your conduct down on your own head -- declares the Lord Yahweh! "Have you not added this lewd behaviour to your other loathsome practices?


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Yes; you are a true daughter of your mother, who hated her husband and her children; you are a true sister of your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.


text:
Your elder sister is Samaria, who lives to the north of you with her daughters. Your younger sister is Sodom, who lives to the south of you with her daughters.


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You never failed to imitate their behaviour and copy their loathsome practices, and soon your behaviour was more corrupt than theirs was.


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As I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.


text:
The crime of your sister Sodom was pride, gluttony, calm complacency; such were hers and her daughters' crimes. They never helped the poor and needy;


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they were proud, and engaged in loathsome practices before me, and so I swept them away as you have seen.


text:
And yet Samaria never committed half the crimes that you have. "You have done more loathsome things than they have. By all your loathsome practices you have made your sisters seem innocent,


text:
and now you bear the shame of which you have freed your sisters; since the sins which you have committed are more revolting than theirs, they are more upright than you are. So now, bear the disgrace and shame of having put your sisters in the right.


text:
"I shall restore their fortunes, I shall restore Sodom and her daughters, I shall re- store Samaria and her daughters, and then I shall restore your fortune with theirs,


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When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, are restored to what they were, and Samaria and her daughters are restored to what they were, then you too and your daughters will be restored to what you were.


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before you were stripped naked? Like her, you are now the laughing-stock of the women of Edom, of all the women round, of the women of Philistia, who pour out their contempt on you.


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You have brought this on yourself, with your lewdness and your loathsome practices -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"For the Lord Yahweh says this: I shall treat you as you have deserved for making light of an oath and breaking a covenant,


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but I shall remember my covenant with you when you were a girl and shall conclude a covenant with you that will last for ever.


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And you for your part will remember your behaviour and feel ashamed of it when you receive your elder and younger sisters and I make them your daughters, although this is not included in my covenant with you.


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and so remember and feel ashamed and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I forgive you for everything you have done -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


text:
Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: A great eagle with great wings, long-pinioned, rich with many-coloured plumage, came to the Lebanon.


text:
He took the top of the cedar tree, he plucked off the top branch, he carried it off to the country of merchants and set it down in a city of shopkeepers.


text:
Next, he took one of the country's seeds and put it in a fertile field; by the side of a generous stream, like a willow tree, he placed it.


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It grew and became a fruitful vine of modest size, grew up towards the eagle, its roots grew downwards. So it became a vine, branching out and sprouting new shoots.


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But there was another great eagle with great wings and thick plumage. And now the vine twisted its roots towards him and stretched its branches towards him, for him to water it away from the bed where it was planted.


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It was in a fertile field, by the side of a wide stream that the vine had been planted, to branch out and bear fruit and become a noble vine."


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Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Will it succeed? Will the eagle not tear out its roots and strip off its fruit, so that all the new leaves it puts out will wither, and no great strength is needed nor many people to pull it up by the roots?


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Planted it may be -- will it succeed? Will it not shrivel up when the east wind blows? It will wither in the bed where it was growing!" '


text:
'Say to that tribe of rebels, "Do you not know what this means?" Say this, 'Look, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem; he carried away the king and the princes, and took them to his home in Babylon.


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He took a member of the royal family and made a treaty with him, forcing him to swear loyalty, having already deported the leading men of the country,


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so that the kingdom would remain modest and without ambitions, and would keep and honour his treaty.


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But the prince rebelled against him and sent envoys to Egypt to procure himself horses and a large number of troops. Will he succeed? Will a man who has done this go unpunished? Can he break a treaty and go unpunished?


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As I live, I swear it -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- in Babylon, in the country of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he has disregarded and whose treaty he has broken, there he will die.


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Despite the pharaoh's great army and hordes of men, he will not be able to save him by fighting, however many earthworks are raised, however many trenches dug to the loss of many lives.


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He has disregarded the oath by breaking the treaty to which he had pledged himself and, having done all this, will not go unpunished.


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"So, the Lord Yahweh says this: As I live, I swear it: my oath which he has disregarded, my treaty which he has broken, I shall make them both recoil on his own head.


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I shall throw my net over him, he will be caught in my mesh; I shall take him to Babylon and punish him there for being unfaithful to me.


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All the pick of all his troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors be scattered to all the winds. And you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: From the top of the tall cedar tree, from the highest branch I shall take a shoot and plant it myself on a high and lofty mountain.


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I shall plant it on the highest mountain in Israel. It will put out branches and bear fruit and grow into a noble cedar tree. Every kind of bird will live beneath it, every kind of winged creature will rest in the shade of its branches.


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And all the trees of the countryside will know that I, Yahweh, am the one who lays the tall tree low and raises the low tree high, who makes the green tree wither and makes the withered bear fruit. I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will do it." '


text:
'Why do you keep repeating this proverb in the land of Israel: The parents have eaten unripe grapes; and the children's teeth are set on edge?


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'As I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- you will have no further cause to repeat this proverb in Israel.


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Look, all life belongs to me; the father's life and the son's life, both alike belong to me. The one who has sinned is the one to die.


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and he does not eat on the mountains or raise his eyes to the foul idols of the House of Israel, does not defile his neighbour's wife or touch a woman during her periods,


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oppresses no one, returns the pledge on a debt, does not rob, gives his own food to the hungry, his clothes to those who lack clothing,


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does not lend for profit, does not charge interest, abstains from evil, gives honest judgement between one person and another,


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keeps my laws and sincerely respects my judgements -- someone like this is truly upright and will live -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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even though the father never has -- a son who dares to eat on the mountains, who defiles his neighbour's wife,


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who oppresses the poor and needy, robs, fails to return pledges, raises his eyes to foul idols, engages in loathsome practices,


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lends for profit, or charges interest, such a person will by no means live; having committed all these appalling crimes he will die, and his blood be on his own head.


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'But if he in turn has a son who, in spite of seeing all the sins that his father has committed, does not imitate him,


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does not eat on the mountains or raise his eyes to the foul idols of the House of Israel, does not defile his neighbour's wife,


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oppresses no one, takes no pledges, does not rob, gives his own food to the hungry, his clothes to those who lack clothing,


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abstains from evil, does not lend for profit or charge interest, respects my judgements and keeps my laws, he will not die for his father's sins: he will most certainly live.


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But his father, because he was violent, robbed others and never did good among his people, will most certainly die in his guilt.


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'Now, you say, "Why doesn't the son bear his father's guilt?" If the son has been law-abiding and upright, has kept all my laws and followed them, most certainly he will live.


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The one who has sinned is the one who must die; a son is not to bear his father's guilt, nor a father his son's guilt. The upright will be credited with his uprightness, and the wicked with his wickedness.


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'If the wicked, however, renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and upright, he will most certainly live; he will not die.


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None of the crimes he committed will be remembered against him from then on; he will most certainly live because of his upright actions.


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Would I take pleasure in the death of the wicked -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live?


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'But if the upright abandons uprightness and does wrong by copying all the loathsome practices of the wicked, is he to live? All his upright actions will be forgotten from then on; for the infidelity of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, he will most certainly die.


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'Now, you say, "What the Lord does is unjust." Now listen, House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust?


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When the upright abandons uprightness and does wrong and dies, he dies because of the wrong which he himself has done.


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Similarly, when the wicked abandons wickedness to become law-abiding and upright, he saves his own life.


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And yet the House of Israel says, "What the Lord does is unjust." Is what I do unjust, House of Israel? Is it not what you do that is unjust?


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So in future, House of Israel, I shall judge each of you by what that person does -- declares the Lord Yahweh. Repent, renounce all your crimes, avoid all occasions for guilt.


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Shake off all the crimes you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why die, House of Israel?


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She reared one of her whelps: he grew into a young lion; he learnt to tear his prey; he became a man-eater.


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The nations came to hear of him; he was caught in their pit; they dragged him away with hooks to Egypt.


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Her expectation thwarted, and seeing her hope dashed, she took another of her whelps and made a young lion of him.


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He prowled among the lions, he grew into a young lion, he learnt to tear his prey; he became a man-eater.


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He tore down their palaces, he destroyed their cities; the land and all its inhabitants were appalled by the sound of his roars.


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The nations marched out against him from the surrounding provinces; they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit.


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They shackled him with hooks, they took him to the king of Babylon and threw him into a fortress, so that his voice could never again be heard on the mountains of Israel.


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Your mother was like a vine planted beside the water, fruitful and leafy, because the water flowed so full.


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She had stout stems which became kingly sceptres; she grew higher and higher, up into the clouds; she was admired for her height and the number of her branches.


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But she was furiously uprooted and thrown on the ground; the east wind dried up her fruit, she was broken to pieces; her stout stem dried up, the fire devoured it.


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Fire burst out of her stem devouring her branches and fruit. No more stout stem for her, no more kingly sceptre.' This is a lament; it was used as such.


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In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to consult Yahweh and were sitting with me,


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'Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel. Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Have you come to consult me? As I live, I will not be consulted by you -- declares the Lord Yahweh."


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'Are you ready to judge them? Are you ready to judge them, son of man? Confront them with the loathsome practices of their ancestors.


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Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: On the day when I chose Israel, when I pledged my word to the House of Jacob, I made myself known to them in Egypt; I pledged my word to them and said: I am Yahweh your God.


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That day I pledged them my word that I would bring them out of Egypt to a country which I had reconnoitred for them, a country flowing with milk and honey, and the loveliest of them all.


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And I said to them: Each of you must reject the horrors which attract you; do not pollute yourselves with the foul idols of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.


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But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me. Not one of them rejected the horrors which attracted them; they did not give up the foul idols of Egypt. I then resolved to vent my fury on them, to sate my anger on them in Egypt.


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But respect for my own name kept me from letting it be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, and before whom I had made myself known to them and promised to bring them out of Egypt.


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And I also gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between me and them, so that they might know that I, Yahweh, am the one who sanctifies them.


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The House of Israel, however, rebelled against me in the desert; they refused to keep my laws, they scorned my judgements, in whose observance people find life, and they grossly profaned my Sabbaths. I then resolved to vent my fury on them in the desert and destroy them.


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But respect for my own name kept me from letting it be profaned in the eyes of the nations, before whom I had brought them out.


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Even so, I pledged them my word in the desert that I would not lead them to the country which I had given them, a country flowing with milk and honey, and the loveliest of them all,


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since they had scorned my judgements, had refused to keep my laws and had profaned my Sabbaths, their hearts being attached to foul idols.


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In spite of this, I took pity on them; I refrained from destroying them and did not make an end of them in the desert.


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"I said to their children in the desert: Do not follow the laws of your ancestors, do not practise their judgements, do not defile yourselves with their foul idols.


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Keep my Sabbaths holy; let them be a sign between me and you, so that people may know that I am Yahweh your God.


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Their children, however, rebelled against me; they refused to keep my laws, they did not respect or practise my judgements, which must be practised by all who want to live; they profaned my Sabbaths. I then resolved to vent my fury on them, to sate my anger on them in the desert.


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But I restrained my hand; respect for my own name kept me from letting it be profaned in the eyes of the nations, before whom I had brought them out.


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Once again, however, I pledged them my word that I would scatter them throughout the nations and disperse them in foreign countries,


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because they had not followed my judgements but had rejected my laws and profaned my Sabbaths, their eyes being fastened on the foul idols of their ancestors.


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And for this reason I gave them laws that were not good and judgements by which they could never live;


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and I polluted them with their own offerings, making them sacrifice every first-born son in order to fill them with revulsion, so that they would know that I am Yahweh."


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'For this reason, son of man, speak to the House of Israel. Say to them, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Here is another way by which your ancestors outraged me by their infidelity.


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Once I had brought them into the country which I had pledged my word to give them, they then saw all sorts of high hills, all kinds of leafy trees, and there they performed their sacrifices and made offerings that provoked my anger; there they set out their pleasing smell and poured their libations.


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I then said to them: What is this high place where you go? And they gave, and still give it, the name of Bamah."


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'So, say to the House of Israel, "The Lord Yahweh says this: If you are polluting yourselves as your ancestors did by fornicating with their horrors-


text:
for by offering your gifts and by burning your children as sacrifices, you have been polluting yourselves with all your foul idols to this very day -- shall I let myself be consulted by you, House of Israel? As I live -- declares Lord Yahweh -- I shall not let myself be consulted by you.


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And what you sometimes imagine will never be so, when you say: We shall be like the peoples, the tribes of foreign lands, worshipping wood and stone.


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As I live I swear it -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- I am the one who will reign over you, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, once my fury is sated.


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With a strong hand and outstretched arm, once my fury is sated, I shall bring you back from the peoples and gather you again from the countries throughout which you have been scattered.


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and rid you of the rebels who have revolted against me; I shall bring them out of the country where they are staying, but they will not enter the country of Israel, and you will know that I am Yahweh.


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House of Israel, Lord Yahweh says this: Go on, all of you, worship your foul idols, but later we shall see if you don't listen to me! Then you will stop profaning my holy name with your offerings and your foul idols.


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For on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- is where the whole House of Israel, everyone in the country, will worship me. There I shall accept and there expect your presents, your choicest offering and all your consecrated gifts.


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I shall welcome you like a pleasing smell when I bring you back from the peoples and gather you from the countries throughout which you have been scattered, and through you I shall display my holiness for all the nations to see;


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and you will know that I am Yahweh, when I bring you back to the soil of Israel, to the country which I pledged my word to give to your ancestors.


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There you will remember your past behaviour and all the actions by which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the wrongs which you have committed.


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And you will know that I am Yahweh, when I treat you as respect for my own name requires, and not as your wicked behaviour and corrupt actions deserve, House of Israel -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, turn to the right; utter your word towards the south, prophesy against the forest land of the Negeb.


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Say to the forest of Negeb, "Hear the word of Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says this: Listen; I am about to kindle a fire in you which will burn up every green tree in you as well as every dry one; it will be an unquenchable blaze and every face will be scorched by it from the Negeb to the north.


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'Son of man, turn towards Jerusalem, utter your word towards the sanctuary and prophesy against the land of Israel.


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Say to the land of Israel, "Yahweh says this: Now I am against you; I am about to unsheathe my sword and rid you of the upright and the wicked alike.


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Since I am going to rid you of upright and wicked alike, I shall unsheathe my sword against everyone alive, from the Negeb to the north,


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so that everyone alive will know that I, Yahweh, am the one who has unsheathed my sword; it will not go back again."


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'Son of man, groan as though your heart were breaking. Utter your bitter groans where they can see you.


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And if they say, "Why these groans?" reply, "Because of the news which is about to come, all hearts will sink, all hands grow weak, all spirits grow faint and all knees turn to water. It is coming now, it is here!-declares Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, prophesy. Say, "The Lord says this. Say: The sword, the sword has been sharpened and polished,


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He has had it polished to be wielded, this sword sharpened and polished to put in the slaughterer's hand!


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Shout and wail, son of man, for it will come on my people, on all the chief men of Israel doomed like my people to the sword! So beat your breast,


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So prophesy, son of man, and clap your hands! Let the sword pass three times, that sword for victims, that sword for a great victim, threatening them from every side!


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To make hearts sink and make sure many fall, I have posted the slaughtering sword at every gate to flash like lightning, polished for slaughter.


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'Son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come along, making both of them begin from the same country. Then put up a signpost, put it where the road leaves for the city,


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trace the route which the sword should take for Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites, and for Judah, to the fortress of Jerusalem.


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For the king of Babylon has halted at the fork where these two roads diverge, to take the omens. He has shaken the arrows, questioned the household gods, inspected the liver.


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The lot marked 'Jerusalem' is in his right hand: there to set up battering-rams, give the word for slaughter, raise the war cry, level battering-rams against the gates, cast up earthworks, build entrenchments.


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The inhabitants will believe that these omens are idle, for they have received sworn guarantees, but he will bring their guilt to mind and capture them.


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And so the Lord Yahweh says this, "Since you have brought your guilt to mind by parading your misdeeds and flaunting your sins in everything you do: because you have drawn attention to yourselves, you will be captured.


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As for you, impious and wicked prince of Israel, whose doom is approaching to put an end to your crimes,


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the Lord Yahweh says this: They will take away your diadem and remove your crown. Everything will be changed; the low will be raised and the high brought low!


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Ruin, ruin, I shall bring such ruin as never was before, until the rightful ruler comes, on whom I shall bestow it."


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'Son of man, prophesy and say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: In reply to the Ammonites and their jeers, say: The sword, the sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to devour, to flash like lightning-


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while you have empty visions and consult lying omens-to cut the throats of the wicked, whose doom is approaching to put an end to their crimes.


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Put it back in the scabbard. The place where you were created, the land of your origin, will be where I judge you.


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I shall vent my fury on you, breathe the fire of my rage against you and hand you over to barbarous men whose trade is destruction.


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You will be fuel for the fire, your blood will flow through the country, you will leave no memory behind you; for I, Yahweh, have spoken!" '


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'Son of man, are you ready to judge? Are you ready to judge the blood-stained city? Confront her with all her loathsome practices!


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Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: City shedding blood inside yourself to hasten your doom, making foul idols on your soil to defile yourself,


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you have incurred guilt by the blood you have shed, you have defiled yourself with the foul idols you have made, you have shortened your days, you have come to the end of your years. This is why I have made you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughing-stock to every country.


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"Look! In you the princes of Israel, one and all, have furthered their own interests at the cost of bloodshed;


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in you people have despised their fathers and mothers; in you they have ill-treated the settler; in you they have oppressed the widow and orphan.


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in you they have sexual intercourse with their fathers; in you they force themselves on women in their periods;


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in you one man engages in loathsome practices with his neighbour's wife, another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law, another violates his sister, his own father's daughter.


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In you people take bribes for shedding blood; you lend for profit and charge interest, you profit from your fellow by extortion and have forgotten about me -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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Will your heart be able to resist, will your hands be steady, the day when I call you to account? I, Yahweh, have spoken and shall act.


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I shall scatter you among the nations and disperse you in foreign countries, and so put an end to the filthiness now inside you;


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through your own fault, you will be profaned in the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh!" '


text:
'Son of man, for me, the House of Israel has become dross: copper, tin, iron, lead, all mixed up together in the melting-pot; they are dross.


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And so, Lord Yahweh says this, "Since you have all become dross, right! I shall collect you inside Jerusalem.


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As silver, copper, iron, lead and tin are collected in the melting-pot, and the fire is blown underneath to melt them down, so I shall collect you in my furious anger and have you melted down;


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I shall collect you and blow up the fire of my rage for you and have you melted down inside the city.


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As silver is melted in the melting-pot, so you will be melted down inside the city, and you will know that I, Yahweh, have vented my fury on you." '


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In you, the princes are like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They have eaten the people, seized wealth and jewels and widowed many inside her.


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Her priests have violated my law and desecrated my sanctuary; they have made no distinction between sacred and profane, they have not taught people the difference between clean and unclean; they have turned their eyes away from my Sabbaths and I have been dishonoured by them.


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In her the leaders are wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood and killing people to steal their possessions.


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Her prophets have plastered these things over with their empty visions and lying prophecies, saying: Yahweh says this, although Yahweh has not spoken.


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The people of the country have taken to extortion and banditry; they have oppressed the poor and needy and ill-treated the settler in a way that is unjustifiable.


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I have been looking for someone among them to build a barricade and oppose me in the breach, to defend the country and prevent me from destroying it; but I have found no one.


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Hence I have vented my fury on them; I have put an end to them in the fire of my rage. I have made their conduct recoil on their own heads -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore when they were still girls. There their nipples were handled, there their virgin breasts were first fondled.


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Their names were: Oholah the elder, Oholibah her sister. They belonged to me and bore sons and daughters. As regards their names, Samaria is Oholah, Jerusalem Oholibah.


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Now Oholah played the whore, although she belonged to me; she lusted after her lovers, her neighbours the Assyrians,


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dressed in purple, governors and magistrates, all of them young and desirable, and skilful horsemen.


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She played the whore with all of them, the pick of Assyria, and defiled herself with all the foul idols of all those with whom she was in love,


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nor did she give up the whoring begun in Egypt, where men had slept with her from her girlhood, fondling her virgin breasts, debauching her over and over again.


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They stripped her naked, seized her sons and daughters and put her to the sword. She became notorious among women for the justice done on her.


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'Her sister Oholibah saw all this, but she was even more depraved, and her whorings were worse than her sister's.


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She fell in love with her neighbours the Assyrians, governors and magistrates, dressed in sumptuous clothes, skilful horsemen, all young and desirable.


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She began whoring worse than ever; no sooner had she seen wall-carvings of men, pictures of Chaldaeans coloured vermilion,


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men with sashes round their waists and elaborate turbans on their heads, all so lordly of bearing, depicting the Babylonians, natives of Chaldaea,


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The Babylonians came to her, shared her love-bed and defiled her with their whoring. Once defiled by them, she withdrew her affection from them.


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Thus she flaunted her whoring, exposing her body, until I withdrew my affection from her as I had withdrawn it from her sister.


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But she began whoring worse than ever, remembering her girlhood, when she had played the whore in Egypt,


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when she had been in love with their profligates, big-membered as donkeys, ejaculating as violently as stallions.


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'You were hankering for the debauchery of your girlhood, when they used to handle your nipples in Egypt and fondle your young breasts.


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And so, Oholibah, Lord Yahweh says this, "I shall set all your lovers against you, from whom you have withdrawn your affection, and bring them to assault you from all directions:


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the Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, the men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, young and desirable, all governors and magistrates, all famous lords and skilful horsemen.


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From the north, they will advance on you with chariots and wagons and an international army and beset you with shield, buckler and helmet on all sides. I shall charge them to pass sentence on you and they will pass sentence on you as they think fit.


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I shall direct my jealousy against you; they will treat you with fury; they will cut off your nose and ears, and what is left of your family will fall by the sword; they will seize your sons and daughters, and what is left will be burnt.


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I shall put an end to your debauchery and to the whorings you began in Egypt; you will not look to the Egyptians any more, you will never think of them again.


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For the Lord Yahweh says this: Now, I shall hand you over to those you hate, to those for whom you no longer feel affection.


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They will treat you with hatred, they will rob you of the entire fruit of your labours and leave you stark naked. And thus your shameful whorings will be exposed, your debauchery and your whorings.


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This will happen to you because you have played the whore with the nations and have defiled yourself with their foul idols.


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The Lord Yahweh says this: You will drink your sister's cup, a cup both deep and wide, leading to laughter and mockery, so ample the draught it holds.


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You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. Cup of affliction and devastation, the cup of your sister Samaria,


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you will drink it, you will drain it; then you will break it in pieces and lacerate your own breasts. For I have spoken -- declared the Lord Yahweh.


text:
"And so, the Lord Yahweh says this: Since you have forgotten me and have turned your back on me, you too will have to bear the weight of your debauchery and whorings." '


text:
And Yahweh said to me, 'Son of man, are you ready to judge Oholah and Oholibah and charge them with their loathsome practices?


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They have been adulteresses, their hands are dripping with blood, they have committed adultery with their foul idols. As for the children they had borne me, they have offered them as burnt sacrifices to feed them.


text:
And here is something else they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary today and have profaned my Sabbaths.


text:
The same day as sacrificing their children to their idols, they have been to my sanctuary and profaned it. Yes, this is what they have done in my own house.


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'Worse still, they summoned men from far away, invited by messenger, and they came. For them you bathed, you painted your eyes, put on your jewels


text:
and sat on a sumptuous bed, by which a table was laid out. On this you had put my incense and my oil.


text:
The noise of the carefree company resounded, made by the crowd of men brought in from the desert; they put bracelets on the women's arms and magnificent crowns on their heads.


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Yet they visit her like any common prostitute, just as they visited those profligate women Oholah and Oholibah.


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All the same, there are upright men who will judge them as adulteresses and murderesses are judged, since they are adulteresses and their hands are dripping with blood."


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'The Lord Yahweh says this, "Summon an assembly to deal with them, and hand them over to terror and pillage;


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let the assembly stone them and dispatch them with their swords; let their sons and daughters be slaughtered and their houses set on fire.


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This is how I shall purge the country of debauchery, so that all women will be taught the lesson never to ape your debauchery again.


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Your debauchery will recoil on yourselves, and you will bear the weight of the sins committed with your foul idols and you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh." '


text:
In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,


text:
'Son of man, write down today's date, yes, today's, for this very day the king of Babylon began his attack on Jerusalem.


text:
So pronounce a parable for this tribe of rebels. Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Put the pot on the fire; put it on; pour the water in!


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Now put the cuts of meat all in together, all the best cuts, leg and shoulder. Fill it with the best bones.


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Take the best of the flock, then heap wood underneath; boil it thoroughly until even the bones are cooked.


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"For the Lord Yahweh says this: Disaster is in store for the bloody city, for that rusty cooking pot whose rust will not come off! Empty it, bit by bit, not bothering to draw lots;


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for she is still full of bloodshed, she has put blood on the naked rock; she did not pour it on the ground so as to cover it with dust.


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To make anger rise, to exact vengeance, I have put her blood on the naked rock, so that it should not be covered:


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"So, the Lord Yahweh says this: Disaster is in store for the bloody city! I too plan to build a great fire.


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Put the empty pot on the coals to make it hot, until the bronze glows, the filth inside melts and the rust is burnt away!


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Your filth is infamous. Since I have tried to purge you and you would not let yourself be purged of your filth, so now you will never be purged of your filth until I have sated my anger on you.


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I, Yahweh, have spoken; this will happen; I shall act and not relent; I shall show no pity, no compassion. You will be judged as your conduct and actions deserve -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, at a blow I am about to deprive you of the delight of your eyes. But you are not to lament, not to weep, not to let your tears run down.


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Groan in silence, do not go into mourning for the dead, knot your turban round your head, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, do not eat the usual food.'


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I told this to the people in the morning, and my wife died in the evening, and the next morning I did as I had been ordered.


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"Say to the House of Israel, the Lord Yahweh says this: I am about to profane my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, the joy of your hearts. Your sons and daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.


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you will keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you will not lament or weep but will waste away for your crimes, groaning among yourselves.


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Thus Ezekiel is a sign for you. You will do exactly what he has done. And when this happens, you will know that I am Lord Yahweh!"


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'And, son of man, the day that I deprive them of their strength, their crowning joy, the delight of their eyes, the joy of their hearts, their sons and daughters,


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That day your mouth will be opened to speak to the survivor; you will speak and no longer be dumb; you will be a sign for them, and they will know that I am Yahweh.'


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Say to the Ammonites, "Hear the word of the Lord Yahweh. The Lord Yahweh says this: "Since you gloated over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was ravaged, and over the House of Judah when it went into exile,


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I shall let the sons of the East take possession of you; they will pitch their camps inside you, they will make their home in you. They will be the ones to eat your produce and drink your milk.


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I shall turn Rabbah into a camel yard and the towns of Ammon into sheepfolds. And so you will know that I am Yahweh.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: Since you have clapped your hands and danced for joy, full of malicious delight at Israel's fate,


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my hand will be against you for this; I shall hand you over to be looted by the peoples, obliterate you as a nation and wipe you out as a country. I shall reduce you to nothing, and you will know that I am Yahweh.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: "Since Moab and Seir have said: Look at the House of Judah; it is no different from any other nation;


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very well, I shall expose Moab's heights; its cities will no longer be cities throughout the land -- the jewels of the country, Beth-Jeshimoth, Baal-Meon and Kiriathaim.


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I shall let the sons of the East and the Ammonites take possession of them, so that they will no longer be remembered by the nations.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: "Since Edom has taken revenge on the House of Judah and committed great crimes in doing so,


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very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: My hand will be against Edom and denude it of human and animal. I shall lay it waste, from Teman as far as Dedan they will be put to the sword.


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I shall take vengeance on Edom by means of my people Israel. They will treat Edom as my anger and fury dictate, and they will know this is my vengeance -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this, "Since the Philistines have acted in revenge and, motivated by malice, have taken revenge, doing their best to destroy because of their long-standing hatred,


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very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: My hand will be against the Philistines; I shall exterminate the Cherethites and destroy the rest of the coastal peoples.


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I shall perform frightful acts of vengeance and inflict furious punishments on them; and they will know that I am Yahweh, when I exact my vengeance on them." '


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'Son of man, since Tyre has said of Jerusalem: "Aha! She is shattered, the Gateway to the Nations; she now gives way to me. Her riches are ruined!"


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I shall raise many nations against you as the sea raises its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre, they will demolish her towers; I shall sweep the dust of her away and reduce her to a naked rock.


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She will be a drying-ground out to sea for fishing-nets. For I have spoken- declares Lord Yahweh. She will be the prey of the nations.


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As for her daughters on the mainland, these will be put to the sword, and they will know that I am Yahweh."


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'For the Lord Yahweh says this, "From the north, I shall bring Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings, down on Tyre with horses, chariots, cavalry and an enormous army.


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He will put your daughters on the mainland to the sword. He will build siege-works against you, cast up a siege-ramp against you, raise a screen against you;


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His horses are so many that their dust will hide you. The noise of his horsemen and his chariot-wheels will make your walls tremble as he enters your gates as though storming into a city through the breach.


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With his horses' hoofs he will trample through all your streets; he will put your people to the sword, and throw your massive pillars to the ground.


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Your wealth will be seized, your merchandise looted, your walls rased, your luxurious houses shattered, your stones, your timbers, your very dust, thrown into the sea.


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I shall reduce you to a naked rock, and make you into a drying-ground for fishing-nets, never to be rebuilt; for I, Yahweh, have spoken -declares the Lord Yahweh."


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'The Lord Yahweh says this to Tyre, "Will not the islands quake at the sound of your fall, while the wounded groan and the slaughter takes place inside you?


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All the princes of the sea will leave their thrones, lay aside their cloaks, take off their embroidered robes. Dressed in terror they will sit on the ground trembling incessantly, stunned at your fate.


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"They will raise the lament for you as follows: You are destroyed then, vanished from the seas, famous city, former sea-power, who with her citizens, used to spread terror all over the mainland!


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Now the islands are trembling on the day of your fall; the islands of the sea are terrified by your end.


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"For the Lord Yahweh says this: "When I make you a ruined city like other deserted cities, when I raise the deep against you and the ocean covers you,


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when I fling you down with those who go down into the abyss, with the people of long ago, and put you deep in the underworld, in the ruins of long ago with those who sink into oblivion, so that you can never come back or be restored to the land of the living,


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I will make you an object of terror; you will not exist. People will look for you but never find you again -- declares the Lord Yahweh!" '


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Say to Tyre, "City enthroned at the gateway of the sea, agent between the peoples and the many islands, Lord Yahweh says this: Tyre, you used to say: I am a ship perfect in beauty.


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Cypress from Senir they used for all your planking. They took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast above you.


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From oaks of Bashan they made your oars. They built you a deck of cedar inlaid with ivory from the Kittim isles.


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Embroidered linen from Egypt was used for your sail and for your flag. Purple and scarlet from the Elishah islands formed your deck-tent.


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The elders and craftsmen of Gebal were there to caulk your seams. "Every sea-going ship and crew frequented you to guarantee your trade.


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Men from Persia, Lud and Put served as warriors in your army; hanging up shield and helmet in you, they displayed your splendour.


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The sons of Arvad with their army manned your walls all round, while the Gammadians manned your towers; hanging their shields all round your walls, they completed your beauty.


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Tarshish traded with you because of your abundant resources and exchanged your merchandise for silver, iron, tin and lead.


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Javan, Tubal and Meshech traded with you. For your merchandise they traded slaves and bronze artefacts.


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The people of Dedan traded with you; many islands were your customers and paid you in ivory tusks and ebony.


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Edom traded with you for the sake of your many manufactured goods, exchanging garnets, purple, embroideries, fine linen, coral and rubies for your goods.


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Judah and the land of Israel also traded with you, bringing corn from Minnith, pannag, honey, oil and balm.


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Damascus traded with you, for quantities of your manufactured goods and other goods of all kinds, furnishing you with wine from Helbon and wool from Zahar.


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Dan and Javan, from Uzal onwards, supplied you with wrought iron, cassia and reeds in exchange for your goods.


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The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; they supplied you with the finest spices, precious stones and gold for your merchandise.


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They traded rich clothes, embroidered and purple cloaks, multi-coloured materials and strong plaited cords for your markets.


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Your riches, your goods, your cargo, your seamen, your sailors, your caulkers, your commercial agents, all the warriors you carry, and all the passengers who are aboard will founder far out to sea on the day of your shipwreck.


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They will raise their voices for you and weep bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in ashes;


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they will shave their heads for you and put sackcloth round their waists. With heartfelt bitterness they will weep for you, bitterly wail.


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Wailing, they will raise the lament for you, they will lament over you: Who is like Tyre, far out to sea?


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When you unloaded your goods to satisfy so many peoples, you enriched the kings of the earth with your excess of wealth and goods.


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Now you have been wrecked by the waves, by the depths of the sea. Your cargo and all your passengers have foundered with you.


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All those who live in the islands will be stunned at your fate. Their kings will quake with horror, with downcast expressions.


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The merchants of the nations will whistle at your fate. You will be an object of terror, gone for ever." '


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'Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Because your heart has grown proud, you thought: I am a god; I am divinely enthroned far out to sea. Though you are human, not divine, you have allowed yourself to think like God.


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By your wisdom and your intelligence you have made yourself a fortune, you have put gold and silver into your treasuries.


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Such is your skill in trading, your fortune has continued to increase, and your fortune has made your heart grow prouder.


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very well, I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most barbarous of the nations. They will draw sword against your fine wisdom, they will desecrate your splendour,


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Will you still think: I am a god, when your slaughterers confront you? But you will be human, not divine, in the clutches of the ones who strike you down!


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You will die like the uncircumcised at the hand of foreigners. "For I have spoken -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, raise a lament for the king of Tyre. Say to him, "The Lord Yahweh says this: You used to be a model of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty;


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you were in Eden, in the garden of God. All kinds of gem formed your mantle: sard, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, garnet, emerald, and your ear-pendants and spangles were made of gold; all was ready on the day you were created.


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I made you a living creature with outstretched wings, as guardian, you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked amid red-hot coals.


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because your busy trading has filled you with violence and sin. I have thrown you down from the mountain of God and destroyed you, guardian winged creature, amid the coals.


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Your heart has grown proud because of your beauty, your wisdom has been corrupted by your splendour. I have thrown you to the ground; I have made you a spectacle for kings.


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By the immense number of your crimes, by the dishonesty of your trading, you have defiled your sanctuary. So I have brought fire out of you to devour you; I have reduced you to ashes on the ground before the eyes of all who saw you.


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Of the nations, all who know you are stunned at your fate. You are an object of terror; gone for ever." '


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Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I am against you, Sidon, I will show my glory in you! They will know I am Yahweh, once I execute sentence on her and display my holiness in her.


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For I shall send her the plague, and there will be blood in her streets, and in her the dead will fall under the sword raised against her from all sides, and they will know that I am Yahweh.


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"No more, for the House of Israel, shall any of the hostile nations surrounding them be a thorn that wounds or a briar that tears; and they will know that I am Yahweh.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: When I gather the House of Israel back from the peoples where they are dispersed, I shall display my glory in them for the nations to see. They will live on the soil which I gave to my servant Jacob.


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They will live there in confidence, build houses, plant vineyards. They will live in safety, once I inflict punishments on all the hostile nations surrounding them, and they will know that I am Yahweh their God." '


text:
In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,


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'Son of man, turn towards Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against the whole of Egypt.


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Speak and say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt- the great crocodile wallowing in his Niles who thought: My Nile is mine, I made it.


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I shall put hooks through your jaws, make your Nile fish stick to your scales, and pull you out of your Niles with all your Nile fish sticking to your scales.


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I shall drop you in the desert, with all your Nile fish. You will fall in the wilds and not be taken up or buried. I shall give you as food to the wild animals and the birds of heaven,


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and all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, for they have given no more support than a reed to the House of Israel.


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Wherever they grasped you, you broke in their hands and cut their hands all over. Whenever they leaned on you, you broke, making all their limbs give way.


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"So, the Lord Yahweh says this: I shall send the sword against you to denude you of human and animal.


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Egypt will become a desolate waste, and they will know that I am Yahweh. Because he thought: The Nile is mine, I made it,


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very well, I am against you and your Niles. I shall make Egypt a waste and a desolation, from Migdol to Syene and beyond to the frontiers of Ethiopia.


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No human foot will pass through it, no animal foot will pass through it. For forty years it will remain uninhabited.


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I shall make Egypt the most desolate of countries; for forty years its cities will be the most desolate of wasted cities. And I shall scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries.


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The Lord Yahweh, however, says this: After forty years have passed, I shall gather the Egyptians back from the nations where they were dispersed.


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I shall bring the Egyptian captives back and re-install them in the land of Pathros, in the country of their origin. There they will constitute a modest kingdom.


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Egypt will be the most modest of kingdoms and no longer dominate other nations; for I shall reduce it, so that it will not rule other nations ever again.


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It will no longer be anything for the House of Israel to trust in, but will be a reminder of the guilt which lay in turning to it for help. And they will know that I am Lord Yahweh." '


text:
In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows:


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'Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken his army in a great expedition against Tyre. Their heads have all gone bald, their shoulders are all chafed, but even so he has derived no profit, either for himself or for his army, from the expedition mounted against Tyre.


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Since this is so, the Lord Yahweh says this, "Look, I shall hand Egypt over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off its riches, loot it, put it to the sack; that will be the wages for his army.


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As wages for the trouble he has taken, I am giving him Egypt instead (for they have been working for me)-declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"That day, I shall raise up a new stock for the House of Israel and allow you to open your mouth among them. And they will know that I am Yahweh." '


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For the day is near, the day of Yahweh is near; it will be a day dark with cloud, a time of doom for the nations.


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"The sword will come on Egypt, and anguish on the country of Cush when the slaughtered fall in Egypt, when her riches are carried away and her foundations are destroyed.


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Cush, Put and Lud, all Arabia, Cub and the children of the country of the covenant will fall by the sword with them.


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"Yahweh says this: "The supports of Egypt will fall; the pride of her strength will crumble; they will fall by the sword from Migdol to Syene -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"That day, I shall send messengers by ship to terrify the carefree Cushites, and anguish will overtake them on the day of Egypt -- it is coming now!


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The Lord Yahweh says this: I shall destroy the huge population of Egypt at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.


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He and his people, the most barbarous of nations, will be brought to ravage the country. They will draw the sword against Egypt and fill the country with corpses.


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I shall dry up the courses of the Nile and sell the country to the wicked. I shall lay the whole country waste and everything in it, at the hand of foreigners. I, Yahweh, have spoken.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: I shall destroy the foul idols and take the false gods away from Noph. Egypt will be left without a ruler. I shall spread fear through Egypt.


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I shall set fire to Egypt; Sin will be seized with convulsions; a breach will be opened at No and the waters flood out.


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The young men of On and Pi-Beseth will fall by the sword and the cities themselves go into captivity.


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At Tahpanhes day will turn to darkness when I shatter the sceptres of Egypt there, when the pride of her strength ceases. A cloud will cover Egypt itself, and its daughters will go into captivity.


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In the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month, the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,


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'Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; you can see that no one has dressed his wound by applying remedies to it, by bandaging it and by dressing it, to make it strong enough to wield the sword.


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This being so, the Lord Yahweh says this, "Look, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt; I shall break his arms, the sound one and the broken one, and make the sword drop from his hand.


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I shall strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand. I shall break Pharaoh's arms and, confronted with his enemy, he will groan like a dying man.


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I shall strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall. And they will know that I am Yahweh, when I put my sword into the hands of the king of Babylon and he wields it against Egypt.


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I shall scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse it among the countries; and they will know that I am Yahweh." '


text:
In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,


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'Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and his throng of subjects: "What can compare with you for greatness?


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I know: a cedar tree in the Lebanon with noble branches, dense foliage, lofty height. Its top pierces the clouds.


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The waters have made it grow, the deep has made it tall, pouring its rivers round the place where it is planted, sending rivulets to all the wild trees.


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This is why its height was greater than that of other wild trees, its branches increased in number, its boughs stretched wide, because of the plentiful waters making it grow.


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All the birds of heaven nested in its branches; under its boughs all wild animals dropped their young; in its shade sat many, many people.


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There was no cedar like it in the garden of God, no cypress had branches such as these, no plane tree could match its boughs, no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.


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I had made it so lovely with its many branches that it was the envy of every tree in Eden, in the garden of God.


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"Very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: "Since it has raised itself to its full height, has lifted its top into the clouds, and has grown arrogant about its height,


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I have handed it over to the prince of the nations, for him to treat as its wickedness deserves; I have rejected it.


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Foreigners, the most barbarous of nations, have cut it down and deserted it. On the mountains, in all the valleys, lie its branches; its broken boughs are in every ravine throughout the country; everybody in the country has fled its shade and deserted it.


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"So in future let no tree rear its height beside the waters, none push its top into the clouds, no watered tree stretch its height towards them. For all of them are doomed to death, to the depths of the underworld, with the common run of humanity, with those who sink into oblivion.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: The day it went down to Sheol, I imposed mourning, I closed the deep over it. I stopped its rivers and the plentiful waters dried up; I made Lebanon dark because of it, and all the wild trees wilted because of it.


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With the noise when it fell I made the nations quake, as I hurled it down to Sheol, with those who sink into oblivion. In the depths of the underworld all the trees of Eden took comfort, the pick of the loveliest trees of the Lebanon, all irrigated by the waters.


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And its offspring among the nations, once living in its shade, went down to Sheol with it, to those who have been slaughtered by the sword.


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"Which of the trees of Eden compares with you for glory and greatness? Yet you have been hurled down with the trees of Eden, to the depths of the underworld, among the uncircumcised, and there you lie with those who have been slaughtered by the sword. So much for Pharaoh and all his throng -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


text:
In the twelfth year, on the first day of the twelfth month, the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,


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'Son of man, raise a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt. Say to him: "Young lion of nations, you are destroyed! Once you were like a crocodile in the lagoons; emerging from your rivers, you churned up the water with your trampling and fouled their streams.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: I shall throw my net over you in a great concourse of nations; and they will trawl you up in my net. Then I shall leave you high and dry,


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I shall throw you out into the wilds and make all the birds of heaven settle on you, and glut all the beasts of the earth with you.


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I shall water the country with what flows from you, with your blood, on the mountainsides, and you will fill the ravines.


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When I extinguish you I shall cover the skies and darken the stars. I shall cover the sun with clouds and the moon will not give its light.


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I shall dim every luminary in heaven because of you and cover your country in darkness -declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"I shall grieve the heart of many peoples when I bring about your destruction among the nations, in countries unknown to you.


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I shall stun many peoples with shock at your fate; their kings will tremble with horror at your fate, when I brandish my sword before their eyes. The day you fall, each will tremble in terror for his life.


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I shall make your throngs of subjects fall at the swords of my warriors. They are the most barbarous of nations. They will annihilate the pride of Egypt, and all its throngs will be destroyed.


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I shall also destroy all its cattle beside the plentiful waters. No human foot will churn them, no animal foot will churn them up again;


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then I shall let their waters settle and make their rivers glide like oil -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"When I reduce Egypt to a ruin and the country is stripped of its contents, when I strike all those who live there, they will know that I am Yahweh.


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"Such is the lament which the daughters of the nations will raise. They will raise it over Egypt and all its throng. This is the lament they will raise -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


text:
In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,


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'Son of man, lament over the throng of Egypt, for down she must go with the daughters of majestic nations to the depths of the underworld with those who sink into oblivion.


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with those who have been slaughtered by the sword. (The sword has been given, it has been drawn.) She and all her throngs have fallen.


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From the depths of Sheol, the mightiest heroes, her allies, will say to her, "They have come down, they have lain down, uncircumcised, slaughtered by the sword."


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'Assyria is there and all her hordes, with their graves all round her; all of them slaughtered, fallen by the sword;


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their graves have been made in the deepest part of the abyss, and her hordes, with their graves all round her; all of them slaughtered, killed by the sword, who once spread terror through the world of the living.


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'Elam is there and all her throng round her grave, all of them slaughtered, fallen by the sword; they have gone down uncircumcised to the depths of the underworld, who once spread terror throughout the world of the living. They have borne their shame with those who sink into oblivion.


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Among the slaughtered, they have put a bed for her, among her throng with their tombs round her, all of them uncircumcised, slaughtered by the sword for having spread terror throughout the world of the living. They have borne their shame with those who sink into oblivion. They have been put among the slaughtered.


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'Meshech, Tubal are there and all her throng, with their graves round her, all of them uncircumcised, slaughtered by the sword for having spread terror through the world of the living.


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They do not lie with the heroes who fell long ago, those who went down to Sheol fully armed, who had their swords laid under their heads and their shields put under their bones, since the heroes inspired the world of the living with terror.


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'Edom is there, her kings and all her princes who, despite their valour, have been laid with those slaughtered by the sword. They lie with the uncircumcised, with those who sink into oblivion.


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'All the princes of the north and all the Sidonians are there, who have gone down with the slaughtered, because of the terror which their power inspired. Ashamed, uncircumcised, they lie among those slaughtered by the sword and bear their shame with those who sink into oblivion.


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'Pharaoh will see them and take comfort at the sight of all this throng slaughtered by the sword -- Pharaoh and all his throng -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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For having spread terror through the world of the living, he will be laid with the uncircumcised, with those slaughtered by the sword, Pharaoh and all his throng -- declares the Lord Yahweh.'


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'Son of man, speak to the people of your country. Say to them, "When I send the sword against the people of that country, take one of their number and post him as a watchman;


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If someone hears the sound of the horn but pays no attention and the sword overtakes him and destroys him, he will have been responsible for his own death.


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He has heard the sound of the horn and paid no attention; his death will be his own responsibility. But the life of someone who pays attention will be secure.


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"If, however, the watchman has seen the sword coming but has not blown his horn, and so the people are not alerted and the sword overtakes them and destroys a single one of them, that person will indeed die for his guilt, but I shall hold the watchman responsible for his death."


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'Son of man I have appointed you as watchman for the House of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me.


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If I say to someone wicked, "Evil- doer, you are to die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked person to renounce such ways, the wicked person will die for this guilt, but I shall hold you responsible for the death.


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If, however, you do warn someone wicked to renounce such ways and repent, and that person does not repent, then the culprit will die for this guilt, but you yourself will have saved your life.


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'Son of man, say to the House of Israel, "You are continually saying: Our crimes and sins weigh heavily on us; we are wasting away because of them. How are we to go on living?"


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Say to them, "As I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- I do not take pleasure in the death of the wicked but in the conversion of the wicked who changes his ways and saves his life. Repent, turn back from your evil ways. Why die, House of Israel?"


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'Son of man, say to the members of your nation, "The uprightness of an upright person will not save him once he takes to wrong-doing; the wickedness of a wicked person will not ruin him once he renounces his wickedness. No one upright will be able to live on the strength of uprightness, having once taken to sinning.


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If I say to someone upright: You are to live, and then, trusting in this uprightness, he does wrong, none of the uprightness will be remembered; because of the wrong-doing, he will die.


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If, however, I say to someone wicked: You are to die, and he turns back from sin and does what is lawful and upright,


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if he returns pledges, restores what he has stolen, keeps the laws that give life and no longer does wrong, he will live and will not die.


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None of his previous sins will be remembered against him; having done what is lawful and upright, he will live.


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"But the members of your nation say: What the Lord does is unjust. But it is what you do that is unjust.


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And when a wicked person gives up being wicked and does what is lawful and upright, because of this he lives.


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But you say: What the Lord does is unjust! I shall judge each of you by what you do, House of Israel." '


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In the twelfth year of our captivity, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive arrived from Jerusalem and said to me, 'The city has been taken.'


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Now the hand of the Lord had been on me the evening before the fugitive arrived; he had opened my mouth before the fugitive came to me the next morning; my mouth had been opened and I was dumb no longer.


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'Son of man, the people living in those ruins on the soil of Israel say this, "Abraham was alone when he was given possession of this country. But we are many; the country has been given us as our heritage."


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'Very well, tell them, "The Lord Yahweh says this: You eat blood, you raise your eyes to your foul idols, you shed blood; are you to own the country?


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You rely on your swords, you engage in loathsome practices, each of you defiles his neighbour's wife; are you to own the country?"


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Tell them this, "The Lord Yahweh says this: As I live, I swear it, those in the ruins will fall to the sword, those in the countryside I shall give to the wild animals for them to eat, and those among the crags and in caves will die of plague.


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I shall make the country a desolate waste, and the pride of its strength will be at an end. The mountains of Israel will be deserted and no one will pass that way again.


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Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I make the country a desolate waste because of all the filthy things they have done."


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'Son of man, the members of your nation are talking about you on the ramparts and in doorways. They keep saying to one another, "Come and hear the word that has come from Yahweh."


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They throng towards you; my people sit down in front of you and listen to your words, but they do not act on them. What they act on is the lie in their mouths, and their hearts are set on dishonest gain.


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As far as they are concerned, you are like a love song pleasantly sung to a good musical accompaniment. They listen to your words, but no one acts on them.


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When the thing takes place -- and it is beginning now -- they will know that there has been a prophet among them.'


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'Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them, "Shepherds, the Lord Yahweh says this: Disaster is in store for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Are not shepherds meant to feed a flock?


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Yet you have fed on milk, you have dressed yourselves in wool, you have sacrificed the fattest sheep, but failed to feed the flock.


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You have failed to make weak sheep strong, or to care for the sick ones, or bandage the injured ones. You have failed to bring back strays or look for the lost. On the contrary, you have ruled them cruelly and harshly.


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For lack of a shepherd they have been scattered, to become the prey of all the wild animals; they have been scattered.


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My flock is astray on every mountain and on every high hill; my flock has been scattered all over the world; no one bothers about them and no one looks for them.


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As I live, I swear it -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- since my flock has been pillaged and for lack of a shepherd is now the prey of every wild animal, since my shepherds have ceased to bother about my flock, since my shepherds feed themselves rather than my flock,


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The Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I am against the shepherds. I shall take my flock out of their charge and henceforth not allow them to feed my flock. And the shepherds will stop feeding themselves, because I shall rescue my sheep from their mouths to stop them from being food for them.


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As a shepherd looks after his flock when he is with his scattered sheep, so shall I look after my sheep. I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered on the day of clouds and darkness.


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I shall bring them back from the peoples where they are; I shall gather them back from the countries and bring them back to their own land. I shall pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the inhabited parts of the country.


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I shall feed them in good pasturage; the highest mountains of Israel will be their grazing ground. There they will rest in good grazing grounds; they will browse in rich pastures on the mountains of Israel.


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I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the injured and make the sick strong. I shall watch over the fat and healthy. I shall be a true shepherd to them.


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"As for you, my sheep, the Lord Yahweh says this: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and he-goats.


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Very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: I myself shall judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep.


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Since you have jostled with flank and shoulder and butted all the ailing sheep with your horns, until you have scattered them outside,


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I shall come and save my sheep and stop them from being victimised. I shall judge between sheep and sheep.


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"I shall raise up one shepherd, my servant David, and put him in charge of them to pasture them; he will pasture them and be their shepherd.


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I, Yahweh, shall be their God, and my servant David will be ruler among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken.


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I shall make a covenant of peace with them; I shall rid the country of wild animals. They will be able to live secure in the desert and go to sleep in the woods.


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I shall settle them round my hill; I shall send rain at the proper time; it will be a rain of blessings.


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The trees of the countryside will yield their fruit and the soil will yield its produce; they will be secure on their soil. And they will know that I am Yahweh when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the clutches of their slave-masters.


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No more will they be a prey to the nations, no more will the wild animals of the country devour them. They will live secure, with no one to frighten them.


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I shall make splendid vegetation grow for them; no more will they suffer from famine in the country; no more will they have to bear the insults of other nations.


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So they will know that I, their God, am with them and that they, the House of Israel, are my people -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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And you, my sheep, are the flock of my human pasture, and I am your God -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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Say to it, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I am against you, Mount Seir; I shall stretch out my hand against you; I shall make you a desolate waste;


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Since, following a long-standing hatred, you betrayed the Israelites to the sword on the day of their distress, on the day when an end came for their guilt,


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very well, as I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- I destine you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. I swear it; you have incurred guilt by shedding blood, and bloodshed will pursue you.


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I shall fill its mountains with its slaughtered; on your hills, in your valleys and in all your ravines, those slaughtered by the sword will fall.


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I shall make you a perpetual waste, your towns will never be inhabited again, and you will know that I am Yahweh.


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"Since you said: The two nations and the two countries will be mine; we are going to take possession of it, although Yahweh was there,


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very well, as I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- I shall act with the same anger and jealousy as you acted in your hatred for them. I shall make myself known for their sake, when I punish you,


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and you will know that I, Yahweh, have heard all the blasphemies which you have uttered against the mountains of Israel, such as: They have been laid waste, they have been given to us for us to devour.


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Since you rejoiced because the heritage of the House of Israel had been laid waste, I shall do the same to you, Mount Seir; and you will become a waste, and so will the whole of Edom; and they will know that I am Yahweh.' "


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'Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say, "Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh.


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The Lord Yahweh says this: Since the enemy has gloated over you by saying: Aha! These eternal heights are owned by us now,


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very well, prophesy! Say: The Lord Yahweh says this: Since you have been ravaged and seized on from all sides, and have become the property of the rest of the nations, and become the subject of people's talk and gossip,


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very well, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says this to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the devastated ruins and abandoned cities which have been put to the sack and have become a laughing-stock to the rest of the nations all round;


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very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: I swear it in the heat of my jealousy; I am speaking to the rest of the nations and to the whole of Edom who so exultantly and contemptuously took possession of my country to despoil its pastureland."


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'Because of this, prophesy about the land of Israel. Say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I am speaking in my jealousy and rage; because you are enduring the insults of the nations,


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very well, the Lord Yahweh says this: I raise my hand and I swear that the nations all around you shall have their own insults to bear.


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"Mountains of Israel, you will grow branches and bear fruit for my people Israel, who will soon return.


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I shall increase your population, the whole House of Israel, yes, all. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.


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I shall increase your population, both human and animal; they will be fertile and reproduce. I shall repopulate you as you were before; I shall make you more prosperous than you were before, and you will know that I am Yahweh.


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Thanks to me, men will tread your soil again, my people Israel; they will own you and you will be their heritage, and never again will you rob them of their children.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: Since people have said of you: You are a man-eater, you have robbed your nation of its children,


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very well, you will eat no more men, never rob your nation of its children again -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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I shall never again let you hear the insults of the nations, you will never again have to bear the taunts of the peoples, you will never again rob the nation of its children -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, the members of the House of Israel used to live in their own territory, but they defiled it by their conduct and actions; to me their conduct was as unclean as a woman's menstruation.


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I then vented my fury on them because of the blood they shed in the country and the foul idols with which they defiled it.


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I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the countries. I sentenced them as their conduct and actions deserved.


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They have profaned my holy name among the nations where they have gone, so that people say of them, "These are the people of Yahweh; they have been exiled from his land."


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But I have been concerned about my holy name, which the House of Israel has profaned among the nations where they have gone.


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And so, say to the House of Israel, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I am acting not for your sake, House of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.


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I am going to display the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am Yahweh -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- when in you I display my holiness before their eyes.


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For I shall take you from among the nations and gather you back from all the countries, and bring you home to your own country.


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I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed; I shall cleanse you of all your filth and of all your foul idols.


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I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead.


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You will live in the country which I gave your ancestors. You will be my people and I shall be your God.


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I shall save you from everything that defiles you, I shall summon the wheat and make it plentiful and impose no more famines on you.


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I shall increase the yield of tree and field, so that you will never again bear the ignominy of famine among the nations.


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Then you will remember your evil conduct and actions. You will loathe yourselves for your guilt and your loathsome practices.


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I assure you that I am not doing this for your sake -- declares the Lord Yahweh. Be ashamed and blush for your conduct, House of Israel.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: On the day I cleanse you from all your guilt, I shall repopulate the cities and cause the ruins to be rebuilt.


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And people will say: This land, so recently a waste, is now like a garden of Eden, and the ruined cities once abandoned and levelled to the ground are now strongholds with people living in them.


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And the nations left round you will know that I, Yahweh, have rebuilt what was levelled and replanted what was ruined. I, Yahweh, have spoken and shall do it.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: As a further mark of favour, I shall let myself be consulted by the House of Israel; I shall increase their numbers like a human flock,


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like a flock of sacrificial animals, like the flock in Jerusalem on her solemn feasts. So your ruined cities will be filled with human flocks, and they will know that I am Yahweh." '


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The hand of Yahweh was on me; he carried me away by the spirit of Yahweh and set me down in the middle of the valley, a valley full of bones.


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He made me walk up and down and all around among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the floor of the valley; and they were completely dry.


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The Lord Yahweh says this to these bones: I am now going to make breath enter you, and you will live.


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I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will know that I am Yahweh." '


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I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a clattering sound; it was the bones coming together.


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And as I looked, they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, yet there was no breath in them.


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He said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead, so that they come to life!" '


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I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.


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Then he said, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, "Our bones are dry, our hope has gone; we are done for."


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So, prophesy. Say to them, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I am now going to open your graves; I shall raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel.


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And you will know that I am Yahweh, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people,


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and put my spirit in you, and you revive, and I resettle you on your own soil. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken and done this -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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'Son of man, take a stick and write on it, "Judah and those Israelites loyal to him." Take another stick and write on it, "Joseph (Ephraim's wood) and all the House of Israel loyal to him."


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say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I am taking the stick of Joseph (now in Ephraim's hand) and those tribes of Israel loyal to him and shall join them to the stick of Judah. I shall make one stick out of the two, a single stick in my hand."


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say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I shall take the Israelites from the nations where they have gone. I shall gather them to- gether from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil.


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I shall make them into one nation in the country, on the mountains of Israel, and one king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two nations, nor be two separate kingdoms.


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They will no longer defile themselves with their foul idols, their horrors and any of their crimes. I shall save them from the acts of infidelity which they have committed and shall cleanse them; they will be my people and I shall be their God.


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My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my judgements, respect my laws and practise them.


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They will live in the country which I gave to my servant Jacob, the country in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children's children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever.


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I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I shall resettle them and make them grow; I shall set my sanctuary among them for ever.


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And the nations will know that I am Yahweh the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them for ever." '


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'Son of man, turn towards Gog, to the country of Magog, towards the paramount prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.


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I shall turn you about, I shall fix hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your entire army, horses and horsemen, all perfectly equipped, a huge array armed with shields and bucklers, and all wielding swords.


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Gomer and all its troops, Beth-Togarmah in the far north and all its troops, and many nations with you.


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Be ready, be well prepared, you and all your troops and the others rallying to you, and hold yourself at my service.


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"Many days will pass before you are given orders; in the final years you will march on this country, whose inhabitants will have been living in confidence, remote from other peoples, since they escaped the sword and were gathered in from various nations, here in the long-deserted mountains of Israel.


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Like a storm you will approach, you will advance and cover the country like a cloud, you, all your troops and many nations with you.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: That day, a thought will enter your mind and you will form a sinister plan.


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You will think: I shall attack this undefended country and march on this peaceful nation living secure, all living in towns without walls or bars or gates.


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You will come to plunder and loot and turn your might against the ruins they live in, against this people gathered back from the nations, these stock-breeders and traders who live at the Navel of the World.


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Sheba and Dedan, the merchants and all the magnates of Tarshish will ask you: Have you come for plunder? Are you massing your troops with a view to looting? To make off with gold and silver, seize cattle and goods, and come away with unlimited spoil?"


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'So, son of man, prophesy. Say to Gog, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Is it not true that you will set out at a time when my people Israel is living secure?


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You will leave your home in the far north, you and many nations with you, a great army of countless troops all mounted.


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You will invade Israel, my people. You will be like a cloud covering the country. In the final days, I myself shall bring you to attack my country, so that the nations will know who I am, when I display my holiness to them, by means of you, Gog.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: It was of you that I spoke in the past through my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days, foretelling your invasion.


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The day Gog attacks the land of Israel -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- my furious wrath will boil up. In my anger,


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in my jealousy, in the heat of my fury I say it: That day, I swear, there will be such a huge earthquake in the land of Israel,


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that the fish in the sea and the birds of heaven, the wild beasts, all the reptiles creeping along the ground, and all people on the surface of the earth will quake before me. Mountains will fall, cliffs crumble, all walls collapse, and


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I shall summon every kind of sword against him -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- and each will turn his sword against his comrade.


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I shall punish him with plague and bloodshed, and rain down torrential rain, hailstones, fire and brimstone on him, on his troops and on the many nations with him.


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I shall display my greatness and holiness and bring the many nations to acknowledge me; and they will know that I am Yahweh." '


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'So, son of man, prophesy against Gog. Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I am against you, Gog, paramount prince of Meshech and Tubal.


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I shall turn you about, lead you on, and bring you from the farthest north against the mountains of Israel.


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You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you, all your troops and the nations with you. I shall make you food for every kind of bird of prey and wild animals.


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I shall send down fire on Magog and on those living undisturbed in the islands, and they will know that I am Yahweh.


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I shall see that my holy name is acknowledged by my people Israel, and no longer allow my holy name to be profaned; and the nations will know that I am Yahweh, holy in Israel.


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"All this is to happen, all this is to take place -- declares the Lord Yahweh. This is the day I predicted.


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"The inhabitants of the towns of Israel will go out and set fire to and burn the weapons, the shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, javelins and spears. They will burn these for seven years


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and not fetch wood from the countryside or cut it in the forests, since they will be burning the weapons. They will plunder those who plundered them, and despoil those who despoiled them -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"That day, I shall give Gog a famous spot in Israel for his grave, the valley of the Obarim, east of the Sea -- the valley that halts the traveller -- and there Gog and his whole throng will be buried, and it will be called the Valley of Hamon-Gog.


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All the people of the country will dig their graves, thus winning themselves renown, the day when I display my glory -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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And men will be detailed to the permanent duty of going through the country and burying those left above ground and cleansing it. They will begin their search once the seven months are over,


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and as they go through the country, if one of them sees any human bones, he will set up a marker beside them until the gravediggers have buried them in the valley of Hamon-Gog


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'Son of man, the Lord Yahweh says this, "Say to the birds of every kind and to all the wild animals: Muster, come, gather from everywhere around for the sacrifice I am making for you, a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, so that you can eat flesh and drink blood.


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You will eat the flesh of heroes, you will drink the blood of the princes of the world. They are all rams and lambs, goats and fat bulls of Bashan.


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You will glut yourselves on fat and drink yourselves drunk on blood at this sacrifice I am making for you.


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You will glut yourselves at my table on horses and chargers, on heroes and every kind of warrior -- declares the Lord Yahweh."


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'I shall display my glory to the nations, and all nations will see my sentence when I inflict it and my hand when I strike them.


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The nations too will know that the House of Israel were exiled for their guilt; because they were unfaithful to me, I hid my face from them and put them into the clutches of their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword.


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'So, the Lord Yahweh says this, "Now I shall bring Jacob's captives back and take pity on the whole House of Israel and show myself jealous for my holy name.


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They will forget their disgrace and all the acts of infidelity which they committed against me when they were living safely in their own country, with no one to disturb them.


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When I bring them home from the peoples, when I gather them back from the countries of their enemies, when I display my holiness in them for many nations to see,


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they will know that I am Yahweh their God who, having sent them into exile among the nations, have reunited them in their own country, not leaving a single one behind.


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I shall never hide my face from them again, since I shall pour out my spirit on the House of Israel -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, fourteen years to the day from the capture of the city, the hand of Yahweh was on me. He carried me away:


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in divine visions, he carried me away to the land of Israel and put me down on a very high mountain, on the south of which there seemed to be built a city.


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He took me to it, and there I saw a man, whose appearance was like brass. He had a flax cord and a measuring rod in his hand and was standing in the gateway.


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The man said to me, 'Son of man, look carefully, listen closely and pay attention to everything I show you, since you have been brought here only for me to show it to you. Tell the House of Israel everything that you see.'


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Now, the Temple was surrounded on all sides by an outer wall. The man was holding a measuring rod six cubits long, each cubit a forearm and a handsbreadth. He measured the thickness of this construction -- one rod; and its height -- one rod.


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Each guardroom one rod by one rod; and the piers between the guardrooms five cubits thick, and the threshold of the gate inwards from the porch of the gate: one rod.


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He measured the porch of the gate: eight cubits; its piers: two cubits; the porch of the gate was at the inner end.


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There were three guardrooms on each side of the east gate, all three of the same size; the piers between them all of the same thickness each side.


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He measured the width of the entrance: ten cubits; and the width all down the gateway: thirteen cubits.


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There was a rail in front of the guardrooms; each rail on either side was one cubit. And the guardrooms on either side were six cubits square.


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He measured the width of the gate from the back wall of one guardroom to the back wall of the other; it was twenty-five cubits across, the openings being opposite each other.


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All round inside the gate there were trellised windows in the guardrooms and in their piers; similarly, in the porch there were windows all round and palm trees on the piers.


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He then took me to the outer court, which had rooms and a paved terrace going all the way round; there were thirty rooms on this terrace.


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This terrace, which came up to the sides of the gates and matched their depth, was the Lower Terrace. He measured the width of the court,


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from the front of the lower gate to the fac ade of the inner court, outside: a hundred cubits (on the east and on the north).


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It had three guardrooms on each side; its piers and porch were of the same size as those of the first gate: fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.


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Its windows, its porch and its palm trees were of the same size as those of the east gate. There were seven steps up to it, and its porch was at the inner end.


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In the inner court there was, opposite the north gate, a gate like the one opposite the east gate. He measured the distance from one gate to the other: a hundred cubits.


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He took me to the south side where there was a south gate; he measured its guardrooms, piers and porch; they were of the same size as the others.


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The gateway, as well as its porch, had windows all round, like the windows of the others; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide,


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and it had seven steps up to it; its porch was at the inner end and had palm trees on its piers, one on either side.


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The inner court had a south gate; he measured the distance southwards from one gate to the other: a hundred cubits.


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He then took me into the inner court by the south gate; he measured the south gate which was of the same size as the others.


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The gateway, as well as its porch, had windows all round; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.


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The porch gave on to the outer court. It had palm trees on its piers and eight steps leading up to it.


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He took me to the eastern part of the inner court and measured the gate. It was of the same size as the others.


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Its guardrooms, piers and porch were of the same size as the others. The gateway, as well as its porch, had windows all round; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.


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Its porch gave on to the outer court. There were palm trees on its piers on either side and eight steps leading up to it.


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Its guardrooms, piers and porch were of the same size as the others. The gateway had windows all round; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.


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There was a room, the entrance to which was in the porch of the gateway, where they washed the burnt offerings.


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And inside the porch of the gateway were slabs, two on either side, for slaughtering the burnt offerings, the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation.


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Outside, at the approach to the entrance of the north gate, were two slabs, and on the other side, at the porch end of the gate were two slabs.


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There were four slabs on one side and four slabs on the other side of the gateway, eight slabs in all, on which the slaughtering was done.


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There were also four slabs of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high, on which the instruments for slaughtering the burnt offerings and sacrifice were placed;


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runnels a handsbreadth wide went all round the top, and on these slabs was put the sacrificial flesh.


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Then he took me into the inner court; there were two rooms in the inner court, one on the side of the north gate, facing south, the other on the side of the south gate, facing north.


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and the room looking north is for the priests responsible for the service of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, those of the sons of Levi who approach Yahweh to serve him.'


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He measured the court; it was a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, a square with the altar standing in front of the Temple.


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He took me to the Ulam of the Temple and measured the piers of the Ulam: five cubits either side; and the width of the entrance was three cubits either side.


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The length of the Ulam was twenty cubits and its width twelve cubits. There were ten steps leading up to it, and there were columns by the piers, one on either side.


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He took me to the Hekal and measured its piers: six cubits wide on the one side, six cubits wide on the other.


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The width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the returns of the entrance were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other. He measured its length: forty cubits; and its width: twenty cubits.


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He then went inside and measured the pier at the entrance: two cubits; then the entrance; six cubits; and the returns of the entrance: seven cubits.


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He measured its length; twenty cubits; and its width against the Hekal: twenty cubits. He then said to me, 'This is the Holy of Holies.'


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He then measured the wall of the Temple: six cubits. The width of the lateral structure was four cubits, all round the Temple.


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The cells were one above the other in three tiers of thirty cells each. The cells were recessed into the wall, the wall of the structure comprising the cells, all round, forming offsets; but there were no offsets in the wall of the Temple itself.


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The width of the cells increased, storey by storey, corresponding to the amount taken in from the wall from one storey to the next, all round the Temple.


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Then I saw that there was a paved terrace all round the Temple. The height of this, which formed the base of the side cells, was one complete rod of six cubits.


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The outer wall of the side cells was five cubits thick. There was a passage between the cells of the Temple


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As a way in to the lateral cells on the passage there was one entrance on the north side and one entrance on the south side. The width of the passage was five cubits right round.


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The building on the west side of the court was seventy cubits wide, the wall of the building was five cubits thick all round and its length was ninety cubits.


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He measured the length of the building, along the court, at the back, and its galleries on either side: a hundred cubits. The inside of the Hekal and the porches of the court,


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the thresholds, the windows, the galleries on three sides, facing the threshold, were panelled with wood all round from floor to windows, and the windows were screened with latticework.


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From the door to the inner part of the Temple, as well as outside, and on the wall all round, both inside and out,


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were carved great winged creatures and palm trees, one palm tree between two winged creatures; each winged creature had two faces:


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a human face turned towards the palm tree on one side and the face of a lion towards the palm tree on the other side, throughout the Temple, all round.


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a wooden altar, three cubits high and two cubits square. Its corners, base and sides were of wood. He said to me, 'This is the table in the presence of Yahweh.'


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double doors. These doors had two hinged leaves, two leaves for the one door, two leaves for the other.


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On them (on the doors of the Hekal), were carved great winged creatures and palm trees like those carved on the walls. There was a wooden porch roof on the front of the Ulam on the outside,


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and windows with flanking palm trees on the sides of the Ulam, the cells to the side of the Temple and the porch-roofs.


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He then took me out into the outer court on the north side and led me to the room facing the court, that is to say, to the front of the building on the north side.


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Facing the gateways of the inner court and facing the paving of the outer court was a gallery in front of the triple gallery,


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and in front of the rooms was a walk, ten cubits measured inwards and a hundred cubits long; their doors looked north.


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The top-floor rooms were narrow because the galleries took up part of the width, being narrower than those on the ground floor or those on the middle floor of the building;


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these were divided into three storeys and had no columns such as the court had. Hence they were narrower than the ground floor ones or the middle-floor ones (below them).


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The outer wall parallel to the rooms, facing them and giving onto the outer court, was fifty cubits long,


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the length of the rooms facing the outer court being fifty cubits, while for those facing the hall of the Temple it was a hundred cubits.


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In the thickness of the wall of the court, on the south side fronting the court and the building, were rooms.


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A walk ran in front of them, as with the rooms built on the north side; they were of the same length and breadth, and were of similar design with similar doors in and out.


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Before the rooms on the south side there was an entrance at the end of each walk, opposite the corresponding wall on the east side, at their entries.


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He said to me, 'The northern and southern rooms giving onto the court are the rooms of the sanctuary, in which the priests who approach Yahweh will eat the most holy things. In them will be placed the most holy things: the oblation, the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation, since this is a holy place.


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Once the priests have entered, they will not go out of the holy place into the outer court without leaving their liturgical vestments there, since these vestments are holy; they will put on other clothes before going near places assigned to the people.'


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When he had finished measuring the inside of the Temple, he took me out to the east gate and measured it right round the sides.


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He measured the east side with his measuring rod: a total of five hundred cubits by the measuring rod.


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He measured the entire enclosing wall on all four sides: length five hundred, breadth five hundred, separating the sacred from the profane.


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I saw the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east. A sound came with him like the sound of the ocean, and the earth shone with his glory.


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This vision was like the one I had seen when I had come for the destruction of the city, and like the one I had seen by the River Chebar. Then I fell to the ground.


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The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; I saw the glory of Yahweh fill the Temple.


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He said, 'Son of man, this is the dais of my throne, the step on which I rest my feet. I shall live here among the Israelites for ever; and the House of Israel, they and their kings, will never again defile my holy name with their whorings and the corpses of their kings,


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by putting their threshold beside my threshold and their doorposts beside my door-posts, with a party wall shared by them and me. They used to defile my holy name by their loathsome practices, and this is why I put an end to them in my anger.


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From now on they will banish their whorings and the corpses of their kings from my presence and I shall live among them for ever.


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'Son of man, describe this Temple to the House of Israel, to shame them out of their loathsome practices. (Let them draw up the plan of it.)


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And, if they are ashamed of their behaviour, show them the design and plan of the Temple, its exits and entrances, its shape, how all of it is arranged, the entire design and all its principles. Give them all this in writing so that they can see and take note of its design and the way it is all arranged and carry it out.


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This is the charter of the Temple: all the surrounding space on the mountain top is an especially holy area. (Such is the charter of the Temple.)'


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These were the dimensions of the altar, in cubits each of a cubit plus a handsbreadth. The base: one cubit high and one cubit wide; the space by the runnel, all round the edge of the altar, one handsbreadth.


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From the ground level of the base up to the lower plinth, two cubits high and one cubit wide; from the lesser plinth to the greater plinth, four cubits high and one cubit wide.


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and the square plinth: fourteen cubits by fourteen cubits; and the ledge all round: half a cubit; and the base: one cubit all round. The steps were on the east side.


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He said to me, 'Son of man, the Lord Yahweh says this, "As regards the altar, this is how things must be done when it has been built for the sacrifice of the burnt offering and for the pouring of blood.


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To the levitical priests -- those of the race of Zadok -- who approach me to serve me -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- you must give a young bull as a sacrifice for sin.


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You must take some of its blood and put it on the four horns, on the four corners of the plinth and on the surrounding ledge. In this way you will purify it and make expiation on it.


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Then take the bull of the sacrifice for sin and burn it in that part of the Temple which is cut off from the sanctuary.


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On the second day, you must offer an unblemished he-goat as the sacrifice for sin, and the altar must be purified again as was done with the bull.


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When you have finished the purification, you must offer a young, unblemished bull and an unblemished ram from the flock.


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You must present them before Yahweh, and the priests will sprinkle salt on them and offer them as burnt offerings to Yahweh.


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As a sacrifice for sin, every day for seven days you must offer a he-goat, a bull and an unblemished ram from the flock.


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At the end of that time, on the eighth day and afterwards, the priest will offer your burnt offerings and your communion sacrifices on the altar, and I shall look favourably on you -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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Yahweh said to me, 'This gate will be kept shut. No one may open it or go through it, since Yahweh, God of Israel, has been through it. And so it must be kept shut.


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The prince himself, however, may sit there to take his meal in the presence of Yahweh. He must enter and leave through the porch of the gate.'


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He led me through the north gate to the front of the Temple. And then I looked; I saw the glory of Yahweh filling the Temple of Yahweh; and I fell to the ground.


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Yahweh said to me, 'Son of man, pay attention, look carefully and listen closely to everything I explain; these are all the arrangements of the Temple of Yahweh and all its laws. Be careful about who is admitted to the Temple and who is excluded from the sanctuary.


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And say to the rebels of the House of Israel, "The Lord Yahweh says this: You have gone beyond all bounds with all your loathsome practices, House of Israel,


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by admitting aliens, uncircumcised in heart and body, to frequent my sanctuary and profane my Temple, while offering my food, the fat and the blood, and breaking my covenant with all your loathsome practices.


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Instead of maintaining the service of my holy things, you have deputed someone else to maintain my service in my sanctuary.


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The Lord Yahweh says this: No alien, uncircumcised in heart and body, may enter my sanctuary, none of the aliens living among the Israelites.


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"As regards the Levites who abandoned me when Israel strayed far from me by following its idols, they must bear the weight of their own sin.


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They must be servants in my sanctuary, responsible for guarding the Temple gates and serving the Temple. They will kill the burnt offerings and the sacrifice for the people, and hold themselves at the service of the people.


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Since they used to be at their service in front of their idols and were an occasion of guilt for the House of Israel, very well, I stretch out my hand against them -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- they will bear the weight of their guilt.


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They may never approach me again to perform the priestly office in my presence, nor touch my holy things and my most holy things; they must bear the disgrace of their loathsome practices.


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I shall give them the responsibility of serving the Temple; I shall make them responsible for serving it and for everything to be done in it.


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"As regards the levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who maintained the service of my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed far from me, they will approach me to serve me; they will stand in my presence to offer me the fat and blood -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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Once they enter the gates of the inner court, they must wear linen vestments; they must wear no wool when they serve inside the gates of the inner court and in the Temple.


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They must wear linen caps on their heads and linen breeches on their loins; they may not wear anything round their waists that makes them sweat.


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When they go out to the people in the outer court, they must remove the vestments in which they have performed the liturgy and leave them in the rooms of the Holy Place, and put on other clothes, so as not to hallow the people with their vestments.


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They may not marry widows or divorced women, but only virgins of the race of Israel; they may, however, marry a widow, if she is the widow of a priest.


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They must teach my people the difference between what is sacred and what is profane and make them understand the difference between what is clean and what is unclean.


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They must be judges in law-suits; they must judge in the spirit of my judgements; they must follow my laws and ordinances at all my feasts and keep my Sabbaths holy.


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They may not go near a dead person, in case they become unclean, except in these permissible cases, that is, for father, mother, daughter, son, brother or unmarried sister.


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then, the day he enters the Holy Place in the inner court to minister in the Holy Place, he must offer his sacrifice for sin -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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They may have no heritage; I myself shall be their heritage. You may give them no patrimony in Israel; I myself shall be their patrimony.


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Their food must be the oblation, the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation. Everything dedicated by vow in Israel shall be for them.


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The best of all your first-fruits and of all the dues and of everything you offer, must go to the priests; and the best of your dough you must also give to the priests, so that a blessing may rest on your house.


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Priests must not eat the flesh of anything that has died a natural death or been savaged, be it bird or animal." '


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' "When you draw lots to divide the country by heritage, you must set a sacred portion of the country aside for Yahweh: twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand wide. The whole of this land must be sacred,


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and of this an area five hundred by five hundred cubits must be for the sanctuary, with a boundary fifty cubits wide right round.


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Out of this area you must also measure a section twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits, in which will be the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies.


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This will be the sacred portion of the country, belonging to the priests who officiate in the sanctuary and approach Yahweh to serve him. It will contain room for their houses and room for the sanctuary.


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A portion twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits will be owned by the Levites serving the Temple, with towns for them to live in.


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You must give the city possession of an area five thousand by twenty-five thousand cubits, near the land belonging to the sanctuary; this must be for the whole House of Israel.


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"The prince must have a territory either side of the sacred portion and of the property of the city, adjacent to the sacred portion and the property of the city, stretching westwards from the west and eastwards from the east, its size equal to one of the portions between the west and the east frontiers


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of the country. This will be his property in Israel. Then my princes will no longer oppress my people; they must leave the rest of the country for the House of Israel, for its tribes.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: Enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and plundering, do what is upright and just, stop crushing my people with taxation -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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Let the ephah and bat be equal, let the bat hold one-tenth of a homer and the ephah one-tenth of a homer. Let the measures be based on the homer.


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The shekel must be twenty gerah. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels and fifteen shekels must make one mina.


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"This is the offering that you must levy: the sixth of an ephah for every homer of wheat, and the sixth of an ephah for every homer of barley.


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The dues on oil: one bat of oil out of every ten bat or out of every kor (which is equal to ten bat or one homer, since ten bat equal one homer).


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You must levy one sheep on every flock of two hundred from the pastures of Israel for the oblation, the burnt offerings and the communion sacrifice. This must form your expiation -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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The prince must make himself responsible for providing the burnt offerings, the oblation and the libations for feasts, New Moons, Sabbaths and all the solemn festivals of the House of Israel. He must provide the sacrifice for sin, the oblation, the burnt offerings and the communion sacrifices to make expiation for the House of Israel.


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"The Lord Yahweh says this: On the first day of the first month, you must take a young bull without blemish, to purify the sanctuary.


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The priest must take blood from the sacrifice for sin and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the altar plinth and on the doorposts of the gates of the inner court.


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You must do the same on the seventh of the month, on behalf of anyone who has sinned through inadvertence or ignorance. This is how you must make expiation for the Temple.


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On the fourteenth day of the first month, you must celebrate the feast of the Passover. For seven days everyone must eat unleavened loaves.


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On that day, the prince must offer a bull as a sacrifice for sin, for himself and all the people of the country.


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For the seven days of the feast, he must offer Yahweh burnt offerings of seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, daily for a week, and one he-goat daily as a sacrifice for sin,


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and as an oblation, one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil for every ephah.


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"For the feast that falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he must do the same for seven days, offering the sacrifice for sin, the burnt offerings, the oblation and the oil." '


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' "The Lord Yahweh says this: The east gate of the inner court must be kept shut for the six working days. On the Sabbath day, however, it must be opened, as also on the day of the New Moon;


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and the prince must go in through the porch of the outer gate and take his position by the doorposts of the gate. The priests must then offer his burnt offerings and his communion sacrifice. He must prostrate himself on the threshold of the gate and go out, and the gate must not be shut again until the evening.


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The people of the country must prostrate themselves in the presence of Yahweh at the entrance to the gate on Sabbaths and days of the New Moon.


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The burnt offering offered to Yahweh by the prince on the Sabbath day must consist of six unblemished lambs and one unblemished ram,


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with an oblation of one ephah for the ram, and such oblation as he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.


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On the day of the New Moon it must consist of an unblemished young bull, six unblemished lambs and one unblemished ram,


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when he must make an oblation of one ephah for the bull and one ephah for the ram, and what he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.


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"When the prince goes in, he must enter by the porch of the gate, and he must leave by the same way.


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When the people of the country come into the presence of Yahweh at the solemn festivals, those who have come in by the north gate to prostrate themselves must go out by the south gate, and those who have come in by the south gate must go out by the north gate; no one must turn back to leave through the gate by which he entered but must go out on the opposite side.


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"On feast days and solemn festivals the oblation must be one ephah for every bull, one ephah for every ram, what he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.


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When the prince offers Yahweh voluntary burnt offerings or a voluntary communion sacrifice, the east gate must be opened for him, and he must offer his burnt offerings and his communion sacrifice as he does on the Sabbath day; when he has gone out, the gate must be shut after him.


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Every day he must offer an unblemished lamb one year old as a burnt offering to Yahweh; he must offer this every morning.


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Every morning in addition he must offer an oblation of one-sixth of an ephah and one-third of a hin of oil, for mixing with the flour. This is the oblation to Yahweh, a perpetual decree, fixed for ever.


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"Lord Yahweh says this: If the prince presents part of his hereditary portion to one of his sons, the gift must pass into the ownership of his sons and become their hereditary property.


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If, however, he presents part of his hereditary portion to one of his slaves, it will belong to the man only until the year of liberation and then must revert to the prince. Only his sons may retain his hereditary portion.


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The prince may not take any part of the people's hereditary portion, thus robbing them of what is theirs; he must provide the patrimony of his sons out of his own property, so that no member of my people is robbed of what is his!" '


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He took me through the entrance at the side of the north gate that leads to the rooms of the Holy Place set apart for the priests. And there before us, to the west, was a space at the end.


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He said to me, 'This is where the priests must boil the slaughtered animals for the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation, and where they must bake the oblation, without having to carry them into the outer court and so run the risk of hallowing the people.'


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He then took me into the outer court and led me to each of its four corners; in each corner of the outer court was a compound;


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in other words, the four corners of the court contained four small compounds, forty cubits by thirty, all four being the same size.


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He said, 'These are the kitchens where the Temple servants must boil the sacrifices offered by the people.'


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He brought me back to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream flowed eastwards from under the Temple threshold, for the Temple faced east. The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar.


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He took me out by the north gate and led me right round outside as far as the outer east gate where the water flowed out on the right-hand side.


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The man went off to the east holding his measuring line and measured off a thousand cubits; he then made me wade across the stream; the water reached my ankles.


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He measured off another thousand and made me wade across the stream again; the water reached my knees. He measured off another thousand and made me wade across the stream again; the water reached my waist.


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He measured off another thousand; it was now a river which I could not cross; the stream had swollen and was now deep water, a river impossible to cross.


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He then said, 'Do you see, son of man?' He then took me and brought me back to the bank on the river.


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He said, 'This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it makes its waters wholesome.


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Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows.


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There will be fishermen on its banks. Fishing nets will be spread from En-Gedi to En-Eglaim. The species of fish will be the same as the fish of the Great Sea.


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Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.'


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'The Lord Yahweh says this, "This will be the territory which you must distribute among the twelve tribes of Israel, with two portions for Joseph.


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You will each have a fair share of it, since I swore to your fathers that I would give it to them, and this country now falls to you as your heritage.


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These will be the frontiers of the country. On the north, from the Great Sea, the road from Hethlon to the Pass of Hamath, Zedad,


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Berothah, Sibraim lying between the territories of Damascus and Hamath, to Hazer-ha-Tikon on the borders of Hauran;


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the frontier will extend from the sea to Hazer-Enon, with the territory of Damascus and the territory of Hamath to the north; that will be the northern frontier.


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On the east, the Jordan will serve as frontier between Hauran and Damascus, between Gilead and Israel, down to the Eastern Sea as far as Tamar; that will be the eastern frontier.


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On the south, from Tamar southward to the Waters of Meribah in Kadesh, to the Wadi and the Great Sea; that will be the southern frontier.


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And to the west, the Great Sea will serve as frontier up to the point opposite the Pass of Hamath; that will be the western frontier.


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You must distribute it as a heritage for yourselves and the aliens settled among you who have fathered children among you, since you must treat them as citizens of Israel. They must draw lots for their heritage with you, among the tribes of Israel.


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You will give the alien his heritage in the tribe where he has settled -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '


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' "This is the list of the tribes. One portion in the far north by way of Hethlon to the Pass of Hamath, to Hazer-Enon, with the territory of Damascus to the north, and marching with Hamath, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Dan.


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One portion bordering Judah, from the eastern limit to the western limit, is the portion which you must set aside, twenty-five thousand cubits wide, and as long as each of the other portions from the eastern limit to the western limit. The sanctuary will be in the centre of it.


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"The portion which you must set aside for Yahweh must be twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide.


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This sacred portion must belong to the priests, being, on the north side, twenty-five thousand cubits; on the west side ten thousand cubits wide, on the east side ten thousand cubits wide and on the south side twenty-five thousand cubits long; the sanctuary of Yahweh will be in the centre of it.


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This will be for the consecrated priests, those of the sons of Zadok who maintained my liturgy and did not go astray with the straying Israelites, as the Levites went astray.


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And so their portion must be taken out of the especially holy portion of the land, near the territory of the Levites.


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The territory of the Levites, like the territory of the priests, must be twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide -- the whole length being twenty-five thousand and the width ten thousand.


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It will be illegal for them to sell or exchange any part of it, and the domain can never be alienated, since it is consecrated to Yahweh.


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As regards the remainder, an area of five thousand cubits by twenty-five thousand, this must be for the common use of the city, for houses and pastures. In the middle will be the city.


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These will be its dimensions: on the north side, four thousand five hundred cubits; on the south side, four thousand five hundred cubits; on the east side, four thousand five hundred cubits; on the west side, four thousand five hundred cubits.


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The pasture land of the city must extend two hundred and fifty cubits to the north, two hundred and fifty to the south, two hundred and fifty to the east, two hundred and fifty to the west.


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One strip, contiguous to the sacred portion, must be left over, consisting of ten thousand cubits to eastward and ten thousand to westward, marching with the sacred portion; this will bring in a revenue for feeding the municipal workmen.


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The portion must have a total area of twenty-five thousand cubits by twenty-five thousand. You must allocate a square area from the sacred portion to constitute the city.


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What is left over will be for the prince, on either side of the sacred portion and of the property of the city, marching with the twenty-five thousand cubits to eastward to the eastern frontier, and marching with the twenty-five thousand cubits to westward to the western frontier -- running parallel with the other portions and belonging to the prince. In the centre will be the sacred portion and the sanctuary of the Temple.


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Thus, apart from the property of the Levites and the property of the city which lie in the middle of the prince's portion, everything between the borders of Judah and the borders of Ben- jamin must belong to the prince.


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"As regards the rest of the tribes: One portion from the eastern limit to the western limit: Benjamin.


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On the southern border of Gad, on the south side, the border will run from Tamar to the Waters of Meribah in Kadesh, to the Wadi and the Great Sea.


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This is how you must distribute the country to the tribes of Israel as their heritage, and these must be their portions -- declares the Lord Yahweh.


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"Here are the exits from the city. On the north side, four thousand five hundred cubits are to be measured off.


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The gates of the city are to be named after the tribes of Israel. Three gates to the north: one the gate of Reuben; one the gate of Judah; one the gate of Levi.


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On the east side, there will be four thousand five hundred cubits and three gates: one the gate of Joseph; one the gate of Benjamin; one the gate of Dan.


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On the south side, four thousand five hundred cubits are to be measured off, and there are to be three gates: one the gate of Simeon; one the gate of Issachar; one the gate of Zebulun.


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On the west side, there will be four thousand five hundred cubits and three gates: one the gate of Gad; one the gate of Asher; one the gate of Naphtali.


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Total perimeter: eighteen thousand cubits. "The name of the city in future must be: Yahweh-is-there." '


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In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched on Jerusalem and besieged it.


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The Lord let Jehoiakim king of Judah fall into his power, as well as some of the vessels belonging to the Temple of God. These he took away to Shinar, putting the vessels into the treasury of his own gods.


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From the Israelites, the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring a certain number of boys of royal or noble descent;


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they had to be without any physical defect, of good appearance, versed in every branch of wisdom, well-informed, discerning, suitable for service at the royal court. Ashpenaz was to teach them to speak and write the language of the Chaldaeans.


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The king assigned them a daily allowance of food and wine from the royal table. They were to receive an education lasting for three years, after which they would enter the royal service.


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The chief eunuch gave them other names, calling Daniel Belteshazzar, Hananiah Shadrach, Mishael Meshach, and Azariah Abed-Nego.


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Daniel, who was determined not to incur pollution by food and wine from the royal table, begged the chief eunuch to spare him this defilement.


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But the eunuch warned Daniel, 'I am afraid of my lord the king: he has assigned you food and drink, and if he sees you looking thinner in the face than the other boys of your age, my head will be in danger with the king because of you.'


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To the guard assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah by the chief eunuch, Daniel then said,


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'Please allow your servants a ten days' trial, during which we are given only vegetables to eat and water to drink.


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You can then compare our looks with those of the boys who eat the king's food; go by what you see, and treat your servants accordingly.'


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When the ten days were over, they looked better and fatter than any of the boys who had eaten their allowance from the royal table;


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so the guard withdrew their allowance of food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.


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To these four boys God gave knowledge and skill in every aspect of literature and learning; Daniel also had the gift of interpreting every kind of vision and dream.


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When the time stipulated by the king for the boys to be presented to him came round, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.


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The king conversed with them, and among all the boys found none to equal Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they became members of the king's court,


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and on whatever point of wisdom or understanding he might question them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and soothsayers in his entire kingdom. Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.


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In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had a series of dreams; he was perturbed by this and sleep deserted him.


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The king then had magicians and soothsayers, sorcerers and Chaldaeans summoned to tell him what his dreams meant. They arrived and stood in the king's presence.


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The Chaldaeans answered the king: 'May your majesty live for ever! Tell your servants the dream, and we shall reveal its meaning for you.'


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The king answered the Chaldaeans, 'This is my firm resolve: if you cannot tell me what I dreamt and what it means, I shall have you torn limb from limb and your houses turned into dunghills.


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If, on the other hand, you can tell me what I dreamt and what it means, I shall give you presents, rewards and high honour. So tell me what I dreamt and what it means.'


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A second time they said, 'Let the king tell his dream to his servants, and we shall reveal its meaning.'


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But the king retorted, 'It is plain to me that you are trying to gain time, knowing my proclaimed resolve.


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If you do not interpret my dream for me, there will be but one sentence passed on you all; you have agreed among yourselves to make me misleading and tortuous speeches while the time goes by. So tell me what my dream was, and then I shall know whether you can interpret it.'


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The Chaldaeans answered the king, 'Nobody in the world could explain the king's problem; what is more, no other king, governor or chief would think of putting such a question to any magician, soothsayer or Chaldaean.


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The question the king asks is difficult, and no one can find the king an answer to it, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.'


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On publication of the decree to have the sages killed, search was made for Daniel and his companions to have them put to death.


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Then, with shrewd and cautious words, Daniel approached Arioch, the king's chief executioner, when he was on his way to kill the Babylonian sages.


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To this royal official Arioch he said, 'Why has the king issued such a harsh decree?' Arioch explained matters to Daniel,


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and Daniel went off to ask the king for a stay of execution to give him the opportunity of revealing his interpretation to the king.


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urging them to beg the God of heaven to show his mercy and explain the mysterious secret, so that Daniel and his friends might be spared the fate of the other Babylonian sages.


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This is what Daniel said: May the name of God be blessed for ever and ever, since wisdom and power are his alone.


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It is he who controls the procession of times and seasons, who makes and unmakes kings, who confers wisdom on the wise, and knowledge on those with discernment,


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To you, God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for having given me wisdom and strength: to me you have explained what we asked you, to us you have explained the king's problem.


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So Daniel went to see Arioch, whom the king had made responsible for putting the Babylonian sages to death. Going in, he said, 'Do not put the Babylonian sages to death. Take me into the king's presence and I will reveal the meaning to the king.'


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Arioch lost no time in bringing Daniel to the king. 'Among the exiles from Judah,' he said, 'I have discovered a man who can reveal the meaning to the king.'


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The king said to Daniel (who had been given the name Belteshazzar), 'Can you tell me what I dreamt and what it means?'


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Facing the king, Daniel replied, 'None of the sages, soothsayers, magicians or exorcists has been able to tell the king the truth of the mystery which the king has propounded;


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but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and who has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what is to take place in the final days. These, then, are the dream and the visions that passed through your head as you lay in bed:


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'Your Majesty, on your bed your thoughts turned to what would happen in the future, and the Revealer of Mysteries disclosed to you what is to take place.


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This mystery has been revealed to me, not that I am wiser than anyone else, but for this sole purpose: that the king should learn what it means, and that you should understand your inmost thoughts.


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'You have had a vision, Your Majesty; this is what you saw: a statue, a great statue of extreme brightness, stood before you, terrible to see.


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The head of this statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,


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While you were gazing, a stone broke away, untouched by any hand, and struck the statue, struck its feet of iron and clay and shattered them.


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Then, iron and clay, bronze, silver and gold, all broke into pieces as fine as chaff on the threshing-floor in summer. The wind blew them away, leaving not a trace behind. And the stone that had struck the statue grew into a great mountain, filling the whole world.


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'You, Your Majesty, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength and honour-


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human beings, wild animals, birds of the air, wherever they live, he has entrusted to your rule, making you king of them all -- you are the golden head.


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And, after you, another kingdom will rise, not as great as yours, and then a third, of bronze, which will rule the whole world.


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There will be a fourth kingdom, hard as iron, as iron that pulverises and crushes all. Like iron that breaks everything to pieces, it will crush and break all the earlier kingdoms.


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The feet you saw, part earthenware, part iron, are a kingdom which will be split in two, but which will retain something of the strength of iron, just as you saw the iron and the clay of the earthenware mixed together.


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And just as you saw the iron and the clay of the earthenware mixed together, so the two will be mixed together in human seed; but they will not hold together any more than iron will blend with clay.


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In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not pass into the hands of another race: it will shatter and absorb all the previous kingdoms and itself last for ever-


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just as you saw a stone, untouched by hand, break away from the mountain and reduce iron, bronze, earthenware, silver and gold to powder. The Great God has shown the king what is to take place. The dream is true, the interpretation exact.'


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At this, King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel; he gave orders for Daniel to be offered an oblation and a fragrant sacrifice.


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The king said to Daniel, 'Your god is indeed the God of gods, the Master of kings, and the Revealer of Mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.'


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The king then conferred high rank on Daniel and gave him many handsome presents. He also made him governor of the whole province of Babylon and head of all the sages of Babylon.


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At Daniel's request, the king entrusted the affairs of the province of Babylon to Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego; Daniel himself remained in attendance on the king.


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King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, which he set up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.


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King Nebuchadnezzar then summoned the satraps, magistrates, governors, counsellors, treasurers, judges, lawyers, and all the provincial authorities to assemble and attend the dedication of the statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar.


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Satraps, magistrates, governors, counsellors, treasurers, judges, lawyers and all the provincial authorities then assembled for the dedication of the statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar and stood in front of the statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.


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the moment you hear the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, zither, harp, bagpipe and every other kind of instrument, you will prostrate yourselves and worship the golden statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar.


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Anyone who does not prostrate himself and worship will immediately be thrown into the burning fiery furnace.'


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And so, the instant all the peoples heard the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, zither, harp, bagpipe and all the other instruments, all the peoples, nations and languages prostrated themselves and worshipped the statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar.


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You have issued a decree, Your Majesty, to the effect that everyone on hearing the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, zither, harp, bagpipe and every other kind of instrument is to prostrate himself and worship the golden statue;


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and that anyone who does not prostrate himself and worship is to be thrown into the burning fiery furnace.


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Now, there are certain Jews to whom you have entrusted the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego; these men have ignored your command, Your Majesty; they do not serve your gods, and refuse to worship the golden statue you have set up.'


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Shaking with fury, Nebuchadnezzar sent for Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. The men were immediately brought before the king.


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Nebuchadnezzar addressed them, 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, is it true that you do not serve my gods, and that you refuse to worship the golden statue I have set up?


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When you hear the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, zither, harp, bagpipe and every other kind of instrument, are you prepared to prostrate yourselves and worship the statue I have made? If you refuse to worship it, you will be thrown forthwith into the burning fiery furnace; then which of the gods could save you from my power?'


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Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar, 'Your question needs no answer from us:


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if our God, the one we serve, is able to save us from the burning fiery furnace and from your power, Your Majesty, he will save us;


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and even if he does not, then you must know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your god or worship the statue you have set up.'


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This infuriated King Nebuchadnezzar; his expression was changed now as he looked at Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. He gave orders for the furnace to be made seven times hotter than usual


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and commanded certain stalwarts from his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego and throw them into the burning fiery furnace.


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They were then bound in their cloaks, trousers, headgear and other garments, and thrown into the burning fiery furnace.


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The king's command was so urgent and the heat of the furnace was so fierce, that the men carrying Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were burnt to death by the flames from the fire;


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May you be blessed and revered, Lord, God of our ancestors, may your name be held glorious for ever.


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For you are upright in all that you have done for us, all your deeds are true, all your ways right, all your judgements true.


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True is the sentence you have given in all that you have brought down on us and on Jerusalem, the holy city of our ancestors, for you have treated us rightly and truly, as our sins deserve.


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Yes, we have sinned and committed a crime by deserting you, yes, we have greatly sinned; we have not listened to your commandments,


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Yes, all that you have brought down on us, all that you have done to us, you have been fully justified in doing.


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You have handed us over to our enemies, to a lawless people, the worst of the godless, to an unjust king, the worst in the whole world;


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today we have no right to open our mouths, shame and dishonour are the lot of those who serve and worship you.


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do not withdraw your favour from us, for the sake of Abraham, your friend, of Isaac, your servant, and of Israel, your holy one,


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to whom you promised to make their descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the grains of sand on the seashore.


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Lord, we have become the least of all nations, we are put to shame today throughout the world, because of our sins.


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We now have no leader, no prophet, no prince, no burnt offering, no sacrifice, no oblation, no incense, no place where we can make offerings to you


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as burnt offerings of rams and bullocks, as thousands of fat lambs: such let our sacrifice be to you today, and may it please you that we follow you whole-heartedly, since those who trust in you will not be shamed.


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And now we put our whole heart into following you, into fearing you and seeking your face once more.


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Do not abandon us to shame but treat us in accordance with your gentleness, in accordance with the greatness of your mercy.


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Confusion seize all who ill-treat your servants: may they be covered with shame, deprived of all their power, and may their strength be broken.


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All this time, the king's servants, who had thrown them into the furnace, had been stoking it with crude oil, pitch, tow and brushwood


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But the angel of the Lord came down into the furnace beside Azariah and his companions; he drove the flames of the fire outwards from the furnace


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and, in the heart of the furnace, wafted a coolness to them as of the breeze and dew, so that the fire did not touch them at all and caused them no pain or distress.


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May you be blessed, Lord, God of our ancestors, be praised and extolled for ever. Blessed be your glorious and holy name, praised and extolled for ever.


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blessed are you who fathom the abyss, enthroned on the winged creatures, praised and exalted above all for ever:


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Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, bless the Lord, praise and glorify him for ever!-For he has rescued us from the Underworld, he has saved us from the hand of Death, he has snatched us from the burning fiery furnace, he has drawn us from the heart of the flame!


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Bless the Lord, the God of gods, all who fear him, give praise and thanks to him, for his love is everlasting!


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King Nebuchadnezzar sprang to his feet in amazement. He said to his advisers, 'Did we not have these three men thrown bound into the fire?' They answered the king, 'Certainly, Your Majesty'.


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'But', he went on, 'I can see four men walking free in the heart of the fire and quite unharmed! And the fourth looks like a child of the gods!'


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Nebuchadnezzar approached the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and said, 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, servants of God Most High, come out, come here!' And from the heart of the fire out came Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego.


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The satraps, magistrates, governors, and advisers of the king crowded round the three men to examine them: the fire had had no effect on their bodies: not a hair of their heads had been singed, their cloaks were not scorched, no smell of burning hung about them. Nebuchadnezzar said,


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'Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego: he has sent his angel to rescue his servants who, putting their trust in him, defied the order of the king, and preferred to forfeit their bodies rather than serve or worship any god but their God.


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I therefore decree as follows, "Peoples, nations, and languages! Let any of you speak disrespectfully of the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, and I shall have him torn limb from limb and his house turned into a dunghill; for there is no other god who can save like this." '


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'King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations and languages dwelling throughout the world: may you prosper more and more!


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'It is my pleasure to make known the signs and wonders with which the Most High God has favoured me.


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How great his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, his empire endures age after age!'


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I had a dream; it appalled me. Dread assailed me as I lay in bed; the visions that passed through my head tormented me.


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Magicians, soothsayers, Chaldaeans and exorcists came, and I told them what I had dreamt, but they could not interpret it for me.


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Daniel, renamed Belteshazzar after my own god, and in whom the spirit of the holy gods resides, then came into my presence. I told him my dream:


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' "Belteshazzar, chief of magicians," I said, "I know that the spirit of the holy gods resides in you and that no mystery puts you at a loss. This is the dream I have had; tell me what it means.


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' "The visions that passed through my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw a tree in the middle of the world; it was very tall.


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The tree grew taller and stronger, until its top reached the sky and it could be seen from the very ends of the earth.


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Its foliage was beautiful, its fruit abundant, in it was food for all. For the wild animals it provided shade, the birds of heaven nested in its branches, all living creatures found their food on it.


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' "I watched the visions passing through my head as I lay in bed: Next, a Watchful One, a holy one, came down from heaven.


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At the top of his voice he shouted: Cut the tree down, lop off its branches, strip off its leaves, throw away its fruit; let the animals flee from its shelter and the birds from its branches.


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But leave the stump with its roots in the ground, bound with hoops of iron and bronze, in the grass of the countryside. Let it be drenched by the dew of heaven and have its lot with the animals, eating grass!


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Let it cease to have a human heart, and be given the heart of a beast, and seven times shall pass over him!


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Such is the sentence proclaimed by the Watchers, the verdict announced by the holy ones- so that every living thing may learn that the Most High rules over human sovereignty; he confers it on whom he pleases, and raises the lowest of humankind.


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' "This was the dream I had-I, Nebuchadnezzar the king. Now it is for you, Belteshazzar, to pronounce on its meaning, since not one of the sages in my kingdom has been able to interpret it for me; you, however, can do so, since the spirit of the holy gods resides in you." '


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Daniel, known as Belteshazzar, was confused for a time and upset. The king said, 'Belteshazzar, do not be upset at the dream and its meaning.' Belteshazzar answered, 'My lord, may the dream apply to those who hate you, and its meaning to your foes!


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The tree you saw, so large and strong and tall that it reached the sky and could be seen throughout the world,


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the tree with beautiful foliage and abundant fruit, with food for all in it, providing shade for the wild animals, with the birds of heaven nesting in its branches:


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that tree is yourself, Your Majesty, for you have grown great and strong; your stature is now so great that it reaches the sky, and your empire extends to the ends of the earth.


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'And the Watchful One seen by the king, the holy one coming down from heaven and saying, "Cut the tree down and destroy it, but leave stump and roots in the ground, bound with hoops of iron and bronze in the grass of the countryside; let it be drenched by the dew and have its lot with the wild animals until seven times have passed over it":


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the meaning of this, Your Majesty, the verdict of the Most High passed on my lord the king, is this:


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You will be driven from human society and will make your home with the wild animals, you will feed on grass, as oxen do, you will be drenched by the dew of heaven; seven times will pass over you until you have learnt that the Most High rules over human sovereignty and confers it on whom he pleases.


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'And the order, "Leave the stump and roots of the tree", means that your kingdom will be kept for you until you come to understand that Heaven rules all.


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May it please the king to accept my advice: by upright actions break with your sins, break with your crimes by showing mercy to the poor, and so live long and peacefully.'


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the king was saying, 'Great Babylon! Was it not built by me as a royal residence, by the force of my might and for the majesty of my glory?'


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The words were not out of his mouth when a voice came down from heaven: 'Of you, King Nebuchadnezzar, it is decreed: the empire has been taken from you,


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you will be driven from human society and will make your home with the wild animals; you will feed on grass, as oxen do, and seven times will pass over you until you have learnt that the Most High rules over human sovereignty and gives it to whom he pleases.'


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The words were immediately fulfilled: Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society and ate grass as oxen do; he was drenched by the dew of heaven; his hair grew like an eagle's feathers, and his nails became like a bird's talons.


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'When the time was over, I, Nebuchad- nezzar, raised my eyes to heaven: my reason returned. And I blessed the Most High, praising and glorifying him who lives for ever, for his empire is an everlasting empire, his kingship endures, age after age.


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All who dwell on earth count for nothing; as he thinks fit, he disposes the army of heaven and those who dwell on earth. No one can arrest his hand or ask him, "What have you done?"


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'At that moment my reason returned and, for the honour of my royal state, my glory and splendour returned too. My counsellors and noblemen acclaimed me; I was restored to my throne, and to my past greatness even more was added.


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And now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, extol and glorify the King of heaven, all of whose deeds are true, all of whose ways are right, and who can humble those who walk in pride.'


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King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen, a thousand of them, and, in the presence of this thousand, he drank his wine.


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Having tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be brought which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the king, his noblemen, his wives and the women who sang for him could drink out of them.


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The gold and silver vessels taken from the sanctuary of the Temple of God in Jerusalem were brought in, and the king, his noblemen, his wives and the women who sang for him drank out of them.


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They drank their wine and praised their idols of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone.


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Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began to write on the plaster of the palace wall, directly behind the lamp-stand; and the king could see the hand as it wrote.


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He shouted for his soothsayers, Chaldaeans, and exorcists. And the king said to the Babylonian sages, 'Anyone who can read this writing and tell me what it means shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round his neck, and be one of the three men who govern the kingdom.'


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The king's sages all crowded forward, but they could neither read the writing nor explain to the king what it meant.


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Then the queen, attracted by the noise made by the king and his noblemen, came into the banqueting hall. 'May Your Majesty live for ever!' said the queen. 'Do not be alarmed, do not look so pale.


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In your kingdom there is a man in whom lives the spirit of the holy gods. In your father's days he was known for a perception, intelligence and wisdom comparable to that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him head of the magicians, soothsayers, Chaldaeans and exorcists.


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Since this man Daniel, whom the king had renamed Belteshazzar, is filled with such a marvellous spirit and such knowledge and intelligence in interpreting dreams, solving enigmas and unravelling difficult problems, send for him; he will be able to tell you what this means.'


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Daniel was brought into the king's presence; the king said to Daniel, 'Are you the Daniel who was one of the Judaean exiles brought by my father the king from Judah?


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I am told that the spirit of the gods lives in you, and that you are known for your perception, intelligence and marvellous wisdom.


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The sages and soothsayers have already been brought to me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they have been unable to reveal its meaning.


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I am told that you are able to give interpretations and to unravel difficult problems, so if you can read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round your neck, and be one of the three men who govern the kingdom.'


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Then Daniel spoke up in the presence of the king. 'Keep your gifts for yourself,' he said, 'and give your rewards to others! I can certainly read the writing to the king and tell him what it means.


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Your Majesty, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father sovereignty, greatness, majesty and glory.


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He made him so great that all peoples, nations and languages shook with dread before him: he killed whom he pleased, spared whom he pleased, promoted whom he pleased, degraded whom he pleased.


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But because his heart grew swollen with pride, and his spirit stiff with arrogance, he was deposed from his sovereign throne and stripped of his glory.


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He was driven from human society, his heart was more like an animal's than a man's; he lived with the wild donkeys; he fed on grass like oxen; his body was drenched by the dew of heaven, until he had learnt that the Most High rules over human sovereignty and appoints whom he pleases to rule it.


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But you, Belshazzar, who are his son, you have not humbled your heart, in spite of knowing all this.


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You have defied the Lord of heaven, you have had the vessels from his Temple brought to you, and you, your noblemen, your wives and the women singing for you have drunk your wine out of them. You have praised gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which can neither see, hear nor understand; but you have given no glory to the God in whose hands are your breath itself and all your fortunes.


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At Belshazzar's order Daniel was dressed in purple, a chain of gold was put round his neck and he was proclaimed as one of the three men who governed the kingdom.


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and over them three presidents -- of whom Daniel was one -- to whom the satraps were to be responsible. This was to safeguard the king's interests.


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This Daniel, by virtue of the marvellous spirit residing in him, was so evidently superior to the other presidents and satraps that the king considered appointing him to rule the whole kingdom.


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The presidents and satraps, in consequence, started hunting for some affair of state by which they could discredit Daniel; but they could find nothing to his discredit, and no case of negligence; he was so punctilious that they could not find a single instance of maladministration or neglect.


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These men then thought, 'We shall never find a way of discrediting Daniel unless we try something to do with the law of his God.'


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The presidents and satraps then went in a body to the king. 'King Darius,' they said, 'live for ever!


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We are all agreed, presidents of the realm, magistrates, satraps, councillors and governors, that the king should issue an edict enforcing the following regulation: Whoever within the next thirty days prays to anyone, divine or human, other than to yourself, Your Majesty, is to be thrown into the lions' den.


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Your Majesty, ratify the edict at once by signing this document, making it unalterable, as befits the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.'


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When Daniel heard that the document had been signed, he retired to his house. The windows of his upstairs room faced towards Jerusalem. Three times each day, he went down on his knees, praying and giving praise to God as he had always done.


text:
They then went to the king and reminded him of the royal edict, 'Have you not signed an edict forbidding anyone for the next thirty days to pray to anyone, divine or human, other than to yourself, Your Majesty, on pain of being thrown into the lions' den?' 'The decision stands', the king replied, 'as befits the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.'


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They then said to the king, 'Your Majesty, this man Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, disregards both you and the edict which you have signed: he is at his prayers three times each day.'


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When the king heard these words he was deeply distressed and determined to save Daniel; he racked his brains until sunset to find some way to save him.


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But the men kept pressing the king, 'Your Majesty, remember that in conformity with the law of the Medes and the Persians, no edict or decree can be altered when once issued by the king.'


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The king then ordered Daniel to be brought and thrown into the lion pit. The king said to Daniel, 'Your God, whom you have served so faithfully, will have to save you.'


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A stone was then brought and laid over the mouth of the pit; and the king sealed it with his own signet and with that of his noblemen, so that there could be no going back on the original decision about Daniel.


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The king returned to his palace, spent the night in fasting and refused to receive any of his concubines. Sleep eluded him,


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As he approached the pit he called in anguished tones to Daniel, 'Daniel, servant of the living God! Has your God, whom you serve so faithfully, been able to save you from the lions?'


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My God sent his angel who sealed the lions' jaws; they did me no harm, since in his sight I am blameless; neither have I ever done you any wrong, Your Majesty.'


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The king was overjoyed and ordered Daniel to be released from the pit. Daniel was released from the pit and found to be quite unhurt, because he had trusted in his God.


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The king then sent for the men who had accused Daniel and had them thrown into the lion pit, and their wives and children too; and before they reached the floor of the pit the lions had seized them and crushed their bones to pieces.


text:
King Darius then wrote to all nations, peoples and languages dwelling throughout the world: 'May you prosper more and more!


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This is my decree: Throughout every dominion of my realm, let all tremble with fear before the God of Daniel: He is the living God, he endures for ever, his kingdom will never be destroyed and his empire never come to an end.


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He saves, sets free, and works signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth; he has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.'


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In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions that passed through his head as he lay in bed. He wrote the dream down, and this is how the narrative began:


text:
Daniel said, 'I have been seeing visions in the night. I saw that the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea;


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The first was like a lion with eagle's wings and, as I looked, its wings were torn off, and it was lifted off the ground and set standing on its feet like a human; and it was given a human heart.


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And there before me was a second beast, like a bear, rearing up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth. "Up!" came the command. "Eat quantities of flesh!"


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After this I looked; and there before me was another beast, like a leopard, and with four bird's wings on its flanks; it had four heads and was granted authority.


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Next, in the visions of the night, I saw another vision: there before me was a fourth beast, fearful, terrifying, very strong; it had great iron teeth, and it ate its victims, crushed them, and trampled their remains underfoot. It was different from the previous beasts and had ten horns.


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'While I was looking at these horns, I saw another horn sprouting among them, a little one; three of the original horns were pulled out by the roots to make way for it; and in this horn I saw eyes like human eyes, and a mouth full of boasting.


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While I was watching, thrones were set in place and one most venerable took his seat. His robe was white as snow, the hair of his head as pure as wool. His throne was a blaze of flames, its wheels were a burning fire.


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A stream of fire poured out, issuing from his presence. A thousand thousand waited on him, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was in session and the books lay open.


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'I went on watching: then, because of the noise made by the boastings of the horn, as I watched, the beast was put to death, and its body destroyed and committed to the flames.


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The other beasts were deprived of their empire, but received a lease of life for a season and a time.


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I was gazing into the visions of the night, when I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, as it were a son of man. He came to the One most venerable and was led into his presence.


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On him was conferred rule, honour and kingship, and all peoples, nations and languages became his servants. His rule is an everlasting rule which will never pass away, and his kingship will never come to an end.


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So I approached one of those who were standing by and asked him about all this. And in reply he revealed to me what these things meant.


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Those who receive royal power are the holy ones of the Most High, and kingship will be theirs for ever, for ever and ever."


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Then I asked about the fourth beast, different from all the rest, very terrifying, with iron teeth and bronze claws; it ate its victims, crushed them, and trampled their remains underfoot;


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and about the ten horns on its head -- and why the other horn sprouted and the three original horns fell, and why this horn had eyes and a mouth full of boasting, and why it looked more impressive than its fellows.


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until the coming of the One most venerable who gave judgement in favour of the holy ones of the Most High, when the time came for the holy ones to assume kingship.


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This is what he said: "The fourth beast is to be a fourth kingdom on earth, different from all other kingdoms. It will devour the whole world, trample it underfoot and crush it.


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As for the ten horns: from this kingdom will rise ten kings, and another after them; this one will be different from the previous ones and will bring down three kings;


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he will insult the Most High, and torment the holy ones of the Most High. He will plan to alter the seasons and the Law, and the Saints will be handed over to him for a time, two times, and half a time.


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But the court will sit, and he will be stripped of his royal authority which will be finally destroyed and reduced to nothing.


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And kingship and rule and the splendours of all the kingdoms under heaven will be given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High, whose royal power is an eternal power, whom every empire will serve and obey."


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'Here the narrative ends. 'I, Daniel, was greatly disturbed in mind, and I grew pale; but I kept these things to myself.'


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In the third year of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had originally appeared to me.


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I gazed at the vision, and as I gazed I found myself in Susa, the citadel in the province of Elam; gazing at the vision, I found myself at the Ulai Gate.


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I raised my eyes to look, and I saw a ram standing in front of the gate. It had two horns; both were tall, but one taller than the other, and the one that rose the higher was the second.


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I saw the ram butting westwards, northwards and southwards. No animal could stand up to it, nothing could escape its power. It did as it pleased and became strong.


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This is what I observed: a he-goat from the west, encroaching over the entire surface of the world though never touching the ground, and between its eyes the goat had one majestic horn.


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It advanced on the two-horned ram, which I had seen standing in front of the gate, and charged at it in the full force of its fury.


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I saw it reach the ram; it was enraged with the ram and struck it, breaking both its horns, so that the ram was not strong enough to hold its ground; it threw it to the ground and trampled it underfoot; no one was there to rescue the ram.


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The he-goat then grew more powerful than ever; but at the height of its strength the great horn snapped, and in its place sprouted four majestic horns, pointing to the four winds of heaven.


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From one of these, the small one, sprang a horn which grew to great size towards south and east and towards the Land of Splendour.


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It grew right up to the armies of heaven and flung armies and stars to the ground, and trampled them underfoot.


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It even challenged the power of the Prince of the army; it abolished the perpetual sacrifice and overthrew the foundation of his sanctuary,


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and the army too; over the sacrifice it installed iniquity and flung truth to the ground; the horn was active and successful.


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I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one say to the speaker, 'How long is this vision to be -- of perpetual sacrifice, of horrifying iniquity, of sanctuary and army trampled underfoot?'


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The first replied, 'Until two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings have gone by: then the sanctuary will have its rights restored.'


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As I, Daniel, gazed at the vision and tried to understand it, I saw someone standing in front of me who looked like a man.


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He approached the place where I was standing; as he approached, I was seized with terror and fell prostrate on the ground. 'Son of man,' he said to me, 'understand this: the vision shows the time of the End.'


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He was still speaking, when I fainted, face downwards on the ground. He touched me, however, and raised me to my feet.


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'Come,' he said, 'I shall tell you what is going to happen when the Retribution is over, about the final times.


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The horn which snapped and the four horns which sprouted in its place are four kingdoms rising from his nation but not having his strength.


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'And at the end of their reign, when the measure of their sins is full, a king will arise, a proud-faced, ingenious-minded man.


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His power will grow greater and greater, though not through any power of his own; he will plot incredible schemes, he will succeed in whatever he undertakes, he will destroy powerful men and the holy ones, God's people.


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Such will be his resourcefulness of mind that all his treacherous activities will succeed. He will grow arrogant of heart and destroy many people by taking them unawares. He will challenge the power of the Prince of princes but, without any human intervention, he will be broken.


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The vision of the evenings and the mornings which has been revealed is true, but you must keep the vision secret, for there are still many days to go.'


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At this I, Daniel, lost consciousness; I was ill for several days. Then I got up to discharge my duties in the king's service, keeping the vision a secret and still not understanding what it meant.


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It was the first year of Darius son of Artaxerxes, a Mede by race who assumed the throne of Chaldaea.


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In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, was studying the scriptures, counting over the number of years -- as revealed by Yahweh to the prophet Jeremiah -- that were to pass before the desolation of Jerusalem would come to an end, namely seventy years.


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I turned my face to the Lord God begging for time to pray and to plead, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.


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I pleaded with Yahweh my God and made this confession: 'O my Lord, God great and to be feared, you keep the covenant and show faithful love towards those who love you and who observe your commandments:


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we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we have betrayed your commandments and rulings and turned away from them.


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We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our chief men, our ancestors and all people of the country.


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Saving justice, Lord, is yours; we have only the look of shame we wear today, we, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away, in every country to which you have dispersed us because of the treachery we have committed against you.


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To us, our kings, our chief men and our ancestors, belongs the look of shame, O Yahweh, since we have sinned against you.


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and have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God nor followed the laws he has given us through his servants the prophets.


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The whole of Israel has flouted your Law and turned away, unwilling to listen to your voice; and the curse and imprecation written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have come pouring down on us, because we have sinned against him.


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He has carried out the threats which he made against us and the chief men who governed us -- that he would bring so great a disaster down on us that the fate of Jerusalem would find no parallel under all heaven.


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And now, as written in the Law of Moses, this whole calamity has befallen us; even so, we have not appeased Yahweh our God by renouncing our crimes and learning your truth.


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Yahweh has watched for the right moment to bring disaster on us, since Yahweh our God is just in all his dealings with us, and we have not listened to his voice.


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And now, Lord our God, who by your mighty hand brought us out of Egypt -- the renown you won then endures to this day -- we have sinned, we have done wrong.


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Lord, by all your acts of saving justice, turn away your anger and your fury from Jerusalem, your city, your holy mountain, for as a result of our sins and the crimes of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are objects of scorn to all who surround us.


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And now, our God, listen to the prayer and pleading of your servant. For your own sake, Lord, let your face smile again on your desolate sanctuary.


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Listen, my God, listen to us; open your eyes and look at our plight and at the city that bears your name. Relying not on our upright deeds but on your great mercy, we pour out our plea to you.


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Listen, Lord! Forgive, Lord! Hear, Lord, and act! For your own sake, my God, do not delay -- since your city and your people alike bear your name.'


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I was still speaking, still at prayer, confessing my own sins and the sins of my people Israel, and placing my plea before Yahweh my God for the holy mountain of my God,


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still speaking, still at prayer, when Gabriel, the being I had originally seen in vision, swooped on me in full flight at the hour of the evening sacrifice.


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When your pleading began, a word was uttered, and I have come to tell you. You are a man specially chosen. Grasp the meaning of the word, understand the vision:


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'Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city, for putting an end to transgression, for placing the seal on sin, for expiating crime, for introducing everlasting uprightness for setting the seal on vision and on prophecy, for anointing the holy of holies.


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Know this, then, and understand: From the time there went out this message: "Return and rebuild Jerusalem" to the coming of an Anointed Prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, with squares and ramparts restored and rebuilt, but in a time of trouble.


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And after the sixty-two weeks an Anointed One put to death without his . . . city and sanctuary ruined by a prince who is to come. The end of that prince will be catastrophe and, until the end, there will be war and all the devastation decreed.


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He will strike a firm alliance with many people for the space of a week; and for the space of one half-week he will put a stop to sacrifice and oblation, and on the wing of the Temple will be the appalling abomination until the end, until the doom assigned to the devastator.'


text:
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was made to Daniel known as Belteshazzar, a true revelation of a great conflict. He grasped the meaning of the revelation; what it meant was disclosed to him in a vision.


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I ate no agreeable food, touched no meat or wine, and did not anoint myself, until these three weeks were over.


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On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I stood on the bank of that great river, the Tigris,


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I raised my eyes to look about me, and this is what I saw: A man dressed in linen, with a belt of pure gold round his waist:


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his body was like beryl, his face looked like lightning, his eyes were like fiery torches, his arms and his face had the gleam of burnished bronze, the sound of his voice was like the roar of a multitude.


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I, Daniel, alone saw the apparition; the men who were with me did not see the vision, but so great a trembling overtook them that they fled to hide.


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I was left alone, gazing on this great vision; I was powerless, my appearance was changed and contorted; my strength deserted me.


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I heard a voice speaking, and at the sound of the voice I fell fainting, face downwards on the ground.


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He said, 'Daniel, you are a man specially chosen; understand the words that I am about to say; stand up; I have been sent to you now.' He said this, and I stood up trembling.


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He then said, 'Daniel, do not be afraid: from that first day when, the better to understand, you resolved to mortify yourself before God, your words have been heard; and your words are the reason why I have come.


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The Prince of the kingdom of Persia has been resisting me for twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the Chief Princes, came to my assistance. I have left him confronting the kings of Persia


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and have come to tell you what will happen to your people in the final days. For here is a new vision about those days.'


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then someone looking like a man touched my lips. I opened my mouth to speak, and I said to the person standing in front of me, 'My lord, anguish overcomes me at this vision, and my strength deserts me.


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'Do not be afraid,' he said, 'you are a man specially chosen; peace be with you; play the man, be strong!' And as he spoke to me I felt strong again and said, 'Let my lord speak, you have given me strength.'


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It is to tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. I must go back to fight the Prince of Persia; when I have overcome him, the Prince of Javan will come next. In all this, there is no one to lend me support except Michael your Prince,


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And now I shall tell you the truth about these things. 'Three more kings are going to rise in Persia; a fourth will come and be richer than all the others, and when, thanks to his wealth, he has grown powerful, he will make war on all the kingdoms of Greece.


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But once he has come to power, his empire will be broken up and parcelled out to the four winds of heaven, though not to his descendants: it will not be ruled as he ruled it, for his sovereignty will be uprooted and will pass to others than his own descendants.


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'The king of the south will grow powerful, but one of his princes will grow more powerful still, with an empire greater than his own.


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Some years later, these will conclude a treaty and, to ratify the agreement, the daughter of the king of the south will go to the king of the north. Her arm will not, however, retain its strength, nor his posterity endure: she will be handed over, she, her escorts and her child, and he who has had authority over her. In due time


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a sprig from her roots will rise in his place, will march on the defences, force the stronghold of the king of the north, and succeed in overcoming them.


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He will even carry off all their gods, their statues, their precious gold and silver vessels as booty to Egypt. For some years he will leave the king of the north in peace,


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His sons will next be on the march, mustering a host of powerful forces; and he will advance, deploy, break through and march on the southern stronghold once again.


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The king of the south will fly into a rage and set out to give battle to the king of the north, who will have an immense army on his side, but this army will be defeated by him.


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The army will be annihilated; he will be triumphant; he will overthrow tens of thousands; yet he will have no enduring strength.


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The king of the north will come back, having recruited an even larger army than before, and finally, after some years, he will advance a second time with a great army and plentiful supplies.


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At that time, many will take up arms against the king of the south, and the more violent of your own people will rebel in the hope of realising the vision; but they will fail.


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The king of the north will then come and throw up siege-works to capture a strongly fortified city. The forces of the south will not stand their ground; the pick of the people will not be strong enough to resist.


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The invader will do as he pleases, no one will be able to resist him: he will take his stand in the Land of Splendour, destruction in his hands.


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He will set about conquering his entire kingdom, but will then make a treaty with him and, to overthrow the kingdom, give him a woman's hand; but this will not last or be to his advantage.


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He will next turn to the coasts and islands and conquer many of them, but a magistrate will put a stop to his outrages in such a way that he will be unable to repay outrage for outrage.


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'He will then turn on the strongholds of his own country, but will stumble, fall, and never be seen again.


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In his place there will rise a man who will send an extortioner to despoil the royal splendour; in a few days he will be shattered, though neither publicly nor in battle.


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'In his place will rise a wretch: royal honours will not be given to him, but rather he will insinuate himself into them at his pleasure and will gain possession of the kingdom by intrigue.


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Through his alliances he will act treacherously and, despite the smallness of his following, grow ever stronger.


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At his pleasure, he will invade rich provinces, acting as his fathers or his fathers' fathers never acted, distributing among them plunder, spoil and wealth, plotting his stratagems against the fortresses -- for a time.


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'He will summon up his might and courage against the king of the south with a great army. The king of the south will march to war with a huge and powerful army but will not succeed, since he will be outwitted by trickery.


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Those who shared his food will ruin him; his army will be swept away, many will fall in the slaughter.


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'The two kings, seated at one table, hearts bent on evil, will tell their lies; but they will not have their way, for the appointed time is still to come.


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Then the wretch will return greatly enriched to his own country, his heart set against the holy covenant; he will take action and then return to his own country.


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In due time, he will make his way southwards again, but this time the outcome will not be as before.


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The ships of the Kittim will oppose him, and he will be worsted. He will retire and take furious action against the holy covenant and, as before, will favour those who forsake that holy covenant.


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'Forces of his will come and profane the Citadel-Sanctuary; they will abolish the perpetual sacrifice and install the appalling abomination there.


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Those who break the covenant he will seduce by his blandishments, but the people who know their God will stand firm and take action.


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Those of the people who are wise leaders will instruct many; for some days, however, they will stumble from sword and flame, captivity and pillage.


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Of the wise leaders some will stumble, and so a number of them will be purged, purified and made clean -- until the time of the End, for the appointed time is still to come.


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'The king will do as he pleases, growing more and more arrogant, considering himself greater than all the gods; he will utter incredible blasphemies against the God of gods, and he will thrive until the wrath reaches bursting point; for what has been decreed will certainly be fulfilled.


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Heedless of his fathers' gods, heedless of the god whom women love, heedless of any god whatever, he will consider himself greatest of all.


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Instead of them, he will honour the god of fortresses, will honour a god unknown to his ancestors with gold and silver, precious stones and valuable presents.


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He will use the people of an alien god to defend the fortresses; he will confer great honours on those whom he acknowledges, by giving them wide authority and by parcelling the country out for rent.


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'When the time comes for the End, the king of the south will try conclusions with him; but the king of the north will come storming down on him with chariots, cavalry, and a large fleet. He will invade countries, overrun them and drive on.


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He will invade the Land of Splendour, and many will fall; but Edom, Moab, and what remains of the sons of Ammon will escape him.


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The gold and silver treasures and all the valuables of Egypt will lie in his power. Libyans and Cushites will be at his feet:


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but reports coming from the East and the north will worry him, and in great fury he will set out to bring ruin and complete destruction to many.


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He will pitch the tents of his royal headquarters between the sea and the mountains of the Holy Splendour. Yet he will come to his end -- there will be no help for him.'


text:
'At that time Michael will arise -- the great Prince, defender of your people. That will be a time of great distress, unparalleled since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, your own people will be spared -- all those whose names are found written in the Book.


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'Of those who are sleeping in the Land of Dust, many will awaken, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting disgrace.


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Those who are wise will shine as brightly as the expanse of the heavens, and those who have instructed many in uprightness, as bright as stars for all eternity.


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'But you, Daniel, must keep these words secret and keep the book sealed until the time of the End. Many will roam about, this way and that, and wickedness will continue to increase.'


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I, Daniel, then looked and saw two other people standing, one on the near bank of the river, the other on the far.


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One of them said to the man dressed in linen who was standing further up the stream, 'How long until these wonders take place?'


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I heard the man speak who was dressed in linen, standing further up the stream: he raised his right hand and his left to heaven and swore by him who lives for ever, 'A time and two times, and half a time; and all these things will come true, once the crushing of the holy people's power is over.'


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Many will be cleansed, made white and purged; the wicked will persist in doing wrong; the wicked will never understand; those who are wise will understand.


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From the moment that the perpetual sacrifice is abolished and the appalling abomination set up: a thousand two hundred and ninety days.


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He was married to a woman called Susanna daughter of Hilkiah, a woman of great beauty; and she was God-fearing, for


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Joakim was a very rich man and had a garden by his house; he used to be visited by a considerable number of the Jews, since he was held in greater respect than any other man.


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Two elderly men had been selected from the people, that year, to act as judges. Of such the Lord had said, 'Wickedness has come to Babylon through the elders and judges posing as guides to the people.'


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These men were often at Joakim's house, and all who were engaged in litigation used to come to them.


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The two elders, who used to watch her every day as she came in to take her walk, gradually began to desire her.


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They threw reason aside, making no effort to turn their eyes to Heaven, and forgetting the demands of virtue.


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One day, having parted with the words, 'Let us go home, then, it is time for the midday meal,' they went off in different directions,


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only to retrace their steps and find themselves face to face again. Obliged then to explain, they admitted their desire and agreed to look for an opportunity of surprising her alone.


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So they waited for a favourable moment; and one day Susanna came as usual, accompanied only by two young maidservants. The day was hot and she wanted to bathe in the garden.


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They did as they were told, shutting the garden door and going back to the house by a side entrance to fetch what she had asked for; they knew nothing about the elders, for they had concealed themselves.


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'Look,' they said, 'the garden door is shut, no one can see us. We want to have you, so give in and let us!


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Refuse, and we shall both give evidence that a young man was with you and that this was why you sent your maids away.'


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Susanna sighed. 'I am trapped,' she said, 'whatever I do. If I agree, it means death for me; if I resist, I cannot get away from you.


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She then cried out as loud as she could. The two elders began shouting too, putting the blame on her,


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The household, hearing the shouting in the garden, rushed out by the side entrance to see what had happened to her.


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Once the elders had told their story, the servants were thoroughly taken aback, since nothing of this sort had ever been said of Susanna.


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Next day a meeting was held at the house of her husband Joakim. The two elders arrived, full of their wicked plea against Susanna, to have her put to death.


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They addressed the company, 'Summon Susanna daughter of Hilkiah and wife of Joakim.' She was sent for,


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The elders then spoke, 'While we were walking by ourselves in the garden, this woman arrived with two maids. She shut the garden door and then dismissed the servants.


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Though we saw them together, we were unable to catch the man: he was too strong for us; he opened the door and took to his heels.


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She refused to tell us. That is our evidence.' Since they were elders of the people and judges, the assembly accepted their word: Susanna was condemned to death.


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She cried out as loud as she could, 'Eternal God, you know all secrets and everything before it happens;


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you know that they have given false evidence against me. And now I must die, innocent as I am of everything their malice has invented against me!'


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and, as she was being led away to die, he roused the holy spirit residing in a young boy called Daniel


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Standing in the middle of the crowd, he replied, 'Are you so stupid, children of Israel, as to condemn a daughter of Israel unheard, and without troubling to find out the truth?


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All the people hurried back, and the elders said to Daniel, 'Come and sit with us and tell us what you mean, since God has given you the gifts that elders have.'


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When the men had been separated, Daniel had one of them brought to him. 'You have grown old in wickedness,' he said, 'and now the sins of your earlier days have overtaken you,


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you with your unjust judgements, your condemnation of the innocent, your acquittal of the guilty, although the Lord has said, "You must not put the innocent and upright to death."


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Now then, since you saw her so clearly, tell me what sort of tree you saw them lying under.' He replied, 'Under an acacia tree.'


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Daniel said, 'Indeed! Your lie recoils on your own head: the angel of God has already received from him your sentence and will cut you in half.'


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He dismissed the man, ordered the other to be brought and said to him, 'Son of Canaan, not of Judah, beauty has seduced you, lust has led your heart astray!


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This is how you have been behaving with the daughters of Israel, and they have been too frightened to resist; but here is a daughter of Judah who could not stomach your wickedness!


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Daniel said, 'Indeed! Your lie recoils on your own head: the angel of God is waiting with a sword to rend you in half, and destroy the pair of you.'


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And they turned on the two elders whom Daniel had convicted of false evidence out of their own mouths.


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As the Law of Moses prescribes, they were given the same punishment as they had schemed to inflict on their neighbour. They were put to death. And thus, that day, an innocent life was saved.


text:
Hilkiah and his wife gave thanks to God for their daughter Susanna, and so did her husband Joakim and all his relations, because she had been acquitted of anything dishonourable.


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Now, in Babylon there was an idol called Bel, to which twelve bushels of the finest flour, forty sheep and six measures of wine were offered every day.


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The king venerated this idol and used to go and worship it every day. Daniel, however, worshipped his own God.


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'Why do you not worship Bel?' the king asked Daniel. 'I do not worship idols made by human hand,' Daniel replied, 'I worship the living God who made heaven and earth and who is lord over all living creatures.'


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'Do you not believe, then,' said the king, 'that Bel is a living god? Can you not see how much he eats and drinks each day?'


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Daniel laughed. 'Your Majesty,' he said, 'do not be taken in; he is clay inside, and bronze outside, and has never eaten or drunk anything.'


text:
This made the king angry; he summoned his priests, 'Tell me who eats all this food,' he said, 'or die. Prove to me that Bel really eats it, and I will have Daniel put to death for blaspheming him.'


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There were seventy of these priests, to say nothing of their wives and children. The king went to the temple of Bel, taking Daniel with him.


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The priests of Bel said to him, 'We shall now go out, and you, Your Majesty, will lay out the meal and mix the wine and set it out. Then, lock the door and seal it with your personal seal. If, when you return in the morning, you do not find that everything has been eaten by Bel, let us be put to death; otherwise let Daniel, that slanderer!'


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They were thinking -- hence their confidence -- of a secret entrance which they had made under the table, and by which they came in regularly and took the offerings away.


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Daniel made his servants bring ashes and spread them all over the temple floor, with no other witness than the king. They then left the building, shut the door and, sealing it with the king's seal, went away.


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That night, as usual, the priests came with their wives and children; they ate and drank everything.


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The king then opened the door and, taking one look at the table, exclaimed, 'You are great, O Bel! There is no deception in you!'


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But Daniel laughed; and, restraining the king from going in any further, he said, 'Look at the floor and take note whose footmarks these are!'


text:
and angrily ordered the priests to be arrested, with their wives and children. They then showed him the secret door through which they used to come and take what was on the table.


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The king had them put to death and handed Bel over to Daniel who destroyed both the idol and its temple.


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The king said to Daniel, 'Are you going to tell me that this is made of bronze? Look, it is alive; it eats and drinks; you cannot deny that this is a living god; worship it, then.'


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Daniel replied, 'I will worship the Lord my God; he is the living God. With your permission, Your Majesty, without using either sword or club, I shall kill this dragon.'


text:
Whereupon, Daniel took some pitch, some fat and some hair and boiled them up together, rolled the mixture into balls and fed them to the dragon; the dragon swallowed them and burst. Daniel said, 'Now look at the sort of thing you worship!'


text:
The Babylonians were furious when they heard about this and rose against the king. 'The king has turned Jew,' they said, 'he has allowed Bel to be overthrown, and the dragon to be killed, and he has put the priests to death.'


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So they went to the king and said, 'Hand Daniel over to us or else we shall kill you and your family.'


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In the pit were seven lions, which were given two human bodies and two sheep every day; but for this period they were not given anything, to make sure they would eat Daniel.


text:
Now, the prophet Habakkuk was in Judaea: he had been making a stew and breaking up bread into a basket. He was on his way to the fields, taking this to the harvesters,


text:
when the angel of the Lord spoke to him, 'Take the meal you are carrying to Babylon, and give it to Daniel in the lion pit.'


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The angel of the Lord took hold of his head and carried him off by the hair to Babylon where, with a great blast of his breath, he set Habakkuk down on the edge of the pit.


text:
Rising to his feet, he ate the meal, while the angel of God carried Habakkuk back in a moment to his own country.


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On the seventh day, the king came to lament over Daniel; on reaching the pit he looked inside, and there sat Daniel.


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He then had Daniel released from the pit and the plotters of Daniel's ruin thrown in instead, where they were instantly eaten before his eyes.


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The word of Yahweh which came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel.


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The beginning of what Yahweh said through Hosea: Yahweh said to Hosea, 'Go, marry a whore, and get children with a whore; for the country itself has become nothing but a whore by abandoning Yahweh.'


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Yahweh then said to him, 'Call him Jezreel, for in a little while I shall punish the House of Jehu for the bloodshed at Jezreel and put an end to the sovereignty of the House of Israel.


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She conceived a second time and gave birth to a daughter. Yahweh then said to him, 'Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I shall show no more pity for the House of Israel, I shall never forgive them again.


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(Instead, I shall take pity on the House of Judah and shall save them, not by bow or sword or force of arms, not by horses or horsemen, but by Yahweh their God.)'


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But the Israelites will become as numerous as the sands of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. In the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' they will be told they are 'Children of the living God'.


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The Judaeans and Israelites will be reunited and will choose themselves a single head, and will spread far beyond their country, for great will be the Day of Jezreel!


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To court, take your mother to court! For she is no longer my wife nor am I her husband. She must either remove her whoring ways from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts,


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or I shall strip her and expose her naked as the day she was born; I shall make her as bare as the desert, I shall make her as dry as arid country, and let her die of thirst.


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Yes, their mother has played the whore, she who conceived them has disgraced herself by saying, 'I shall chase after my lovers; they will assure me my keep, my wool, my flax, my oil and my drinks.'


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then if she chases her lovers she will not catch them, if she looks for them she will not find them, and then she will say, 'I shall go back to my first husband, I was better off then than I am now;'


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she had never realised before that I was the one who was giving her the grain, new wine and oil, giving her more and more silver and gold which they have spent on Baal!


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This is why I shall take back my grain when it is due and my new wine, when the season for it comes. I shall withdraw my wool and my flax which were to cover her naked body,


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I shall put an end to all her merrymaking, her festivals, her New Moons and her Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts.


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I shall make her vines and fig trees derelict of which she used to say, 'These are the pay my lovers gave me.' I shall turn them into a jungle: wild animals will feed on them.


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I mean to make her pay for the feast-days on which she burnt incense to the Baals, when she tricked herself out in her earrings and necklaces to chase after her lovers, and forget me! -declares Yahweh.


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There I shall give her back her vineyards, and make the Vale of Achor a gateway of hope. There she will respond as when she was young, as on the day when she came up from Egypt.


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When that day comes- declares Yahweh- you will call me, 'My husband', no more will you call me, 'My Baal'.


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When that day comes I shall make a treaty for them with the wild animals, with the birds of heaven and the creeping things of the earth; I shall break the bow and the sword and warfare, and banish them from the country, and I will let them sleep secure.


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I shall betroth you to myself for ever, I shall betroth you in uprightness and justice, and faithful love and tenderness.


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When that day comes, I shall respond -declares Yahweh- I shall respond to the heavens and they will respond to the earth


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I shall sow her in the country to be mine, I shall take pity on Lo-Ruhamah, I shall tell Lo-Ammi, 'You are my people,' and he will say, 'You are my God.'


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Yahweh said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who loves another man, an adulteress, and love her as Yahweh loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.'


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and I said to her, 'You will have to spend a long time waiting for me without playing the whore and without giving yourself to any man, and I will behave in the same way towards you.'


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For the Israelites will have to spend a long time without king or leader, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or domestic images;


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but after that, the Israel- ites will return and again seek Yahweh their God and David their king, and turn trembling to Yahweh for his bounty in the final days.


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Israelites, hear what Yahweh says, for Yahweh indicts the citizens of the country: there is no loyalty, no faithful love, no knowledge of God in the country,


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This is why the country is in mourning and all its citizens pining away, the wild animals also and birds of the sky, even the fish in the sea will disappear.


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Priest, you will stumble in broad daylight, and the prophet will stumble with you in the dark, and I will make your mother perish.


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My people perish for want of knowledge. Since you yourself have rejected knowledge, so I shall reject you from my priesthood; since you have forgotten the teaching of your God, I in my turn shall forget your children.


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The more of them there have been, the more they have sinned against me; they have bartered their Glory for Shame.


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But as with the people, so with the priest, I shall punish them for their conduct, I shall pay them back for their deeds.


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They will eat but never be satisfied, they will play the whore but not grow more prolific, since they have deserted Yahweh to give themselves up


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they consult their block of wood, and their stick explains what they should do. For an urge to go whoring has led them astray and whoring they go and desert their God;


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they offer sacrifice on the mountain tops, they burn incense on the hills, under oak and poplar and terebinth, for pleasant is their shade. So, although your daughters play the whore and your daughters-in-law commit adultery,


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I shall not punish your daughters for playing the whore nor your daughters-in-law for committing adultery, when the men themselves are wandering off with whores and offering sacrifice with sacred prostitutes, for a people with no understanding is doomed.


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Though you, Israel, play the whore, there is no need for Judah to sin too. Do not go to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-Aven, do not swear oaths 'by Yahweh's life',


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for Israel is as stubborn as a stubborn heifer; so is Yahweh likely to pasture him like a lamb in a broad meadow?


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the wind with its wings will carry them off and their sacrifices will bring them nothing but disgrace.


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Hear this, you priests, listen, House of Israel, pay attention, royal House, for it is you who have justice in your care, but you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net outspread on Tabor.


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Ephraim have I known, Israel is not hidden from me; and yet, Ephraim, you have played the whore, Israel is befouled.


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Their deeds do not allow them to return to their God, since an urge to play the whore possesses them and they no longer know Yahweh.


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Israel's arrogance is his accuser, the guilt of Israel and Ephraim is their undoing, Judah too will be undone with them.


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Though they go in search of Yahweh with their sheep and cattle, they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.


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They have betrayed Yahweh because they have fathered bastards; now the new moon will devour them and their fields.


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Sound the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah, raise the war cry in Beth-Aven, 'We are behind you, Benjamin!'


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When the day of punishment comes, Ephraim will be a wasteland; on the tribes of Israel I have pronounced certain doom.


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The rulers of Judah act like men who move the boundary stone; I shall pour my wrath out on them like a flood.


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Once Ephraim realised that he was sick and Judah that he had an ulcer, Ephraim then went to Assyria, he sent messengers to the Great King; but he has no power to cure you or to heal you of your sore;


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for I shall be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the House of Judah; I myself shall rend them, then go my way, shall carry them off, beyond hope of rescue.


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I shall go back to my place until they confess their guilt and seek me, seek me eagerly in their distress.


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Come, let us return to Yahweh. He has rent us and he will heal us; he has struck us and he will bind up our wounds;


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after two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his presence.


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Let us know, let us strive to know Yahweh; that he will come is as certain as the dawn. He will come to us like a shower, like the rain of springtime to the earth.


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What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you, Judah? For your love is like morning mist, like the dew that quickly disappears.


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This is why I have hacked them to pieces by means of the prophets, why I have killed them with words from my mouth, why my sentence will blaze forth like the dawn-


text:
Like so many robbers in ambush, a gang of priests commits murder on the road to Shechem- what infamous behaviour!


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Whenever I would heal Israel, I am confronted by the guilt of Ephraim and the evil-doings of Samaria; for deceit is their principle of behaviour; the thief breaks into the house, marauders raid in the open;


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and they never pause to consider that I remember all their wicked deeds; and now their own deeds hem them in and stare me in the face.


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They are all adulterers, hot as an oven which the baker need not stoke from the time he has kneaded the dough until it rises.


text:
At the holiday for our king, the ministers become inflamed with wine, while he accepts the homage of people


text:
who laugh at him. Their hearts are like an oven as they plot, all night their passion slumbers, then in the morning it bursts into flame;


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yes, all of them as hot as ovens, they consume their rulers. All their kings have fallen thus, not one of them has ever called on me.


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Foreigners have eaten his strength away but he is unconscious of it; even his hair is turning grey but he is unconscious of it.


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(Israel's arrogance is his own accuser; but they do not come back to Yahweh their God or seek him, despite all this.)


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Wherever they turn, I shall spread my net over them, I shall bring them down like the birds of the sky, I shall punish them for their perversity.


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Woe to them for having fled from me! Ruin seize them for having wronged me! I have rescued them again and again and they have only told lies about me.


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Theirs is no heartfelt cry to me when they lament on their beds; when they gash themselves over the grain and new wine, they are still rebelling against me.


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They turn to what does not exist, they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their arrogant talk; how they will be laughed at in Egypt!


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Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle, disaster is swooping on Yahweh's home! Because they have violated my covenant and been unfaithful to my Law,


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They have set up kings, but without my consent, and appointed princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold, they have made themselves idols, but only to be destroyed.


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I spurn your calf, Samaria! My anger blazes against them! How long will it be before they recover their innocence?


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For it is the product of Israel- a craftsman made the thing, it is no god at all! The calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces!


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Since they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind; stalk without ear, it will never yield flour- or if it does, foreigners will swallow it.


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and because he has rented them from the nations I am now going to round them up; soon they will feel the weight of the king of princes!


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They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat, they do not win Yahweh's favour. On the contrary, he will remember their guilt and punish their sins; they will have to go back to Egypt.


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Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built palaces, while Judah keeps on building fortified towns; but I shall send fire down on his cities to devour their citadels.


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No merrymaking, Israel, for you, no rejoicing like other peoples, for you have deserted your God to play the whore, you have loved the fee of prostitution on every threshing-floor.


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No more will they live in Yahweh's country; Ephraim will have to go back to Egypt, and eat polluted food in Assyria.


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No more will they pour libations of wine to Yahweh, and their sacrifices will not win his favour but will be like funeral fare for them: whoever eats them will be polluted; for their food will be for themselves alone, not being offered in Yahweh's home.


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What a scene of devastastion they have left! Egypt will round them up, Memphis will bury them, nettles will inherit their fields and thorn-bushes invade their homesteads.


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The days of punishment have come, the days of retribution are here; Israel knows it! 'The prophet is mad and the inspired man a fool!' Great has been your guilt- all the greater then the hostility!


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The watchman of Ephraim is with my God: it is the prophet- and a fowler's trap is placed on all his paths; and in the shrine of his God there is enmity towards him.


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They have become deeply corrupt as in the days of Gibeah; he will remember their guilt, he will punish their sins.


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It was like finding grapes in the desert when I found Israel, like seeing early fruit on a fig tree when I saw your ancestors; but when they reached Baal-Peor they devoted themselves to Shame and became as loathsome as the thing they loved.


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If they rear their children, I shall take them away before they grow up! Woe to them indeed when I leave them!


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Ephraim looked to me like Tyre, planted in a meadow, so Ephraim will present his children to the slaughterer.


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Their wickedness appeared in full at Gilgal, there I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I shall drive them from my home, I shall love them no longer; all their princes are rebels.


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Ephraim is blasted, their root has dried out, they will bear no more fruit. And even if they do bear children I shall slaughter the darlings of their womb.


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Because they have not listened to him, my God will cast them off and they will become wanderers among the nations.


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Israel was a luxuriant vine yielding plenty of fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; the richer his land became, the richer he made the sacred pillars.


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Theirs is a divided heart; now they will have to pay for it. He himself will hack down their altars and wreck their sacred pillars.


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Then they will say, 'We have no king because we have not feared Yahweh, but what could the king do for us?'


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Speeches are made, oaths sworn to no purpose, agreements concluded, and so-called justice spreads like a poisonous weed along the furrows of the fields!


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Samaria's citizens will tremble for the calf of Beth-Aven; the people there will mourn for it, so will its idol-priests, as they exult in its glory once it has been carried away!


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It will be carried off to Assyria as tribute to the Great King. Ephraim will reap the shame, and Israel blush for his intentions.


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The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; thorns and thistles will grow over their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, 'Cover us!' and to the hills, 'Fall on us!'


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Since the days of Gibeah, Israel, you have sinned. There they have taken their stand, and will not war overtake the guilty at Gibeah?


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Ephraim is a well-trained heifer that loves to tread the grain. But I have laid a yoke on her fine neck, I shall put Ephraim into harness, Judah will have to plough, Jacob must draw the harrow.


text:
Sow saving justice for yourselves, reap a harvest of faithful love; break up your fallow ground: it is time to seek out Yahweh until he comes to rain saving justice down on you.


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You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of falsehood. Because you have trusted in your chariots, in your great numbers of warriors,


text:
turmoil is going to break out among your people, and all your fortresses will be laid waste. As Shalman laid Beth-Arbel waste on the day of battle, dashing mothers to pieces on their children,


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so it shall be done to you, Bethel, because of your great wickedness; at dawn, the king of Israel will be no more.


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But the more I called, the further they went away from me; they offered sacrifice to Baal and burnt incense to idols.


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I myself taught Ephraim to walk, I myself took them by the arm, but they did not know that I was the one caring for them,


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that I was leading them with human ties, with leading-strings of love, that, with them, I was like someone lifting an infant to his cheek, and that I bent down to feed him.


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He will not have to go back to Egypt, Assyria will be his king instead! Since he has refused to come back to me,


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the sword will rage through his cities, destroying the bars of his gates, devouring them because of their plots.


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My people are bent on disregarding me; if they are summoned to come up, not one of them makes a move.


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Ephraim, how could I part with you? Israel, how could I give you up? How could I make you like Admah or treat you like Zeboiim? My heart within me is overwhelmed, fever grips my inmost being.


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I will not give rein to my fierce anger, I will not destroy Ephraim again, for I am God, not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I shall not come to you in anger.


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They will follow Yahweh; he will roar like a lion, and when he roars, his children will come fluttering from the west,


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fluttering like sparrows from Egypt, like pigeons from Assyria, and I shall settle them in their homes -declares Yahweh.


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Ephraim besieges me with lying, the House of Israel with duplicity. (But Judah still is on God's side, he is faithful to the Holy One.)


text:
Ephraim feeds himself on wind, all day he chases the wind from the East, he heaps up cheating and violence; they make a treaty with Assyria, at the same time sending oil to Egypt.


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Yahweh has a case against Judah, he will punish Jacob as his conduct merits, he will repay him as his deeds deserve.


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He wrestled with the angel and beat him, he wept and pleaded with him. He met him at Bethel and there God spoke to us-


text:
So turn back with God's help, maintain faithful love and loyalty and always put your trust in your God.


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'How rich I have become!' says Ephraim, 'I have made a fortune.' But of all his gains he will keep nothing because of the sin of which he is guilty.


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But I have been Yahweh your God since your days in Egypt and will make you live in tents again as in the days of Meeting.


text:
I will speak through prophets, I will give vision after vision and through the ministry of prophets will speak in parables.


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Is Gilead a sink of iniquity? Yes, they are a worthless lot! At Gilgal they sacrifice to bulls, that is why their altars are like heaps of stones in a ploughed field.


text:
Jacob fled to the countryside of Aram, Israel slaved to win a wife, to win a wife he looked after sheep.


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Ephraim gave bitter provocation- Yahweh will bring his bloodshed down on him, his Lord will repay him for his insult.


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When Ephraim used to speak, all trembled; he was a power in Israel; but once he had incurred guilt with Baal, he died.


text:
And now they compound their sins by casting images for themselves out of their silver, idols of their own invention, the work of craftsmen, all of it! 'Sacrifice to them,' they say! Men bestow kisses to calves!


text:
That is why they will be like morning mist, like the dew that quickly disappears, like the chaff whirled from the threshing-floor, like smoke escaping through the window.


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But I have been Yahweh your God since your days in Egypt when you knew no god but me, since you had no one else to save you.


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I pastured them, and they were satisfied; once satisfied, their hearts grew proud, and therefore they forgot me.


text:
like a bear robbed of her cubs I shall meet them and rend the membrane of their heart, and there like a lioness I shall eat them, like a wild beast tear them to shreds.


text:
Your king, where is he now, to save you, or the governors in all your cities? - whom you once pleaded for, saying, 'Give me a king and princes!'


text:
Pangs as of childbirth overtake him, and a stupid child he is; his time is due, but he does not leave the womb.


text:
Shall I save them from the clutches of Sheol? Shall I buy them back from Death? Where are your plagues, Death? Where are your scourges, Sheol? Compassion will be banished from my sight!


text:
Though Ephraim bears more fruit than his brothers, the wind from the East will come, Yahweh's breath blowing up from the desert to dry his spring, to dry up his fountain, to strip his treasury of everything worth having.


text:
Samaria will pay the penalty for having rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, their little children will be dashed to pieces and their pregnant women disembowelled.


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Provide yourself with words and come back to Yahweh. Say to him, 'Take all guilt away and give us what is good, instead of bulls we will dedicate to you our lips.


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Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses any more, or say, "Our God!" to our own handiwork, for you are the one in whom orphans find compassion.'


text:
I shall cure them of their disloyalty, I shall love them with all my heart, for my anger has turned away from them.


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I shall fall like dew on Israel, he will bloom like the lily and thrust out roots like the cedar of Lebanon;


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They will come back to live in my shade; they will grow wheat again, they will make the vine flourish, their wine will be as famous as Lebanon's.


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What has Ephraim to do with idols any more when I hear him and watch over him? I am like an evergreen cypress, you owe your fruitfulness to me.


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Let the wise understand these words, let the intelligent grasp their meaning, for Yahweh's ways are straight and the upright will walk in them, but sinners will stumble.


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Listen to this, you elders; everybody in the country, attend! Has anything like this ever happened in your day, or in your ancestors' days?


text:
Tell your children about it and let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation!


text:
What the nibbler has left, the grown locust has eaten, what the grown locust has left, the hopper has eaten, and what the hopper has left, the shearer has eaten.


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Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All you wine-bibbers, lament for the new wine: it has been snatched from your lips.


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For a nation has invaded my country, mighty and innumerable, with teeth like a lion's teeth, with the fangs of a lioness.


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It has reduced my vines to a desolation and my fig trees to splinters, stripped them and broken them down, leaving their branches white.


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Cereal offering and libation are lost to Yahweh's Temple. The priests, the ministers of Yahweh, are in mourning.


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The fields are ruined, the land is in mourning, for the grain has been ruined, the new wine has failed, of olive oil only a trickle.


text:
Stand dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat, for the barley! The harvest of the fields has been lost!


text:
The vine has withered, the fig tree wilts away; pomegranate, palm tree, apple tree, every tree in the countryside is dry, and for human beings joy has run dry too.


text:
Priests, put on sackcloth and lament! You ministers of the altar, wail! Come here, lie in sackcloth all night long, you ministers of my God! For the Temple of your God has been deprived of cereal offering and libation.


text:
Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; you elders, summon everybody in the country to the Temple of Yahweh your God. Cry out to Yahweh:


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Has not the food disappeared before our very eyes? Have not joy and gladness vanished from the Temple of our God?


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The seeds shrivel under their clods; the granaries are deserted, the barns are in ruins, because the harvest has dried out.


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Loudly the cattle groan! The herds of oxen are bewildered because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep bear the punishment too.


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Yahweh, to you I cry: for fire has devoured the desert pastures, flame has burnt up all the trees in the countryside.


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Even the wild animals pant loudly for you, for the watercourses have run dry, and fire has devoured the desert pastures.


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Blow the ram's-horn in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let everybody in the country tremble, for the Day of Yahweh is coming, yes, it is near.


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Day of darkness and gloom, Day of cloud and blackness. Like the dawn, across the mountains spreads a vast and mighty people, such as has never been before, such as will never be again to the remotest ages.


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In their van a fire devours, in their rear a flame consumes. The country is like a garden of Eden ahead of them and a desert waste behind them. Nothing escapes them.


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with a racket like that of chariots they spring over the mountain tops, with a crackling like a blazing fire devouring the stubble, a mighty army in battle array.


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Like fighting men they press forward, like warriors they scale the walls, each marching straight ahead, not turning from his path;


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they never jostle each other, each marches straight ahead: arrows fly, they still press forward, never breaking ranks.


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They hurl themselves at the city, they leap onto the walls, swarm up the houses, getting in through the windows like thieves.


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As they come on, the earth quakes, the skies tremble, sun and moon grow dark, the stars lose their brilliance.


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Yahweh's voice rings out at the head of his troops! For mighty indeed is his army, strong, the enforcer of his orders, for great is the Day of Yahweh, and very terrible -- who can face it?


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Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and he relents about inflicting disaster.


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Who knows if he will not come back, relent and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a libation to be presented to Yahweh your God?


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call the people together, summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even infants at the breast! Call the bridegroom from his bedroom and the bride from her bower!


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Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, stand weeping between portico and altar, saying, 'Spare your people, Yahweh! Do not expose your heritage to the contempt, to the sarcasm of the nations! Why give the peoples cause to say, "Where is their God?" '


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Yahweh said in answer to his people, 'Now I shall send you wheat, wine and olive oil until you have enough. Never again will I expose you to the contempt of the nations.


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I shall take the northerner far away from you and drive him into an arid, desolate land, his vanguard to the eastern sea, his rearguard to the western sea. He will give off a stench, he will give off a foul stink (for what he made bold to do).'


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Wild animals, do not be afraid; the desert pastures are green again, the trees bear fruit, vine and fig tree yield their richness.


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Sons of Zion, be glad, rejoice in Yahweh your God; for he has given you autumn rain as justice demands, and he will send the rains down for you, the autumn and spring rain as of old.


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'I will make up to you for the years devoured by grown locust and hopper, by shearer and young locust, my great army which I sent to invade you.


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'You will eat to your heart's content, and praise the name of Yahweh your God who has treated you so wonderfully. (My people will never be humiliated again!)


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'And you will know that I am among you in Israel, I, Yahweh your God, and no one else. My people will never be humiliated again!'


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'After this I shall pour out my spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old people shall dream dreams, and your young people see visions.


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The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the Day comes, that great and terrible Day.


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All who call on the name of Yahweh will be saved, for on Mount Zion will be those who have escaped, as Yahweh has said, and in Jerusalem a remnant whom Yahweh is calling.


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I shall gather all the nations together and take them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; there I shall put them on trial because of Israel, my people and my heritage, for having scattered them among the nations and having divided my land among themselves.


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'And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Can you take revenge on me? If you take revenge on me, I shall quickly, instantly, make your revenge recoil on your own heads


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and for having sold the children of Judah and Jerusalem to the Ionians, to be taken far away from their own frontiers.


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Look, I shall rouse them from the places to which you have sold them; I shall make your actions recoil on your own heads


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by selling your sons and daughters to the sons of Judah, who in turn will sell them to the Sabaeans, to a nation far away- Yahweh has spoken!'


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Proclaim this among the nations. Prepare for war! Rouse the champions! All you troops, advance, march!


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Hammer your ploughshares into swords, your bill-hooks into spears; let the weakling say, 'I am tough!'


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'Let the nations rouse themselves and march to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I shall sit in judgement on all the nations around.


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Ply the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the winepress is full; the vats are overflowing, so great is their wickedness!'


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Multitude on multitude in the Valley of Decision! For the Day of Yahweh is near in the Valley of the Verdict!


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Yahweh roars from Zion, he thunders from Jerusalem; heaven and earth tremble. But Yahweh will be a shelter for his people, a stronghold for the Israelites.


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'Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God residing on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will then be a sanctuary, no foreigners will overrun it ever again.'


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When that Day comes, the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk, and all the stream-beds of Judah will run with water. A fountain will spring from Yahweh's Temple and water the Gorge of the Acacias.


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Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom a desert waste on account of the violence done to the children of Judah whose innocent blood they shed in their country.


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Words of Amos one of the shepherds of Tekoa. The visions he had about Israel, in the time of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.


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He said: Yahweh roars from Zion, and makes himself heard from Jerusalem; the shepherds' pastures mourn, and the crown of Carmel dries up.


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Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Damascus, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have threshed Gilead with iron threshing-sledges,


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I shall break the gate-bar of Damascus, I shall destroy the inhabitant of Bikath-Aven, the holder of the sceptre in Beth-Eden, and the people of Aram will be deported to Kir, Yahweh says.


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Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Gaza, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have deported entire nations as slaves to Edom,


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I shall destroy the inhabitant of Ashdod, the holder of the sceptre in Ashkelon; I shall turn my hand against Ekron and the remnant of the Philistines will perish, says the Lord Yahweh.


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Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Tyre, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have handed hosts of captives over to Edom, heedless of a covenant of brotherhood,


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Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Edom, I have made my decree and will not relent: because he has pursued his brother with the sword, because he has stifled any sense of pity, and perpetually nursed his anger and constantly cherished his rage,


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Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of the Ammonites, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have disembowelled the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend their own frontiers,


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I shall light a fire against the walls of Rabbah to devour its palaces amid war cries on the day of battle, in a whirlwind on the day of storm,


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Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Moab, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have burnt the bones of the king of Edom to ash,


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I shall send fire down into Moab to devour the palaces of Kerioth, and Moab will die in the tumult, amid war cries and the blare of trumpets;


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Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Judah, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have despised Yahweh's law and not kept his commandments, since their Falsehoods, which their ancestors followed, have led them astray,


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Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Israel, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have sold the upright for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals,


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because they have crushed the heads of the weak into the dust and thrust the rights of the oppressed to one side, father and son sleeping with the same girl and thus profaning my holy name,


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lying down beside every altar on clothes acquired as pledges, and drinking the wine of the people they have fined in the house of their god.


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Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, he who was as tall as the cedars, as strong as the oaks; I who destroyed his fruit above ground and his roots below.


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It was I who brought you up from Egypt and for forty years led you through the desert to take possession of the Amorite's country;


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I who raised up prophets from your sons and Nazirites from your young men. Israelites, is this not true? -declares Yahweh!


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flight will be cut off for the swift, the strong will have no chance to exert his strength nor the warrior be able to save his life;


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the archer will not stand his ground, the swift of foot will not escape, nor will the horseman save his life;


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Listen, Israelites, to this prophecy which Yahweh pronounces against you, against the whole family which I brought up from Egypt:


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You alone have I intimately known of all the families of earth, that is why I shall punish you for all your wrong-doings.


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Does the lion roar in the forest if it has no prey? Does the young lion growl in his lair if it has caught nothing?


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Does a bird fall on the ground in a net unless a trap has been set for it? Will the net spring up from the ground without catching something?


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Does the trumpet sound in the city without the people being alarmed? Does misfortune come to a city if Yahweh has not caused it?


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From the palace roofs of Assyria and from the palace roofs of Egypt, proclaim aloud, 'Assemble on the hills of Samaria and observe the grave disorders inside her and the acts of oppression there!'


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Little they know of right conduct -declares Yahweh- who cram their palaces with violence and extortion.


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This is why -- Lord Yahweh says this- an enemy will soon besiege the land, he will bring down your strength and your palaces will be looted.


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Yahweh says this: As the shepherd rescues two legs or the tip of an ear from the lion's mouth, so will the children of Israel be salvaged who now loll in Samaria in the corners of their beds, on their divans of Damascus.


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the day when I punish Israel for his crimes I shall also punish the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be hacked off and will fall to the ground.


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I shall blast winter house with summer house, ivory houses will be destroyed and many mansions cease to be -declares Yahweh.


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Listen to this saying, you cows of Bashan living on the hill of Samaria, exploiting the weak and ill-treating the poor, saying to your husbands, 'Bring us something to drink!'


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The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: Look, the days will soon be on you when he will use hooks to drag you away and fish-hooks for the very last of you;


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through the breaches in the wall you will leave, each one straight ahead, and be herded away towards Hermon -declares Yahweh.


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Go to Bethel, and sin, to Gilgal, and sin even harder! Bring your sacrifices each morning, your tithes every third day,


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burn your thank-offering of leaven and widely publicise your free-will offerings, for this, children of Israel, is what makes you happy -declares the Lord Yahweh.


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I even gave you clean teeth in all your towns and a shortage of food in all your villages and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.


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I even withheld the rain from you full three months before harvest-time; I caused rain to fall in one town and caused no rain to fall in another; one field was rained on and the next for want of rain dried up;


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two towns, three towns went tottering to one town for water to drink but went unsatisfied, and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.


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I struck you with blight and mildew, I dried up your gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig trees and olive trees and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.


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I sent plague on you like Egypt's plague, I slaughtered your young men with the sword and at the same time your horses were captured; I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.


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I overturned you as God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah; you were like a brand snatched from the blaze and still you would not come back to me -declares Yahweh.


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So this, Israel, is what I plan to do to you. Because I am going to do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God!


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For look, he it is who forges the mountains, creates the wind, who reveals his mind to humankind, changes the dawn into darkness and strides on the heights of the world: Yahweh, God Sabaoth, is his name.


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She has fallen down, never to rise again, the virgin Israel. There she lies on her own soil, with no one to lift her up.


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For Lord Yahweh says this: The town which used to put a thousand in the field will be left with a hundred, and the one which used to put a hundred will be left with ten, to fight for the House of Israel.


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but do not seek out Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal is going into captivity and Bethel will be brought to nothing.


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Seek out Yahweh and you will survive or else he will sweep like fire upon the House of Joseph and burn it down, with no one at Bethel able to quench the flames.


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He it is who makes the Pleiades and Orion, who turns shadow dark as death into morning and day to darkest night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the surface of the land. Yahweh is his name.


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For trampling on the poor man and for extorting levies on his wheat: although you have built houses of dressed stone, you will not live in them; although you have planted pleasant vineyards, you will not drink wine from them:


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for I know how many your crimes are and how outrageous your sins, you oppressors of the upright, who hold people to ransom and thrust the poor aside at the gates.


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Seek good and not evil so that you may survive, and Yahweh, God Sabaoth, be with you as you claim he is.


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Hate evil, love good, let justice reign at the city gate: it may be that Yahweh, God Sabaoth, will take pity on the remnant of Joseph.


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Therefore Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord, says this: In every public square there will be lamentation, in every street they will cry out, 'Alas! Alas!' The farmer will be called on to mourn, the professional mourners to lament,


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Disaster for you who long for the Day of Yahweh! What will the Day of Yahweh mean for you? It will mean darkness, not light,


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as when someone runs away from a lion, only to meet a bear; he goes into his house and puts his hand on the wall, only for a snake to bite him.


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When you bring me burnt offerings . . . your oblations, I do not accept them and I do not look at your communion sacrifices of fat cattle.


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Now you must shoulder Sakkuth your king and the star of your God, Kaiwan, those idols you made for yourselves;


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Disaster for those so comfortable in Zion and for those so confident on the hill of Samaria, the notables of this first of nations, those to whom the House of Israel has recourse!


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Travel to Calneh and look, go on from there to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they more powerful than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?


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Lying on ivory beds and sprawling on their divans, they dine on lambs from the flock, and stall-fattened veal;


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they drink wine by the bowlful, and lard themselves with the finest oils, but for the ruin of Joseph they care nothing.


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That is why they will now go into captivity, heading the column of captives. The sprawlers' revelry is over.


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Lord Yahweh has sworn by his own self -declares Yahweh, God Sabaoth: I detest the pride of Jacob, I hate his palaces, I shall hand over the city and all in it.


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and a few will be left to carry the bones from the house, and they will say to anyone deep inside the house, 'Any more there?' and he will answer, 'No.' Then he will say, 'Hush!-Yahweh's name must not be mentioned.'


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For look, Yahweh gives the command: as he strikes, the great house falls to pieces and the small house is in fragments.


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Can horses gallop over rocks? Can the sea be ploughed with oxen? Yet you have changed justice into poison, and the fruit of uprightness into wormwood,


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But look, House of Israel, against you -declares Yahweh, God Sabaoth- I am raising a nation to oppress you from the Pass of Hamath to the Gorge of the Arabah.


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This is what Lord Yahweh showed me: there was a swarm of locusts when the second crop was sprouting, full-grown locusts, after the king's hay had been cut.


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When they had eaten all the grass in the land, I said, 'Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you. How can Jacob survive, being so small?'


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This is what Lord Yahweh showed me: Lord Yahweh summoning fire in punishment; it had devoured the great Abyss and was encroaching on the land,


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'What do you see, Amos?' Yahweh asked me. 'A plumb-line,' I said. Then the Lord said, 'Look, I am going to put a plumb-line in among my people Israel; never again will I overlook their offences.


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The high places of Isaac will be ruined and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste, and, sword in hand, I will attack the House of Jeroboam.'


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Amaziah the priest of Bethel then sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel as follows, 'Amos is plotting against you in the heart of the House of Israel; the country cannot tolerate his speeches.


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For this is what Amos says, "Jeroboam is going to die by the sword, and Israel will go into captivity far from its native land." '


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To Amos himself Amaziah said, 'Go away, seer, take yourself off to Judah, earn your living there, and there you can prophesy!


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'I am not a prophet,' Amos replied to Amaziah, 'nor do I belong to a prophetic brotherhood. I am merely a herdsman and dresser of sycamore-figs.


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But Yahweh took me as I followed the flock, and Yahweh said to me, "Go and prophesy to my people Israel."


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So now listen to what Yahweh says: "You say: Do not prophesy against Israel, do not foretell doom on the House of Isaac!"


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Very well, this is what Yahweh says, "Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets, your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parcelled out by measuring line, and you yourself will die on polluted soil and Israel will go into captivity far from its own land!" '


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'What do you see, Amos?' he asked. 'A basket of ripe fruit,' I said. Then Yahweh said, 'The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will not continue to overlook their offences.


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That day, the palace songs will turn to howls, -declares the Lord Yahweh- the corpses will be many that are thrown down everywhere. Keep silent!'


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you who say, 'When will New Moon be over so that we can sell our corn, and Sabbath, so that we can market our wheat? Then, we can make the bushel-measure smaller and the shekel-weight bigger, by fraudulently tampering with the scales.


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We can buy up the weak for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, and even get a price for the sweepings of the wheat.'


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Will not the earth tremble for this and all who live on it lament, as it all rises together like the Nile in Egypt, it swells and then subsides like the Egyptian Nile?


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'On that Day- declares the Lord Yahweh- I shall make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.


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I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your singing into lamentation; I shall make you all wear sacking round your waists and have all your heads shaved. I shall make it like the mourning for an only child, and it will end like the bitterest of days.


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'The days are coming- declares the Lord Yahweh- when I shall send a famine on the country, not hunger for food, not thirst for water, but famine for hearing Yahweh's word.


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People will stagger from sea to sea, will wander from the north to the east, searching for Yahweh's word, but will not find it.


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The people who swear by the Sin of Samaria, who say, "Long live your god, Dan!" and "Hurrah for the pilgrimage to Beersheba!" will all fall, never to rise again.'


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I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said, 'Strike the top of the pillar so that the thresholds shake! Smash their heads in, one and all! And I shall put any survivors to the sword; whoever runs away will not run far, whoever escapes will not make good his escape.


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Should they burrow into Sheol, my hand will haul them out; should they climb to heaven, I shall bring them down.


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Should they hide on the top of Carmel, I shall track them down and catch them; should they hide from me on the sea bed, I shall order the Serpent there to bite them;


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if their enemies herd them into captivity, I shall order the sword to kill them there, and I shall fix my eyes on them for evil and not for good.'


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Lord Yahweh Sabaoth- he touches the earth and it melts, and all living things on it lament, as all rises together like the Nile in Egypt and then subsides like the Egyptian Nile.


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He who builds his mansions in the heavens, supporting his vault on the earth; who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the surface of the land: Yahweh is his name.


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Are not you and the Cushites all the same to me, children of Israel? - declares Yahweh. Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Aramaeans from Kir?


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Look, Lord Yahweh's eyes are on the sinful kingdom, I shall wipe it off the face of the earth, although I shall not destroy the House of Jacob completely -declares Yahweh.


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For look, I shall give the command and shall shake out the House of Israel among all nations as a sieve is shaken out without one grain falling on the ground.


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All the sinners of my people will perish by the sword, who say, 'Disaster will never approach or overtake us.'


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On that Day, I shall rebuild the tottering hut of David, make good the gaps in it, restore its ruins and rebuild it as it was in the days of old,


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for them to be master of what is left of Edom and of all the nations once called mine -Yahweh declares, and he will perform it.


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The days are coming- declares Yahweh- when the ploughman will tread on the heels of the reaper, and the treader of grapes on the heels of the sower of seed, and the mountains will run with new wine and the hills all flow with it.


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I shall restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, they will lay out gardens and eat their produce.


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And I shall plant them in their own soil and they will never be uprooted again from the country which I have given them, declares Yahweh, your God.


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Vision of Obadiah: about Edom. I have received a message from Yahweh, a herald has been sent throughout the nations: 'Up! Let us march against this people. Into battle!' The Lord Yahweh says this:


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Your proud heart has misled you, you whose home is in the crannies of the Rock, who make the heights your dwelling, who think to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to earth?'


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Though you soar like an eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, I shall bring you down from there!-declares Yahweh.


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If thieves were to come to you (or robbers during the night) surely they would steal only as much as they wanted? If grape-pickers were to come to you, surely they would leave a few gleanings? But how you have been pillaged!


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Your allies all pursued you right to the frontier, your confederates kept you in suspense, then got the better of you, your own guests laid a trap for you, 'He has quite lost his wits.'


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When that day comes- declares Yahweh- shall I not eliminate sages from Edom and intelligence from Mount Esau?


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Your warriors, Teman, will be so demoralised that the people of Mount Esau will be massacred to the last one. For the slaughter,


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for the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you and you will be annihilated for ever.


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On the day, when you stood aloof while strangers carried off his riches, while foreigners passed through his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were as bad as the rest of them.


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Do not feast your eyes on your brother on the day of his misfortune. Do not gloat over the children of Judah on the day of their ruin. Do not play the braggart on the day of distress.


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Do not enter my people's gate on their day of calamity. Do not, you especially, feast your eyes on their suffering on their day of calamity. Do not touch their possessions on their day of calamity.


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Do not wait at the crossroads to annihilate their fugitives. Do not hand over their survivors on the day of distress.


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For the Day of Yahweh is near for all the nations. As you have done, so will it be done to you: your deeds will recoil on your own head.


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Just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually, they will drink, will drink greedily, but they will be as though they had never been!


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But on Mount Zion will be those who have escaped -it will be a sanctuary- and the House of Jacob will recover what is rightfully theirs.


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Then the House of Jacob will be a fire, the House of Joseph a flame, and the House of Esau like stubble. They will set it alight and burn it up, and no one of the House of Esau will survive. Yahweh has spoken.


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People from the Negeb will occupy the Mount of Esau, people from the lowlands the country of the Philistines; they will occupy Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will occupy Gilead.


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The exiles of this army, the sons of Israel, will have the Canaanites' land as far as Zarephthah, while the exiles from Jerusalem now in Sepharad will have the cities of the Negeb.


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'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to them that their wickedness has forced itself upon me.'


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Jonah set about running away from Yahweh, and going to Tarshish. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship bound for Tarshish; he paid his fare and boarded it, to go with them to Tarshish, to get away from Yahweh.


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But Yahweh threw a hurricane at the sea, and there was such a great storm at sea that the ship threatened to break up.


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The sailors took fright, and each of them called on his own god, and to lighten the ship they threw the cargo overboard. Jonah, however, had gone below, had lain down in the hold and was fast asleep,


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when the boatswain went up to him and said, 'What do you mean by sleeping? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps he will spare us a thought and not leave us to die.'


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Then they said to each other, 'Come on, let us draw lots to find out who is to blame for bringing us this bad luck.' So they cast lots, and the lot pointed to Jonah.


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Then they said to him, 'Tell us, what is your business? Where do you come from? What is your country? What is your nationality?'


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The sailors were seized with terror at this and said, 'Why ever did you do this?' since they knew that he was trying to escape from Yahweh, because he had told them so.


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They then said, 'What are we to do with you, to make the sea calm down for us?' For the sea was growing rougher and rougher.


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He replied, 'Take me and throw me into the sea, and then it will calm down for you. I know it is my fault that this great storm has struck you.'


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The sailors rowed hard in an effort to reach the shore, but in vain, since the sea was growing rougher and rougher.


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So at last they called on Yahweh and said, 'O, Yahweh, do not let us perish for the sake of this man's life, and do not hold us responsible for causing an innocent man's death; for you, Yahweh, have acted as you saw fit.'


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At this, the men were seized with dread of Yahweh; they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows to him.


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Now Yahweh ordained that a great fish should swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.


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Out of my distress I cried to Yahweh and he answered me, from the belly of Sheol I cried out; you heard my voice!


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For you threw me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods closed round me. All your waves and billows passed over me;


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To the roots of the mountains, I sank into the underworld, and its bars closed round me for ever. But you raised my life from the Pit, Yahweh my God!


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When my soul was growing ever weaker, Yahweh, I remembered you, and my prayer reached you in your holy Temple.


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but I shall sacrifice to you with songs of praise. The vow I have made I shall fulfil! Salvation comes from Yahweh!


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Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare; to cross it took three days.


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Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city and then proclaimed, 'Only forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.'


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And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least.


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When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes.


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He then had it proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles, as follows: 'No person or animal, herd or flock, may eat anything; they may not graze, they may not drink any water.


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All must put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil ways and violent behaviour.


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Who knows? Perhaps God will change his mind and relent and renounce his burning wrath, so that we shall not perish.'


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God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster which he had threatened to bring on them, and did not bring it.


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He prayed to Yahweh and said, 'Please, Yahweh, isn't this what I said would happen when I was still in my own country? That was why I first tried to flee to Tarshish, since I knew you were a tender, compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, who relents about inflicting disaster.


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Jonah then left the city and sat down to the east of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city.


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Yahweh God then ordained that a castor-oil plant should grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head and soothe his ill-humour; Jonah was delighted with the castor-oil plant.


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But at dawn the next day, God ordained that a worm should attack the castor-oil plant -- and it withered.


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Next, when the sun rose, God ordained that there should be a scorching east wind; the sun beat down so hard on Jonah's head that he was overcome and begged for death, saying, 'I might as well be dead as go on living.'


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God said to Jonah, 'Are you right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?' He replied, 'I have every right to be angry, mortally angry!'


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Yahweh replied, 'You are concerned for the castor-oil plant which has not cost you any effort and which you did not grow, which came up in a night and has perished in a night.


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So why should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals?'


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The word of Yahweh which came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah. His visions about Samaria and Jerusalem.


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Listen, all you peoples, attend, earth and everyone on it! Yahweh intends to give evidence against you, the Lord, from his holy temple.


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Beneath him, the mountains melt, and valleys are torn open, like wax near a fire, like water pouring down a slope.


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All this is because of the crime of Jacob, the sin of the House of Israel. What is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? What is the sin of the House of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?


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So I shall make Samaria a ruin in the open country, a place for planting vines. I shall send her stones rolling into the valley, until I have laid her foundations bare.


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All her images will be shattered, all her earnings consumed by fire. I shall leave all her idols derelict- they were amassed out of prostitutes' earnings and prostitutes' earnings once more they will be.


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This is why I shall howl and wail, why I shall go barefoot and naked, why I shall howl like the jackals, why I shall shriek like the owls;


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for there is no cure for the wounds that Yahweh inflicts: the blow falls on Judah, it falls on the gateway of my people, on Jerusalem itself.


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Sound the horn, inhabitant of Shaphir! She has not left her city, she who lives in Zaanan. Beth-Ezel is torn from its foundations, from its strong supports.


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What hope has she of happiness, she who lives in Maroth? Instead Yahweh sent down disaster on the gateway of Jerusalem itself!


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Harness the horse to the chariot, you inhabitant of Lachish! That is where the sin of the daughter of Zion began; the crimes of Israel can be traced to you!


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And so you must provide a dowry for Moresheth-Gath. Beth-Achzib will prove a disappointment for the kings of Israel.


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The plunderer will come to you again, you citizen of Mareshah! And into Adullam will vanish the glory of Israel.


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Off with your hair, shave your head, for the children that were your joy. Make yourselves bald like the vulture, for they have left you for exile.


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Disaster for those who plot evil, who lie in bed planning mischief! No sooner is it dawn than they do it, since they have the power to do so.


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Seizing the fields that they covet, they take over houses as well, owner and house they seize alike, the man himself as well as his inheritance.


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So Yahweh says this: Look, I am now plotting a disaster for this breed from which you will not extricate your necks; you will not hold your heads up then, for the times will be disastrous indeed.


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That day they will make a satire on you, they will strike up a dirge and say, 'We have been stripped of everything; my people's land has been divided up, no one else can restore it to them, our fields have been awarded to our despoiler.'


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'Can the House of Jacob be accursed? Has Yahweh grown short-tempered? Is that his way of going to work? His prophecies can only be favourable for his people Israel!'


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But you are the ones who play the enemy to my people. From the inoffensive man you snatch his cloak, on those who feel safe you inflict the damage of war.


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My people's women you evict from the homes they love, and deprive the children of my glory for ever,


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saying, 'Up and off with you! You can't stay here!' For a worthless thing you exact an extortionate pledge.


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If a man of the spirit came and invented this lie, 'I prophesy wine and liquor for you,' he would be the prophet for a people like this.


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I shall assemble the whole of Jacob, I shall gather the remnant of Israel, I shall gather them together like sheep in an enclosure. And like a flock within their fold, they will bleat far away from anyone,


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their leader will break out first, then all break out through the gate and escape, with their king leading the way and with Yahweh at their head.


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Then I said, 'Kindly listen, you leaders of the House of Jacob, you princes of the House of Israel. Surely you are the ones who ought to know what is right,


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and yet you hate what is good and love what is evil, skinning people alive, pulling the flesh off their bones,


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eating my people's flesh, stripping off their skin, breaking up their bones, chopping them up small like flesh for the pot, like meat in the stew-pan?'


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Then they will call to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. When the time comes he will hide his face from them because of the crimes they have committed.


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Yahweh says this against the prophets who lead my people astray: So long as they have something to eat they cry 'Peace'. But on anyone who puts nothing into their mouths they declare war.


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And so, for you, night will be without vision and for you the darkness without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, the daylight will go black above them.


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Then the seers will be covered with shame, the diviners with confusion; they will all put their hands over their mouths because there is no answer from God.


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Not so with me, I am full of strength (full of Yahweh's spirit), of the sense of right, of energy to accuse Jacob of his crime and Israel of his sin.


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Kindly listen to this, you leaders of the House of Jacob, you princes of the House of Israel, who detest justice, wresting it from its honest course,


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Her leaders give verdicts for presents, her priests take a fee for their rulings, her prophets divine for money and yet they rely on Yahweh! 'Isn't Yahweh among us?' they say, 'No disaster is going to overtake us.'


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That is why, thanks to you, Zion will become ploughland, Jerusalem a heap of rubble and the Temple Mount a wooded height.


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But in days to come Yahweh's Temple Mountain will tower above the mountains, rise higher than the hills.


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Then the peoples will stream to it, then many nations will come and say, 'Come, we will go up to Yahweh's mountain, to the Temple of the God of Jacob, so that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths; for the Law issues from Zion and Yahweh's word from Jerusalem.'


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He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate between mighty nations. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into bill-hooks. Nation will not lift sword against nation or ever again be trained to make war.


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But each man will sit under his vine and fig tree with no one to trouble him. The mouth of Yahweh Sabaoth has spoken.


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For all peoples go forward, each in the name of its god, while we go forward in the name of Yahweh our God for ever and ever.


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That day -- declares Yahweh- I shall gather in the lame and bring together the strays and those whom I have treated harshly.


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From the footsore I shall make a remnant, and from the far-flung a mighty nation. And Yahweh will reign over them on Mount Zion thenceforth and for ever.


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And to you, Tower of the Flock, Ophel of the daughter of Zion, to you your former sovereignty will return, the royal power of the daughter of Jerusalem.


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Why are you crying out now? Have you no king? Has your counsellor perished, for pangs to grip you like those of a woman in labour?


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Writhe in pain and cry aloud, daughter of Zion, like a woman in labour, for now you must leave the city and camp in the open country; to Babylon you must go, and there you will be rescued; there Yahweh will ransom you from the clutches of your enemies.


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Now many nations have mustered against you. They say, 'Let us desecrate her, let us gloat over Zion!'


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But they do not know Yahweh's thoughts, they do not understand his design: he has collected them like sheaves on the threshing-floor.


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Start your threshing, daughter of Zion, for I shall make your horn like iron, I shall make your hooves like bronze, so that you can crush many peoples. And you will devote what they have stolen to Yahweh, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.


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Now look to your fortifications, Fortress! They have laid siege to us; the ruler of Israel will be struck on the cheek with a rod.


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But you (Bethlehem) Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah, from you will come for me a future ruler of Israel whose origins go back to the distant past, to the days of old.


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Hence Yahweh will abandon them only until she who is in labour gives birth, and then those who survive of his race will be reunited to the Israelites.


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He will take his stand and he will shepherd them with the power of Yahweh, with the majesty of the name of his God, and they will be secure, for his greatness will extend henceforth to the most distant parts of the country.


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He himself will be peace! Should the Assyrian invade our country, should he set foot in our land, we shall raise seven shepherds against him, eight leaders of men;


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they will shepherd Assyria with the sword, the country of Nimrod with naked blade. He will save us from the Assyrian, should he invade our country, should he set foot inside our frontiers.


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Then what is left of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, will be like a dew from Yahweh, like showers on the grass, which do not depend on human agency and are beyond human control.


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Then what is left of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, will be like a lion among the forest beasts, like a fierce lion among flocks of sheep trampling as he goes, mangling his prey which no one takes from him.


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When that day comes- declares Yahweh- I shall tear your horses away from you, I shall destroy your chariots;


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I shall tear away your images and your sacred pillars from among you, and no longer will you worship things which your own hands have made!


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Now listen to what Yahweh says: 'Stand up, state your case to the mountains and let the hills hear what you have to say!'


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Listen, mountains, to the case as Yahweh puts it, give ear, you foundations of the earth, for Yahweh has a case against his people and he will argue it with Israel.


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For I brought you up from Egypt, I ransomed you from the place of slave-labour and sent Moses, Aaron and Miriam to lead you.


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My people, please remember: what was Balak king of Moab's plan and how did Balaam son of Beor answer him? . . . from Shittim to Gilgal, for you to know Yahweh's saving justice.


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'With what shall I enter Yahweh's presence and bow down before God All-high? Shall I enter with burnt offerings, with calves one year old?


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Will he be pleased with rams by the thousand, with ten thousand streams of oil? Shall I offer my eldest son for my wrong-doing, the child of my own body for my sin?


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'You have already been told what is right and what Yahweh wants of you. Only this, to do what is right, to love loyalty and to walk humbly with your God.'


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You will eat but not be satisfied; you will store up but never keep safe; what you do keep safe I shall hand over to the sword;


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you will sow but will not reap, press the olive but will not rub yourself with oil, tread the grape but will not drink the wine.


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'For you keep the laws of Omri; what the House of Ahab did, you have done; by modelling yourselves on their standards, you force me to make an appalling example of you and reduce your citizens to a laughing-stock; hence you will endure the scorn of other peoples.'


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How wretched I am, a harvester in summer time, like a gleaner at the vintage: not a single cluster to eat, none of those early figs I love!


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The faithful have vanished from the land: there is no one honest left. All of them are on the alert for blood, every man hunting his brother with a net.


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Their hands are adept at wrong-doing: the official makes his demands, the judge gives judgement for a bribe, the man in power pronounces as he pleases.


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The best of them is like a briar, the most honest of them like a thorn-hedge. Now from the north their punishment approaches! That will be when they are confounded!


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Trust no neighbour, put no confidence in a friend; do not open your mouth to the wife who shares your bed.


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For son insults father, daughter rebels against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law; a person's enemies come from within the household itself.


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Do not gloat over me, my enemy: though I have fallen, I shall rise; though I live in darkness, Yahweh is my light.


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I must endure Yahweh's anger for I have sinned against him, until he takes up my cause and rights my wrongs; he will bring me out into the light, and then I shall contemplate his saving justice.


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When my enemy sees this, she will be covered with shame, having sneered, 'Where is Yahweh your God?' This time, I shall be watching as she is trampled underfoot like mud in the streets.


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The day when others come to you all the way from Assyria, from Egypt, from Tyre and all the way from the Euphrates, from sea to sea, from the mountains to the mountains!


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With shepherd's crook lead your people to pasture, the flock that is your heritage, living confined in a forest with meadow land all round. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old!


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The nations will see and be confounded in spite of all their power; they will put their hands over their mouths, their ears will be deafened.


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They will lick the dust like snakes, like reptiles that crawl on the earth. They will creep trembling out of their lairs, in terror before you.


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What god can compare with you for pardoning guilt and for overlooking crime? He does not harbour anger for ever, since he delights in showing faithful love.


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Grant Jacob your faithfulness, and Abraham your faithful love, as you swore to our ancestors from the days of long ago.


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Yahweh is a jealous and vengeful God, Yahweh takes vengeance, he is rich in wrath; Yahweh takes vengeance on his foes, he stores up fury for his enemies.


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Yahweh is slow to anger but great in power, Yahweh never lets evil go unpunished. In storm and whirlwind he takes his way, the clouds are the dust stirred up by his feet.


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He rebukes the sea, dries it up, and makes all the rivers run dry. . . . Bashan and Carmel wither, the greenery of the Lebanon withers too.


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The mountains tremble before him, the hills reel; the earth collapses before him, the world and all who live in it.


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His fury -- who can withstand it? Who can endure his burning wrath? His anger pours out like fire and the rocks break apart before him.


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even when the flood rushes on; he will make an end once and for all of those who defy him, and pursue his foes into darkness.


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What are your thoughts about Yahweh? He it is who makes a final end: his adversaries will not rise up a second time;


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Yahweh says this: Unopposed and many though they be, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have made you suffer, I shall make you suffer no more,


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for now I shall break his yoke which presses hard on you and snap your chains. To the king of Nineveh


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As for you, this is Yahweh's decree: You will have no heirs to your name, from the temple of your gods I shall remove carved image and cast image, and I shall devastate your tomb, for you are accursed!


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To Judah See on the mountains the feet of the herald! 'Peace!' he proclaims. Judah, celebrate your feasts, carry out your vows, for Belial will never pass through you again; he has been utterly destroyed.


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The destroyer has advanced on you, guarding the siege-works, watching the road, bracing himself, mustering great strength!


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(For Yahweh has restored the vine of Jacob, yes, the vine of Israel, although the plunderers had plundered them, although they had snapped off their vine-shoots!)


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The shields of his fighting men show red, his warriors are dressed in scarlet; the metal of the chariots sparkles as he prepares for battle; the horsemen are impatient for action;


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the chariots storm through the streets, jostling one another in the squares; they look like blazing flames, like lightning they dash to and fro.


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His captains are called out; stumbling as they go, they speed towards the wall, and the mantelet is put in position.


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and beating their breasts. Nineveh is like a lake, whose waters are draining away. 'Stop! Stop!' But no one turns back.


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'Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!' There is no end to the treasure, a mass of everything you could desire!


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Ravaged, wrecked, ruined! Heart fails and knees give way, anguish is in the loins of all, and every face grows pale!


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Where is the lions' den now, the cave of the lion's whelps, where the lion and lioness walked with their cubs and no one molested them,


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where the lion would tear up food for his whelps and strangle the kill for his mates, where he filled his caverns with prey and his lairs with spoil?


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Look, I am against you!- declares Yahweh Sabaoth- I shall send your chariots up in smoke, and the sword will devour your whelps; I shall cut short your depredations on earth, and the voices of your envoys will be heard no more.


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Disaster to the city of blood, packed throughout with lies, stuffed with booty, where plundering has no end!


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charging cavalry, flashing swords, gleaming spears, a mass of wounded, hosts of dead, countless corpses; they stumble over corpses-


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because of the countless whorings of the harlot, the graceful beauty, the cunning witch, who enslaved nations by her harlotries and tribes by her spells.


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Look, I am against you!- declares Yahweh Sabaoth- I shall lift your skirts as high as your face and show your nakedness to the nations, your shame to the kingdoms.


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Then all who look at you will shrink from you and say, 'Nineveh has been ruined!' Who will mourn for her? Where would I find people to comfort you?


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Are you better off than No-Amon situated among rivers, her defences the seas, her rampart the waters?


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In Ethiopia and Egypt lay her strength, and it was boundless; Put and the Libyans served in her army.


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But she too went into exile, into captivity; her little ones too were dashed to pieces at every crossroad; lots were drawn for her nobles, all her great men were put in chains.


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You too will become drunk, you will go into hiding; you too will have to search for a refuge from the enemy.


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Your fortifications are all fig trees, with early ripening figs: as soon as they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.


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Look at your people: you are a nation of women! The gates of your country gape open to your enemies; fire has devoured their bars!


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Draw yourselves water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications! Into the mud with you, puddle the clay, repair the brick-kiln!


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There the fire will burn you up, the sword will cut you down. Make yourselves as numerous as locusts, make yourselves as numerous as the hoppers,


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your garrisons, like locusts, and your marshals, like swarms of hoppers! They settle on the walls when the day is cold. The sun appears, the locusts spread their wings, they fly away, away they fly, no one knows where. Alas,


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your shepherds are asleep, king of Assyria, your bravest men slumber; your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.


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There is no remedy for your wound, your injury is past healing. All who hear the news of you clap their hands at your downfall. For who has not felt your unrelenting cruelty?


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How long, Yahweh, am I to cry for help while you will not listen; to cry, 'Violence!' in your ear while you will not save?


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Why do you make me see wrong-doing, why do you countenance oppression? Plundering and violence confront me, contention and discord flourish.


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And so the law loses its grip and justice never emerges, since the wicked outwits the upright and so justice comes out perverted.


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Cast your eyes over the nations, look, and be amazed, astounded. For I am doing something in your own days which you will not believe if you are told of it.


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For look, I am stirring up the Chaldaeans, that fierce and fiery nation who march miles across country to seize the homes of others.


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Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at night; their horsemen gallop on, their horsemen advance from afar, swooping like an eagle anxious to feed.


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They are all bent on violence, their faces scorching like an east wind; they scoop up prisoners like sand.


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They scoff at kings, they despise princes. They make light of all fortresses: they heap up earth and take them.


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Surely you, Yahweh, are from ancient times, my holy God, who never dies! Yahweh, you have appointed him to execute judgement; O Rock, you have set him firm to punish.


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Your eyes are too pure to rest on evil, you cannot look on at oppression. Why do you look on at those who play the traitor, why say nothing while the wicked swallows someone more upright than himself?


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They haul them all up on their hook, they catch them in their net, they sweep them up in their dragnet and then make merry and rejoice.


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And so they offer a sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet, for by these they get a rich living and live off the fat of the land.


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I shall stand at my post, I shall station myself on my watch-tower, watching to see what he will say to me, what answer he will make to my complaints.


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For the vision is for its appointed time, it hastens towards its end and it will not lie; although it may take some time, wait for it, for come it certainly will before too long.


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'You see, anyone whose heart is not upright will succumb, but the upright will live through faithfulness.'


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Now, surely, wealth is treacherous! He is arrogant, for ever on the move, with appetite as large as Sheol and as insatiable as Death, gathering in all the nations, and making a harvest of all peoples.


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Are not the peoples all bound to satirise and make up cryptic riddles about him? As for instance: Disaster to anyone who amasses goods not his (for how long?) and to anyone who weighs himself down with goods taken in pledge!


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Will not your creditors suddenly stand up, will not those who make you shiver wake up, and you will fall a prey to them?


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Since you have plundered many nations, all the nations that remain will plunder you, because of the bloodshed and violence done to the country, to the city and to all who live in it.


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Disaster to anyone who amasses ill-gotten gains for his house, so as to fix his nest on high and so evade the reach of misfortune!


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You have conspired to bring shame on your house: by overthrowing many peoples you have worked your own ruin.


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Is it not thanks to Yahweh Sabaoth that the peoples' toil is fuel for the fire, and the nations' labour came to nothing?


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But the earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the depths of the sea.


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Disaster to anyone who makes his neighbours drink, pouring out his poison until they are drunk, so that he can see them naked!


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You are full of shame, not glory! Your turn now to drink and show your foreskin. The cup in Yahweh's right hand comes round to you, and disgrace will overshadow your glory.


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For the violence done to the Lebanon will overwhelm you and the massacre of animals will terrify you, because of the bloodshed and violence done to the country, to the city and to all who live in it. Disaster to anyone who says to the log, 'Wake up!', to the dumb stone, 'On your feet!' (This is the prophecy!) Look, he is encased in gold and silver, -but not a breath of life inside it!


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What use is a sculpted image that a sculptor should make it? - a metal image, a lying instructor! And why does the image-maker put his trust in it, that he should make dumb idols?


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Yahweh, I have heard of your renown; your work, Yahweh, inspires me with dread. Make it live again in our time, make it known in our time; in wrath remember mercy.


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Eloah comes from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Pause His majesty covers the heavens, and his glory fills the earth.


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When he stands up, he makes the earth tremble, with his glance he makes the nations quake. And the eternal mountains are dislodged, the everlasting hills sink down, his pathway from of old.


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Yahweh, are you enraged with the rivers, are you angry with the sea, that you should mount your chargers, your rescuing chariots?


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You uncover your bow, and give the string its fill of arrows. Pause You drench the soil with torrents;


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the mountains see you and tremble, great floods sweep by, the abyss roars aloud, lifting high its waves.


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Sun and moon stay inside their dwellings, they flee at the light of your arrows, at the flash of your lightning-spear.


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You marched to save your people, to save your anointed one; you wounded the head of the house of the wicked, laid bare the foundation to the rock. Pause


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With your shafts you pierced the leader of his warriors who stormed out with shouts of joy to scatter us, as if they meant to devour some poor wretch in their lair.


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When I heard, I trembled to the core, my lips quivered at the sound; my bones became disjointed and my legs gave way beneath me. Calmly I await the day of anguish which is dawning on the people now attacking us.


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(For the fig tree is not to blossom, nor will the vines bear fruit, the olive crop will disappoint and the fields will yield no food; the sheep will vanish from the fold; no cattle in the stalls.)


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Yahweh my Lord is my strength, he will make my feet as light as a doe's, and set my steps on the heights. For the choirmaster; on stringed instruments.


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The word of Yahweh which was addressed to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah.


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I shall sweep away humans and animals, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, I shall topple the wicked and wipe all people off the face of the earth -declares Yahweh.


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I shall raise my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem, and from this place I will wipe out Baal's remnant, the very name of his priests,


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and those who prostrate themselves on the roofs before the array of heaven, and those who prostrate themselves before Yahweh but swear by Milcom,


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Silence before Lord Yahweh, for the Day of Yahweh is near! Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests.


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On the Day of Yahweh's sacrifice, I shall punish the courtiers, the royal princes and all who dress in outlandish clothes.


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On that day I shall punish all who go up the Step and fill the Temple of their lords, with violence and deceit.


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On that Day -- declares Yahweh -- uproar will be heard from the Fish Gate, wailing from the New Quarter and a great crash from the hills.


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Wail, you who live in the Hollow, for it is all over with the merchants, all the money-bags have been wiped out!


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When that time comes I shall search Jerusalem by lamplight and punish the men stagnating over the remains of their wine, who say in their hearts, 'Yahweh can do nothing, either good or bad.'


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For this, their wealth will be looted and their houses laid in ruins; they will build houses but not live in them, they will plant vineyards but not drink their wine.


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The great Day of Yahweh is near, near, and coming with great speed. How bitter the sound of the Day of Yahweh, the Day when the warrior shouts his cry of war.


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That Day is a day of retribution, a day of distress and tribulation, a day of ruin and of devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick fog,


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I shall bring such distress on humanity that they will grope their way like the blind for having sinned against Yahweh. Their blood will be poured out like mud, yes, their corpses like dung;


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nor will their silver or gold be able to save them. On the Day of Yahweh's anger, by the fire of his jealousy, the whole earth will be consumed. For he will destroy, yes, annihilate everyone living on earth.


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before you are dispersed like chaff which disappears in a day; before Yahweh's burning anger overtakes you (before the Day of Yahweh's anger overtakes you).


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Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the earth, who obey his commands. Seek uprightness, seek humility: you may perhaps find shelter on the Day of Yahweh's anger.


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For Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon reduced to ruins; Ashdod will be driven out in broad daylight and Ekron uprooted.


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Disaster to the members of the coastal league, to the nation of the Cherethites! This is the word of Yahweh against you: I shall subdue you, land of the Philistines, I shall destroy you till there are no inhabitants left;


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and the coastal league will be reduced to pasture land, to grazing grounds for shepherds and folds for sheep;


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and the league will belong to the remnant of the House of Judah; they will pasture their flocks there, at night they will rest in the houses of Ashkelon; for, when Yahweh their God has punished them, he will restore their fortunes.


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I have heard the taunt of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, as they taunted my people and boasted of their own domains.


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For this, as I live -- declares Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel -- Moab will become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah: a realm of nettles, a heap of salt, a desolation for ever. What is left of my people will plunder them, the survivors of my nation will take their heritage.


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This will be the price of their pride for having taunted and boasted over the people of Yahweh Sabaoth.


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Yahweh will be fearsome to them, for he will scatter all the gods of the earth, and they will bow down to him, each from his own place -- all the islands of the nations.


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He will raise his hand against the north and bring Assyria down in ruins; he will make Nineveh a waste, as dry as a desert.


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Flocks will rest inside there, so will wild animals; pelican and porcupine will nest round her cornices at night; the owl will hoot at the window and the raven croak on the doorstep -- for the cedar has been torn down.


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This is what the city will be like, once living happy and carefree and thinking to itself, 'I have no rival -- not I!' And what will it be now? A ruin, a lair for wild beasts to rest in, and everyone who passes by will whistle and throw up his hands.


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She has not listened to the call, she has not bowed to correction, she has not trusted in Yahweh, she has not drawn near to her God.


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The rulers she has are roaring lions, her judges are wolves of the wastelands which leave nothing over for the morning,


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Yahweh the Upright is in her, he does no wrong; morning by morning he gives judgement, each dawn unfailingly (but the wrong-doer knows no shame).


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I have exterminated the nations, their corner-towers lie in ruins; I have emptied their streets, no one walks through them; their cities have been destroyed and are now deserted and unpeopled.


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I thought, 'At least you will fear me, at least you will bow to correction,' and none of the punishments I brought on them will disappear from their view. But no, it only made them more anxious to do whatever was corrupt.


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So wait for me -- declares Yahweh -- for the day when I rise as accuser, for I am determined to gather the nations, to assemble the kingdoms, and on you to vent my fury, the whole heat of my anger (for the whole earth will be devoured by the fire of my jealousy).


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Yes, then I shall purge the lips of the peoples, so that all may invoke the name of Yahweh and serve him shoulder to shoulder.


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When that Day comes you will never again be ashamed of all the deeds with which you once rebelled against me, for I shall rid you of those who exult in your pride; never again will you strut on my holy mountain.


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and those who are left in Israel will take refuge in the name of Yahweh. They will do no wrong, will tell no lies; nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. But they will be able to graze and rest with no one to alarm them.


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Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!


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Yahweh has repealed your sentence; he has turned your enemy away. Yahweh is king among you, Israel, you have nothing more to fear.


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When that Day comes, the message for Jerusalem will be: Zion, have no fear, do not let your hands fall limp.


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Yahweh your God is there with you, the warrior-Saviour. He will rejoice over you with happy song, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you,


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as on a day of festival. I have taken away your misfortune, no longer need you bear the disgrace of it.


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I am taking action here and now against your oppressors. When that time comes I will rescue the lame, and gather the strays, and I will win them praise and renown when I restore their fortunes.


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At that time I shall be your guide, at the time when I gather you in, I shall give you praise and renown among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes under your own eyes, declares Yahweh.


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In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of Yahweh was addressed through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah and to Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest as follows,


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'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "This people says: The time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of Yahweh." '


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You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but feel no warmth. The wage-earner gets his wages only to put them in a bag with a hole in it."


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Go up into the hills, fetch timber and rebuild the House; and I shall take pleasure in it and manifest my glory there -- Yahweh says.


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The abundance you expected proved to be little. When you brought the harvest in, I blasted it. And why? - Yahweh Sabaoth declares. Because while my House lies in ruins, each of you is busy with his own house.


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I have called down drought on land and hills, on grain, on new wine, on olive oil and on all the produce of the ground, on humans and animals and all your labours." '


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Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest and the entire remnant of the people, paid attention to the voice of Yahweh their God and to the words of the prophet Haggai, which Yahweh their God had sent him to deliver. And the people were filled with fear before Yahweh.


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Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, then passed on Yahweh's message to the people, 'I am with you -- declares Yahweh.'


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And Yahweh roused the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah, the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest and the spirit of the entire remnant of the people; they came and set to work in the Temple of Yahweh Sabaoth, their God.


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on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of Yahweh was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows,


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'You are to speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest and to the remnant of the people. Say this,


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"Is there anyone left among you who saw this Temple in its former glory? And how does it look to you now? Does it not seem as though there is nothing there?


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But take courage now, Zerubbabel!-Yahweh declares. Courage, Joshua son of Jehozadak high priest! Courage, all you people of the country!-Yahweh declares. To work! I am with you -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares-


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For Yahweh Sabaoth says this: A little while now, and I shall shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.


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I shall shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will flow in, and I shall fill this Temple with glory, says Yahweh Sabaoth.


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The glory of this new Temple will surpass that of the old, says Yahweh Sabaoth, and in this place I shall give peace -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares." '


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On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh was addressed to the prophet Haggai as follows,


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If someone is carrying consecrated meat in the fold of his gown and allows the fold to touch bread, broth, wine, oil or food of any kind, will that become holy?" ' The priests replied, 'No.'


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Haggai then said, 'If anyone rendered unclean by contact with a corpse touches any of these things, will that become unclean?' The priests replied, 'It will become unclean.'


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Haggai then spoke out. 'It is the same with this people,' he said, 'the same with this nation, in my view -- Yahweh declares -- the same with everything they turn their hands to; and whatever they offer here is unclean.


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'So now think carefully, today and henceforth: before one stone had been laid on another in the sanctuary of Yahweh,


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what state were you in? You would come to a twenty-measure heap and find only ten; you would come to a vat to draw fifty measures and find only twenty.


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Everything you turned your hands to, I struck with wind-blast, mildew and hail, and still you would not return to me -- Yahweh declares.


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So think carefully, today and henceforth (from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of the sanctuary of Yahweh was laid, think carefully)


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if seed-corn is still short in the barn, and if vine and fig tree, pomegranate and olive tree still bear no fruit. 'From today onwards I intend to bless you.'


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On the twenty-fourth day of the month the word of Yahweh was addressed a second time to Haggai, as follows,


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I shall overturn the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kings of the nations. I shall overthrow the chariots and their crews; horses and their riders will fall, every one to the sword of his comrade.


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When that day comes -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares -- I shall take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel my servant -- Yahweh declares -- and make you like a signet ring. For I have chosen you -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares." '


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In the second year of Darius, in the eighth month, the word of Yahweh was addressed to the prophet Zechariah (son of Berechiah), son of Iddo, as follows,


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So say this to them, "Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Return to me -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares -- and I will return to you, says Yahweh Sabaoth.


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Do not be like your ancestors when the prophets in the past cried to them: Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Turn back from your evil ways and evil deeds -- they would not listen or pay attention to me -- Yahweh declares.


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But did not my words and statutes, with which I had charged my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors just the same?" ' So they repented and said, 'Yahweh Sabaoth has treated us as he resolved to do, and as our ways and deeds deserved.'


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On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month of Shebat), in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh was addressed to the prophet Zechariah (son of Berechiah), son of Iddo, as follows,


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'I had a vision during the night. There was a man riding a red horse standing among the deep-rooted myrtles; behind him were other horses-red, chestnut and white.


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I said, "What are these, my lord?" And the angel who was talking to me said, "I will show you what they are."


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The man standing among the myrtles then replied, "Those are they whom Yahweh has sent to patrol the world."


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They reported to the angel of Yahweh as he stood among the myrtles, "We have been patrolling the world, and indeed the whole world is still and at peace."


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The angel of Yahweh then spoke and said, "Yahweh Sabaoth, how long will you wait before taking pity on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, on which you have inflicted your anger for the past seventy years?"


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The angel who was talking to me then said to me, "Make this proclamation: Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I am burning with jealousy for Jerusalem and Zion


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but am deeply angry with the nations now at ease; before, I was only mildly angry, but they contributed to the disaster.


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So now Yahweh says this: In compassion I have returned to Jerusalem; my Temple will be rebuilt there -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares -- and the measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.


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Make this proclamation too: Yahweh Sabaoth says this: My cities are once more to be very prosperous. Yahweh will comfort Zion once again, and again make Jerusalem his choice." '


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I said to the angel who was talking to me, 'What are these?' He said to me, 'These are the horns which scattered Judah (Israel) and Jerusalem.'


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And I said, 'What are these coming to do?' He said to me, '(Those horns scattered Judah so completely that no one dared to raise his head; but) these have come to terrify them, to throw down the horns of the nations who raised their horns over the land of Judah to scatter it.'


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I asked him, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'To measure Jerusalem, to calculate her width and length.'


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He said to him, 'Run, and tell that young man this, "Jerusalem is to remain unwalled, because of the great number of men and cattle inside.


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For I -- Yahweh declares -- shall be a wall of fire all round her and I shall be the Glory within her." '


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Look out! Look out! Flee from the land of the north -- Yahweh declares- for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven -- Yahweh declares.


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For Yahweh Sabaoth says this, since the Glory commissioned me, about the nations who plundered you, 'Whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye.


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Now look, I shall wave my hand over them and they will be plundered by those whom they have enslaved.' Then you will know that Yahweh Sabaoth has sent me!


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And on that day many nations will be converted to Yahweh. Yes, they will become his people, and they will live among you. Then you will know that Yahweh Sabaoth has sent me to you!


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Yahweh will take possession of Judah, his portion in the Holy Land, and again make Jerusalem his choice.


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He then showed me the high priest Joshua, standing before the angel of Yahweh, with Satan standing on his right to accuse him.


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The angel of Yahweh said to Satan, 'May Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! May Yahweh rebuke you, since he has made Jerusalem his choice. Is not this man a brand snatched from the fire?'


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The latter then spoke as follows to those who were standing before him, 'Take off his dirty clothesand dress him in splendid robes


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and put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head and dressed him in clean clothes, while the angel of Yahweh stood byand said, 'You see, I have taken your guilt away.'


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'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "If you walk in my ways and keep my ordinances, you shall govern my house, you shall watch over my courts, and I will give you free access among those in attendance here.


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'So listen, High Priest Joshua, you and the colleagues over whom you preside -- for they are an omen of things to come -- for now I shall bring in my servant the Branch, and I shall remove this country's guilt in a single day.


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For this is the stone which I have put before Joshua, a stone on which are seven eyes; and I myself shall cut the inscription on it -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares."


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On that day -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares -- invite each other to come under your vine and your fig tree." '


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And he asked me, 'What do you see?' I replied, 'As I look, there is a lamp-stand entirely of gold with a bowl at the top of it; it holds seven lamps, with seven openings for the lamps on it.


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'What are you, great mountain? Beside Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! He will bring out the keystone while it is cheered with Hurrah! Hurrah!'


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'The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this Temple; his hands will finish it. (Then you will know that Yahweh Sabaoth has sent me to you.)


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A day of little things, no doubt, but who would dare despise it? How they will rejoice when they see the chosen stone in the hands of Zerubbabel!'


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Then I went on to ask him, 'What is the meaning of these two olive trees, to right and left of the lamp-stand?'


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(And I went on to ask him further, 'What is the meaning of the two olive branches discharging oil through the two golden openings?')


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He said, 'These are the two anointed ones in attendance on the Lord of the whole world. This is the word of Yahweh with regard to Zerubbabel, 'Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit' -- says Yahweh Sabaoth.


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The angel who was talking to me said, 'What do you see?' I replied, 'I see a flying scroll; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.'


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He then said to me, 'This is God's curse sweeping across the face of the whole country; for, according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished and, according to what it says on the other, everyone who commits perjury in my name will be banished from it.


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I am going to release it -- Yahweh Sabaoth declares -- for it to enter the house of the thief and of anyone who commits perjury in my name, for it to settle deep within his house and consume it, timber, stone and all.'


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The angel who was talking to me appeared and said to me, 'Raise your eyes, and see what this is, going along.'


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I said, 'What is it?' He said, 'It is a bushel measure going along.' He went on, 'This is their guilt throughout the country.'


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He said, 'This is Wickedness.' And he rammed her back into the barrel and jammed its mouth shut with the mass of lead.


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I raised my eyes, and there were two women appearing. The wind caught their wings -- they had wings like a stork's; they raised the barrel midway between earth and heaven.


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He replied, 'To build a temple for it in the land of Shinar and make a pedestal on which to put it.'


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Again I raised my eyes, and this is what I saw: four chariots coming out between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze.


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The angel replied, 'They are the four winds of heaven now leaving, after attending the Lord of the whole world.


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The black horses are leaving for the land of the north; the white are following them, and the piebald are leaving for the land of the south.'


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They came out vigorously, eager to patrol the world. He said to them, 'Go and patrol the world.' And they patrolled the world.


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He called to me and said, 'Look, the ones going to the land of the north brought my spirit to rest on the land of the north.'


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'Collect silver and gold from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, then (you yourself go the same day) go to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah, who has arrived from Babylon.


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Then, taking the silver and gold, make a crown and place it on the head of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak.


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And say this to him, "Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Here is a man whose name is Branch; where he is, there will be a branching out (and he will rebuild Yahweh's sanctuary).


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Yes, he is the one who will rebuild Yahweh's sanctuary; he will wear the royal insignia and sit on his throne and govern, with a priest on his right. Perfect peace will reign between these two.


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And the crown will serve Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah and the son of Zephaniah as a memorial of favour in Yahweh's sanctuary.


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And those now far away will come and work on the building of Yahweh's sanctuary." 'Then you will know that Yahweh Sabaoth has sent me to you. It will happen if you diligently obey the voice of Yahweh your God.'


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In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh was addressed to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.


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and to ask the priests in the Temple of Yahweh Sabaoth and the prophets, 'Ought I to go on mourning and fasting in the fifth month as I have been doing for so many years past?'


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'Say to all the people of the country and to the priests, "While you have been fasting and mourning in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, have you really been fasting for my sake?


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Do you not know the words which Yahweh proclaimed through the prophets in the past, when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure, as were her surrounding towns, and when the Negeb and the lowlands were inhabited?" ' (


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'Yahweh Sabaoth says this.) He said, "Apply the law fairly, and show faithful love and compassion towards one another.


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Do not oppress the widow and the orphan, the foreigner and the poor, and do not secretly plan evil against one another."


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But they would not listen; they turned a rebellious shoulder; they stopped their ears rather than hear;


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they made their hearts adamant rather than listen to the teaching and the words that Yahweh Sabaoth had sent -- by his spirit -- through the prophets in the past; and consequently the fury of Yahweh Sabaoth overtook them.


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And so, since when he called they would not listen, "I would not listen when they called", says Yahweh Sabaoth,


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"but scattered them among all the nations unknown to them. Hence, after they had gone, the country was deserted, and no one came or went. They had turned a land of delights into a desert." '


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I have been burning with jealousy for Zion, with furious jealousy for her sake.


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Yahweh says this: I am coming back to Zion and shall live in the heart of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called Faithful City and the mountain of Yahweh Sabaoth, the Holy Mountain.


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Aged men and women once again will sit in the squares of Jerusalem, each with a stick to lean on because of their great age.


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this: If this seems a miracle to the remnant of this people (in those days), will it seem one to me? declares Yahweh.


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Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Look, I shall rescue my people from the countries of the east and from the countries of the west.


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I shall bring them back to live in the heart of Jerusalem, and they will be my people and I shall be their God, faithful and just.


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'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Take heart, you who today hear these promises uttered by the prophets since the day when the foundations of the Temple of Yahweh Sabaoth were laid, that the sanctuary would indeed be rebuilt.


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For up to now, men were not paid their wages and nothing was paid for the animals either; and it has not been safe for anyone to come and go, because of the enemy, since I had set each one against everyone else.


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But from now on, I shall not treat the remnant of this people as I have treated them in time past -- declares Yahweh Sabaoth.


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Now they will sow in peace; the vine will give its fruit, the soil will give its produce and heaven will give its dew. I shall bestow all these on the remnant of this people.


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Just as once you were a curse among the nations, House of Judah and House of Israel, so now I shall save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid. Take heart!"


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'For Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Just as I resolved to ill-treat you when your ancestors provoked me to anger and did not relent -- says Yahweh Sabaoth-


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so now I have changed my mind and intend to treat Jerusalem and the House of Judah well. Do not be afraid!


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"These are the things that you must do. Speak the truth to one another; at your gates, administer fair judgement conducive to peace;


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do not secretly plot evil against one another; do not love perjury; since I hate all this -- Yahweh declares." '


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'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth are to become glad, joyful, happy festivals for the House of Judah. So love truth and peace!" '


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and citizens of one city will go to the next and say: We must certainly go to entreat Yahweh's favour and seek out Yahweh Sabaoth; I am going myself.


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Yes, many peoples and great nations will seek out Yahweh Sabaoth in Jerusalem and entreat Yahweh's favour."


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'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "In those days, ten men from nations of every language will take a Jew by the sleeve and say: We want to go with you, since we have learnt that God is with you." '


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A proclamation. The word of Yahweh is against Hadrach, it has come to rest on Damascus, for the source of Aram belongs to Yahweh no less than all the tribes of Israel;


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Tyre has built herself a fortress, has heaped up silver like dust and gold like the dirt of the streets.


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And now the Lord is going to dispossess her; at sea he will break her power, and she herself will go up in flames.


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Seeing this, Ashkelon will be terrified, Gaza too, and writhe with grief, Ekron too, at the ruin of her prospects; the king will vanish from Gaza and Ashkelon be unpeopled,


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I shall snatch his blood from his mouth, his abominations from between his teeth. But his remnant too will belong to our God, becoming like a clan in Judah, and Ekron will become like a Jebusite.


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I shall stand guard before my home to defend it against all comers, and no oppressor will overrun them ever again, for now I am on the alert.


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Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion! Shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem! Look, your king is approaching, he is vindicated and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.


