# verses

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 Happy those whose trust is the LORD, who turn not to idolatry or to those who stray after falsehood.


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 How numerous, O LORD, my God, you have made your wondrous deeds! And in your plans for us there is none to equal you. Should I wish to declare or tell them, too many are they to recount.


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 sacrifice and offering you do not want; but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts and sin-offerings you do not require;


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 Your deed I did not hide within my heart; your loyal deliverance I have proclaimed. I made no secret of your enduring kindness to a great assembly.


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 For all about me are evils beyond count; my sins so overcome me I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head; my courage fails me.


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 Put to shame and confound all who seek to take my life. Turn back in disgrace those who desire my ruin.


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 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who long for your help always say, "The LORD be glorified."


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 Though I am afflicted and poor, the Lord keeps me in mind. You are my help and deliverer; my God, do not delay!


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 The LORD keeps and preserves them, makes them happy in the land, and does not betray them to their enemies.


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 When people come to visit me, they speak without sincerity. Their hearts store up malice; they leave and spread their vicious lies.


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 Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.


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 Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.


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 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you From the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from the land of Mount Mizar.


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 At dawn may the LORD bestow faithful love that I may sing praise through the night, praise to the God of my life.


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 I say to God, "My rock, why do you forget me? Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?"


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 Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.


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 You, God, are my strength. Why then do you spurn me? Why must I go about mourning, with the enemy oppressing me?


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 Send your light and fidelity, that they may be my guide And bring me to your holy mountain, to the place of your dwelling,


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 That I may come to the altar of God, to God, my joy, my delight. Then I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.


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 Why are you downcast, my soul? Why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.


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 O God, we have heard with our own ears; our ancestors have told us The deeds you did in their days, with your own hand in days of old:


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 Not with their own swords did they conquer the land, nor did their own arms bring victory; It was your right hand, your own arm, the light of your face for you favored them.


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 My heart is stirred by a noble theme, as I sing my ode to the king. My tongue is the pen of a nimble scribe.


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 You are the most handsome of men; fair speech has graced your lips, for God has blessed you forever.


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 You love justice and hate wrongdoing; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings.


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 With myrrh, aloes, and cassia your robes are fragrant. From ivory-paneled palaces stringed instruments bring you joy.


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 Daughters of kings are your lovely wives; a princess arrayed in Ophir's gold comes to stand at your right hand.


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 Listen, my daughter, and understand; pay me careful heed. Forget your people and your father's house,


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 Though its waters rage and foam and mountains totter at its surging. The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. Selah


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 Who stops wars to the ends of the earth, breaks the bow, splinters the spear, and burns the shields with fire;


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 Who says: "Be still and confess that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth."


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 The princes of the peoples assemble with the people of the God of Abraham. For the rulers of the earth belong to God, who is enthroned on high.


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 fairest of heights, the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, the heights of Zaphon, the city of the great king.


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 What we had heard we now see in the city of the LORD of hosts, In the city of our God, founded to last forever. Selah


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 Like your name, O God, your praise reaches the ends of the earth. Your right hand is fully victorious.


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 Anyone can see that the wisest die, the fool and the senseless pass away too, and must leave their wealth to others.


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 Tombs are their homes forever, their dwellings through all generations, though they gave their names to their lands.


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 This is the destiny of those who trust in folly, the end of those so pleased with their wealth. Selah


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 Like sheep they are herded into Sheol, where death will be their shepherd. Straight to the grave they descend, where their form will waste away, Sheol will be their palace.


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 A psalm of Asaph. I The LORD, the God of gods, has spoken and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.


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 But to the wicked God says: "Why do you recite my commandments and profess my covenant with your lips?


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 When you do these things should I be silent? Or do you think that I am like you? I accuse you, I lay the charge before you.


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 Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight That you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn.


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 Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifice, burnt offerings and holocausts; then bullocks will be offered on your altar.


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 Now God will strike you down, leave you crushed forever, Pluck you from your tent, uproot you from the land of the living. Selah


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 I will praise you always for what you have done. I will proclaim before the faithful that your name is good.


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 Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." Their deeds are loathsome and corrupt; not one does what is right.


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 Will these evildoers never learn? They devour my people as they devour bread; they do not call upon God.


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 They have good reason to fear, though now they do not fear. For God will certainly scatter the bones of the godless. They will surely be put to shame, for God has rejected them. III


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 Oh, that from Zion might come the deliverance of Israel, That Jacob may rejoice and Israel be glad when God restores the people!


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 The arrogant have risen against me; the ruthless seek my life; they do not keep God before them. Selah


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 at the uproar of the enemy, the clamor of the wicked. They heap trouble upon me, savagely accuse me.


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 If an enemy had reviled me, that I could bear; If my foe had viewed me with contempt, from that I could hide.


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 Let death take them by surprise; let them go down alive to Sheol, for evil is in their homes and hearts.


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 God will give me freedom and peace from those who war against me, though there are many who oppose me.


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 God, who sits enthroned forever, will hear me and humble them. For they will not mend their ways; they have no fear of God.


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 Softer than butter is their speech, but war is in their hearts. Smoother than oil are their words, but they are unsheathed swords.


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 Cast your care upon the LORD, who will give you support. God will never allow the righteous to stumble.


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 But you, God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction. These bloodthirsty liars will not live half their days, but I put my trust in you.


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 For the director. According to Yonath elem rehoqim. A miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him at Gath.


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 Once you have snatched me from death, kept my feet from stumbling, That I may walk before God in the light of the living.


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 Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me. In you I seek shelter. In the shadow of your wings I seek shelter till harm pass by.


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 May God send help from heaven to save me, shame those who trample upon me. May God send fidelity and love. Selah


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 I must lie down in the midst of lions hungry for human prey. Their teeth are spears and arrows; their tongue, a sharpened sword.


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 They have set a trap for my feet; my soul is bowed down; They have dug a pit before me. May they fall into it themselves! Selah


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 Then it will be said: "Truly there is a reward for the just; there is a God who is judge on earth!"


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 For the director. Do not destroy. A miktam of David, when Saul sent people to watch his house and kill him.


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 They have set an ambush for my life; the powerful conspire against me. For no offense or misdeed of mine, LORD,


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 You, LORD of hosts, are the God of Israel! Awake! Punish all the nations. Have no mercy on these worthless traitors. Selah


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 May God go before me, and show me my fallen foes. Slay them, God, lest they deceive my people. Shake them by your power; Lord, our shield, bring them down.


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 For the sinful words of their mouths and lips let them be caught in their pride. For the lies they have told under oath


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 destroy them in anger, destroy till they are no more. Then people will know God rules over Jacob, yes, even to the ends of the earth. Selah


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 But I shall sing of your strength, extol your love at dawn, For you are my fortress, my refuge in time of trouble.


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 when he fought against Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah; and Joab, coming back, killed twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.


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 In the sanctuary God promised: "I will exult, will apportion Shechem; the valley of Succoth I will measure out.


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 How long will you set upon people, all of you beating them down, As though they were a sagging fence or a battered wall?


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 Even from my place on high they plot to dislodge me. They delight in lies; they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah


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 Mortals are a mere breath, the powerful but an illusion; On a balance they rise; together they are lighter than air.


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 Do not trust in extortion; in plunder put no empty hope. Though wealth increase, do not set your heart upon it.


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 O God, you are my God-- for you I long! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, Like a land parched, lifeless, and without water.


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 But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by the Lord shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be shut!


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 They devise wicked schemes, conceal the schemes they devise; the designs of their hearts are hidden.


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 Happy the chosen ones you bring to dwell in your courts. May we be filled with the good things of your house, the blessings of your holy temple!


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 You answer us with awesome deeds of justice, O God our savior, The hope of all the ends of the earth and of far distant islands.


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 You visit the earth and water it, make it abundantly fertile. God's stream is filled with water; with it you supply the world with grain. Thus do you prepare the earth:


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 you drench plowed furrows, and level their ridges. With showers you keep the ground soft, blessing its young sprouts.


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 The pastures are clothed with flocks, the valleys blanketed with grain; they cheer and sing for joy.


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 He changed the sea to dry land; through the river they passed on foot. Therefore let us rejoice in him,


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 who rules by might forever, Whose eyes are fixed upon the nations. Let no rebel rise to challenge! Selah


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 You let captors set foot on our neck; we went through fire and water; then you led us out to freedom.


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 Holocausts of fatlings I will offer you and burnt offerings of rams; I will sacrifice oxen and goats. Selah


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 May the nations be glad and shout for joy; for you govern the peoples justly, you guide the nations upon the earth. Selah


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 The wind will disperse them like smoke; as wax is melted by fire, so the wicked will perish before God.


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 Sing to God, praise the divine name; exalt the rider of the clouds. Rejoice before this God whose name is the LORD.


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 Who gives a home to the forsaken, who leads prisoners out to prosperity, while rebels live in the desert.


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 your people settled there. There you poured abundant rains, God, graciously given to the poor in their need.


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 will you stay by the sheepfolds? b) perhaps a dove sheathed with silver, c) its wings covered with yellow gold."


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 You rugged mountains, why look with envy at the mountain where God has chosen to dwell, where the LORD resides forever?


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 You went up to its lofty height; you took captives, received slaves as tribute. No rebels can live in the presence of God.


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 The Lord has said: "Even from Bashan I will fetch them, fetch them even from the depths of the sea.


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 In the lead is Benjamin, few in number; there the princes of Judah, a large throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali, too.


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 Roar at the wild beast of the reeds, the herd of mighty bulls, the lords of nations; scatter the nations that delight in war.


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 Exact rich tribute from lower Egypt, from upper Egypt, gold and silver; make Ethiopia extend its hands to God.


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 Awesome is God in his holy place, the God of Israel, who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!


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 I have sunk into the mire of the deep, where there is no foothold. I have gone down to the watery depths; the flood overwhelms me.


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 More numerous than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause. Too many for my strength are my treacherous enemies. Must I now restore what I did not steal?


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 Let those who wait for you, LORD of hosts, not be shamed through me. Let those who seek you, God of Israel, not be disgraced through me


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 But I pray to you, LORD, for the time of your favor. God, in your great kindness answer me with your constant help.


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 Do not let the floodwaters overwhelm me, nor the deep swallow me, nor the mouth of the pit close over me.


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 Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak; I looked for compassion, but there was none, for comforters, but found none.


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 God will rescue Zion, rebuild the cities of Judah. God's servants shall dwell in the land and possess it;


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 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who long for your help always say, "God be glorified!"


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 Here I am, afflicted and poor. God, come quickly! You are my help and deliverer. LORD, do not delay!


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 On you I depend since birth; from my mother's womb you are my strength; my hope in you never wavers.


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 My mouth shall proclaim your just deeds, day after day your acts of deliverance, though I cannot number them all.


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 Now that I am old and gray, do not forsake me, God, That I may proclaim your might to all generations yet to come, Your power


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 You have sent me many bitter afflictions, but once more revive me. From the watery depths of the earth once more raise me up.


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 That I may praise you with the lyre for your faithfulness, my God, And sing to you with the harp, O Holy One of Israel!


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 Yes, my tongue shall recount your justice day by day. For those who sought my ruin will have been shamed and disgraced.


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 I O God, give your judgment to the king; your justice to the son of kings; That he may govern your people with justice, your oppressed with right judgment,


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 May wheat abound in the land, flourish even on the mountain heights. May his fruit increase like Lebanon's, his wheat like the grasses of the land.


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 May his name be blessed forever; as long as the sun, may his name endure. May the tribes of the earth give blessings with his name; may all the nations regard him as favored.


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 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may all the earth be filled with the LORD'S glory. Amen and amen.


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 As for me, to be near God is my good, to make the Lord GOD my refuge. I shall declare all your works in the gates of daughter Zion.


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 A maskil of Asaph. I Why, God, have you cast us off forever? Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?


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 Remember your flock that you gathered of old, the tribe you redeemed as your very own. Remember Mount Zion where you dwell.


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 Yes, a cup is in the LORD'S hand, foaming wine, fully spiced. When God pours it out, they will drain it even to the dregs; all the wicked of the earth must drink.


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 Who has said: "I will break off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the just shall be lifted up."


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 Despoiled are the bold warriors; they sleep their final sleep; the hands of all the mighty have failed.


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 On the day of my distress I seek the Lord; by night my hands are raised unceasingly; I refuse to be consoled.


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 The thunder of your chariot wheels resounded; your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.


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 Through the sea was your path; your way, through the mighty waters, though your footsteps were unseen.


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 We do not keep them from our children; we recite them to the next generation, The praiseworthy and mighty deeds of the LORD, the wonders that he performed.


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 God set up a decree in Jacob, established a law in Israel: What he commanded our ancestors, they were to teach their children;


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 That the next generation might come to know, children yet to be born. In turn they were to recite them to their children,


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 that they too might put their trust in God, And not forget the works of God, keeping his commandments.


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 They were not to be like their ancestors, a rebellious and defiant generation, A generation whose heart was not constant, whose spirit was not faithful to God,


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 True, when he struck the rock, water gushed forth, the wadis flooded. But can he also provide bread, give meat to his people?"


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 But God is merciful and forgave their sin; he did not utterly destroy them. Time and again he turned back his anger, unwilling to unleash all his rage.


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 He unleashed against them his fiery breath, roar, fury, and distress, storming messengers of death.


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 He cleared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death; he delivered their beasts to the plague.


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 God drove out the nations before them, apportioned them a heritage by lot, settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.


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 A psalm of Asaph. I O God, the nations have invaded your heritage; they have defiled your holy temple, have laid Jerusalem in ruins.


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 They have left the corpses of your servants as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of your faithful for the beasts of the earth.


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 Do not hold past iniquities against us; may your compassion come quickly, for we have been brought very low.


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 Help us, God our savior, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, pardon our sins for your name's sake.


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 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Before our eyes make clear to the nations that you avenge the blood of your servants.


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 Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; through all ages we will declare your praise.


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 Shepherd of Israel, listen, guide of the flock of Joseph! From your throne upon the cherubim reveal yourself


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 In distress you called and I rescued you; unseen, I spoke to you in thunder; At the waters of Meribah I tested you and said: Selah


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 I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth that I may fill it.'


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 The gods neither know nor understand, wandering about in darkness, and all the world's foundations shake.


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 My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the LORD. My heart and flesh cry out for the living God.


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 As the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest to settle her young, My home is by your altars, LORD of hosts, my king and my God!


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 As they pass through the Baca valley, they find spring water to drink. Also from pools the Lord provides water for those who lose their way.


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 Better one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Better the threshold of the house of my God than a home in the tents of the wicked.


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 For a sun and shield is the LORD God, bestowing all grace and glory. The LORD withholds no good thing from those who walk without reproach.


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 I will listen for the word of God; surely the LORD will proclaim peace To his people, to the faithful, to those who trust in him.


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 O God, the arrogant have risen against me; a ruthless band has sought my life; to you they pay no heed.


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 Give me a sign of your favor: make my enemies see, to their confusion, that you, LORD, help and comfort me.


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 From Babylon and Egypt I count those who acknowledge the LORD. Philistia, Ethiopia, Tyre, of them it can be said: "This one was born there."


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 A song; a psalm of the Korahites. For the leader; according to Mahalath. For singing; a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.


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 My couch is among the dead, with the slain who lie in the grave. You remember them no more; they are cut off from your care.


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 Once you spoke in vision; to your faithful ones you said: "I have set a leader over the warriors; I have raised up a hero from the army.


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 Before the mountains were born, the earth and the world brought forth, from eternity to eternity you are God.


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 you have brought them to their end; They disappear like sleep at dawn; they are like grass that dies.


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 Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong; Most of them are sorrow and toil; they pass quickly, we are all but gone.


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 May the favor of the Lord our God be ours. Prosper the work of our hands! Prosper the work of our hands!


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 Will shelter you with pinions, spread wings that you may take refuge; God's faithfulness is a protecting shield.


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 All who call upon me I will answer; I will be with them in distress; I will deliver them and give them honor.


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 Though the wicked flourish like grass and all sinners thrive, They are destined for eternal destruction;


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 The LORD is king, robed with majesty; the LORD is robed, girded with might. The world will surely stand in place, never to be moved.


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 The flood has raised up, LORD; the flood has raised up its roar; the flood has raised its pounding waves.


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 More powerful than the roar of many waters, more powerful than the breakers of the sea, powerful in the heavens is the LORD.


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 Your decrees are firmly established; holiness belongs to your house, LORD, for all the length of days.


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 Who will turn back their evil upon them and destroy them for their wickedness. Surely the LORD our God will destroy them!


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 For this is our God, whose people we are, God's well-tended flock. III Oh, that today you would hear his voice:


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 Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: "This people's heart goes astray; they do not know my ways."


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 say among the nations: The LORD is king. The world will surely stand fast, never to be moved. God rules the peoples with fairness.


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 before the LORD who comes, who comes to govern the earth, To govern the world with justice and the peoples with faithfulness.


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 The LORD loves those who hate evil, protects the lives of the faithful, rescues them from the hand of the wicked.


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 A psalm. I Sing a new song to the LORD, who has done marvelous deeds, Whose right hand and holy arm have won the victory.


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 Has remembered faithful love toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.


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 Before the LORD who comes, who comes to govern the earth, To govern the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.


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 O mighty king, lover of justice, you alone have established fairness; you have created just rule in Jacob.


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 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel among those who called on God's name; they called on the LORD, who answered them.


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 Know that the LORD is God, our maker to whom we belong, whosepeople we are, God's well-tended flock.


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 Enter the temple gates with praise, its courts with thanksgiving. Give thanks to God, bless his name;


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 I follow the way of integrity; when will you come to me? I act with integrity of heart within my royal court.


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 I do not allow into my presence anyone who speaks perversely. Whoever acts shamefully I hate; no such person can be my friend.


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 Whoever slanders another in secret I reduce to silence. Haughty eyes and arrogant hearts I cannot endure.


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 I look to the faithful of the land; they alone can be my companions. Those who follow the way of integrity, they alone can enter my service.


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 No one who practices deceit can hold a post in my court. No one who speaks falsely can be among my advisors.


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 Do not hide your face from me now that I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.


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 Let this be written for the next generation, for a people not yet born, that they may praise the LORD:


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 I plead, O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days. Your years last through all generations.


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 They perish, but you remain; they all wear out like a garment; Like clothing you change them and they are changed,


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 But the LORD'S kindness is forever, toward the faithful from age to age. He favors the children's children


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 Bless the LORD, my soul! LORD, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory,


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 you raised your palace upon the waters. You make the clouds your chariot; you travel on the wings of the wind.


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 You raise grass for the cattle and plants for our beasts of burden. You bring bread from the earth,


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 How varied are your works, LORD! In wisdom you have wrought them all; the earth is full of your creatures.


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 Look at the sea, great and wide! It teems with countless beings, living things both large and small.


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 When you hide your face, they are lost. When you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust from which they came.


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 That I may see the prosperity of your chosen, rejoice in the joy of your people, and glory with your heritage.


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 Our ancestors in Egypt did not attend to your wonders. They did not remember your great love; they defied the Most High at the Red Sea.


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 He would have decreed their destruction, had not Moses, the chosen leader, Withstood him in the breach to turn back his destroying anger.


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 Shedding innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, desecrating the land with bloodshed.


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 Many times did he rescue them, but they kept rebelling and scheming and were brought low by their own guilt.


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 Save us, LORD, our God; gather us from among the nations That we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in praising you.


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 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Let all the people say, Amen! Hallelujah!


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 God promised in the sanctuary: "I will exult, I will apportion Shechem; the valley of Succoth I will measure out.


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 O God, whom I praise, do not be silent, for wicked and treacherous mouths attack me. They speak against me with lying tongues;


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 For he did not remember to show kindness, but hounded the wretched poor and brought death to the brokenhearted.


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 May cursing clothe him like a robe; may it enter his belly like water, seep into his bones like oil.


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 A psalm of David. The LORD says to you, my lord: "Take your throne at my righthand, while I make your enemies your footstool."


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 The scepter of your sovereign might the LORD will extend from Zion. The LORD says: "Rule over your enemies!


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 Yours is princely power from the day of your birth. In holy splendor before the daystar, like the dew I begot you."


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 You sent deliverance to your people, ratified your covenant forever; holy and awesome is your name.


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 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; prudent are all who live by it. Your praise endures forever.


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 Lavishly they give to the poor; their prosperity shall endure forever; their horn shall be exalted in honor.


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 The wicked shall be angry to see this; they will gnash their teeth and waste away; the desires of the wicked come to nothing.


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 The LORD remembers us and will bless us, will bless the house of Israel, will bless the house of Aaron,


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 They surrounded me like bees; they blazed like fire among thorns; in the LORD'S name I crushed them.


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 The joyful shout of deliverance is heard in the tents of the victors: "The LORD'S right hand strikes with power;


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 The LORD is God and has given us light. Join in procession with leafy branches up to the horns of the altar.


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 A song of ascents. Of David. I I rejoiced when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."


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 Here the tribes have come, the tribes of the LORD, As it was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.


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 Yes, like the eyes of a servant on the hand of his master, Like the eyes of a maid on the hand of her mistress, So our eyes are on the LORD our God, till we are shown favor.


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 We escaped with our lives like a bird from the fowler's snare; the snare was broken and we escaped.


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 The scepter of the wicked will not prevail in the land given to the just, Lest the just themselves turn their hands to evil.


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 But those who turn aside to crooked ways may the LORD send down with the wicked. Peace upon Israel!


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 A song of ascents. I When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, then we thought we were dreaming.


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 Our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD had done great things for them."


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 Those who go forth weeping, carrying sacks of seed, Will return with cries of joy, carrying their bundled sheaves.


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 A song of ascents. Of Solomon. I Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build. Unless the LORD guard the city, in vain does the guard keep watch.


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 It is vain for you to rise early and put off your rest at night, To eat bread earned by hard toil-- all this God gives to his beloved in sleep.


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 Blessed are they whose quivers are full. They will never be shamed contending with foes at the gate.


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 Like a fruitful vine your wife within your home, Like olive plants your children around your table.


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 With none passing by to call out: "The blessing of the LORD be upon you! We bless you in the name of the LORD!"


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 A song of ascents. Of David. LORD, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty. I do not busy myself with great matters, with things too sublime for me.


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 Rather, I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother's lap, so is my soul within me.


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 The LORD swore an oath to David, a pledge never to be broken: "Your own offspring I will set upon your throne.


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 If your sons observe my covenant, the laws I shall teach them, Their sons, in turn, shall sit forever on your throne."


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 Like precious ointment on the head, running down upon the beard, Upon the beard of Aaron, upon the collar of his robe.


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 Like dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion. There the LORD has lavished blessings, life for evermore!


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 A song of ascents. Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD Who stand in the house of the LORD through the long hours of night.


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 He raises storm clouds from the end of the earth, makes lightning and rain, brings forth wind from the storehouse.


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 There our captors asked us for the words of a song; Our tormentors, for a joyful song: "Sing for us a song of Zion!"


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 May my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem beyond all my delights.


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 Remember, LORD, against Edom that day at Jerusalem. They said: "Level it, level it down to its foundations!"


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 I bow low toward your holy temple; I praise your name for your fidelity and love. For you have exalted over all your name and your promise.


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 Though I walk in the midst of dangers, you guard my life when my enemies rage. You stretch out your hand; your right hand saves me.


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 The LORD is with me to the end. LORD, your love endures forever. Never forsake the work of your hands!


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 my bones were not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth.


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 Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.


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 Keep me, LORD, from the clutches of the wicked; preserve me from the violent, who plot to trip me up.


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 The arrogant have set a trap for me; villains have spread a net, laid snares for me by the wayside. Selah


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 Do not let my heart incline to evil, or yield to any sin. I will never feast upon the fine food of evildoers.


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 Let the just strike me; that is kindness; let them rebuke me; that is oil for my head. All this I shall not refuse, but will pray despite these trials.


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 As when a farmer plows a field into broken clods, so their bones will be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.


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 My spirit is faint within me, but you know my path. Along the way I walk they have hidden a trap for me.


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 Listen to my cry for help, for I am brought very low. Rescue me from my pursuers, for they are too strong for me.


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 Lead me out of my prison, that I may give thanks to your name. Then the just shall gather around me because you have been good to me.


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 A psalm of David. LORD, hear my prayer; in your faithfulness listen to my pleading; answer me in your justice.


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 The enemy has pursued me; they have crushed my life to the ground. They have left me in darkness like those long dead.


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 Hasten to answer me, LORD; for my spirit fails me. Do not hide your face from me, lest I become like those descending to the pit.


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 At dawn let me hear of your kindness, for in you I trust. Show me the path I should walk, for to you I entrust my life.


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 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your kind spirit guide me on ground that is level.


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 My safe guard and my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, My shield, in whom I trust, who subdues peoples under me.


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 Reach out your hand from on high; deliver me from the many waters; rescue me from the hands of foreign foes.


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 deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreign foes. Their mouths speak untruth; their right hands are raised in lying oaths.


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 May our sons be like plants well nurtured from their youth, Our daughters, like carved columns, shapely as those of the temple.


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 May our barns be full with every kind of store. May our sheep increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; may our oxen be well fattened.


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 Your reign is a reign for all ages, your dominion for all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in every word, and faithful in every work.


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 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth; that day all their planning comes to nothing.


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 the LORD gives sight to the blind. The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.


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 The LORD protects the stranger, sustains the orphan and the widow, but thwarts the way of the wicked.


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 Who covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, makes grass sprout on the mountains,


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 Let them all praise the LORD'S name, for his name alone is exalted, majestic above earth and heaven.


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 The LORD has lifted high the horn of his people; to the glory of all the faithful, of Israel, the people near to their God. Hallelujah!


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 and say, "Come along with us! Let us lie in wait for the honest man, let us, unprovoked, set a trap for the innocent;


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 Let us swallow them up, as the nether world does, alive, in the prime of life, like those who go down to the pit!


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 This is the fate of everyone greedy of loot: unlawful gain takes away the life of him who acquires it.


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 how long will you turn away at my reproof? Lo! I will pour out to you my spirit, I will acquaint you with my words.


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 When terror comes upon you like a storm, and your doom approaches like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish befall you.


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 They ignored my counsel, they spurned all my reproof; And in their arrogance they preferred arrogance, and like fools they hated knowledge:


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 He taught me, and said to me: "Let your heart hold fast my words: keep my commands, that you may live!


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 For they cannot rest unless they have done evil; to have made no one stumble steals away their sleep.


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 your lovely hind, your graceful doe. Her love will invigorate you always, through her love you will flourish continually,


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 Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?


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 By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;


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 So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's power: Go, hurry, stir up your neighbor!


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 When you lie down she will watch over you, and when you wake, she will share your concerns; wherever you turn, she will guide you.


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 For the bidding is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and a way to life are the reproofs of discipline;


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 For the price of a loose woman may be scarcely a loaf of bread, But if she is married, she is a trap for your precious life.


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 He follows her stupidly, like an ox that is led to slaughter; Like a stag that minces toward the net,


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 till an arrow pierces its liver; Like a bird that rushes into a snare, unaware that its life is at stake.


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 (The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;) Pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate.


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 "When he established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;


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 Then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, Playing before him all the while,


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 instruction and wisdom do not reject! Happy the man who obeys me, and happy those who keep my ways,


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 The Proverbs of Solomon: A wise son makes his father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.


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 A son who fills the granaries in summer is a credit; a son who slumbers during harvest, a disgrace.


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 As vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, is the sluggard to those who use him as a messenger.


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 With his mouth the impious man would ruin his neighbor, but through their knowledge the just make their escape.


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 Through the blessing of the righteous the city is exalted, but through the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.


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 A gracious woman wins esteem, but she who hates virtue is covered with shame. (The slothful become impoverished, but the diligent gain wealth.)


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 The depraved in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but those who walk blamelessly are his delight.


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 He who confers benefits will be amply enriched, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.


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 Him who monopolizes grain, the people curse-- but blessings upon the head of him who distributes it!


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 He who upsets his household has empty air for a heritage; and the fool will become slave to the wise man.


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 From the fruit of his words a man has his fill of good things, and the work of his hands comes back to reward him.


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 The good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the just.


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 Where there are no oxen, the crib remains empty; but large crops come through the strength of the bull.


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 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.


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 The wicked man's schemes are an abomination to the LORD, but the pure speak what is pleasing to him.


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 How much better to acquire wisdom than gold! To acquire understanding is more desirable than silver.


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 An intelligent servant will rule over a worthless son, and will share the inheritance with the brothers.


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 The man of intelligence fixes his gaze on wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.


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 The man who pleads his case first seems to be in the right; then his opponent comes and puts him to the test.


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 If you beat an arrogant man, the simple learn a lesson; if you rebuke an intelligent man, he gains knowledge.


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 The intention in the human heart is like water far below the surface, but the man of intelligence draws it forth.


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 When the arrogant man is punished, the simple are the wiser; when the wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.


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 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, the more so when they offer it with a bad intention.


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 You see a man skilled at his work? He will stand in the presence of kings; he will not stand in the presence of obscure men.


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 While your glance flits to it, it is gone! for assuredly it grows wings, like the eagle that flies toward heaven.


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 For in his greed he is like a storm. "Eat and drink," he says to you, though his heart is not with you;


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 Who scream? Who shriek? Who have strife? Who have anxiety? Who have wounds for nothing? Who have black eyes?


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 "They struck me, but it pained me not; They beat me, but I felt it not; When shall I awake to seek wine once again?"


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 For it is by wise guidance that you wage your war, and the victory is due to a wealth of counselors.


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 If you say, "I know not this man!" does not he who tests hearts perceive it? He who guards your life knows it, and he will repay each one according to his deeds.


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 Such, you must know, is wisdom to your soul. If you find it, you will have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.


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 But those who convict the evildoer will fare well, and on them will come the blessing of prosperity.


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 Complete your outdoor tasks, and arrange your work in the field; afterward you can establish your house.


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 And behold! it was all overgrown with thistles; its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall broken down.


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 Remove the wicked from the presence of the king, and his throne is made firm through righteousness.


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 What your eyes have seen bring not forth hastily against an opponent; For what will you do later on when your neighbor puts you to shame?


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 Like the coolness of snow in the heat of the harvest is a faithful messenger for the one who sends him. (He refreshes the soul of his master.)


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 Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he have more than enough of you, and hate you.


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 Like a club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow, is the man who bears false witness against his neighbor.


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 Like the sparrow in its flitting, like the swallow in its flight, a curse uncalled-for arrives nowhere.


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 What a bellows is to live coals, what wood is to fire, such is a contentious man in enkindling strife.


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 Wounds from a friend may be accepted as well meant, but the greetings of an enemy one prays against.


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 One who is full, tramples on virgin honey; but to the man who is hungry, any bitter thing is sweet.


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 Your own friend and your father's friend forsake not; but if ruin befalls you, enter not a kinsman's house. Better is a neighbor near at hand than a brother far away.


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 When one greets his neighbor with a loud voice in the early morning, a curse can be laid to his charge.


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 Though you should pound the fool to bits with the pestle, amid the grits in a mortar, his folly would not go out of him.


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 And there will be ample goat's milk to supply you, to supply your household, and maintenance for your maidens.


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 The wicked man flees although no one pursues him; but the just man, like a lion, feels sure of himself.


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 He who seduces the upright into an evil way will himself fall into his own pit. (And blameless men will gain prosperity.)


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 When the just are triumphant, there is great jubilation; but when the wicked gain preeminence, people hide.


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 The less prudent the prince, the more his deeds oppress. He who hates ill-gotten gain prolongs his days.


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 He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty.


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 The trustworthy man will be richly blessed; he who is in haste to grow rich will not go unpunished.


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 The accomplice of a thief is his own enemy: he hears himself put under a curse, yet discloses nothing.


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 The evildoer is an abomination to the just, and he who walks uprightly is an abomination to the wicked.


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 The words of Agur, son of Jakeh the Massaite: The pronouncement of mortal man: "I am not God; I am not God, that I should prevail.


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 Who has gone up to heaven and come down again-- who has cupped the wind in his hands? Who has bound up the waters in a cloak-- who has marked out all the ends of the earth? What is his name, what is his son's name, if you know it?"


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 Put falsehood and lying far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; (provide me only with the food I need;)


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 Lest, being full, I deny you, saying, "Who is the LORD?" Or, being in want, I steal, and profane the name of my God.


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 There is a group whose incisors are swords, whose teeth are knives, Devouring the needy from the earth, and the poor from among men.


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 The two daughters of the leech are, "Give, Give." Three things are never satisfied, four never say, "Enough!"


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 The nether world, and the barren womb; the earth, that is never saturated with water, and fire, that never says, "Enough!"


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 The eye that mocks a father, or scorns an aged mother, Will be plucked out by the ravens in the valley; the young eagles will devour it.


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 The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, The way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.


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 Such is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats, wipes her mouth, and says, "I have done no wrong."


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 Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.


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 All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going.


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 All speech is labored; there is nothing man can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing.


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 Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed in the ages that preceded us.


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 There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.


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 and I applied my mind to search and investigate in wisdom all things that are done under the sun. A thankless task God has appointed for men to be busied about.


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 I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind.


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 Though I said to myself, "Behold, I have become great and stored up wisdom beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my mind has broad experience of wisdom and knowledge";


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 yet when I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly, I learned that this also is a chase after wind.


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 I said to myself, "Come, now, let me try you with pleasure and the enjoyment of good things." But behold, this too was vanity.


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 I thought of beguiling my senses with wine, though my mind was concerned with wisdom, and of taking up folly, until I should understand what is best for men to do under the heavens during the limited days of their life.


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 I acquired male and female slaves, and slaves were born in my house. I also had growing herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem.


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 I amassed for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings and provinces. I got for myself male and female singers and all human luxuries.


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 I became great, and I stored up more than all others before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom, too, stayed with me.


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 Nothing that my eyes desired did I deny them, nor did I deprive myself of any joy, but my heart rejoiced in the fruit of all my toil. This was my share for all my toil.


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 But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the toil at which I had taken such pains, behold! all was vanity and a chase after wind, with nothing gained under the sun.


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 For what will the man do who is to come after the king? What men have already done! I went on to the consideration of wisdom, madness and folly.


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 And I saw that wisdom has the advantage over folly as much as light has the advantage over darkness.


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 The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.Yet I knew that one lot befalls both of them.


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 So I said to myself, if the fool's lot is to befall me also, why then should I be wise? Where is the profit for me? And I concluded in my heart that this too is vanity.


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 Neither of the wise man nor of the fool will there be an abiding remembrance, for in days to come both will have been forgotten. How is it that the wise man dies as well as the fool!


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 Therefore I loathed life, since for me the work that is done under the sun is evil; for all is vanity and a chase after wind.


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 And I detested all the fruits of my labor under the sun, because I must leave them to a man who is to come after me.


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 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruits of my wise labor under the sun. This also is vanity.


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 For here is a man who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and to another, who has not labored over it, he must leave his property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune.


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 For what profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?


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 All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity.


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 There is nothing better for man than to eat and drink and provide himself with good things by his labors. Even this, I realized, is from the hand of God.


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 For to whatever man he sees fit he gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering possessions to be given to whatever man God sees fit. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.


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 A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.


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 He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.


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 I recognized that whatever God does will endure forever; there is no adding to it, or taking from it. Thus has God done that he may be revered.


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 What now is has already been; what is to be, already is; and God restores what would otherwise be displaced.


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 And still under the sun in the judgment place I saw wickedness, and in the seat of justice, iniquity.


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 And I said to myself, both the just and the wicked God will judge, since there is a time for every affair and on every work a judgment.


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 I said to myself: As for the children of men, it is God's way of testing them and of showing that they are in themselves like beasts.


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 For the lot of man and of beast is one lot; the one dies as well as the other. Both have the same life-breath, and man has no advantage over the beast; but all is vanity.


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 Who knows if the life-breath of the children of men goes upward and the life-breath of beasts goes earthward?


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 And I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to rejoice in his work; for this is his lot. Who will let him see what is to come after him?


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 Again I considered all the oppressions that take place under the sun: the tears of the victims with none to comfort them! From the hand of their oppressors comes violence, and there is none to comfort them!


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 And better off than both is the yet unborn, who has not seen the wicked work that is done under the sun.


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 Then I saw that all toil and skillful work is the rivalry of one man for another. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.


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 a solitary man with no companion; with neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his toil, and riches do not satisfy his greed. "For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good things?" This also is vanity and a worthless task.


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 If the one falls, the other will lift up his companion. Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up.


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 Then I saw all those who are to live and move about under the sun with the heir apparent who will succeed to his place.


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 There is no end to all these people, to all over whom he takes precedence; yet the later generations will not applaud him. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.


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 Guard your step when you go to the house of God. Let your approach be obedience, rather than the fools' offering of sacrifice; for they know not how to keep from doing evil.


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 Be not hasty in your utterance and let not your heart be quick to make a promise in God's presence. God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.


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 When you make a vow to God, delay not its fulfillment. For God has no pleasure in fools; fulfill what you have vowed.


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 Let not your utterances make you guilty, and say not before his representative, "It was a mistake," lest God be angered by such words and destroy the works of your hands.


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 If you see oppression of the poor, and violation of rights and justice in the realm, do not be shocked by the fact, for the high official has another higher than he watching him and above these are others higher still--.


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 The covetous man is never satisfied with money, and the lover of wealth reaps no fruit from it; so this too is vanity.


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 Where there are great riches, there are also many to devour them. Of what use are they to the owner except to feast his eyes upon?


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 Sleep is sweet to the laboring man, whether he eats little or much, but the rich man's abundance allows him no sleep.


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 As he came forth from his mother's womb, so again shall he depart, naked as he came, having nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.


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 This too is a grievous evil, that he goes just as he came. What then does it profit him to toil for wind?


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 Here is what I recognize as good: it is well for a man to eat and drink and enjoy all the fruits of his labor under the sun during the limited days of the life which God gives him; for this is his lot.


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 Any man to whom God gives riches and property, and grants power to partake of them, so that he receives his lot and finds joy in the fruits of his toil, has a gift from God.


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 For he will hardly dwell on the shortness of his life, because God lets him busy himself with the joy of his heart.


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 there is the man to whom God gives riches and property and honor, so that he lacks none of all the things he craves; yet God does not grant him power to partake of them, but a stranger devours them. This is vanity and a dire plague.


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 Should a man have a hundred children and live many years, no matter to what great age, still if he has not the full benefit of his goods, or if he is deprived of burial, of this man I proclaim that the child born dead is more fortunate than he.


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 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool, or what advantage has the poor man in knowing how to conduct himself in life?


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 "What the eyes see is better than what the desires wander after." This also is vanity and a chase after wind.


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 Whatever is, was long ago given its name, and the nature of man is known, and that he cannot contend in judgment with one who is stronger than he.


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 For who knows what is good for a man in life, the limited days of his vain life (which God has made like a shadow)? Because-- who is there to tell a man what will come after him under the sun?


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 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, For that is the end of every man, and the living should take it to heart.


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 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.


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 Better is the end of speech than its beginning; better is the patient spirit than the lofty spirit.


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 Do not say: How is it that former times were better than these? For it is not in wisdom that you ask about this.


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 For the protection of wisdom is as the protection of money; and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.


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 On a good day enjoy good things, and on an evil day consider: Both the one and the other God has made, so that man cannot find fault with him in anything.


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 I have seen all manner of things in my vain days: a just man perishing in his justice, and a wicked one surviving in his wickedness.


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 It is good to hold to this rule, and not to let that one go; but he who fears God will win through at all events.


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 I turned my thoughts toward knowledge; I sought and pursued wisdom and reason, and I recognized that wickedness is foolish and folly is madness.


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 More bitter than death I find the woman who is a hunter's trap, whose heart is a snare and whose hands are prison bonds. He who is pleasing to God will escape her, but the sinner will be entrapped by her.


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 Behold, this have I found, says Qoheleth, adding one thing to another that I might discover the answer


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 which my soul still seeks and has not found: One man out of a thousand have I come upon, but a woman among them all I have not found.


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 Behold, only this have I found out: God made mankind straight, but men have had recourse to many calculations.


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 Who is like the wise man, and who knows the explanation of things? A man's wisdom illumines his face, but an impudent look is resented.


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 be not hasty to withdraw from the king; do not join in with a base plot, for he does whatever he pleases,


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 "He who keeps the commandment experiences no evil, and the wise man's heart knows times and judgments;


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 There is no man who is master of the breath of life so as to retain it, and none has mastery of the day of death. There is no exemption from the struggle, nor are the wicked saved by their wickedness.


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 All these things I considered and I applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun, while one man tyrannizes over another to his hurt.


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 Meanwhile I saw wicked men approach and enter; and as they left the sacred place, they were praised in the city for what they had done. This also is vanity.


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 Because the sentence against evildoers is not promptly executed, therefore the hearts of men are filled with the desire to commit evil--


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 because the sinner does evil a hundred times and survives. Though indeed I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, for their reverence toward him;


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 and that it shall not be well with the wicked man, and he shall not prolong his shadowy days, for his lack of reverence toward God.


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 This is a vanity which occurs on earth: there are just men treated as though they had done evil and wicked men treated as though they had done justly. This, too, I say is vanity.


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 Therefore I commend mirth, because there is nothing good for man under the sun except eating and drinking and mirth: for this is the accompaniment of his toil during the limited days of the life which God gives him under the sun.


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 I recognized that man is unable to find out all God's work that is done under the sun, even though neither by day nor by night do his eyes find rest in sleep. However much man toils in searching, he does not find it out; and even if the wise man says that he knows, he is unable to find it out.


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 All this I have kept in mind and recognized: the just, the wise, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Love from hatred man cannot tell; both appear equally vain,


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 in that there is the same lot for all, for the just and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for him who offers sacrifice and him who does not. As it is for the good man, so it is for the sinner; as it is for him who swears rashly, so it is for him who fears an oath.


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 Among all the things that happen under the sun, this is the worst, that things turn out the same for all. Hence the minds of men are filled with evil, and madness is in their hearts during life; and afterward they go to the dead.


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 For the living know that they are to die, but the dead no longer know anything. There is no further recompense for them, because all memory of them is lost.


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 For them, love and hatred and rivalry have long since perished. They will never again have part in anything that is done under the sun.


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 Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is now that God favors your works.


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 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of the fleeting life that is granted you under the sun. This is your lot in life, for the toil of your labors under the sun.


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 Anything you can turn your hand to, do with what power you have; for there will be no work, nor reason, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the nether world where you are going....


text:
 Again I saw under the sun that the race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the valiant, nor a livelihood by the wise, nor riches by the shrewd, nor favor by the experts; for a time of calamity comes to all alike.


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 Man no more knows his own time than fish taken in the fatal net, or birds trapped in the snare; like these the children of men are caught when the evil time falls suddenly upon them.


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 Against a small city with few men in it advanced a mighty king, who surrounded it and threw up great siegeworks about it.


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 But in the city lived a man who, though poor, was wise, and he delivered it through his wisdom. Yet no one remembered this poor man.


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 Though I had said, "Wisdom is better than force," yet the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words go unheeded.


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 The wise man's understanding turns him to his right; the fool's understanding turns him to his left.


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 Should the anger of the ruler burst upon you, forsake not your place; for mildness abates great offenses.


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 If the iron becomes dull, though at first he made easy progress, he must increase his efforts; but the craftsman has the advantage of his skill.


text:
 yet the fool multiplies words. Man knows not what is to come, for who can tell him what is to come after him?


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 Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of noble birth, and whose princes dine at the right time (for vigor and not in drinking bouts).


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 Bread and oil call forth merriment and wine makes the living glad, but money answers for everything.


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 Even in your thoughts do not make light of the king, nor in the privacy of your bedroom revile the rich. Because the birds of the air may carry your voice, a winged creature may tell what you say.


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 When the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, wherever it falls, there shall it lie.


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 Just as you know not how the breath of life fashions the human frame in the mother's womb, So you know not the work of God which he is accomplishing in the universe.


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 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening let not your hand be idle: For you know not which of the two will be successful, or whether both alike will turn out well.


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 However many years a man may live, let him, as he enjoys them all, remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that is to come is vanity.


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 Rejoice, O young man, while you are young and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart, the vision of your eyes; Yet understand that as regards all this God will bring you to judgment.


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 Ward off grief from your heart and put away trouble from your presence, though the dawn of youth is fleeting.


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 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come And the years approach of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them;


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 Before the sun is darkened. and the light, and the moon, and the stars, while the clouds return after the rain;


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 When the guardians of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, And the grinders are idle because they are few, and they who look through the windows grow blind;


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 When the doors to the street are shut, and the sound of the mill is low; When one waits for the chirp of a bird, but all the daughters of song are suppressed;


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 And one fears heights, and perils in the street; When the almond tree blooms, and the locust grows sluggish and the caper berry is without effect, Because man goes to his lasting home, and mourners go about the streets;


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 Before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is broken, And the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the broken pulley falls into the well,


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 Besides being wise, Qoheleth taught the people knowledge, and weighed, scrutinized and arranged many proverbs.


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 As to more than these, my son, beware. Of the making of many books there is no end, and in much study there is weariness for the flesh.


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 Draw me!- D We will follow you eagerly! B Bring me, O king, to your chambers. D With you we rejoice and exult, we extol your love; it is beyond wine: how rightly you are loved!


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 B I am as dark-- but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem- As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Salma.


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 Do not stare at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has burned me. My brothers have been angry with me; they charged me with the care of the vineyards: my own vineyard I have not cared for.


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 B Tell me, you whom my heart loves, where you pasture your flock, where you give them rest at midday, Lest I be found wandering after the flocks of your companions.


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 G If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, Follow the tracks of the flock and pasture the young ones near the shepherds' camps.


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 B As an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my lover among men. I delight to rest in his shadow, and his fruit is sweet to my mouth.


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 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and hinds of the field, Do not arouse, do not stir up love before its own time.


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 My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices.


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 The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land.


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 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!


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 "O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, Let me see you, let me hear your voice, For your voice is sweet, and you are lovely."


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 Until the day breathes cool and the shadows lengthen, roam, my lover, Like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of Bether.


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 I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves. I sought him but I did not find him.


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 The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city: Have you seen him whom my heart loves?


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 I had hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves. I took hold of him and would not let him go till I should bring him to the home of my mother, to the room of my parent.


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 D What is this coming up from the desert, like a column of smoke Laden with myrrh, with frankincense, and with the perfume of every exotic dust?


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 All of them expert with the sword, skilled in battle, Each with his sword at his side against danger in the watches of the night.


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 He made its columns of silver, its roof of gold, Its seat of purple cloth, its framework inlaid with ivory.


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 Daughters of Jerusalem, come forth and look upon King Solomon In the crown with which his mother has crowned him on the day of his marriage, on the day of the joy of his heart.


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 G Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, ah, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down the mountains of Gilead.


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 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes to be shorn, which come up from the washing, All of them big with twins, none of them thin and barren.


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 Your lips are like a scarlet strand; your mouth is lovely. Your cheek is like a half-pomegranate behind your veil.


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 Your neck is like David's tower girt with battlements; A thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the shields of valiant men.


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 Until the day breathes cool and the shadows lengthen, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of incense.


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 Come from Lebanon, my bride, come from Lebanon, come! Descend from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, From the haunts of lions, from the leopards' mountains.


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 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride; you have ravished my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one bead of your necklace.


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 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride, how much more delightful is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments than all spices!


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 Your lips drip honey, my bride, sweetmeats and milk are under your tongue; And the fragrance of your garments is the fragrance of Lebanon.


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 Nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all kinds of incense; Myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.


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 Arise, north wind! Come, south wind! blow upon my garden that its perfumes may spread abroad. B Let my lover come to his garden and eat its choice fruits.


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 G I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I gather my myrrh and my spices, I eat my honey and my sweetmeats, I drink my wine and my milk. D Eat, friends; drink! Drink freely of love!


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 B I was sleeping, but my heart kept vigil; I heard my lover knocking: "Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is wet with dew, my locks with the moisture of the night."


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 My lover put his hand through the opening; my heart trembled within me, and I grew faint when he spoke.


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 I rose to open to my lover, with my hands dripping myrrh: With my fingers dripping choice myrrh upon the fittings of the lock.


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 I opened to my lover-- but my lover had departed, gone. I sought him but I did not find him; I called to him but he did not answer me.


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 The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city; They struck me, and wounded me, and took my mantle from me, the guardians of the walls.


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 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my lover-- What shall you tell him?-- that I am faint with love.


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 D How does your lover differ from any other, O most beautiful among women? How does your lover differ from any other, that you adjure us so?


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 His eyes are like doves beside running waters, His teeth would seem bathed in milk, and are set like jewels.


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 His cheeks are like beds of spice with ripening aromatic herbs. His lips are red blossoms; they drip choice myrrh.


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 His arms are rods of gold adorned with chrysolites. His body is a work of ivory covered with sapphires.


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 His legs are columns of marble resting on golden bases. His stature is like the trees on Lebanon, imposing as the cedars.


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 His mouth is sweetness itself; he is all delight. Such is my lover, and such my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.


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 D Where has your lover gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your lover gone that we may seek him with you?


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 B My lover has come down to his garden, to the beds of spice, To browse in the garden and to gather lilies.


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 G You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my beloved, as lovely as Jerusalem, as awe-inspiring as bannered troops.


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 Turn your eyes from me, for they torment me. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead.


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 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes which come up from the washing, All of them big with twins, none of them thin and barren.


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 One alone is my dove, my perfect one, her mother's chosen, the dear one of her parent. The daughters saw her and declared her fortunate, the queens and concubines, and they sang her praises;


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 D Who is this that comes forth like the dawn, as beautiful as the moon, as resplendent as the sun, as awe-inspiring as bannered troops?


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 B I came down to the nut garden to look at the fresh growth of the valley, To see if the vines were in bloom. if the pomegranates had blossomed.


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 D Turn, turn, O Shulammite, turn, turn, that we may look at you! B Why would you look at the Shulammite as at the dance of the two companies?


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 D How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O prince's daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the handiwork of an artist.


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 Your navel is a round bowl that should never lack for mixed wine. Your body is a heap of wheat encircled with lilies.


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 Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like the tower on Lebanon that looks toward Damascus.


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 You head rises like Carmel; your hair is like draperies of purple; a king is held captive in its tresses.


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 I said: I will climb the palm tree, I will take hold of its branches. Now let your breasts be like clusters of the vine and the fragrance of your breath like apples,


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 And your mouth like an excellent wine- B that flows smoothly for my lover, spreading over the lips and the teeth.


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 Let us go early to the vineyards, and see if the vines are in bloom, If the buds have opened, if the pomegranates have blossomed; There will I give you my love.


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 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and at our doors are all choice fruits; Both fresh and mellowed fruits, my lover, I have kept in store for you.


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 Oh, that you were my brother, nursed at my mother's breasts! If I met you out of doors, I would kiss you and none would taunt me.


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 I would lead you, bring you in to the home of my mother. There you would teach me to give you spiced wine to drink and pomegranate juice.


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 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and hinds of the field, Do not arouse, do not stir up love, before its own time.


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 D Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning upon her lover? G Under the apple tree I awakened you; it was there that your mother conceived you, it was there that your parent conceived.


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 B Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; For stern as death is love, relentless as the nether world is devotion; its flames are a blazing fire.


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 Deep waters cannot quench love, nor floods sweep it away. Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love, he would be roundly mocked.


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 "Our sister is little and she has no breasts as yet. What shall we do for our sister when her courtship begins?


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 If she is a wall, we will build upon it a silver parapet; If she is a door, we will reinforce it with a cedar plank."


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 B Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he gave over the vineyard to caretakers. For its fruit one would have to pay a thousand silver pieces.


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 My vineyard is at my own disposal; the thousand pieces are for you, O Solomon, and two hundred for the caretakers of its fruit.


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


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 Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the LORD speaks: Sons have I raised and reared, but they have disowned me!


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 An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master's manger; But Israel does not know, my people has not understood.


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 Ah! sinful nation, people laden with wickedness, evil race, corrupt children! They have forsaken the LORD, spurned the Holy One of Israel, apostatized.


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 Where would you yet be struck, you that rebel again and again? The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint.


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 From the sole of the foot to the head there is no sound spot: Wound and welt and gaping gash, not drained, or bandaged, or eased with salve.


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 Your country is waste, your cities burnt with fire; Your land before your eyes strangers devour (a waste, like Sodom overthrown)--


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 And daughter Zion is left like a hut in a vineyard, Like a shed in a melon patch, like a city blockaded.


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 Unless the LORD of hosts had left us a scanty remnant, We had become as Sodom, we should be like Gomorrah.


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 Hear the word of the LORD, princes of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah!


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 What care I for the number of your sacrifices? says the LORD. I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs and goats I find no pleasure.


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 Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me. New moon and sabbath, calling of assemblies, octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear.


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 When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; Though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood!


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 learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow.


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 Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool.


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 How has she turned adulteress, the faithful city, so upright! Justice used to lodge within her, but now, murderers.


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 Your princes are rebels and comrades of thieves; Each one of them loves a bribe and looks for gifts. The fatherless they defend not, and the widow's plea does not reach them.


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 Now, therefore, says the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah! I will take vengeance on my foes and fully repay my enemies!


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 I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as in the beginning; After that you shall be called city of justice, faithful city.


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 The strong man shall turn to tow, and his work shall become a spark; Both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench the flames.


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 In days to come, The mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it;


text:
 many peoples shall come and say: "Come, let us climb the LORD'S mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.


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 He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.


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 You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with fortunetellers and soothsayers, like the Philistines; they covenant with strangers.


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 Their land is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; Their land is full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots.


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 Their land is full of idols; they worship the works of their hands, that which their fingers have made.


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 Get behind the rocks, hide in the dust, From the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty!


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 The haughty eyes of man will be lowered, the arrogance of men will be abased, and the LORD alone will be exalted, on that day.


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 For the LORD of hosts will have his day against all that is proud and arrogant, all that is high, and it will be brought low;


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 Human pride will be abased, the arrogance of men brought low, And the LORD alone will be exalted, on that day.


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 Men will go into caves in the rocks and into holes in the earth, From the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he arises to overawe the earth.


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 On that day men will throw to the moles and the bats the idols of silver and gold which they made for worship.


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 They go into caverns in the rocks and into crevices in the cliffs, From the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he arises to overawe the earth.


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 The Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall take away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and prop (all supplies of bread and water):


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 And the people shall oppress one another, yes, every man his neighbor. The child shall be bold toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable.


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 When a man seizes his brother in his father's house, saying, "You have clothes! Be our ruler, and take in hand this ruin!"--


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 Then shall he answer in that day: "I will not undertake to cure this, when in my own house there is no bread or clothing! You shall not make me ruler of the people."


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 Jerusalem is crumbling, Judah is falling; for their speech and their deeds are before the LORD, a provocation in the sight of his majesty.


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 Their very look bears witness against them; their sin like Sodom they vaunt, They hide it not. Woe to them! they deal out evil to themselves.


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 My people-- a babe in arms will be their tyrant, and women will rule them! O my people, your leaders mislead, they destroy the paths you should follow.


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 The Lord enters into judgment with his people's elders and princes: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the loot wrested from the poor is in your houses.


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 What do you mean by crushing my people, and grinding down the poor when they look to you? says the Lord, the GOD of hosts.


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 The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with necks outstretched Ogling and mincing as they go, their anklets tinkling with every step,


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 The Lord shall cover the scalps of Zion's daughters with scabs, and the LORD shall bare their heads.


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 Instead of perfume there will be stench, instead of the girdle, a rope, And for the coiffure, baldness; for the rich gown, a sackcloth skirt. Then, instead of beauty:


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 Seven women will take hold of one man on that day, saying: "We will eat our own food and wear our own clothing; Only let your name be given us, put an end to our disgrace!"


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 On that day, The branch of the LORD will be luster and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor for the survivors of Israel.


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 He who remains in Zion and he that is left in Jerusalem Will be called holy: every one marked down for life in Jerusalem.


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 When the Lord washes away the filth of the daughters of Zion, And purges Jerusalem's blood from her midst with a blast of searing judgment,


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 Then will the LORD create, over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her place of assembly, A smoking cloud by day and a light of flaming fire by night.


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 For over all, his glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain.


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 Let me now sing of my friend, my friend's song concerning his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside;


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 He spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; Within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.


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 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?


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 Now, I will let you know what I mean to do to my vineyard: Take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled!


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 Yes, I will make it a ruin: it shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briers; I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it.


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 The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his cherished plant; He looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!


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 Woe to you who join house to house, who connect field with field, Till no room remains, and you are left to dwell alone in the midst of the land!


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 In my hearing the LORD of hosts has sworn: Many houses shall be in ruins, large ones and fine, with no one to live in them.


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 Ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one liquid measure, And a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.


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 Woe to those who demand strong drink as soon as they rise in the morning, And linger into the night while wine inflames them!


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 With harp and lyre, timbrel and flute, they feast on wine; But what the LORD does, they regard not, the work of his hands they see not.


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 Therefore my people go into exile, because they do not understand; Their nobles die of hunger, and their masses are parched with thirst.


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 Therefore the nether world enlarges its throat and opens its maw without limit; Down go their nobility and their masses, their throngs and their revelry.


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 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted by his judgment, and God the Holy shall be shown holy by his justice.


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 To those who say, "Let him make haste and speed his work, that we may see it; On with the plan of the Holy One of Israel! let it come to pass, that we may know it!"


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 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!


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 Therefore, as the tongue of fire licks up stubble, as dry grass shrivels in the flame, Even so their root shall become rotten and their blossom scatter like dust; For they have spurned the law of the LORD of hosts, and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.


text:
 Therefore the wrath of the LORD blazes against his people, he raises his hand to strike them; When the mountains quake, their corpses shall be like refuse in the streets. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, and his hand is still outstretched.


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 He will give a signal to a far-off nation, and whistle to them from the ends of the earth; speedily and promptly will they come.


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 None of them will stumble with weariness, none will slumber and none will sleep. None will have his waist belt loose, nor the thong of his sandal broken.


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 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses seem like flint, and their chariot wheels like the hurricane.


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 Their roar is that of the lion, like the lion's whelps they roar; They growl and seize the prey, they carry it off and none will rescue it.


text:
 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple.


text:
 Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.


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 "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!" they cried one to the other. "All the earth is filled with his glory!"


text:
 Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"


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 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.


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 He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."


text:
 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am," I said; "send me!"


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 And he replied: Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but you shall not understand! Look intently, but you shall know nothing!


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 You are to make the heart of this people sluggish, to dull their ears and close their eyes; Else their eyes will see, their ears hear, their heart understand, and they will turn and be healed.


text:
 "How long, O Lord?" I asked. And he replied: Until the cities are desolate, without inhabitants, Houses, without a man, and the earth is a desolate waste.


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 If there be still a tenth part in it, then this in turn shall be laid waste; As with a terebinth or an oak whose trunk remains when its leaves have fallen. (Holy offspring is the trunk.)


text:
 In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah, went up to attack Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it.


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 When word came to the house of David that Aram was encamped in Ephraim, the heart of the king and heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.


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 Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field,


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 and say to him: Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear; let not your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands (the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans, and of the son of Remaliah),


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 "Let us go up and tear Judah asunder, make it our own by force, and appoint the son of Tabeel king there."


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 Damascus is the capital of Aram, and Rezin the head of Damascus; Samaria is the capital of Ephraim, and Remaliah's son the head of Samaria.


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 But within sixty years and five, Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation. Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm!


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 Then he said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God?


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 Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.


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 For before the child learns to reject the bad and choose the good, the land of those two kings whom you dread shall be deserted.


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 The LORD shall bring upon you and your people and your father's house days worse than any since Ephraim seceded from Judah. (This means the king of Assyria.)


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 On that day The LORD shall whistle for the fly that is in the farthest streams of Egypt, and for the bee in the land of Assyria.


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 All of them shall come and settle in the steep ravines and in the rocky clefts, on all thornbushes and in all pastures.


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 On that day the LORD shall shave with the razor hired from across the River (with the king of Assyria) the head, and the hair between the legs. It shall also shave off the beard.


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 and from their abundant yield of milk he shall live on curds; curds and honey shall be the food of all who remain in the land.


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 On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, shall be turned to briers and thorns.


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 For fear of briers and thorns you shall not go upon any mountainside which used to be hoed with the mattock; they shall be grazing land for cattle and shall be trampled upon by sheep.


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 The LORD said to me: Take a large cylinder-seal, and inscribe on it in ordinary letters: "Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz."


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 Then I went to the prophetess and she conceived and bore a son. The LORD said to me: Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,


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 for before the child knows how to call his father or mother by name, the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried off by the king of Assyria.


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 Because this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, And melts with fear before the loftiness of Rezin and Remaliah's son,


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 Therefore the LORD raises against them the waters of the River, great and mighty (the king of Assyria and all his power). It shall rise above all its channels, and overflow all its banks;


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 It shall pass into Judah, and flood it all throughout: up to the neck it shall reach; It shall spread its wings the full width of your land, Immanuel!


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 Know, O peoples, and be appalled! Give ear, all you distant lands! Arm, but be crushed! Arm, but be crushed!


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 Form a plan, and it shall be thwarted; make a resolve, and it shall not be carried out, for "With us is God!"


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 For thus said the LORD to me, taking hold of me and warning me not to walk in the way of this people:


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 Call not alliance what this people calls alliance, and fear not, nor stand in awe of what they fear.


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 Yet he shall be a snare, an obstacle and a stumbling stone to both the houses of Israel, A trap and a snare to those who dwell in Jerusalem;


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 For I will trust in the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob; yes, I will wait for him.


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 Look at me and the children whom the Lord has given me: we are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.


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 And when they say to you, "Inquire of mediums and fortune-tellers (who chirp and mutter!); should not a people inquire of their gods, apply to the dead on behalf of the living?"--


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 He shall pass through it hard-pressed and hungry, and in his hunger he shall become enraged, and curse his king and his gods. He shall look upward, but there shall be strict darkness without any dawn;


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 He shall gaze at the earth, but there shall be distress and darkness, with the light blacked out by its clouds.


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 First he degraded the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the end he has glorified the seaward road, the land West of the Jordan, the District of the Gentiles. Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness; for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.


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 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.


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 You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, As they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as men make merry when dividing spoils.


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 For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, And the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.


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 For every boot that tramped in battle, every cloak rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for flames.


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 For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.


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 His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, From David's throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and sustains By judgment and justice, both now and forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!


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 And all the people know it, Ephraim and those who dwell in Samaria, those who say in arrogance and pride of heart,


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 "Bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone; Sycamores are felled, but we will replace them with cedars."


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 Aram on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, and his hand is still outstretched!


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 For this reason, the Lord does not spare their young men, and their orphans and widows he does not pity; They are wholly profaned and sinful, and every mouth gives vent to folly. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched!


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 For wickedness burns like fire, devouring brier and thorn; It kindles the forest thickets, which go up in columns of smoke.


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 At the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land quakes, and the people are like fuel for fire; No man spares his brother, each devours the flesh of his neighbor.


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 Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn on Judah. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched!


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 Depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people's poor of their rights, Making widows their plunder, and orphans their prey!


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 What will you do on the day of punishment, when ruin comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth,


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 Lest it sink beneath the captive or fall beneath the slain? For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched!


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 Against an impious nation I send him, and against a people under my wrath I order him To seize plunder, carry off loot, and tread them down like the mud of the streets.


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 But this is not what he intends, nor does he have this in mind; Rather, it is in his heart to destroy, to make an end of nations not a few.


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 Just as my hand reached out to idolatrous kingdoms that had more images than Jerusalem and Samaria,


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 (But when the LORD has brought to an end all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the utterance of the king of Assyria's proud heart,


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 and the boastfulness of his haughty eyes. For he says:) "By my own power I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd. I have moved the boundaries of peoples, their treasures I have pillaged, and, like a giant, I have put down the enthroned.


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 My hand has seized like a nest the riches of nations; As one takes eggs left alone, so I took in all the earth; No one fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped!"


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 Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts it, or a staff him who is not wood!


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 Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, And instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire.


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 The Light of Israel will become a fire, Israel's Holy One a flame, That burns and consumes his briers and his thorns in a single day.


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 And the remnant of the trees in his forest will be so few, Like poles set up for signals, that any boy can record them.


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 On that day The remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no more lean upon him who struck them; But they lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.


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 For though your people, O Israel, were like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant of them will return; their destruction is decreed as overwhelming justice demands.


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 Yes, the destruction he has decreed, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will carry out within the whole land.


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 Therefore thus says the Lord, the GOD of hosts: O my people, who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian, though he strikes you with a rod, and raises his staff against you.


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 Then the LORD of hosts will raise against them a scourge such as struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did against Egypt.


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 On that day, His burden shall be taken from your shoulder, and his yoke shattered from your neck. He has come up from the direction of Rimmon,


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 They cross the ravine: "We will spend the night at Geba." Ramah is in terror, Gibeah of Saul has fled.


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 Even today he will halt at Nob, he will shake his fist at the mount of daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem!


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 Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, lops off the boughs with terrible violence; The tall of stature are felled, and the lofty ones brought low;


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 The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,


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 and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide,


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 But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land's afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.


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 Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.


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 The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox.


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 There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea.


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 On that day, The root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, The Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.


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 On that day, The Lord shall again take it in hand to reclaim the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria and Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, and Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the isles of the sea.


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 He shall raise a signal to the nations and gather the outcasts of Israel; The dispersed of Judah he shall assemble from the four corners of the earth.


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 The envy of Ephraim shall pass away, and the rivalry of Judah be removed; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be hostile to Ephraim;


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 But they shall swoop down on the foothills of the Philistines to the west, together they shall plunder the Kedemites; Edom and Moab shall be their possessions, and the Ammonites their subjects.


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 The LORD shall dry up the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and wave his hand over the Euphrates in his fierce anger And shatter it into seven streamlets, so that it can be crossed in sandals.


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 There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, As there was for Israel when he came up from the land of Egypt.


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 On that day, you will say: I give you thanks, O LORD; though you have been angry with me, your anger has abated, and you have consoled me.


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 God indeed is my savior; I am confident and unafraid. My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior.


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 and say on that day: Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name; among the nations make known his deeds, proclaim how exalted is his name.


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 Upon the bare mountains set up a signal; cry out to them, Wave for them to enter the gates of the volunteers.


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 I have commanded my dedicated soldiers, I have summoned my warriors, eager and bold to carry out my anger.


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 Listen! the rumble on the mountains: that of an immense throng! Listen! the noise of kingdoms, nations assembled! The LORD of hosts is mustering an army for battle.


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 They come from a far-off country, and from the end of the heavens, The LORD and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy all the land.


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 Therefore all hands fall helpless, the bows of the young men fall from their hands. Every man's heart melts


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 in terror. Pangs and sorrows take hold of them, like a woman in labor they writhe; They look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.


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 Lo, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and burning anger; To lay waste the land and destroy the sinners within it!


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 The stars and constellations of the heavens send forth no light; The sun is dark when it rises, and the light of the moon does not shine.


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 Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their guilt. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, the insolence of tyrants I will humble.


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 For this I will make the heavens tremble and the earth shall be shaken from its place, At the wrath of the LORD of hosts on the day of his burning anger.


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 Like a hunted gazelle, or a flock that no one gathers, Every man shall turn to his kindred and flee to his own land.


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 Their infants shall be dashed to pieces in their sight; their houses shall be plundered and their wives ravished.


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 And Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory and pride of the Chaldeans, Shall be overthrown by God like Sodom and like Gomorrah.


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 She shall never be inhabited, nor dwelt in, from age to age; The Arab shall not pitch his tent there, nor shepherds couch their flocks.


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 But wildcats shall rest there and owls shall fill the houses; There ostriches shall dwell, and satyrs shall dance.


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 Desert beasts shall howl in her castles, and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Her time is near at hand and her days shall not be prolonged.


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 When the LORD has pity on Jacob and again chooses Israel and settles them on their own soil, the aliens will join them and be counted with the house of Jacob.


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 The house of Israel will take them and bring them along to its place, and possess them as male and female slaves on the Lord's soil, making captives of its captors and ruling over its oppressors.


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 On the day the LORD relieves you of sorrow and unrest and the hard service in which you have been enslaved,


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 you will take up this taunt-song against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has reached his end! how the turmoil is stilled!


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 That struck the peoples in wrath relentless blows; That beat down the nations in anger, with oppression unchecked.


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 The very cypresses rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon: "Now that you are laid to rest, there will be none to cut us down."


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 The nether world below is all astir preparing for your coming; It awakens the shades to greet you, all the leaders of the earth; It has the kings of all nations rise from their thrones.


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 Down to the nether world your pomp is brought, the music of your harps. The couch beneath you is the maggot, your covering, the worm."


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 How have you fallen from the heavens, O morning star, son of the dawn! How are you cut down to the ground, you who mowed down the nations!


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 You said in your heart: "I will scale the heavens; Above the stars of God I will set up my throne; I will take my seat on the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of the North.


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 When they see you they will stare, pondering over you: "Is this the man who made the earth tremble, and kingdoms quake?


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 But you are cast forth without burial, loathsome and corrupt, Clothed as those slain at sword-point, a trampled corpse. Going down to the pavement of the pit,


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 you will never be one with them in the grave." For you have ruined your land, you have slain your people! Let him not be named forever, that scion of an evil race!


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 Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their fathers; Lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the breadth of the world with tyrants.


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 I will rise up against them, says the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, progeny and offspring, says the LORD.


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 I will make it a haunt of hoot owls and a marshland; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the LORD of hosts.


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 The LORD of hosts has sworn: As I have resolved, so shall it be; As I have proposed, so shall it stand:


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 I will break the Assyrian in my land and trample him on my mountains; Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden from their shoulder.


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 The LORD of hosts has planned; who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out; who can turn it back?


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 Rejoice not, O Philistia, not a man of you, that the rod which smote you is broken; For out of the serpent's root shall come an adder, its fruit shall be a flying saraph.


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 In my pastures the poor shall eat, and the needy lie down in safety; But I will kill your root with famine that shall slay even your remnant.


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 Howl, O gate; cry out, O city! Philistia, all of you melts away! For there comes a smoke from the north, without a straggler in the ranks.


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 What will one answer the messengers of the nation? "The LORD has established Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge."


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 Oracle on Moab: Laid waste in a night, Ar of Moab is destroyed; Laid waste in a night, Kir of Moab is destroyed.


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 Up goes daughter Dibon to the high places to weep; Over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. Every head is shaved, every beard sheared off.


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 In the streets they wear sackcloth, lamenting and weeping; On the rooftops and in the squares everyone wails.


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 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, they are heard as far as Jahaz. At this the loins of Moab tremble, his soul quivers within him;


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 The heart of Moab cries out, his fugitives reach Zoar (Eglath-shelishiyah). The ascent of Luhith they climb weeping; On the way to Horonaim they utter rending cries.


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 The waters of Nimrim have become a waste; The grass is withered, new growth is gone, nothing is green.


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 For the cry has gone round the land of Moab; As far as Eglaim the wailing, and to Beer-elim, the wail.


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 The waters of Dimon are filled with blood, but I will bring still more upon Dimon: Lions for those who are fleeing from Moab and for those who remain in the land!


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 Send them forth, hugging the earth like reptiles, from Sela across the desert, to the mount of daughter Zion.


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 Offer counsel, take their part: at high noon let your shadow be like the night, To hide the outcasts, to conceal the fugitives.


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 Let the outcasts of Moab live with you, be their shelter from the destroyer. When the struggle is ended, the ruin complete, and they have done with trampling the land,


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 A throne shall be set up in mercy, and on it shall sit in fidelity (in David's tent) A judge upholding right and prompt to do justice.


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 We have heard of the pride of Moab, how very proud he is, With his haughty, arrogant insolence that his empty words do not match.


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 Therefore Moab wails for Moab, everywhere they wail; For the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth they sigh, stricken with grief.


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 The terraced slopes of Heshbon languish, the vines of Sibmah, Whose clusters overpowered the lords of nations, While they reached as far as Jazer and scattered over the desert, And whose branches spread forth and extended over the sea.


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 Therefore I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah; I water you with tears, Heshbon and Elealeh; For on your summer fruits and harvests the battle cry has fallen.


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 From the orchards are taken away joy and gladness, In the vineyards there is no singing, no shout of joy; In the wine presses no one treads grapes, the vintage shout is stilled.


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 When Moab grows weary on the high places, he shall enter his sanctuary to pray, but it shall avail him nothing.


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 But now the LORD has spoken: In three years, like those of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be degraded despite all its great multitude; there shall be a remnant, very small and weak.


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 The fortress shall be lost to Ephraim and the kingdom to Damascus; The remnant of Aram shall have the same glory as the Israelites, says the LORD of hosts.


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 Like the reaper's mere armful of stalks when he gathers the standing grain; Or as when one gleans the ears in the Valley of Rephaim.


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 Only a scattering of grapes shall be left! As when an olive tree has been beaten, Two or three olives remain at the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches, says the LORD, the God of Israel.


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 He shall not look to the altars, his handiwork, nor shall he regard what his fingers have made: the sacred poles or the incense stands.


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 On that day his strong cities shall be like those abandoned by the Hivites and Amorites When faced with the children of Israel: they shall be laid waste.


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 For you have forgotten God, your savior, and remembered not the Rock, your strength. Therefore, though you plant your pagan plants and set out your foreign vine slips,


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 Though you make them grow the day you plant them and make your sprouts blossom on the next morning, The harvest shall disappear on the day of the grievous blow, the incurable blight.


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 Ah! the roaring of many peoples that roar like the roar of the seas! The surging of nations that surge like the surging of mighty waves!


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 But God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far away; Windswept, like chaff on the mountains, like tumbleweed in a storm.


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 In the evening, they spread terror, before morning, they are gone! Such is the portion of those who despoil us, the lot of those who plunder us.


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 Sending ambassadors by sea, in papyrus boats on the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and bronzed, To a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers.


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 All you who inhabit the world, who dwell on earth, When the signal is raised on the mountain, look! When the trumpet blows, listen!


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 For thus says the LORD to me: I will quietly look on from where I dwell, Like the glowing heat of sunshine, like a cloud of dew at harvest time.


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 Before the vintage, when the flowering is ended, and the blooms are succeeded by ripening grapes, Then comes the cutting of branches with pruning hooks and the discarding of the lopped-off shoots.


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 They shall all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts in the land; The birds of prey shall summer on them and on them all the beasts of the earth shall winter.


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 Then will gifts be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and bronzed, from a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers-- to Mount Zion where dwells the name of the LORD of hosts.


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 Oracle on Egypt: See, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud on his way to Egypt; The idols of Egypt tremble before him, the hearts of the Egyptians melt within them.


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 I will rouse Egypt against Egypt: brother will war against brother, Neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kindgom.


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 The courage of the Egyptians ebbs away within them, and I will bring to nought their counsel; They shall consult idols and charmers, ghosts and spirits.


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 I will deliver Egypt into the power of a cruel master, A harsh king who shall rule over them, says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.


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 Its streams shall become foul, and the canals of Egypt shall dwindle and dry up. Reeds and rushes shall wither away,


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 and bulrushes on the bank of the Nile; All the sown land along the Nile shall dry up and blow away, and be no more.


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 The fishermen shall mourn and lament, all who cast hook in the Nile; Those who spread their nets in the water shall pine away.


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 Utter fools are the princes of Zoan! the wisest of Pharaoh's advisers give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a disciple of wise men, of ancient kings"?


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 Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you and make known What the LORD of hosts has planned against Egypt.


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 The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis have been deceived. The chiefs of her tribes have led Egypt astray.


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 The LORD has prepared among them a spirit of dizziness, And they have made Egypt stagger in whatever she does, as a drunkard staggers in his vomit.


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 On that day the Egyptians shall be like women, trembling with fear, because of the LORD of hosts shaking his fist at them.


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 And the land of Judah shall be a terror to the Egyptians. Every time they remember Judah, they shall stand in dread because of the plan which the LORD of hosts has in mind for them.


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 On that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing by the LORD of hosts; one shall be called "City of the Sun."


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 On that day there shall be an altar to the LORD in the land of Egypt, and a sacred pillar to the LORD near the boundary.


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 It shall be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt, when they cry out to the LORD against their oppressors, and he sends them a savior to defend and deliver them.


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 The LORD shall make himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day; they shall offer sacrifices and oblations, and fulfill the vows they make to the LORD.


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 Although the LORD shall smite Egypt severely, he shall heal them; they shall turn to the LORD and he shall be won over and heal them.


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 On that day there shall be a highway from Egypt to Assyria; the Assyrians shall enter Egypt, and the Egyptians enter Assyria, and Egypt shall serve Assyria.


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 On that day Israel shall be a third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land,


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 when the LORD of hosts blesses it: "Blessed be my people Egypt, and the work of my hands Assyria, and my inheritance, Israel."


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 the LORD gave a warning through Isaiah, the son of Amoz: Go and take off the sackcloth from your waist, and remove the sandals from your feet. This he did, walking naked and barefoot.


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 Then the LORD said: Just as my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and portent against Egypt and Ethiopia,


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 so shall the king of Assyria lead away captives from Egypt, and exiles from Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered (the shame of Egypt).


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 They shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Ethiopia, their hope, and because of Egypt, their boast.


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 The inhabitants of this coastland shall say on that day, "Look at our hope! We have fled here for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria; where can we flee now?"


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 Oracle on the wastelands by the sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping in waves through the Negeb, there comes from the desert, from the fearful land,


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 A cruel sight, revealed to me: the traitor betrays, the despoiler spoils. "Go up, Elam; besiege, O Media; I will put an end to all groaning!"


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 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish, pangs have seized me like those of a woman in labor; I am too bewildered to hear, too dismayed to look.


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 If he sees a chariot, a pair of horses, Someone riding an ass, someone riding a camel, Then let him pay heed, very close heed.


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 Then the watchman cried, "On the watchtower, O my Lord, I stand constantly by day; And I stay at my post through all the watches of the night.


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 Here he comes now: a single chariot, a pair of horses; He calls out and says, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon, And all the images of her gods are smashed to the ground.'"


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 O my people who have been threshed, beaten on my threshing floor! What I have heard from the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, I have announced to you.


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 Oracle on Edom: They call to me from Seir, "Watchman, how much longer the night? Watchman, how much longer the night?"


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 Meet the thirsty, bring them water; you who dwell in the land of Tema, greet the fugitives with bread.


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 For thus says the Lord to me: In another year, like those of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall come to an end.


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 Oracle of the Valley of Vision: What is the matter with you now, that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,


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 O city full of noise and chaos, O wanton town! Your slain are not slain with the sword, nor killed in battle.


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 All your leaders fled away together, fled afar off; All who were in you were captured together, captured without the use of a bow.


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 At this I say: Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly; Do not try to comfort me for the ruin of the daughter of my people.


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 It is a day of panic, rout and confusion, from the Lord, the GOD of hosts, in the Valley of Vision. Walls crash; they cry for help to the mountains.


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 and shelter over Judah is removed. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest;


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 you saw that the breaches in the City of David were many; you collected the water of the lower pool.


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 you made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to the city's Maker, nor did you consider him who built it long ago.


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 On that day the Lord, the GOD of hosts, called on you To weep and mourn, to shave your head and put on sackcloth.


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 But look! you feast and celebrate, you slaughter oxen and butcher sheep, You eat meat and drink wine: "Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"


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 This reaches the ears of the LORD of hosts-- You shall not be pardoned this wickedness till you die, says the Lord, the GOD of hosts.


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 Who has hewn for himself a sepulcher on a height and carved his tomb in the rock: "What are you doing here, and what people have you here, that here you have hewn for yourself a tomb?"


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 And roll you up and toss you like a ball into an open land To perish there, you and the chariots you glory in, you disgrace to your master's house!


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 I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.


text:
 I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.


text:
 On him shall hang all the glory of his family: descendants and offspring, all the little dishes, from bowls to jugs.


text:
 On that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg fixed in a sure spot shall give way, break off and fall, and the weight that hung on it shall be done away with; for the LORD has spoken.


text:
 Oracle on Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your port is destroyed; From the land of the Kittim the news reaches them.


text:
 over the deep waters. The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue, and she the merchant among nations.


text:
 Shame, O Sidon, fortress on the sea, for the sea has spoken: "I have not been in labor, nor given birth, nor raised young men, nor reared virgins."


text:
 Is this your wanton city, whose origin is from old, Whose feet have taken her to dwell in distant lands?


text:
 Who has planned such a thing against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, Whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the earth's honored men?


text:
 The LORD of hosts has planned it, to disgrace all pride of majesty, to degrade all the earth's honored men.


text:
 His hand he stretches out over the sea, he shakes kingdoms; The LORD has ordered the destruction of Canaan's strongholds.


text:
 You shall exult no more, he says, you who are now oppressed, virgin daughter Sidon. Arise, pass over to the Kittim, even there you shall find no rest.


text:
 (This people is the land of the Chaldeans, not Assyria.) She whom the impious founded, setting up towers for her, Has had her castles destroyed, and has been turned into a ruin.


text:
 On that day, Tyre shall be forgotten for seventy years. With the days of another king, at the end of seventy years, it shall be for Tyre as in the song about the harlot:


text:
 Take a harp, go about the city, O forgotten harlot; Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs, that they may remember you.


text:
 At the end of the seventy years the LORD shall visit Tyre. She shall return to her hire and deal with all the world's kingdoms on the face of the earth.


text:
 But her merchandise and her hire shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall not be stored up or laid away, but from her merchandise those who dwell before the LORD shall eat their fill and clothe themselves in choice attire.


text:
 Lo, the LORD empties the land and lays it waste; he turns it upside down, scattering its inhabitants:


text:
 Layman and priest alike, servant and master, The maid as her mistress, the buyer as the seller, The lender as the borrower, the creditor as the debtor.


text:
 The earth is polluted because of its inhabitants, who have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the ancient covenant.


text:
 Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants pay for their guilt; Therefore they who dwell on earth turn pale, and few men are left.


text:
 Thus it is within the land, and among the peoples, As with an olive tree after it is beaten, as with a gleaning when the vintage is done.


text:
 "For this, in the coastlands, give glory to the LORD! In the coastlands of the sea, to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel!"


text:
 From the end of the earth we hear songs: "Splendor to the Just One!" But I said, "I am wasted, wasted away. Woe is me! The traitors betray: with treachery have the traitors betrayed!


text:
 He who flees at the sound of terror will fall into the pit; He who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For the windows on high will be opened and the foundations of the earth will shake.


text:
 The earth will reel like a drunkard, and it will sway like a hut; Its rebellion will weigh it down, until it falls, never to rise again."


text:
 On that day the LORD will punish the host of the heavens in the heavens, and the kings of the earth on the earth.


text:
 They will be gathered together like prisoners into a pit; They will be shut up in a dungeon, and after many days they will be punished.


text:
 Then the moon will blush and the sun grow pale, For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, glorious in the sight of his elders.


text:
 O LORD, you are my God, I will extol you and praise your name; For you have fulfilled your wonderful plans of old, faithful and true.


text:
 For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; The castle of the insolent is a city no more, nor ever to be rebuilt.


text:
 For you are a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in distress; Shelter from the rain, shade from the heat. As with the cold rain,


text:
 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.


text:
 On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations;


text:
 he will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.


text:
 On that day it will be said: "Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the LORD for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"


text:
 For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, but Moab will be trodden down as a straw is trodden down in the mire.


text:
 He will stretch forth his hands in Moab as a swimmer extends his hands to swim; He will bring low their pride as his hands sweep over them.


text:
 The high-walled fortress he will raze, and strike it down level with the earth, with the very dust.


text:
 On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah: "A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.


text:
 He humbles those in high places, and the lofty city he brings down; He tumbles it to the ground, levels it with the dust.


text:
 Yes, for your way and your judgments, O LORD, we look to you; Your name and your title are the desire of our souls.


text:
 My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you; When your judgment dawns upon the earth, the world's inhabitants learn justice.


text:
 The wicked man, spared, does not learn justice; in an upright land he acts perversely, and sees not the majesty of the LORD.


text:
 O LORD, your hand is uplifted, but they behold it not; Let them be shamed when they see your zeal for your people: let the fire prepared for your enemies consume them.


text:
 O LORD, our God, other lords than you have ruled us; it is from you only that we can call upon your name.


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 Dead they are, they have no life, shades that cannot rise; For you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them.


text:
 You have increased the nation, O LORD, increased the nation to your own glory, and extended far all the borders of the land.


text:
 As a woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pains, so were we in your presence, O LORD.


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 We conceived and writhed in pain, giving birth to wind; Salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.


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 But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust. For your dew is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth.


text:
 Go, my people, enter your chambers, and close your doors behind you; Hide yourselves for a brief moment, until the wrath is past.


text:
 See, the LORD goes forth from his place, to punish the wickedness of the earth's inhabitants; The earth will reveal the blood upon her, and no longer conceal her slain.


text:
 On that day, The LORD will punish with his sword that is cruel, great, and strong, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the coiled serpent; and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.


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 I, the LORD, am its keeper, I water it every moment; Lest anyone harm it, night and day I guard it.


text:
 I am not angry, but if I were to find briers and thorns, In battle I should march against them; I should burn them all.


text:
 In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall sprout and blossom, covering all the world with fruit.


text:
 Expunging and expelling, I should strive against them, carrying them off with my cruel wind in time of storm.


text:
 This, then, shall be the expiation of Jacob's guilt, this the whole fruit of the removal of his sin: He shall pulverize all the stones of the altars like pieces of chalk; no sacred poles or incense altars shall stand.


text:
 For the fortified city shall be desolate, an abandoned pasture, a forsaken wilderness, where calves shall browse and lie. Its boughs shall be destroyed,


text:
 its branches shall wither and be broken off, and women shall come to build a fire with them. This is not an understanding people; therefore their maker shall not spare them, nor shall he who formed them have mercy on them.


text:
 On that day, The LORD shall beat out the grain between the Euphrates and the Wadi of Egypt, and you shall be gleaned one by one, O sons of Israel.


text:
 On that day, A great trumpet shall blow, and the lost in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt Shall come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.


text:
 Woe to the majestic garland of the drunkard Ephraim, To the fading blooms of his glorious beauty, on the head of him who is stupefied with wine.


text:
 Behold, the LORD has a strong one and a mighty, who, like a downpour of hail, a destructive storm, Like a flood of water, great and overflowing, levels to the ground with violence;


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 The fading blooms of his glorious beauty on the head of the fertile valley Will be like an early fig before summer: when a man sees it, he picks and swallows it at once.


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 On that day the LORD of hosts will be a glorious crown And a brilliant diadem to the remnant of his people,


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 A spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, And strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.


text:
 But these also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priest and prophet stagger from strong drink, overpowered by wine; Led astray by strong drink, staggering in their visions, tottering when giving judgment.


text:
 "To whom would he impart knowledge? To whom would he convey the message? To those just weaned from milk, those taken from the breast?


text:
 For he says, 'Command on command, command on command, rule on rule, rule on rule, here a little, there a little!'"


text:
 to whom he said: This is the resting place, give rest to the weary; Here is repose-- but they would not listen.


text:
 So for them the word of the LORD shall be: "Command on command, command on command, Rule on rule, rule on rule, here a little, there a little!" So that when they walk, they stumble backward, broken, ensnared, and captured.


text:
 Because you say, "We have made a covenant with death, and with the nether world we have made a pact; When the overwhelming scourge passes, it will not reach us; For we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have found a hiding place,"--


text:
 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am laying a stone in Zion, a stone that has been tested, A precious cornerstone as a sure foundation; he who puts his faith in it shall not be shaken.


text:
 I will make of right a measuring line, of justice a level.-- Hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters shall flood the hiding place.


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 Your covenant with death shall be canceled and your pact with the nether world shall not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes, you shall be trampled down by it.


text:
 Whenever it passes, it shall take you; morning after morning it shall pass, By day and by night; terror alone shall convey the message.


text:
 For the LORD shall rise up as on Mount Perazim, bestir himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, To carry out his work, his singular work, to perform his deed, his strange deed.


text:
 Now, be arrogant no more lest your bonds be tightened, For I have heard from the Lord, the GOD of hosts, the destruction decreed for the whole earth.


text:
 When he has leveled the surface, does he not scatter gith and sow cumin, Put in wheat and barley, with spelt as its border?


text:
 Gith is not threshed with a sledge, nor does a cartwheel roll over cumin. But gith is beaten out with a staff, and cumin crushed for food with a rod.


text:
 I will encamp like David against you; I will encircle you with outposts and set up siege works against you.


text:
 Prostrate you shall speak from the earth, and from the base dust your words shall come. Your voice shall be like a ghost's from the earth, and your words like chirping from the dust.


text:
 The horde of your arrogant shall be like fine dust, the horde of the tyrants like flying chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,


text:
 you shall be visited by the LORD of hosts, With thunder, earthquake, and great noise, whirlwind, storm, and the flame of consuming fire.


text:
 Then like a dream, a vision in the night, Shall be the horde of all the nations who war against Ariel with all the earthworks of her besiegers.


text:
 As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakens with an empty stomach, Or when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakens faint and dry, So shall the horde of all the nations be, who make war against Zion.


text:
 Be irresolute, stupefied; blind yourselves and stay blind! Be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from strong drink!


text:
 For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes (the prophets) and covered your heads (the seers).


text:
 For you the revelation of all this has become like the words of a sealed scroll. When it is handed to one who can read, with the request, "Read this," he replies, "I cannot; it is sealed."


text:
 When it is handed to one who cannot read, with the request, "Read this," he replies, "I cannot read."


text:
 The Lord said: Since this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, though their hearts are far from me, And their reverence for me has become routine observance of the precepts of men,


text:
 Therefore I will again deal with this people in surprising and wondrous fashion: The wisdom of its wise men shall perish and the understanding of its prudent men be hid.


text:
 Woe to those who would hide their plans too deep for the LORD! Who work in the dark, saying, "Who sees us, or who knows us?"


text:
 Your perversity is as though the potter were taken to be the clay: As though what is made should say of its maker, "He made me not!" Or the vessel should say of the potter, "He does not understand."


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 But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest!


text:
 On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.


text:
 For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; All who are alert to do evil will be cut off,


text:
 those whose mere word condemns a man, Who ensnare his defender at the gate, and leave the just man with an empty claim.


text:
 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham: Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall his face grow pale.


text:
 When his children see the work of my hands in his midst, They shall keep my name holy; they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob, and be in awe of the God of Israel.


text:
 Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.


text:
 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, Who carry out plans that are not mine, who weave webs that are not inspired by me, adding sin upon sin.


text:
 They go down to Egypt, but my counsel they do not seek. They find their strength in Pharaoh's protection and take refuge in Egypt's shadow;


text:
 All shall be ashamed of a people that gain them nothing, Neither help nor benefit, but only shame and reproach.


text:
 (Oracle on the Beasts of the Negeb) Through the distressed and troubled land of the lioness and roaring lion, of the viper and flying saraph, They carry their riches on the backs of asses and their treasures on the humps of camels To a people good for nothing,


text:
 Now come, write it on a tablet they can keep, inscribe it in a record; That it may be in future days an eternal witness:


text:
 They say to the seers, "Have no visions"; to the prophets, "Do not descry for us what is right; speak flatteries to us, conjure up illusions.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you reject this word, And put your trust in what is crooked and devious, and depend on it,


text:
 This guilt of yours shall be like a descending rift Bulging out in a high wall whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant.


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 It crashes like a potter's jar smashed beyond rescue, And among its fragments cannot be found a sherd to scoop fire from the hearth or dip water from the cistern.


text:
 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet and in trust your strength lies. But this you did not wish.


text:
 "No," you said, "Upon horses we will flee."-- Very well, flee! "Upon swift steeds we will ride."-- Not so swift as your pursuers.


text:
 A thousand shall tremble at the threat of one; if five threaten you, you shall flee, Until you are left like a flagstaff on the mountaintop, like a flag on the hill.


text:
 Yet the LORD is waiting to show you favor, and he rises to pity you; For the LORD is a God of justice: blessed are all who wait for him!


text:
 O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep; He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you.


text:
 The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,


text:
 While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: "This is the way; walk in it," when you would turn to the right or to the left.


text:
 And you shall consider unclean your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered images; You shall throw them away like filthy rags to which you say, "Begone!"


text:
 He will give rain for the seed that you sow in the ground, And the wheat that the soil produces will be rich and abundant. On that day your cattle will graze in spacious meadows;


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 The oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat silage tossed to them with shovel and pitchfork.


text:
 Upon every high mountain and lofty hill there will be streams of running water. On the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall,


text:
 The light of the moon will be like that of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times greater (like the light of seven days). On the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people, he will heal the bruises left by his blows.


text:
 See the name of the LORD coming from afar in burning wrath, with lowering clouds! His lips are filled with fury, his tongue is like a consuming fire;


text:
 His breath, like a flood in a ravine that reaches suddenly to the neck, Will winnow the nations with a destructive winnowing, and with repeated winnowings will he battle against them (and a bridle on the jaws of the peoples to send them astray).


text:
 You will sing as on a night when a feast is observed, And be merry of heart, as one marching along with a flute Toward the mountain of the LORD, toward the Rock of Israel, accompanied by the timbrels and lyres.


text:
 The LORD will make his glorious voice heard, and let it be seen how his arm descends In raging fury and flame of consuming fire, in driving storm and hail.


text:
 For the pyre has long been ready, prepared for the king; Broad and deep it is piled with dry grass and wood in abundance, And the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulphur, will set it afire.


text:
 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who depend upon horses; Who put their trust in chariots because of their number, and in horsemen because of their combined power, But look not to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the LORD!


text:
 Yet he too is wise and will bring disaster; he will not turn from what he has threatened to do. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against those who help evildoers.


text:
 The Egyptians are men, not God, their horses are flesh, not spirit; When the LORD stretches forth his hand, the helper shall stumble, the one helped shall fall, and both of them shall perish together.


text:
 Thus says the LORD to me: As a lion or a lion cub growling over its prey, With a band of shepherds assembled against it, Is neither frightened by their shouts nor disturbed by their noise, So shall the LORD of hosts come down to wage war upon the mountain and hill of Zion.


text:
 Like hovering birds, so the LORD of hosts shall shield Jerusalem, To protect and deliver, to spare and rescue it.


text:
 On that day each one of you shall spurn his sinful idols of silver and gold, which he made with his hands.


text:
 Assyria shall fall by a sword not wielded by man, no mortal sword shall devour him; He shall flee before the sword, and his young men shall be impressed as laborers.


text:
 He shall rush past his crag in panic, and his princes shall flee in terror from his standard, Says the LORD who has a fire in Zion and a furnace in Jerusalem.


text:
 Each of them will be a shelter from the wind, a retreat from the rain. They will be like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a great rock in a parched land.


text:
 For the fool speaks foolishly, planning evil in his heart: How to do wickedness, to speak perversely against the LORD, To let the hungry go empty and the thirsty be without drink.


text:
 And the trickster uses wicked trickery, planning crimes: How to ruin the poor with lies, and the needy when they plead their case.


text:
 In a little more than a year you overconfident ones will be shaken; The vintage will fail, there will be no harvest.


text:
 Tremble, you who are complacent! Shudder, you who are overconfident! Strip yourselves bare, with only a loincloth to cover you.


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 And the soil of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers; For all the joyful houses, the wanton city.


text:
 Until the spirit from on high is poured out on us. Then will the desert become an orchard and the orchard be regarded as a forest.


text:
 Down it comes, as trees come down in the forest! The city will be utterly laid low. Hill and tower will become wasteland forever for wild asses to frolic in, and flocks to pasture,


text:
 Woe, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you finish destroying, you will be destroyed; when wearied with betraying, you will be betrayed.


text:
 O LORD, have pity on us, for you we wait. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of trouble!


text:
 That which makes her seasons lasting, the riches that save her, are wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is her treasure.


text:
 The highways are desolate, travelers have quit the paths, Covenants are broken, their terms are spurned; yet no man gives it a thought.


text:
 The country languishes in mourning, Lebanon withers with shame; Sharon is like the steppe, Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.


text:
 On Zion sinners are in dread, trembling grips the impious: "Who of us can live with the consuming fire? who of us can live with the everlasting flames?"


text:
 He who practices virtue and speaks honestly, who spurns what is gained by oppression, Brushing his hands free of contact with a bribe, stopping his ears lest he hear of bloodshed, closing his eyes lest he look on evil--


text:
 He shall dwell on the heights, his stronghold shall be the rocky fastness, his food and drink in steady supply.


text:
 Your mind will dwell on the terror: "Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?"


text:
 To the people of alien tongue you will look no more, the people of obscure speech, stammering in a language not understood.


text:
 Look to Zion, the city of our festivals; let your eyes see Jerusalem as a quiet abode, a tent not to be struck, Whose pegs will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes severed.


text:
 Indeed the LORD will be there with us, majestic; yes, the LORD our judge, the LORD our lawgiver, the LORD our king, he it is who will save us.


text:
 The rigging hangs slack; it cannot hold the mast in place, nor keep the sail spread out. Then the blind will divide great spoils and the lame will carry off the loot.


text:
 No one who dwells there will say, "I am sick"; the people who live there will be forgiven their guilt.


text:
 Come near, O nations, and hear; be attentive, O peoples! Let the earth and what fills it listen, the world and all it produces.


text:
 The LORD is angry with all the nations and is wrathful against all their host; he has doomed them and given them over to slaughter.


text:
 Their slain shall be cast out, their corpses shall send up a stench; The mountains shall run with their blood,


text:
 and all the hills shall rot; The heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all their host shall wither away, As the leaf wilts on the vine, or as the fig withers on the tree.


text:
 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, lo, it shall come down in judgment upon Edom, a people I have doomed.


text:
 The LORD has a sword filled with blood, greasy with fat, With the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams' kidneys; For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.


text:
 Wild oxen shall be struck down with fatlings, and bullocks with bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their earth greasy with fat.


text:
 Edom's streams shall be changed into pitch and her earth into sulphur, and her land shall become burning pitch;


text:
 Night and day it shall not be quenched, its smoke shall rise forever. From generation to generation she shall lie waste, never again shall anyone pass through her.


text:
 But the desert owl and hoot owl shall possess her, the screech owl and raven shall dwell in her. The LORD will measure her with line and plummet to be an empty waste for satyrs to dwell in.


text:
 Her castles shall be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She shall become an abode for jackals and a haunt for ostriches.


text:
 Wildcats shall meet with desert beasts, satyrs shall call to one another; There shall the lilith repose, and find for herself a place to rest.


text:
 There the hoot owl shall nest and lay eggs, hatch them out and gather them in her shadow; There shall the kites assemble, none shall be missing its mate.


text:
 Look in the book of the LORD and read: No one of these shall be lacking, For the mouth of the LORD has ordered it, and his spirit shall gather them there.


text:
 It is he who casts the lot for them, and with his hands he marks off their shares of her; They shall possess her forever, and dwell there from generation to generation.


text:
 They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.


text:
 Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you.


text:
 Then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe.


text:
 The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water; The abode where jackals lurk will be a marsh for the reed and papyrus.


text:
 A highway will be there, called the holy way; No one unclean may pass over it, nor fools go astray on it.


text:
 No lion will be there, nor beast of prey go up to be met upon it. It is for those with a journey to make, and on it the redeemed will walk.


text:
 Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.


text:
 From Lachish the king of Assyria sent his commander with a great army to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. When he stopped at the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field,


text:
 there came out to him the master of the palace, Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, and Shebna the scribe, and the herald Joah, son of Asaph.


text:
 The commander said to them, "Tell King Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, 'On what do you base this confidence of yours?


text:
 But if you say to me: "We rely on the LORD, our God," is not he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, commanding Judah and Jerusalem to worship before this altar?'


text:
 "Now, make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria: 'I will give you two thousand horses, if you can put riders on them.'


text:
 How then can you repulse even one of the least servants of my lord? And yet you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen!


text:
 'Was it without the LORD'S will that I have come up to destroy this land? The LORD said to me, "Go up and destroy that land!"'"


text:
 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic; we understand it. Do not speak to us in Judean within earshot of the people who are on the wall."


text:
 But the commander replied, "Was it to you and your master that my lord sent me to speak these words? Was it not rather to the men sitting on the wall, who, with you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?"


text:
 Let not Hezekiah induce you to rely on the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely save us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."'


text:
 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says: 'Make peace with me and surrender! Then each of you will eat of his own vine and of his own fig tree, and drink the water of his own cistern,


text:
 until I come to take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, of bread and vineyards.


text:
 Do not let Hezekiah seduce you by saying, "The LORD will save us." Has any of the gods of the nations ever rescued his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?


text:
 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Where are the gods of Samaria? Have they saved Samaria from my hand?


text:
 Which of all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my hand? Will the LORD then save Jerusalem from my hand?'"


text:
 But they remained silent and did not answer him one word, for the king had ordered them not to answer him.


text:
 Then the master of the palace, Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and the herald Joah, son of Asaph, came to Hezekiah with their garments torn, and reported to him what the commander had said.


text:
 He sent Eliakim, the master of the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, wrapped in sackcloth, to tell the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz:


text:
 Perhaps the LORD, your God, will hear the words of the commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke him for the words which the LORD, your God, has heard. Send up a prayer for the remnant that is here.'"


text:
 he said to them: "Tell this to your master: 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be frightened by the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.


text:
 When the commander returned to Lachish and heard that the king of Assyria had left there, he found him besieging Libnah.


text:
 The king of Assyria heard a report that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had come out to fight against him. Again he sent envoys to Hezekiah with this message: "Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:


text:
 'Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.


text:
 You yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: They doomed them! Will you, then, be saved?


text:
 Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed save them? Gozen, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar?


text:
 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, or a king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena or Ivvah?'"


text:
 "O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.


text:
 Incline your ear, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD and see! Hear all the words of the letter that Sennacherib sent to taunt the living God.


text:
 and cast their gods into the fire; they destroyed them because they were not gods but the work of human hands, wood and stone.


text:
 Therefore, O LORD, our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, alone are God."


text:
 Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: In answer to your prayer for help against Sennacherib, king of Assyria,


text:
 this is the word the LORD has spoken concerning him: She despises you, laughs you to scorn, the virgin daughter Zion; Behind you she wags her head, daughter Jerusalem.


text:
 Whom have you insulted and blasphemed, against whom have you raised your voice And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!


text:
 Through your servants you have insulted the Lord: You said, "With my many chariots I climbed the mountain heights, the recesses of Lebanon; I cut down its lofty cedars, its choice cypresses; I reached the remotest heights, its forest park.


text:
 Have you not heard? Long ago I prepared it, From days of old I planned it, now I have brought it to pass: That you should reduce fortified cities into heaps of ruins,


text:
 Because of your rage against me and your fury which has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and make you return the way you came.


text:
 This shall be a sign for you: this year you shall eat the aftergrowth, next year, what grows of itself; But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit!


text:
 For out of Jerusalem shall come a remnant, and from Mount Zion, survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not reach this city, nor shoot an arrow at it, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast up siegeworks against it.


text:
 The angel of the LORD went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there they were, all the corpses of the dead.


text:
 In those days, when Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: "Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover."


text:
 "Go, tell Hezekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the LORD'S temple; I will add fifteen years to your life.


text:
 I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will be a shield to this city."


text:
 (Isaiah answered:) "This will be the sign for you from the LORD that he will do what he has promised:


text:
 See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz go back the ten steps it has advanced." So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.


text:
 Once I said, "In the noontime of life I must depart! To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned for the rest of my years."


text:
 I said, "I shall see the LORD no more in the land of the living. No longer shall I behold my fellow men among those who dwell in the world."


text:
 My dwelling, like a shepherd's tent, is struck down and borne away from me; You have folded up my life, like a weaver who severs the last thread. Day and night you give me over to torment;


text:
 I cry out until the dawn. Like a lion he breaks all my bones; (day and night you give me over to torment).


text:
 Like a swallow I utter shrill cries; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak, gazing heavenward: O Lord, I am in straits; be my surety!


text:
 What am I to say or tell him? He has done it! I shall go on through all my years despite the bitterness of my soul.


text:
 Those live whom the LORD protects; yours... the life of my spirit. You have given me health and life;


text:
 thus is my bitterness transformed into peace. You have preserved my life from the pit of destruction, When you cast behind your back all my sins.


text:
 For it is not the nether world that gives you thanks, nor death that praises you; Neither do those who go down into the pit await your kindness.


text:
 The living, the living give you thanks, as I do today. Fathers declare to their sons, O God, your faithfulness.


text:
 The LORD is our savior; we shall sing to stringed instruments In the house of the LORD all the days of our life.


text:
 At that time when Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, heard that Hezekiah had recovered from his sickness, he sent letters and gifts to him.


text:
 Hezekiah was pleased at this, and therefore showed the messengers his treasury, the silver and gold, the spices and fine oil, his whole armory, and everything that was in his storerooms; there was nothing in his house or in his whole realm that he did not show them.


text:
 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men say to you? Where did they come from?" Hezekiah answered, "They came to me from a distant land, from Babylon."


text:
 "What did they see in your house?" he asked. Hezekiah replied, "They saw everything in my house; there is nothing in my storerooms that I did not show them."


text:
 Behold, the days shall come when all that is in your house, and everything that your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be carried off to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD.


text:
 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.


text:
 A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!


text:
 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley.


text:
 Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.


text:
 A voice says, "Cry out!" I answer, "What shall I cry out?" "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field.


text:
 The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. (So then, the people is the grass.)


text:
 Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God!


text:
 Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.


text:
 Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.


text:
 Who has cupped in his hand the waters of the sea, and marked off the heavens with a span? Who has held in a measure the dust of the earth, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?


text:
 Whom did he consult to gain knowledge? Who taught him the path of judgment, or showed him the way of understanding?


text:
 Behold, the nations count as a drop in the bucket, as dust on the scales; the coastlands weigh no more than powder.


text:
 Mulberry wood, the choice portion which a skilled craftsman picks out for himself, Choosing timber that will not rot, to set up an idol that will not be unsteady?


text:
 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Was it not foretold you from the beginning? Have you not understood? Since the earth was founded


text:
 He sits enthroned above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; He stretches out the heavens like a veil, spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.


text:
 Scarcely are they planted or sown, scarcely is their stem rooted in the earth, When he breathes upon them and they wither, and the stormwind carries them away like straw.


text:
 Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these: He leads out their army and numbers them, calling them all by name. By his great might and the strength of his power not one of them is missing!


text:
 Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?


text:
 Do you not know or have you not heard? The LORD is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint nor grow weary, and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.


text:
 They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles' wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.


text:
 Keep silence before me, O coastlands; you peoples, wait for my words! Let them draw near and speak; let us come together for judgment.


text:
 Who has stirred up from the East the champion of justice, and summoned him to be his attendant? To him he delivers the nations and subdues the kings; With his sword he reduces them to dust, with his bow, to driven straw.


text:
 Who has performed these deeds? He who has called forth the generations since the beginning. I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last I will also be.


text:
 The coastlands see, and fear; the ends of the earth tremble: these things are near, they come to pass.


text:
 The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, the one who beats with the hammer, him who strikes on the anvil; He says the soldering is good, and he fastens it with nails to steady it.


text:
 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and summoned from its far-off places, You whom I have called my servant, whom I have chosen and will not cast off--


text:
 Fear not, I am with you; be not dismayed; I am your God. I will strengthen you, and help you, and uphold you with my right hand of justice.


text:
 Yes, all shall be put to shame and disgrace who vent their anger against you; Those shall perish and come to nought who offer resistance.


text:
 You shall seek out, but shall not find, those who strive against you; They shall be as nothing at all who do battle with you.


text:
 For I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, "Fear not, I will help you."


text:
 Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the LORD; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.


text:
 I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and double-edged, To thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff.


text:
 When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them. But you shall rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of Israel.


text:
 The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.


text:
 I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water.


text:
 I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine,


text:
 That all may see and know, observe and understand, That the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.


text:
 Let them come near and foretell to us what it is that shall happen! What are the things of long ago? Tell us, that we may reflect on them And know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come!


text:
 Foretell the things that shall come afterward, that we may know that you are gods! Do something, good or evil, that will put us in awe and in fear.


text:
 I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes; from the east I summon him by name; He shall trample the rulers down like red earth, as the potter treads the clay.


text:
 Who announced this from the beginning, that we might know; beforehand, that we might say it is true? Not one of you foretold it, not one spoke; no one heard you say,


text:
 "The first news for Zion: they are coming now," or, "For Jerusalem I will pick out a bearer of the glad tidings."


text:
 When I look, there is not one, no one of them to give counsel, to make an answer when I question them.


text:
 Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, Upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations,


text:
 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads out the earth with its crops, Who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk on it:


text:
 I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations,


text:
 To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.


text:
 See, the earlier things have come to pass, new ones I now foretell; Before they spring into being, I announce them to you.


text:
 Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the end of the earth: Let the sea and what fills it resound, the coastlands, and those who dwell in them.


text:
 Let the steppe and its cities cry out, the villages where Kedar dwells; Let the inhabitants of Sela exult, and shout from the top of the mountains.


text:
 The LORD goes forth like a hero, like a warrior he stirs up his ardor; He shouts out his battle cry, against his enemies he shows his might:


text:
 I have looked away, and kept silence, I have said nothing, holding myself in; But now, I cry out as a woman in labor, gasping and panting.


text:
 I will lay waste mountains and hills, all their herbage I will dry up; I will turn the rivers into marshes, and the marshes I will dry up.


text:
 I will lead the blind on their journey; by paths unknown I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them, and make crooked ways straight. These things I do for them, and I will not forsake them.


text:
 They shall be turned back in utter shame who trust in idols; Who say to molten images, "You are our gods."


text:
 This is a people despoiled and plundered, all of them trapped in holes, hidden away in prisons. They are taken as booty, with no one to rescue them, as spoil, with no one to demand their return.


text:
 Who was it that gave Jacob to be plundered, Israel to the despoilers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? In his ways they refused to walk, his law they disobeyed.


text:
 So he poured out wrath upon them, his anger, and the fury of battle; It blazed round about them, yet they did not realize, it burned them, but they took it not to heart.


text:
 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine.


text:
 When you pass through the water, I will be with you; in the rivers you shall not drown. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned; the flames shall not consume you.


text:
 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in return for you.


text:
 Because you are precious in my eyes and glorious, and because I love you, I give men in return for you and peoples in exchange for your life.


text:
 Fear not, for I am with you; from the east I will bring back your descendants, from the west I will gather you.


text:
 I will say to the north: Give them up! and to the south: Hold not back! Bring back my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth:


text:
 Let all the nations gather together, let the peoples assemble! Who among them could have revealed this, or foretold to us the earlier things? Let them produce witnesses to prove themselves right, that one may hear and say, "It is true!"


text:
 You are my witnesses, says the LORD, my servants whom I have chosen To know and believe in me and understand that it is I. Before me no god was formed, and after me there shall be none.


text:
 It is I who foretold, I who saved; I made it known, not any strange god among you; You are my witnesses, says the LORD. I am God,


text:
 yes, from eternity I am He; There is none who can deliver from my hand: who can countermand what I do?


text:
 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sakes I send to Babylon; I will lower all the bars, and the Chaldeans shall cry out in lamentation.


text:
 Who leads out chariots and horsemen, a powerful army, Till they lie prostrate together, never to rise, snuffed out and quenched like a wick.


text:
 See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.


text:
 Wild beasts honor me, jackals and ostriches, For I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink,


text:
 You did not bring me sheep for your holocausts, nor honor me with your sacrifices. I did not exact from you the service of offerings, nor weary you for frankincense.


text:
 You did not buy me sweet cane for money, nor fill me with the fat of your sacrifices; Instead, you burdened me with your sins, and wearied me with your crimes.


text:
 Thus says the LORD who made you, your help, who formed you from the womb: Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, the darling whom I have chosen.


text:
 I will pour out water upon the thirsty ground, and streams upon the dry land; I will pour out my spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing upon your descendants.


text:
 One shall say, "I am the LORD'S," another shall be named after Jacob, And this one shall write on his hand, "The LORD'S," and Israel shall be his surname.


text:
 Thus says the LORD, Israel's King and redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; there is no God but me.


text:
 Who is like me? Let him stand up and speak, make it evident, and confront me with it. Who of old announced future events? Let them foretell to us the things to come.


text:
 Fear not, be not troubled: did I not announce and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses! Is there a God or any Rock besides me?


text:
 Idol makers all amount to nothing, and their precious works are of no avail, as they themselves give witness. To their shame, they neither see nor know anything; and they are more deaf than men are.


text:
 Indeed, all the associates of anyone who forms a god, or casts an idol to no purpose, will be put to shame;


text:
 The smith fashions an iron image, works it over the coals, shapes it with hammers, and forges it with his strong arm. He is hungry and weak, drinks no water and becomes exhausted.


text:
 The carpenter stretches a line and marks with a stylus the outline of an idol. He shapes it with a plane and measures it off with a compass, making it like a man in appearance and dignity, to occupy a shrine.


text:
 He cuts down cedars, takes a holm or an oak, and lays hold of other trees of the forest, which the Lord had planted and the rain made grow


text:
 to serve man for fuel. With a part of their wood he warms himself, or makes a fire for baking bread; but with another part he makes a god which he adores, an idol which he worships.


text:
 Half of it he burns in the fire, and on its embers he roasts his meat; he eats what he has roasted until he is full, and then warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm, I feel the fire."


text:
 Of what remains he makes a god, his idol, and prostrate before it in worship, he implores it, "Rescue me, for you are my god."


text:
 The idols have neither knowledge nor reason; their eyes are coated so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot understand.


text:
 Yet he does not reflect, nor have the intelligence and sense to say, "Half of the wood I burned in the fire, and on its embers I baked bread and roasted meat which I ate. Shall I then make an abomination out of the rest, or worship a block of wood?"


text:
 He is chasing ashes-- a thing that cannot save itself when the flame consumes it; yet he does not say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?"


text:
 Remember this, O Jacob, you, O Israel, who are my servant! I formed you to be a servant to me; O Israel, by me you shall never be forgotten:


text:
 I have brushed away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.


text:
 Raise a glad cry, you heavens: the LORD has done this; shout, you depths of the earth. Break forth, you mountains, into song, you forest, with all your trees. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and shows his glory through Israel.


text:
 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, who formed you from the womb: I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens; when I spread out the earth, who was with me?


text:
 It is I who bring to nought the omens of liars, who make fools of diviners; I turn wise men back and make their knowledge foolish.


text:
 It is I who confirm the words of my servants, I carry out the plan announced by my messengers; I say to Jerusalem: Be inhabited; to the cities of Judah: Be rebuilt; I will raise up their ruins.


text:
 I say of Cyrus: My shepherd, who fulfills my every wish; He shall say of Jerusalem, "Let her be rebuilt," and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid."


text:
 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, Subduing nations before him, and making kings run in his service, Opening doors before him and leaving the gates unbarred:


text:
 I will go before you and level the mountains; Bronze doors I will shatter, and iron bars I will snap.


text:
 I will give you treasures out of the darkness, and riches that have been hidden away, That you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.


text:
 For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel my chosen one, I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not.


text:
 I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me. It is I who arm you, though you know me not,


text:
 so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun men may know that there is none besides me. I am the LORD, there is no other;


text:
 I form the light, and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things.


text:
 Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down. Let the earth open and salvation bud forth; let justice also spring up! I, the LORD, have created this.


text:
 Woe to him who contends with his Maker; a potsherd among potsherds of the earth! Dare the clay say to its modeler, "What are you doing?" or, "What you are making has no hands"?


text:
 Woe to him who asks a father, "What are you begetting?" or a woman, "What are you giving birth to?"


text:
 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, his maker: You question me about my children, or prescribe the work of my hands for me!


text:
 It was I who made the earth and created mankind upon it; It was my hands that stretched out the heavens; I gave the order to all their host.


text:
 It was I who stirred up one for the triumph of justice; all his ways I make level. He shall rebuild my city and let my exiles go free Without price or ransom, says the LORD of hosts.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: The earnings of Egypt, the gain of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, tall of stature, Shall come over to you and belong to you; they shall follow you, coming in chains. Before you they shall fall prostrate, saying in prayer: "With you only is God, and nowhere else; the gods are nought.


text:
 Those are put to shame and disgrace who vent their anger against him; Those go in disgrace who carve images.


text:
 Israel, you are saved by the LORD, saved forever! You shall never be put to shame or disgrace in future ages."


text:
 For thus says the LORD, The creator of the heavens, who is God, The designer and maker of the earth who established it, Not creating it to be a waste, but designing it to be lived in: I am the LORD, and there is no other.


text:
 I have not spoken from hiding nor from some dark place of the earth, And I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, "Look for me in an empty waste." I, the LORD, promise justice, I foretell what is right.


text:
 Come and assemble, gather together, you fugitives from among the gentiles! They are without knowledge who bear wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save.


text:
 Come here and declare in counsel together: Who announced this from the beginning and foretold it from of old? Was it not I, the LORD, besides whom there is no other God? There is no just and saving God but me.


text:
 By myself I swear, uttering my just decree and my unalterable word: To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue shall swear,


text:
 Saying, "Only in the LORD are just deeds and power. Before him in shame shall come all who vent their anger against him.


text:
 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are upon beasts and cattle; They must be borne up on shoulders, carried as burdens by the weary.


text:
 Hear me, O house of Jacob, all who remain of the house of Israel, My burden since your birth, whom I have carried from your infancy.


text:
 Even to your old age I am the same, even when your hair is gray I will bear you; It is I who have done this, I who will continue, and I who will carry you to safety.


text:
 There are those who pour out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scales; Then they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god before which they fall down in worship.


text:
 They lift it to their shoulders to carry; when they set it in place again, it stays, and does not move from the spot. Although they cry out to it, it cannot answer; it delivers no one from distress.


text:
 Remember this and be firm, bear it well in mind, you rebels; remember the former things, those long ago:


text:
 At the beginning I foretell the outcome; in advance, things not yet done. I say that my plan shall stand, I accomplish my every purpose.


text:
 I call from the east a bird of prey, from a distant land, one to carry out my plan. Yes, I have spoken, I will accomplish it; I have planned it, and I will do it.


text:
 I am bringing on my justice, it is not far off, my salvation shall not tarry; I will put salvation within Zion, and give to Israel my glory.


text:
 Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter Babylon; Sit on the ground, dethroned, O daughter of the Chaldeans. No longer shall you be called dainty and delicate.


text:
 Take the millstone and grind flour, remove your veil; Strip off your train, bare your legs, pass through the streams.


text:
 Your nakedness shall be uncovered and your shame be seen; I will take vengeance, I will yield to no entreaty, says our redeemer,


text:
 Go into darkness and sit in silence, O daughter of the Chaldeans, No longer shall you be called sovereign mistress of kingdoms.


text:
 Angry at my people, I profaned my inheritance, And I gave them into your hand; but you showed them no mercy, And upon old men you laid a very heavy yoke.


text:
 You said, "I shall remain always, a sovereign mistress forever!" But you did not lay these things to heart, you disregarded their outcome.


text:
 Now hear this, voluptuous one, enthroned securely, Saying to yourself, "I, and no one else! I shall never be a widow, or suffer the loss of my children"--


text:
 Both these things shall come to you suddenly, in a single day: Complete bereavement and widowhood shall come upon you For your many sorceries and the great number of your spells;


text:
 Because you felt secure in your wickedness, and said, "No one sees me." Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, And you said to yourself, "I, and no one else!"


text:
 But upon you shall come evil you will not know how to predict; Disaster shall befall you which you cannot allay. Suddenly there shall come upon you ruin which you will not expect.


text:
 Keep up, now, your spells and your many sorceries. Perhaps you can make them avail, perhaps you can strike terror!


text:
 You wearied yourself with many consultations, at which you toiled from your youth; Let the astrologers stand forth to save you, the stargazers who forecast at each new moon what would happen to you.


text:
 Lo, they are like stubble, fire consumes them; They cannot save themselves from the spreading flames. This is no warming ember, no fire to sit before.


text:
 Thus do your wizards serve you with whom you have toiled from your youth; Each wanders his own way, with none to save you.


text:
 Hear this, O house of Jacob called by the name Israel, sprung from the stock of Judah, You who swear by the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel without sincerity or justice,


text:
 Though you are named after the holy city and rely on the God of Israel, whose name is the LORD of hosts.


text:
 Things of the past I foretold long ago, they went forth from my mouth, I let you hear of them; then suddenly I took action and they came to be.


text:
 I foretold them to you of old; before they took place I let you hear of them, That you might not say, "My idol did them, my statue, my molten image commanded them."


text:
 Now that you have heard, look at all this; must you not admit it? From now on I announce new things to you, hidden events of which you knew not.


text:
 Now, not long ago, they are brought into being, and beforetime you did not hear of them, so that you cannot claim to have known them;


text:
 You neither heard nor knew, they did not reach your ears beforehand. Yes, I know you are utterly treacherous, a rebel you were called from birth.


text:
 For the sake of my name I restrain my anger, for the sake of my renown I hold it back from you, lest I should destroy you.


text:
 For my sake, for my own sake, I do this; why should I suffer profanation? My glory I will not give to another.


text:
 Yes, my hand laid the foundations of the earth; my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call them, they stand forth at once.


text:
 All of you assemble and listen: Who among you foretold these things? The LORD'S friend shall do his will against Babylon and the progeny of Chaldea.


text:
 Come near to me and hear this! Not from the beginning did I speak it in secret; At the time it comes to pass, I am present: "Now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his spirit."


text:
 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.


text:
 If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea;


text:
 Your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, Their name never cut off or blotted out from my presence.


text:
 Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chaldea! With shouts of joy proclaim this, make it known; Publish it to the ends of the earth, and say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.


text:
 They did not thirst when he led them through dry lands; Water from the rock he set flowing for them; he cleft the rock, and waters welled forth."


text:
 Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples. The LORD called me from birth, from my mother's womb he gave me my name.


text:
 He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me.


text:
 Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, Yet my reward is with the LORD, my recompense is with my God.


text:
 For now the LORD has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb, That Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him; And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD, and my God is now my strength!


text:
 It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.


text:
 Thus says the LORD, the redeemer and the Holy One of Israel, To the one despised, whom the nations abhor, the slave of rulers: When kings see you, they shall stand up, and princes shall prostrate themselves Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you, To restore the land and allot the desolate heritages,


text:
 Saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves! Along the ways they shall find pasture, on every bare height shall their pastures be.


text:
 They shall not hunger or thirst, nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them; For he who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water.


text:
 See, some shall come from afar, others from the north and the west, and some from the land of Syene.


text:
 Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted.


text:
 Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.


text:
 Look about and see, they are all gathering and coming to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall be arrayed with them all as with adornments, like a bride you shall fasten them on you.


text:
 Though you were waste and desolate, a land of ruins, Now you shall be too small for your inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up will be far away.


text:
 The children whom you had lost shall yet say to you, "This place is too small for me, make room for me to live in."


text:
 You shall ask yourself: "Who has borne me these? I was bereft and barren (exiled and repudiated); who has reared them? I was left all alone; where then do these come from?"


text:
 Thus says the Lord GOD: See, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.


text:
 Kings shall be your foster fathers, their princesses your nurses; Bowing to the ground, they shall worship you and lick the dust at your feet. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, and those who hope in me shall never be disappointed.


text:
 Yes, captives can be taken from a warrior, and booty be rescued from a tyrant; Those who oppose you I will oppose, and your sons I will save.


text:
 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with the juice of the grape. All mankind shall know that I, the LORD, am your savior, your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Where is the bill of divorce with which I dismissed your mother? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? It was for your sins that you were sold, for your crimes that your mother was dismissed.


text:
 Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand too short to ransom? Have I not the strength to deliver? Lo, with my rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; Their fish rot for lack of water, and die of thirst.


text:
 The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, That I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear;


text:
 I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.


text:
 The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.


text:
 He is near who upholds my right; if anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together. Who disputes my right? Let him confront me.


text:
 See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong? Lo, they will all wear out like cloth, the moth will eat them up.


text:
 Who among you fears the LORD, heeds his servant's voice, And walks in darkness without any light, Trusting in the name of the LORD and relying on his God?


text:
 All of you kindle flames and carry about you fiery darts; Walk by the light of your own fire and by the flares you have burnt! This is your fate from my hand: you shall lie down in a place of pain.


text:
 Listen to me, you who pursue justice, who seek the LORD; Look to the rock from which you were hewn, to the pit from which you were quarried;


text:
 Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth; When he was but one I called him, I blessed him and made him many.


text:
 Yes, the LORD shall comfort Zion and have pity on all her ruins; Her deserts he shall make like Eden, her wasteland like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of song.


text:
 Be attentive to me, my people; my folk, give ear to me. For law shall go forth from my presence, and my judgment, as the light of the peoples.


text:
 I will make my justice come speedily; my salvation shall go forth (and my arm shall judge the nations); In me shall the coastlands hope, and my arm they shall await.


text:
 Raise your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; Though the heavens grow thin like smoke, the earth wears out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies, My salvation shall remain forever and my justice shall never be dismayed.


text:
 Hear me, you who know justice, you people who have my teaching at heart: Fear not the reproach of men, be not dismayed at their revilings.


text:
 They shall be like a garment eaten by moths, like wool consumed by grubs; But my justice shall remain forever and my salvation, for all generations.


text:
 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the days of old, in ages long ago! Was it not you who crushed Rahab, you who pierced the dragon?


text:
 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, Who made the depths of the sea into a way for the redeemed to pass over?


text:
 I, it is I who comfort you. Can you then fear mortal man, who is human only, to be looked upon as grass,


text:
 And forget the LORD, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? All the day you are in constant dread of the fury of the oppressor; But when he sets himself to destroy, what is there of the oppressor's fury?


text:
 The oppressed shall soon be released; they shall not die and go down into the pit, nor shall they want for bread.


text:
 For I am the LORD, your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts by name.


text:
 I have put my words into your mouth and shielded you in the shadow of my hand, I, who stretched out the heavens, who laid the foundations of the earth, who say to Zion: You are my people.


text:
 Awake, awake! Arise, O Jerusalem, You who drank at the LORD'S hand the cup of his wrath; Who drained to the dregs the bowl of staggering!


text:
 She has no one to guide her of all the sons she bore; She has no one to grasp her by the hand, of all the sons she reared!--


text:
 Your misfortunes are double; who is there to condole with you? Desolation and destruction, famine and sword! Who is there to comfort you?


text:
 Your sons lie helpless at every street corner like antelopes in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.


text:
 Thus says the LORD, your Master, your God, who defends his people: See, I am taking from your hand the cup of staggering; The bowl of my wrath you shall no longer drink.


text:
 I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, those who ordered you to bow down, that they might walk over you, While you offered your back like the ground, like the street for them to walk on.


text:
 Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your glorious garments, O Jerusalem, holy city. No longer shall the uncircumcised or the unclean enter you.


text:
 Shake off the dust, ascend to the throne, Jerusalem; Loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion!


text:
 Thus says the Lord GOD: To Egypt in the beginning my people went down, to sojourn there; Assyria, too, oppressed them for nought.


text:
 But now, what am I to do here? says the LORD. My people have been taken away without redress; their rulers make a boast of it, says the LORD; all the day my name is constantly reviled.


text:
 Therefore on that day my people shall know my renown, that it is I who have foretold it. Here I am!


text:
 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, Announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, "Your God is King!"


text:
 Hark! Your watchmen raise a cry, together they shout for joy, For they see directly, before their eyes, the LORD restoring Zion.


text:
 Break out together in song, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the LORD comforts his people, he redeems Jerusalem.


text:
 The LORD has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; All the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.


text:
 Depart, depart, come forth from there, touch nothing unclean! Out from there! Purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.


text:
 Yet not in fearful haste will you come out, nor leave in headlong flight, For the LORD comes before you, and your rear guard is the God of Israel.


text:
 Even as many were amazed at him-- so marred was his look beyond that of man, and his appearance beyond that of mortals--


text:
 So shall he startle many nations, because of him kings shall stand speechless; For those who have not been told shall see, those who have not heard shall ponder it.


text:
 He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him.


text:
 He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.


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 Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.


text:
 But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.


text:
 We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.


text:
 Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.


text:
 Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people,


text:
 A grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, Though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood.


text:
 (But the LORD was pleased to crush him in infirmity.) If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.


text:
 Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.


text:
 Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, Because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; And he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.


text:
 Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear, break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor, For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife than the children of her who has a husband, says the LORD.


text:
 Enlarge the space for your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes.


text:
 For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left; Your descendants shall dispossess the nations and shall people the desolate cities.


text:
 Fear not, you shall not be put to shame; you need not blush, for you shall not be disgraced. The shame of your youth you shall forget, the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember.


text:
 For he who has become your husband is your Maker; his name is the LORD of hosts; Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, called God of all the earth.


text:
 The LORD calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, A wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God.


text:
 In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you; But with enduring love I take pity on you, says the LORD, your redeemer.


text:
 This is for me like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah should never again deluge the earth; So I have sworn not to be angry with you, or to rebuke you.


text:
 Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, My love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD, who has mercy on you.


text:
 O afflicted one, storm-battered and unconsoled, I lay your pavements in carnelians, and your foundations in sapphires;


text:
 I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of carbuncles, and all your walls of precious stones.


text:
 In justice shall you be established, far from the fear of oppression, where destruction cannot come near you.


text:
 Should there be any attack, it shall not be of my making; whoever attacks you shall fall before you.


text:
 Lo, I have created the craftsman who blows on the burning coals and forges weapons as his work; It is I also who have created the destroyer to work havoc.


text:
 No weapon fashioned against you shall prevail; every tongue you shall prove false that launches an accusation against you. This is the lot of the servants of the LORD, their vindication from me, says the LORD.


text:
 All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!


text:
 Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.


text:
 Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.


text:
 So shall you summon a nation you knew not, and nations that knew you not shall run to you, Because of the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.


text:
 Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked man his thoughts; Let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.


text:
 As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.


text:
 For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats,


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 So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.


text:
 Yes, in joy you shall depart, in peace you shall be brought back; Mountains and hills shall break out in song before you, and all the trees of the countryside shall clap their hands.


text:
 In place of the thornbush, the cypress shall grow, instead of nettles, the myrtle. This shall be to the LORD'S renown, an everlasting imperishable sign.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.


text:
 Happy is the man who does this, the son of man who holds to it; Who keeps the sabbath free from profanation, and his hand from any evildoing.


text:
 Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to the LORD, "The LORD will surely exclude me from his people"; Nor let the eunuch say, "See, I am a dry tree."


text:
 For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who observe my sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant,


text:
 I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name Better than sons and daughters; an eternal, imperishable name will I give them.


text:
 And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, ministering to him, Loving the name of the LORD, and becoming his servants-- All who keep the sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant,


text:
 Them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; Their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.


text:
 Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel: Others will I gather to him besides those already gathered.


text:
 My watchmen are blind, all of them unaware; They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; Dreaming as they lie there, loving their sleep.


text:
 They are relentless dogs, they know not when they have enough. These are the shepherds who know no discretion; Each of them goes his own way, every one of them to his own gain:


text:
 "Come, I will fetch some wine; let us carouse with strong drink, And tomorrow will be like today, or even greater."


text:
 The just man perishes, but no one takes it to heart; Devout men are swept away, with no one giving it a thought. Though he is taken away from the presence of evil, the just man


text:
 Of whom do you make sport, at whom do you open wide your mouth, and put out your tongue? Are you not rebellious children, a worthless race;


text:
 You who are in heat among the terebinths, under every green tree; You who immolate children in the wadies, behind the crevices in the cliffs?


text:
 Among the smooth stones of the wadi is your portion, these are your lot; To these you poured out libations, and brought offerings. Should I decide not to punish these things?


text:
 Behind the door and the doorpost you placed your indecent symbol. Deserting me, you spread out your high, wide bed; And of those whose embraces you love you carved the symbol and gazed upon it


text:
 While you approached the king with scented oil, and multiplied your perfumes; While you sent your ambassadors far away, down even to the nether world.


text:
 Though worn out by your many misdeeds, you never said, "It is hopeless"; New strength you found, and so you did not weaken.


text:
 Of whom were you afraid? Whom did you fear, that you became false And did not remember me or give me any thought? Was I to remain silent and unseeing, so that you would not have me to fear?


text:
 They shall not help you when you cry out, nor save you in your distress. All these the wind shall carry off, the breeze shall bear away; But he who takes refuge in me shall inherit the land, and possess my holy mountain.


text:
 For thus says he who is high and exalted, living eternally, whose name is the Holy One: On high I dwell, and in holiness, and with the crushed and dejected in spirit, To revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed.


text:
 I will not accuse forever, nor always be angry; For their spirits would faint before me, the souls that I have made.


text:
 Because of their wicked avarice I was angry, and struck them, hiding myself in wrath, as they went their own rebellious way.


text:
 I saw their ways, but I will heal them and lead them; I will give full comfort to them and to those who mourn for them,


text:
 I, the Creator, who gave them life. Peace, peace to the far and the near, says the LORD; and I will heal them.


text:
 But the wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot be calmed, And its waters cast up mud and filth.


text:
 Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins.


text:
 They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God; They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God.


text:
 "Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?" Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers.


text:
 Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!


text:
 Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?


text:
 This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke;


text:
 Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.


text:
 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.


text:
 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;


text:
 If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday;


text:
 Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.


text:
 The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; "Repairer of the breach," they shall call you, "Restorer of ruined homesteads."


text:
 If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; If you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD'S holy day honorable; If you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice--


text:
 Then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.


text:
 Rather, it is your crimes that separate you from your God, It is your sins that make him hide his face so that he will not hear you.


text:
 For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt; Your lips speak falsehood, and your tongue utters deceit.


text:
 No one brings suit justly, no one pleads truthfully; They trust in emptiness and tell lies; they conceive mischief and bring forth malice.


text:
 They hatch adders' eggs, and weave spiders' webs: Whoever eats their eggs will die, if one of them is pressed, it will hatch as a viper;


text:
 Their webs cannot serve as clothing, nor can they cover themselves with their works. Their works are evil works, and deeds of violence come from their hands.


text:
 Their feet run to evil, and they are quick to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are destructive thoughts, plunder and ruin are on their highways.


text:
 The way of peace they know not, and there is nothing that is right in their paths; Their ways they have made crooked, whoever treads them knows no peace.


text:
 That is why right is far from us and justice does not reach us. We look for light, and lo, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom!


text:
 Like blind men we grope along the wall, like people without eyes we feel our way. We stumble at midday as at dusk, in Stygian darkness, like the dead.


text:
 We all growl like bears, like doves we moan without ceasing. We look for right, but it is not there; for salvation, and it is far from us.


text:
 For our offenses before you are many, our sins bear witness against us. Yes, our offenses are present to us, and our crimes we know:


text:
 Transgressing, and denying the LORD, turning back from following our God, Threatening outrage, and apostasy, uttering words of falsehood the heart has conceived.


text:
 Right is repelled, and justice stands far off; For truth stumbles in the public square, uprightness cannot enter.


text:
 Honesty is lacking, and the man who turns from evil is despoiled. The LORD saw this, and was aggrieved that right did not exist.


text:
 He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was none to intervene; So his own arm brought about the victory, and his justice lent him its support.


text:
 He put on justice as his breastplate, salvation, as the helmet on his head; He clothed himself with garments of vengeance, wrapped himself in a mantle of zeal.


text:
 Those in the west shall fear the name of the LORD, and those in the east, his glory; For it shall come like a pent-up river which the breath of the LORD drives on.


text:
 This is the covenant with them which I myself have made, says the LORD: My spirit which is upon you and my words that I have put into your mouth Shall never leave your mouth, nor the mouths of your children Nor the mouths of your children's children from now on and forever, says the LORD.


text:
 See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; But upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory.


text:
 Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you: Your sons come from afar, and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.


text:
 Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow, For the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you, the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.


text:
 Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; All from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.


text:
 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered for you, the rams of Nebaioth shall be your sacrifices; They will be acceptable offerings on my altar, and I will enhance the splendor of my house.


text:
 All the vessels of the sea are assembled, with the ships of Tarshish in the lead, To bring your children from afar with their silver and gold, In the name of the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.


text:
 Foreigners shall rebuild your walls, and their kings shall be your attendants; Though I struck you in my wrath, yet in my good will I have shown you mercy.


text:
 Your gates shall stand open constantly; day and night they shall not be closed But shall admit to you the wealth of nations, and their kings, in the vanguard.


text:
 For the people or kingdom shall perish that does not serve you; those nations shall be utterly destroyed.


text:
 The glory of Lebanon shall come to you: the cypress, the plane and the pine, To bring beauty to my sanctuary, and glory to the place where I set my feet.


text:
 The children of your oppressors shall come, bowing low before you; All those who despised you shall fall prostrate at your feet. They shall call you "City of the LORD," "Zion of the Holy One of Israel."


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 Once you were forsaken, hated and unvisited, Now I will make you the pride of the ages, a joy to generation after generation.


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 You shall suck the milk of nations, and be nursed at royal breasts; You shall know that I, the LORD, am your savior, your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.


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 In place of bronze I will bring gold, instead of iron, silver; In place of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron; I will appoint peace your governor, and justice your ruler.


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 No longer shall violence be heard of in your land, or plunder and ruin within your boundaries. You shall call your walls "Salvation" and your gates "Praise."


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 No longer shall the sun be your light by day, Nor the brightness of the moon shine upon you at night; The LORD shall be your light forever, your God shall be your glory.


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 No longer shall your sun go down, or your moon withdraw, For the LORD will be your light forever, and the days of your mourning shall be at an end.


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 Your people shall all be just, they shall always possess the land, They, the bud of my planting, my handiwork to show my glory.


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 The smallest shall become a thousand, the youngest, a mighty nation; I, the LORD, will swiftly accomplish these things when their time comes.


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 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners,


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 To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn;


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 To place on those who mourn in Zion a diadem instead of ashes, To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning, a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit. They will be called oaks of justice, planted by the LORD to show his glory.


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 They shall rebuild the ancient ruins, the former wastes they shall raise up And restore the ruined cities, desolate now for generations.


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 Strangers shall stand ready to pasture your flocks, foreigners shall be your farmers and vinedressers.


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 You yourselves shall be named priests of the LORD, ministers of our God you shall be called. You shall eat the wealth of the nations and boast of riches from them.


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 Since their shame was double and disgrace and spittle were their portion, They shall have a double inheritance in their land, everlasting joy shall be theirs.


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 For I, the LORD, love what is right, I hate robbery and injustice; I will give them their recompense faithfully, a lasting covenant I will make with them.


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 Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; All who see them shall acknowledge them as a race the LORD has blessed.


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 I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul; For he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels.


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 As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, So will the Lord GOD make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.


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 For Zion's sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, Until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch.


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 Nations shall behold your vindication, and all kings your glory; You shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.


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 No more shall men call you "Forsaken," or your land "Desolate," But you shall be called "My Delight," and your land "Espoused." For the LORD delights in you, and makes your land his spouse.


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 As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.


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 Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have stationed watchmen; Never, by day or by night, shall they be silent. O you who are to remind the LORD, take no rest


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 The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: No more will I give your grain as food to your enemies; Nor shall foreigners drink your wine, for which you toiled.


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 But you who harvest the grain shall eat it, and you shall praise the LORD; You who gather the grapes shall drink the wine in the courts of my sanctuary.


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 Pass through, pass through the gates, prepare the way for the people; Build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, raise up a standard over the nations.


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 See, the LORD proclaims to the ends of the earth: Say to daughter Zion, your savior comes! Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.


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 They shall be called the holy people, the redeemed of the LORD, And you shall be called "Frequented," a city that is not forsaken.


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 Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments, from Bozrah- This one arrayed in majesty, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, I who announce vindication, I who am mighty to save."


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 "The wine press I have trodden alone, and of my people there was no one with me. I trod them in my anger, and trampled them down in my wrath; Their blood spurted on my garments; all my apparel I stained.


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 I looked about, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that there was no one to lend support; So my own arm brought about the victory and my own wrath lent me its support.


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 I trampled down the peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I let their blood run out upon the ground."


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 The favors of the LORD I will recall, the glorious deeds of the LORD, Because of all he has done for us; for he is good to the house of Israel, He has favored us according to his mercy and his great kindness.


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 in their every affliction. It was not a messenger or an angel, but he himself who saved them. Because of his love and pity he redeemed them himself, Lifting them and carrying them all the days of old.


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 But they rebelled, and grieved his holy spirit; So he turned on them like an enemy, and fought against them.


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 Then they remembered the days of old and Moses, his servant; Where is he who brought up out of the sea the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put his holy spirit in their midst;


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 Whose glorious arm was the guide at Moses' right; Who divided the waters before them, winning for himself eternal renown;


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 Like cattle going down into the plain, the spirit of the LORD guiding them? Thus you led your people, bringing glory to your name.


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 Look down from heaven and regard us from your holy and glorious palace! Where is your zealous care and your might, your surge of pity and your mercy? O Lord, hold not back,


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 for you are our father. Were Abraham not to know us, nor Israel to acknowledge us, You, LORD, are our father, our redeemer you are named forever.


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 Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.


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 Too long have we been like those you do not rule, who do not bear your name. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you,


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 As when brushwood is set ablaze, or fire makes the water boil! Thus your name would be made known to your enemies and the nations would tremble before you,


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 such as they had not heard of from of old. No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.


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 Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;


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 all of us have become like unclean men, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; We have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.


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 There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; For you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.


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 Yet, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.


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 Be not so very angry, LORD, keep not our guilt forever in mind; look upon us, who are all your people.


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 Our holy and glorious temple in which our fathers praised you Has been burned with fire; all that was dear to us is laid waste.


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 I was ready to respond to those who asked me not, to be found by those who sought me not. I said: Here I am! Here I am! To a nation that did not call upon my name.


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 I have stretched out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, Who walk in evil paths and follow their own thoughts,


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 People who provoke me continually, to my face, Offering sacrifices in the groves and burning incense on bricks,


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 Living among the graves and spending the night in caverns, Eating swine's flesh, with carrion broth in their dishes,


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 Crying out, "Hold back, do not touch me; I am too sacred for you!" These things enkindle my wrath, a fire that burns all the day.


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 Your crimes and the crimes of your fathers as well, says the LORD. Since they burned incense on the mountains, and disgraced me on the hills, I will at once pour out in full measure their recompense into their laps.


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 Thus says the LORD: When the juice is pressed from grapes, men say, "Do not discard them, for there is still good in them"; Thus will I do with my servants: I will not discard them all;


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 From Jacob I will save offspring, from Judah, those who are to inherit my mountains; My chosen ones shall inherit the land, my servants shall dwell there.


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 Sharon shall be a pasture for the flocks and the valley of Achor a resting place for the cattle of my people who have sought me.


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 But you who forsake the LORD, forgetting my holy mountain, You who spread a table for Fortune and fill cups of blended wine for Destiny,


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 You I will destine for the sword; you shall all go down in slaughter. Since I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not listen, But did what was evil in my sight and preferred things which displease me,


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 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Lo, my servants shall eat, but you shall go hungry; My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;


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 My servants shall shout for joy of heart, But you shall cry out for grief of heart and howl for anguish of spirit.


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 The Lord GOD shall slay you, and the name you leave Shall be used by my chosen ones for cursing; but my servants shall be called by another name


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 By which he will be blessed on whom a blessing is invoked in the land; He who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; For the hardships of the past shall be forgotten, and hidden from my eyes.


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 Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.


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 Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight;


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 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying;


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 No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime; He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.


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 They shall not build houses for others to live in, or plant for others to eat. As the years of a tree, so the years of my people; and my chosen ones shall long enjoy the produce of their hands.


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 They shall not toil in vain, nor beget children for sudden destruction; For a race blessed by the LORD are they and their offspring.


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 The wolf and the lamb shall graze alike, and the lion shall eat hay like the ox (but the serpent's food shall be dust). None shall hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.


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 Thus says the LORD: The heavens are my throne, the earth is my footstool. What kind of house can you build for me; what is to be my resting place?


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 My hand made all these things when all of them came to be, says the LORD. This is the one whom I approve: the lowly and afflicted man who trembles at my word.


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 Merely slaughtering an ox is like slaying a man; sacrificing a lamb, like breaking a dog's neck; Bringing a cereal offering, like offering swine's blood; burning incense, like paying homage to an idol. Since these have chosen their own ways and taken pleasure in their own abominations,


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 I in turn will choose ruthless treatment for them and bring upon them what they fear. Because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened; Because they did what was evil in my sight, and chose what gave me displeasure,


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 Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: Your brethren who, because of my name, hate and reject you, say, "Let the LORD show his glory that we may see your joy"; but they shall be put to shame.


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 A sound of roaring from the city, a sound from the temple, The sound of the LORD repaying his enemies their deserts!


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 Before she comes to labor, she gives birth; Before the pains come upon her, she safely delivers a male child.


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 Who ever heard of such a thing, or saw the like? Can a country be brought forth in one day, or a nation be born in a single moment? Yet Zion is scarcely in labor when she gives birth to her children.


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 Shall I bring a mother to the point of birth, and yet not let her child be born? says the LORD; Or shall I who allow her to conceive, yet close her womb? says your God.


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 Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her; Exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her!


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 Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, That you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts!


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 For thus says the LORD: Lo, I will spread prosperity over her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent. As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap;


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 When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bodies flourish like the grass; The LORD'S power shall be known to his servants, but to his enemies, his wrath.


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 Lo, the LORD shall come in fire, his chariots like the whirlwind, To wreak his wrath with burning heat and his punishment with fiery flames.


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 They who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the groves, as followers of one who stands within, they who eat swine's flesh, loathsome things and mice, shall all perish with their deeds and their thoughts, says the LORD.


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 I will set a sign among them; from them I will send fugitives to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.


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 They shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.


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 As the new heavens and the new earth which I will make Shall endure before me, says the LORD, so shall your race and your name endure.


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 From one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, All mankind shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.


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 They shall go out and see the corpses of the men who rebelled against me; Their worm shall not die, nor their fire be extinguished; and they shall be abhorrent to all mankind.


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 The word of the LORD first came to him in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign,


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 and continued through the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the downfall and exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah.


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 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.


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 But the LORD answered me, Say not, "I am too young." To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak.


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 This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, To root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.


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 The word of the LORD came to me with the question: What do you see, Jeremiah? "I see a branch of the watching-tree," I replied.


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 A second time the word of the LORD came to me with the question: What do you see? "I see a boiling cauldron," I replied, "that appears from the north."


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 Lo, I am summoning all the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; Each king shall come and set up his throne at the gateways of Jerusalem, Opposite her walls all around and opposite all the cities of Judah.


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 I will pronounce my sentence against them for all their wickedness in forsaking me, And in burning incense to strange gods and adoring their own handiwork.


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 But do you gird your loins; stand up and tell them all that I command you. Be not crushed on their account, as though I would leave you crushed before them;


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 For it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, A pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land: Against Judah's kings and princes, against its priests and people.


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 They will fight against you, but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.


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 Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, Following me in the desert, in a land unsown.


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 Sacred to the LORD was Israel, the first fruits of his harvest; Should anyone presume to partake of them, evil would befall him, says the LORD.


text:
 thus says the LORD: What fault did your fathers find in me that they withdrew from me, Went after empty idols, and became empty themselves?


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 They did not ask, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, Who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and gullies, Through a land of drought and darkness, through a land which no one crosses, where no man dwells?"


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 When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits, You entered and defiled my land, you made my heritage loathsome.


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 The priests asked not, "Where is the LORD?" Those who dealt with the law knew me not: the shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after useless idols.


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 Pass over to the coast of the Kittim and see, send to Kedar and carefully inquire: Where has the like of this been done?


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 Does any other nation change its gods?-- yet they are not gods at all! But my people have changed their glory for useless things.


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 Two evils have my people done: they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.


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 Against him lions roar full-throated cries. They have made his land a waste; his cities are charred ruins, without inhabitant.


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 And now, why go to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Why go to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?


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 Your own wickedness chastises you, your own infidelities punish you. Know then, and see, how evil and bitter is your forsaking the LORD, your God, And showing no fear of me, says the Lord, the GOD of hosts.


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 Long ago you broke your yoke, you tore off your bonds. "I will not serve," you said. On every high hill, under every green tree, you gave yourself to harlotry.


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 I had planted you, a choice vine of fully tested stock; How could you turn out obnoxious to me, a spurious vine?


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 Though you scour it with soap, and use much lye, The stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord GOD.


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 How can you say, "I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals"? Consider your conduct in the Valley, recall what you have done: A frenzied she-camel, coursing near and far,


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 breaking away toward the desert, Snuffing the wind in her ardor-- who can restrain her lust? No beasts need tire themselves seeking her; in her month they will meet her.


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 Stop wearing out your shoes and parching your throat! But you say, "No use! no! I love these strangers, and after them I must go."


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 As the thief is shamed when caught, so shall the house of Israel be shamed: They, their kings and their princes, their priests and their prophets;


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 They who say to a piece of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave me birth." They turn to me their backs, not their faces; yet, in their time of trouble they cry out, "Rise up and save us!"


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 Where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up! Will they save you in your time of trouble? For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up for Baal.


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 In vain I struck your children; the correction they did not take. Your sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.


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 You, of this generation, take note of the word of the Lord: Have I been a desert to Israel, a land of darkness? Why do my people say, "We have moved on, we will come to you no more"?


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 Does a virgin forget her jewelry, a bride her sash? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.


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 How well you pick your way when seeking love! You who, in your wickedness, have gone by ways unclean!


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 You, on whose clothing there is the life-blood of the innocent, whom you found committing no burglary;


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 Yet withal you say, "I am innocent; at least, his anger is turned away from me." Behold, I will judge you on that word of yours, "I have not sinned."


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 How very base you have become in changing your course! By Egypt will you be shamed, as you were shamed by Assyria.


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 From there also shall you go away with hands upon your head; For the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, with them you will have no success.


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 If a man sends away his wife and, after leaving him, she marries another man, Does the first husband come back to her? Would not the land be wholly defiled? But you have sinned with many lovers, and yet you would return to me! says the LORD.


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 Lift your eyes to the heights, and see, where have men not lain with you? By the waysides you waited for them like an Arab in the desert. You defiled the land by your wicked harlotry.


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 Therefore the showers were withheld, the spring rain failed. But because you have a harlot's brow, you refused to blush.


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 "Will he keep his wrath forever, will he hold his grudge to the end?" This is what you say; yet you do all the evil you can.


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 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: See now what rebellious Israel has done! She has gone up every high mountain, and under every green tree she has played the harlot.


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 And I thought, after she has done all this she will return to me. But she did not return. Then, even though her traitor sister Judah saw


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 that for all the adulteries rebellious Israel had committed, I put her away and gave her a bill of divorce, nevertheless her traitor sister Judah was not frightened; she too went off and played the harlot.


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 With all this, the traitor sister Judah did not return to me wholeheartedly, but insincerely, says the LORD.


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 Go, proclaim these words toward the north, and say: Return, rebel Israel, says the LORD, I will not remain angry with you; For I am merciful, says the LORD, I will not continue my wrath forever.


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 Only know your guilt: how you rebelled against the LORD, your God, How you ran hither and yon to strangers (under every green tree) and would not listen to my voice, says the LORD.


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 Return, rebellious children, says the LORD, for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion.


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 When you multiply and become fruitful in the land, says the LORD, They will in those days no longer say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD!" They will no longer think of it, or remember it, or miss it, or make another.


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 At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD'S throne; there all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the LORD at Jerusalem, and they will walk no longer in their hardhearted wickedness.


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 In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers as a heritage.


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 I had thought: How I should like to treat you as sons, And give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful among the nations! You would call me, "My Father," I thought, and never cease following me.


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 But like a woman faithless to her lover, even so have you been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.


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 A cry is heard on the heights! the plaintive weeping of Israel's children, Because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD, their God.


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 Return, rebellious children, and I will cure you of your rebelling. "Here we are, we now come to you because you are the LORD, our God.


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 Deceptive indeed are the hills, the thronging mountains; In the LORD, our God, alone is the salvation of Israel.


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 The shame-god has devoured our fathers' toil from our youth, Their sheep and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.


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 Let us lie down in our shame, let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned against the LORD, our God, From our youth to this day, we and our fathers also; we listened not to the voice of the LORD, our God."


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 If you wish to return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me. If you put your detestable things out of my sight, and do not stray,


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 Then you can swear, "As the LORD lives," in truth, in judgment, and in justice; Then shall the nations use his name in blessing, and glory in him.


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 For to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, thus says the LORD: Till your untilled ground, sow not among thorns.


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 For the sake of the LORD, be circumcised, remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem; Lest my anger break out like fire, and burn till none can quench it, because of your evil deeds.


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 Proclaim it in Judah, make it heard in Jerusalem; Blow the trumpet through the land, summon the recruits! Say, "Fall in, let us march to the fortified cities."


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 Bear the standard to Zion, seek refuge without delay! Evil I bring from the north, and great destruction.


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 Up comes the lion from his lair, the destroyer of nations has set out, has left his place, To turn your land into desolation, till your cities lie waste and empty.


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 So gird yourselves with sackcloth, mourn and wail: "The blazing wrath of the LORD is not turned away from us."


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 In that day, says the LORD, The king will lose heart, and the princes; the priests will be amazed, and the prophets stunned.


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 "Alas! Lord GOD," they will say, "You only deceived us When you said: Peace shall be yours; for the sword touches our very soul."


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 At that time it will be said of this people and of Jerusalem, "From the glaring heights through the desert a wind comes toward the daughter of my people." Not to winnow, not to cleanse,


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 See! like storm clouds he advances, like a hurricane his chariots; Swifter than eagles are his steeds: "Woe to us! we are ruined."


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 Cleanse your heart of evil, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long must your pernicious thoughts lodge within you?


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 "Make this known to the nations, announce it to Jerusalem: The besiegers are coming from the distant land, shouting their war cry against the cities of Judah."


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 Your conduct, your misdeeds, have done this to you; how bitter is this disaster of yours, how it reaches to your very heart!


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 My breast! my breast! how I suffer! The walls of my heart! My heart beats wildly, I cannot be still; For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.


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 Ruin after ruin is reported; the whole earth is laid waste. In an instant my tents are ravaged; in a flash, my shelters.


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 Fools my people are, they know me not; Senseless children they are, having no understanding; They are wise in evil, but know not how to do good.


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 I looked and behold, the garden land was a desert, with all its cities destroyed before the LORD, before his blazing wrath.


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 Because of this the earth shall mourn, the heavens above shall darken; I have spoken, I will not repent, I have resolved, I will not turn back.


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 At the shout of horseman and bowman each city takes to flight; They shrink into the thickets, they scale the rocks: All the cities are abandoned, and no one dwells in them.


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 You now who are doomed, what do you mean by putting on purple, bedecking yourself with gold, Shading your eyes with cosmetics, beautifying yourself in vain? Your lovers spurn you, they seek your life.


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 Yes, I hear the moaning, as of a woman in travail, like the anguish of a mother with her first child- The cry of daughter Zion gasping, as she stretches forth her hands: "Ah, woe is me! I sink exhausted before the slayers!"


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 Roam the streets of Jerusalem, look about and observe, Search through her public places, to find even one Who lives uprightly and seeks to be faithful, and I will pardon her!


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 O LORD, do your eyes not look for honesty? You struck them, but they did not cringe; you laid them low, but they refused correction; They set their faces harder than stone, and refused to return to you.


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 It is only the lowly, I thought, who are foolish; For they know not the way of the LORD, their duty to their God.


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 I will go to the great ones and speak with them; For they know the way of the LORD, their duty to their God. But, one and all, they had broken the yoke, torn off the harness.


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 Therefore lions from the forest slay them, wolves of the desert ravage them, Leopards keep watch round their cities: all who come out are torn to pieces For their many crimes and their numerous rebellions.


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 Why should I pardon you these things? Your sons have forsaken me, they swear by gods that are not. I fed them, but they committed adultery; to the harlot's house they throng.


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 Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?


text:
 Climb to her terraces, and ravage them, destroy them (not) wholly. Tear away her tendrils, they do not belong to the LORD.


text:
 For they have openly rebelled against me, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, says the LORD.


text:
 They denied the LORD, saying, "Not he-- No evil shall befall us, neither sword nor famine shall we see.


text:
 The prophets have become wind, and the word is not in them. May their threats be carried out against themselves!"


text:
 Now, for this that you have said, says the LORD, the God of hosts- Behold, I make my words in your mouth, a fire, And this people is the wood that it shall devour!--


text:
 Beware, I will bring against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD; A long-lived nation, an ancient nation, a people whose language you know not, whose speech you cannot understand.


text:
 They will devour your harvest and your bread, devour your sons and your daughters, Devour your sheep and cattle, devour your vines and fig trees; They will beat flat with the sword the fortified city in which you trust.


text:
 And when they ask, "Why has the LORD done all these things to us?" say to them, "As you have forsaken me to serve strange gods in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land not your own."


text:
 Pay attention to this, foolish and senseless people Who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not.


text:
 Should you not fear me, says the LORD, should you not tremble before me? I made the sandy shore the sea's limit, which by eternal decree it may not overstep. Toss though it may, it is to no avail; though its billows roar, they cannot pass.


text:
 And say not in their hearts, "Let us fear the LORD, our God, Who gives us rain early and late, in its time; Who watches for us over the appointed weeks of harvest."


text:
 Their houses are as full of treachery as a bird-cage is of birds; Therefore they grow powerful and rich,


text:
 fat and sleek. They go their wicked way; justice they do not defend By advancing the claim of the fatherless or judging the cause of the poor.


text:
 Shall I not punish these things? says the LORD; on a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?


text:
 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests teach as they wish; Yet my people will have it so; what will you do when the end comes?


text:
 Flee, sons of Benjamin, out of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, raise a signal over Beth-haccherem; For evil threatens from the north, and mighty destruction.


text:
 Against her, shepherds come with their flocks; all around, they pitch their tents, each one grazes his portion.


text:
 "Prepare for war against her, Up! let us rush upon her at midday! Alas! the day is waning, evening shadows lengthen;


text:
 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Hew down her trees, throw up a siege mound against Jerusalem. Woe to the city marked for punishment; nought but oppression within her!


text:
 As the well gushes out its waters, so she gushes out her wickedness. Violence and destruction resound in her; ever before me are wounds and blows.


text:
 Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I be estranged from you; Lest I turn you into a desert, a land where no man dwells.


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Glean, glean like a vine the remnant of Israel; Pass your hand, like a vintager, repeatedly over the tendrils.


text:
 To whom shall I speak? whom shall I warn, and be heard? See! their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot give heed; See, the word of the LORD has become for them an object of scorn, which they will not have.


text:
 Therefore my wrath brims up within me, I am weary of holding it in; I will pour it out upon the child in the street, upon the young men gathered together. Yes, all will be taken, husband and wife, graybeard with ancient.


text:
 Their houses will fall to strangers, their fields and their wives as well; For I will stretch forth my hand against those who dwell in this land, says the LORD.


text:
 They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to my people: "Peace, peace!" they say, though there is no peace.


text:
 They are odious; they have done abominable things, yet they are not at all ashamed, they know not how to blush. Hence they shall be among those who fall; in their time of punishment they shall go down, says the LORD.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Stand beside the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old Which is the way to good, and walk it; thus you will find rest for your souls. But they said, "We will not walk it."


text:
 When I raised up watchmen for them: "Hearken to the sound of the trumpet!" they said, "We will not hearken."


text:
 See, I bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their own schemes, Because they heeded not my words, because they despised my law.


text:
 Of what use to me incense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from far-off lands? Your holocausts find no favor with me, your sacrifices please me not.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I will place before this people obstacles to bring them down; Fathers and sons alike, neighbors and friends shall perish.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: See, a people comes from the land of the north, a great nation, roused from the ends of the earth.


text:
 Bow and javelin they wield; cruel and pitiless are they. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on steeds, Each in his place, for battle against you, daughter Zion.


text:
 We hear the report of them; helpless fall our hands, Anguish takes hold of us, throes like a mother's in childbirth.


text:
 Go not forth into the field, step not into the street, Beware of the enemy's sword; terror on every side!


text:
 O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes. Mourn as for an only child with bitter wailing, For sudden upon us comes the destroyer.


text:
 The bellows roars, the lead is consumed by the fire; In vain has the smelter refined, the wicked are not drawn off.


text:
 Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD, and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD!


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, so that I may remain with you in this place.


text:
 Put not your trust in the deceitful words: "This is the temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!"


text:
 Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with his neighbor;


text:
 if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place, or follow strange gods to your own harm,


text:
 Are you to steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, go after strange gods that you know not,


text:
 and yet come to stand before me in this house which bears my name, and say: "We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again"?


text:
 Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? I too see what is being done, says the LORD.


text:
 You may go to Shiloh, which I made the dwelling place of my name in the beginning. See what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.


text:
 And now, because you have committed all these misdeeds, says the LORD, because you did not listen, though I spoke to you untiringly; because you did not answer, though I called you,


text:
 I will do to this house named after me, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.


text:
 You, now, do not intercede for this people; raise not in their behalf a pleading prayer! Do not urge me, for I will not listen to you.


text:
 The children gather wood, their fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, while libations are poured out to strange gods in order to hurt me.


text:
 See now, says the Lord GOD, my anger and my wrath will pour out upon this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth; it will burn without being quenched.


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Heap your holocausts upon your sacrifices; eat up the flesh!


text:
 In speaking to your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I gave them no command concerning holocaust or sacrifice.


text:
 This rather is what I commanded them: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.


text:
 But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.


text:
 From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.


text:
 Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.


text:
 When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you.


text:
 Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.


text:
 Cut off your dedicated hair and throw it away! on the heights intone an elegy; For the LORD has rejected and cast off the generation that draws down his wrath.


text:
 The people of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes, says the LORD. They have defiled the house which bears my name by setting up in it their abominable idols.


text:
 In the Valley of Ben-hinnom they have built the high place of Topheth to immolate in fire their sons and their daughters, such a thing as I never commanded or had in mind.


text:
 Therefore, beware! days will come, says the LORD, when Topheth and the Valley of Ben-hinnom will no longer be called such, but rather the Valley of Slaughter. For lack of space, Topheth will be a burial place.


text:
 The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the field, which no one will drive away.


text:
 In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem I will silence the cry of joy, the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will be turned to rubble.


text:
 At that time, says the LORD, the bones of the kings and princes of Judah, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the citizens of Jerusalem will be emptied out of their graves


text:
 and spread out before the sun and the moon and the whole army of heaven, which they loved and served, which they followed, consulted, and worshiped. They will not be gathered up for burial, but will lie like dung upon the ground.


text:
 Death will be preferred to life by all the survivors of this wicked race who remain in any of the places to which I banish them, says the LORD of hosts.


text:
 Tell them: Thus says the LORD: When someone falls, does he not rise again? if he goes astray, does he not turn back?


text:
 Why do these people rebel with obstinate resistance? Why do they cling to deceptive idols, refuse to turn back?


text:
 I listen closely: they speak what is not true; No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done!" Everyone keeps on running his course, like a steed dashing into battle.


text:
 Even the stork in the air knows it seasons; Turtledove, swallow and thrush observe their time of return, But my people do not know the ordinance of the LORD.


text:
 How can you say, "We are wise, we have the law of the LORD"? Why, that has been changed into falsehood by the lying pen of the scribes!


text:
 The wise are confounded, dismayed and ensnared; Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, of what avail is their wisdom?


text:
 Therefore, I will give their wives to strangers, their fields to spoilers. Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain, prophet and priest, all practice fraud.


text:
 They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to the daughter of my people: "Peace, peace!" they say, though there is no peace.


text:
 I will gather them all in, says the LORD: no grapes on the vine, No figs on the fig trees, foliage withered!


text:
 Why do we remain here? Let us form ranks and enter the walled cities, to perish there; For the LORD has wrought our destruction, he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.


text:
 From Dan is heard the snorting of his steeds; The neighing of his stallions shakes the whole land. They come devouring the land and all it contains, the city and those who dwell in it.


text:
 Yes, I will send against you poisonous snakes, Against which no charm will work when they bite you, says the LORD.


text:
 Listen! the cry of the daughter of my people, far and wide in the land! Is the LORD no longer in Zion, is her King no longer in her midst? (Why do they provoke me with their idols, with their foreign nonentities?)


text:
 Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why grows not new flesh over the wound of the daughter of my people?


text:
 Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people!


text:
 Would that I had in the desert a travelers' lodge! That I might leave my people and depart from them. They are all adulterers, a faithless band.


text:
 They ready their tongues like a drawn bow; with lying, and not with truth, they hold forth in the land. They go from evil to evil, but me they know not, says the LORD.


text:
 Be on your guard, everyone against his neighbor; put no trust in any brother. Every brother apes Jacob, the supplanter, every friend is guilty of slander.


text:
 Each one deceives the other, no one speaks the truth. They have accustomed their tongues to lying, and are perverse, and cannot repent.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: I will smelt them and test them; how else should I deal with their wickedness?


text:
 A murderous arrow is his tongue, his mouth utters deceit; He speaks cordially with his friends, but in his heart he lays an ambush!


text:
 For these things, says the LORD, shall I not punish them? On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?


text:
 Over the mountains, break out in cries of lamentation, over the pasture lands, intone a dirge: They are scorched, and no man crosses them, unheard is the bleat of the flock; Birds of the air as well as beasts, all have fled, and are gone.


text:
 I will turn Jerusalem into a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; The cities of Judah I will make into a waste, where no one dwells.


text:
 Who is so wise that he can understand this? Let him to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken make it known: Why is the land ravaged, scorched like a wasteland untraversed?


text:
 The LORD answered: Because they have abandoned my law, which I set before them, and have not followed it or listened to my voice,


text:
 therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give them wormwood to eat and poison to drink.


text:
 I will scatter them among nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely destroyed them.


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 Let them come quickly and intone a dirge for us, That our eyes may be wet with weeping, our cheeks run with tears.


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 The dirge is heard from Zion: Ruined we are, and greatly ashamed; We must leave the land, give up our homes!


text:
 Hear, you women, the word of the LORD, let your ears receive his message. Teach your daughters this dirge, and each other this lament.


text:
 Death has come up through our windows, has entered our palaces; It cuts down the children in the street, young people in the squares.


text:
 The corpses of the slain lie like dung on a field, Like sheaves behind the harvester, with no one to gather them.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man glory in his strength, nor the rich man glory in his riches;


text:
 But rather, let him who glories, glory in this, that in his prudence he knows me, Knows that I, the LORD, bring about kindness, justice and uprightness on the earth; For with such am I pleased, says the LORD.


text:
 See, days are coming, says the LORD, when I will demand an account of all those circumcised in their flesh:


text:
 Egypt and Judah, Edom and the Ammonites, Moab and the desert dwellers who shave their temples. For all these nations, like the whole house of Israel, are uncircumcised in heart.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Learn not the customs of the nations, and have no fear of the signs of the heavens, though the nations fear them.


text:
 For the cult idols of the nations are nothing, wood cut from the forest, Wrought by craftsmen with the adze,


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 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, they cannot speak; They must be carried about, for they cannot walk. Fear them not, they can do no harm, neither is it in their power to do good.


text:
 Who would not fear you, King of the nations, for it is your due! Among all the wisest of the nations, and in all their domain, there is none like you.


text:
 Silver strips brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ophir, The work of the craftsman and the handiwork of the smelter, Clothed with violet and purple- all of them the work of artisans.


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 The LORD is true God, he is the living God, the eternal King, Before whose anger the earth quakes, whose wrath the nations cannot endure:


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 Thus shall you say of them: Let the gods that did not make heaven and earth perish from the earth, and from beneath these heavens!


text:
 He who made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his skill.


text:
 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar, and he brings up clouds from the end of the earth; He makes the lightning flash in the rain, and releases stormwinds from their chambers.


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 Every man is stupid, ignorant; every artisan is put to shame by his idol: He has molded a fraud, without breath of life.


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 Not like these is the portion of Jacob: he is the creator of all things; Israel is his very own tribe, LORD of hosts is his name.


text:
 For thus says the LORD: Behold, this time I will sling away the inhabitants of the land; I will hem them in, that they may be taken.


text:
 Woe is me! I am undone, my wound is incurable; Yet I had thought: if I make light of my wound, I can bear it.


text:
 My tent is ruined, all its cords are severed. My sons have left me, they are no more: no one to pitch my tent, no one to raise its curtains.


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 Yes, the shepherds were stupid as cattle, the LORD they sought not; Therefore they had no success, and all their flocks were scattered.


text:
 Listen! a noise! it comes closer, a great uproar from the northern land: To turn the cities of Judah into a desert haunt of jackals.


text:
 You know, O LORD, that man is not master of his way; Man's course is not within his choice, nor is it for him to direct his step.


text:
 Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, on the tribes that call not upon your name; For they have devoured Jacob utterly, and laid waste his dwelling.


text:
 saying to them: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not observe the terms of this covenant,


text:
 which I enjoined upon your fathers the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that iron foundry, saying: Listen to my voice and do all that I command you. Then you shall be my people, and I will be your God.


text:
 Thus I will fulfill the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey: the one you have today. "Amen, LORD," I answered.


text:
 Then the LORD said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and obey them.


text:
 Urgently and constantly I warned your fathers to obey my voice, from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day.


text:
 But they did not listen or give ear. Each one followed the hardness of his evil heart, till I brought upon them all the threats of this covenant which they had failed to observe as I commanded them.


text:
 A conspiracy has been found, the LORD said to me, among the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.


text:
 They have returned to the crimes of their forefathers who refused to obey my words. They also have followed and served strange gods; the covenant which I had made with their fathers, the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I bring upon them misfortune which they cannot escape. Though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.


text:
 Then the cities of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to which they have been offering incense. But these gods will give them no help whatever when misfortune strikes.


text:
 For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars for offering sacrifice to Baal.


text:
 Do not intercede on behalf of this people, nor utter a plea for them. I will not listen when they call to me at the time of their misfortune.


text:
 What right has my beloved in my house, while she prepares her plots? Can vows and sacred meat turn away your misfortune from you? Will you still be jubilant


text:
 when you hear the great invasion? A spreading olive tree, goodly to behold, the LORD has named you; Now he sets fire to it, its branches burn.


text:
 The LORD of hosts who planted you has decreed misfortune for you because of the evil done by the house of Israel and by the house of Judah, who provoked me by sacrificing to Baal.


text:
 Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: "Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more."


text:
 But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD; else you shall die by our hand."


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: I am going to punish them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die by famine.


text:
 None shall be spared among them, for I will bring misfortune upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.


text:
 You would be in the right, O LORD, if I should dispute with you; even so, I must discuss the case with you. Why does the way of the godless prosper, why live all the treacherous in contentment?


text:
 You planted them; they have taken root, they keep on growing and bearing fruit. You are upon their lips, but far from their inmost thoughts.


text:
 You, O Lord, know me, you see me, you have found that at heart I am with you. Pick them out like sheep for the slaughter, set them apart for the day of carnage.


text:
 How long must the earth mourn, the green of the whole countryside wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it beasts and birds disappear, because they say, "God does not see our ways."


text:
 If running against men has wearied you, how will you race against horses? And if in a land of peace you fall headlong, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?


text:
 For even your own brothers, the members of your father's house, betray you; they have recruited a force against you. Do not believe them, even if they are friendly to you in their words.


text:
 I abandon my house, cast off my heritage; The beloved of my soul I deliver into the hand of her foes.


text:
 My heritage has turned on me like a lion in the jungle; Because she has roared against me, I treat her as an enemy.


text:
 My heritage is a prey for hyenas, is surrounded by vultures; Come, gather together, all you beasts of the field, come and eat!


text:
 Many shepherds have ravaged my vineyard, have trodden my heritage underfoot; The portion that delighted me they have turned into a desert waste.


text:
 They have made it a mournful waste, desolate it lies before me, Desolate, all the land, because no one takes it to heart.


text:
 Upon every desert height brigands have come up. The LORD has a sword which consumes the land, from end to end: no peace for all mankind.


text:
 They have sown wheat and reaped thorns, they have tired themselves out to no purpose; They recoil before their harvest, the flaming anger of the LORD.


text:
 Thus says the LORD against all my evil neighbors who plunder the heritage which I gave my people Israel as their own: See, I will pluck them up from their land; the house of Judah I will pluck up in their midst.


text:
 But after plucking them up, I will pity them again and bring them back, each to his heritage, each to his land.


text:
 And if they carefully learn my people's custom of swearing by my name, "As the LORD lives," they who formerly taught my people to swear by Baal shall be built up in the midst of my people.


text:
 The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth; wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.


text:
 Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Parath; there hide it in a cleft of the rock.


text:
 After a long interval, he said to me: Go now to the Parath and fetch the loincloth which I told you to hide there.


text:
 Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loincloth from the place where I had hid it. But it was rotted, good for nothing!


text:
 This wicked people who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, and follow strange gods to serve and adore them, shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.


text:
 For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins, so had I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty. But they did not listen.


text:
 Now speak to them this word: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Every wineflask is meant to be filled with wine. If they reply, "Do we not know that every wineflask is meant to be filled with wine?"


text:
 say to them: Thus says the LORD: Beware! I am filling with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, the kings who succeed to David's throne, the priests and prophets, and all the citizens of Jerusalem.


text:
 I will dash them against each other, fathers and sons together, says the LORD; I will show no compassion, I will not spare or pity, but will destroy them.


text:
 Give glory to the LORD, your God, before it grows dark; Before your feet stumble on darkening mountains; Before the light you look for turns to darkness, changes into black clouds.


text:
 If you do not listen to this in your pride, I will weep in secret many tears; My eyes will run with tears for the LORD'S flock, led away to exile.


text:
 Say to the king and to the queen mother: come down from your throne; From your heads fall your magnificent crowns.


text:
 The cities of the Negeb are besieged, with no one to relieve them; All Judah is banished in universal exile.


text:
 Lift up your eyes and see men coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your glory?


text:
 What will you say when they place as rulers over you those whom you taught to be your lovers? Will not pangs seize you like those of a woman giving birth?


text:
 If you ask in your heart why these things befall you: For your great guilt your skirts are stripped away and you are violated.


text:
 Can the Ethiopian change his skin? the leopard his spots? As easily would you be able to do good, accustomed to evil as you are.


text:
 This is your lot, the portion measured out to you from me, says the LORD. Because you have forgotten me, and trusted in the lying idol,


text:
 Your adulteries, your neighings, your shameless prostitutions: On the hills in the highlands I see these horrible crimes of yours. Woe to you, Jerusalem, how long will it yet be before you become clean!


text:
 Judah mourns, her gates are lifeless; Her people sink down in mourning: from Jerusalem ascends a cry of anguish.


text:
 The nobles send their servants for water, but when they come to the cisterns They find no water and return with empty jars. Ashamed, despairing, they cover their heads


text:
 because of the stricken soil; Because there is no rain in the land the farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.


text:
 The wild asses stand on the bare heights, gasping for breath like jackals; Their eyes grow dim, because there is no vegetation to be seen.


text:
 Even though our crimes bear witness against us, take action, O LORD, for the honor of your name-- Even though our rebellions are many, though we have sinned against you.


text:
 O Hope of Israel, O LORD, our savior in time of need! Why should you be a stranger in this land, like a traveler who has stopped but for a night?


text:
 Why are you like a man dumbfounded, a champion who cannot save? You are in our midst, O LORD, your name we bear: do not forsake us!


text:
 Thus says the LORD of this people: They so love to wander that they do not spare their feet. The LORD has no pleasure in them; now he remembers their guilt, and will punish their sins.


text:
 If they fast, I will not listen to their supplication. If they offer holocausts or cereal offerings, I will not accept them. Rather, I will destroy them with the sword, famine, and pestilence.


text:
 Ah! Lord GOD, I replied, it is the prophets who say to them, "You shall not see the sword; famine shall not befall you. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place."


text:
 Lies these prophets utter in my name, the LORD said to me. I did not send them; I gave them no command nor did I speak to them. Lying visions, foolish divination, dreams of their own imagination, they prophesy to you.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD: Concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them; who say, "Sword and famine shall not befall this land": by the sword and famine shall these prophets meet their end.


text:
 The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem by famine and the sword. No one shall bury them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour out upon them their own wickedness.


text:
 Speak to them this word: Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, Over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her incurable wound.


text:
 If I walk out into the field, look! those slain by the sword; If I enter the city, look! those consumed by hunger. Even the prophet and the priest forage in a land they know not.


text:
 Have you cast Judah off completely? Is Zion loathsome to you? Why have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We wait for peace, to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.


text:
 For your name's sake spurn us not, disgrace not the throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not.


text:
 Among the nations' idols is there any that gives rain? Or can the mere heavens send showers? Is it not you alone, O LORD, our God, to whom we look? You alone have done all these things.


text:
 The LORD said to me: Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them away from me.


text:
 If they ask you where they should go, tell them, Thus says the LORD: Whoever is marked for death, to death; whoever is marked for the sword, to the sword; whoever is marked for famine, to famine; whoever is marked for captivity, to captivity.


text:
 Four kinds of scourge I have decreed against them, says the LORD: the sword to slay them; dogs to drag them about; the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy them.


text:
 And I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.


text:
 You have disowned me, says the LORD, turned your back upon me; And so I stretched out my hand to destroy you, I was weary of sparing you.


text:
 I winnowed them with the fan in every city gate. I destroyed my people through bereavement; they returned not from their evil ways.


text:
 Their widows were more numerous before me than the sands of the sea. I brought against the mother of youths the spoiler at midday; Suddenly I struck her with anguish and terror.


text:
 The mother of seven swoons away, gasping out her life; Her sun sets in full day, she is disgraced, despairing. Their survivors I will give to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.


text:
 Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! a man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me.


text:
 Tell me, LORD, have I not served you for their good? Have I not interceded with you in the time of misfortune and anguish?


text:
 You know I have. Remember me, LORD, visit me, and avenge me on my persecutors. Because of your long-suffering banish me not; know that for you I have borne insult.


text:
 When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, Because I bore your name, O LORD, God of hosts.


text:
 I did not sit celebrating in the circle of merrymakers; Under the weight of your hand I sat alone because you filled me with indignation.


text:
 Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook, whose waters do not abide!


text:
 Thus the LORD answered me: If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand; If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece. Then it shall be they who turn to you, and you shall not turn to them;


text:
 And I will make you toward this people a solid wall of brass. Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail, For I am with you, to deliver and rescue you, says the LORD.


text:
 for thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who will be born in this place, the mothers who will give them birth, the fathers who will beget them in this land:


text:
 Of deadly disease they shall die. Unlamented and unburied they will lie like dung on the ground. Sword and famine will make an end of them, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.


text:
 Go not into a house of mourning, the LORD continued: go not there to lament or offer sympathy. For I have withdrawn my friendship from this people, says the LORD, my kindness and my pity.


text:
 They shall die, the great and the lowly, in this land, and shall go unburied and unlamented. No one will gash himself or shave his head for them.


text:
 They will not break bread with the bereaved to console them in their bereavement; they will not give them the cup of consolation to drink over the death of father or mother.


text:
 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Before your very eyes and during your lifetime I will silence from this place the cry of joy and the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.


text:
 When you proclaim all these words to this people and they ask you: "Why has the LORD pronounced all these great evils against us? What is our crime? What sin have we committed against the LORD, our God?"--


text:
 you shall answer them: It is because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and followed strange gods, which they served and worshiped; but me they have forsaken, and my law they have not observed.


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 And you have done worse than your fathers. Here you are, every one of you, walking in the hardness of his evil heart instead of listening to me.


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 I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known; there you can serve strange gods day and night, because I will not grant you my mercy.


text:
 However, days will surely come, says the LORD, when it will no longer be said, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of Egypt";


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 but rather, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of the north and out of all the countries to which he had banished them." I will bring them back to the land which I gave their fathers.


text:
 Look! I will send many fishermen, says the LORD, to catch them. After that, I will send many hunters to hunt them out from every mountain and hill and from the clefts of the rocks.


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 For my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor does their guilt escape my view.


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 I will at once repay them double for their crime and their sin of profaning my land with their detestable corpses of idols, and filling my heritage with their abominations.


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 O LORD, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress! To you will the nations come from the ends of the earth, and say, "Mere frauds are the heritage of our fathers, empty idols of no use."


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 Look, then: I will give them knowledge; this time I will leave them in no doubt Of my strength and my power: they shall know that my name is LORD.


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 The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, Engraved with a diamond point upon the tablets of their hearts.(And the horns of their altars,


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 when their sons remember their altars and their sacred poles, beside the green trees, on the high hills,


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 the peaks in the highland.) Your wealth and all your treasures I will give as spoil. In recompense for all your sins throughout your borders,


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 You will relinquish your hold on your heritage which I have given you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land that you know not: For a fire has been kindled by my wrath that will burn forever.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.


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 He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, But stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth.


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 He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.


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 I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, To reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.


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 A partridge that mothers a brood not her own is the man who acquires wealth unjustly: In midlife it will desert him; in the end he is only a fool.


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 O hope of Israel, O LORD! all who forsake you shall be in disgrace; The rebels in the land shall be put to shame; they have forsaken the source of living waters (the LORD).


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 Yet I did not press you to send calamity; the day without remedy I have not desired. You know what passed my lips; it is present before you.


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 Let my persecutors, not me, be confounded; let them, not me, be broken. Bring upon them the day of misfortune, crush them with repeated destruction.


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 Thus said the LORD to me: Go, stand at the Gate of Benjamin, where the kings of Judah enter and leave, and at the other gates of Jerusalem.


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 There say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all you citizens of Jerusalem who enter these gates!


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 Thus says the LORD: As you love your lives, take care not to carry burdens on the sabbath day, to bring them in through the gates of Jerusalem.


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 Bring no burden from your homes on the sabbath. Do no work whatever, but keep holy the sabbath, as I commanded your fathers,


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 though they did not listen or give ear, but stiffened their necks so as not to hear or take correction.


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 If you obey me wholeheartedly, says the LORD, and carry no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath, keeping the sabbath holy and abstaining from all work on it,


text:
 then, through the gates of this city, kings who sit upon the throne of David will continue to enter, riding in their chariots or upon their horses, along with their princes, and the men of Judah, and the citizens of Jerusalem. This city will remain inhabited forever.


text:
 To it people will come from the cities of Judah and the neighborhood of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the foothills, from the hill country and the Negeb, to bring holocausts and sacrifices, cereal offerings and incense and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.


text:
 But if you do not obey me and keep holy the sabbath, if you carry burdens and come through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath, I will set unquenchable fire to its gates, which will consume the palaces of Jerusalem.


text:
 Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.


text:
 Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.


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 But if that nation which I have threatened turns from its evil, I also repent of the evil which I threatened to do.


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 But if that nation does what is evil in my eyes, refusing to obey my voice, I repent of the good with which I promised to bless it.


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 And now, tell this to the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Take care! I am fashioning evil against you and making a plan. Return, each of you, from his evil way; reform your ways and your deeds.


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 But they will say, "No use! We will follow our own devices; each one of us will behave according to the stubbornness of his evil heart!"


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 Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask among the nations- who has ever heard the like? Truly horrible things has virgin Israel done!


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 Does the snow of Lebanon desert the rocky heights? Do the gushing waters dry up that flow fresh down the mountains?


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 Yet my people have forgotten me: they burn incense to a thing that does not exist. They stumble out of their ways, the paths of old, To travel on bypaths, not the beaten track.


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 Their land shall be turned into a desert, an object of lasting ridicule: All passers-by will be amazed, will shake their heads.


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 Like the east wind, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back, not my face, in their day of disaster.


text:
 "Come," they said, "let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets. And so, let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word."


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 Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.


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 So now, deliver their children to famine, do away with them by the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men die of pestilence, their young men be slain by the sword in battle.


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 May cries be heard from their homes, when suddenly you send plunderers against them. For they have dug a pit to capture me, they have hid snares for my feet;


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 But you, O LORD, know all their plans to slay me. Forgive not their crime, blot not out their sin in your sight! Let them go down before you, proceed against them in the time of your anger.


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 Thus said the LORD: Go, buy a potter's earthen flask. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests,


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 and go out toward the Valley of Ben-hinnom, at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate; there proclaim the words which I will speak to you:


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 Listen to the word of the LORD, kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such evil upon this place that all who hear of it will feel their ears tingle.


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 This is because they have forsaken me and alienated this place by burning in it incense to strange gods which neither they nor their fathers knew; and the kings of Judah have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.


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 They have built high places for Baal to immolate their sons in fire as holocausts to Baal: such a thing as I neither commanded nor spoke of, nor did it ever enter my mind.


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 Therefore, days will come, says the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather, the Valley of Slaughter.


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 In this place I will foil the plan of Judah and Jerusalem; I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those that seek their lives. Their corpses I will give as food to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.


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 I will make this city an object of amazement and derision. Because of all its wounds, every passer-by will be amazed and will catch his breath.


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 I will have them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters; they shall eat one another's flesh during the strict siege by which their enemies and those who seek their lives will confine them.


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 and say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Thus will I smash this people and this city, as one smashes a clay pot so that it cannot be repaired. And Topheth shall be a burial place, for lack of place to bury elsewhere.


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 Thus I will do to this place and to its inhabitants, says the LORD; I will make this city like Topheth.


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 And the houses of Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth, all the houses upon whose roofs they burnt incense to the whole host of heaven and poured out libations to strange gods.


text:
 When Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the house of God and said to all the people:


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 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will surely bring upon this city all the evil with which I threatened it, because they have stiffened their necks and have not obeyed my words.


text:
 Jeremiah was heard prophesying these things by the priest Pashhur, son of Immer, chief officer in the house of the LORD.


text:
 So he had the prophet scourged and placed in the stocks at the upper Gate of Benjamin in the house of the LORD.


text:
 The next morning, after Pashhur had released Jeremiah from the stocks, the prophet said to him: Instead of Pashhur, the LORD will name you "Terror on every side."


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 For thus says the LORD: Indeed, I will deliver you to terror, you and all your friends. Your own eyes shall see them fall by the sword of their enemies. All Judah I will deliver to the king of Babylon, who shall take them captive to Babylon or slay them with the sword.


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 All the wealth of this city, all it has toiled for and holds dear, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will give as plunder into the hands of their foes, who shall seize it and carry it away to Babylon.


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 You Pashhur, and all the members of your household shall go into exile. To Babylon you shall go, you and all your friends; there you shall die and be buried, because you have prophesied lies to them.


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 You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.


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 Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; The word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day.


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 I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.


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 Yes, I hear the whisperings of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!" All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. "Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him."


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 But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion.


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 O LORD of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.


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 Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!


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 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A child, a son, has been born to you!" filling him with great joy.


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 Let that man be like the cities which the LORD relentlessly overthrew; Let him hear war cries in the morning, battle alarms at noonday,


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 because he did not dispatch me in the womb! Then my mother would have been my grave, her womb confining me forever.


text:
 The message which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent him Pashhur, son of Malchiah, and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, with this request:


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 Inquire for us of the LORD, because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, so that he will withdraw from us.


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 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I will turn back in your hands the weapons with which you intend to fight the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls. These weapons I will pile up in the midst of this city,


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 and I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, and wrath, and great rage!


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 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die in a great pestilence.


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 After that, says the LORD, I will hand over Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his ministers and the people in this city who survive pestilence, sword, and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies and those who seek their lives. He shall strike them with the edge of the sword, without quarter, without pity or mercy.


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 And to this people you shall say: Thus says the LORD: See, I am giving you a choice between life and death.


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 Whoever remains in this city shall die by the sword or famine or pestilence. But whoever leaves and surrenders to the besieging Chaldeans shall live and have his life as booty.


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 For I have turned against this city, for its woe and not for its good, says the LORD. It shall be given into the power of the king of Babylon who shall burn it with fire.


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 O house of David! Thus says the LORD: Each morning dispense justice, rescue the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, Lest my fury break out like fire which burns without being quenched, because of the evil of your deeds.


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 Beware! I am against you, Valley-site, Rock of the Plain, says the LORD. You who say, "Who will attack us, who can penetrate our retreats?"


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 I will punish you, says the LORD, as your deeds deserve! I will kindle a fire in its forest that shall devour all its surroundings.


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 You shall say: Listen to the word of the LORD, king of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, your ministers, and your people that enter by these gates!


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 Thus says the LORD: Do what is right and just. Rescue the victim from the hand of his oppressor. Do not wrong or oppress the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.


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 If you carry out these commands, kings who succeed to the throne of David will continue to enter the gates of this palace, riding in chariots or mounted on horses, with their ministers, and their people.


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 But if you do not obey these commands, I swear by myself, says the LORD: this palace shall become rubble.


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 For thus says the LORD concerning the palace of the king of Judah: Though you be to me like Gilead, like the peak of Lebanon, I will turn you into a waste, a city uninhabited.


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 Against you I will send destroyers, each with his axe: They shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.


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 Many people will pass by this city and ask one another: "Why has the LORD done this to so great a city?"


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 And the answer will be given: "Because they have deserted their covenant with the LORD, their God, by worshiping and serving strange gods."


text:
 Weep not for him who is dead, mourn not for him! Weep rather for him who is going away; never again will he see the land of his birth.


text:
 Thus says the LORD concerning Shallum, son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father as king. He has left this place never to return.


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 Woe to him who builds his house on wrong, his terraces on injustice; Who works his neighbor without pay, and gives him no wages.


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 Who says, "I will build myself a spacious house, with airy rooms," Who cuts out windows for it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermillion.


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 Must you prove your rank among kings by competing with them in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink? He did what was right and just, and it went well with him.


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 Because he dispensed justice to the weak and the poor, it went well with him. Is this not true knowledge of me? says the LORD.


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 But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except on your own gain, On shedding innocent blood, on practicing oppression and extortion.


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 Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament him, "Alas! my brother"; "Alas! sister." They shall not lament him, "Alas, Lord! alas, Majesty!"


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 Scale Lebanon and cry out, in Bashan lift up your voice; Cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are crushed.


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 I spoke to you when you were secure, but you answered, "I will not listen." This has been your way from your youth, not to listen to my voice.


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 The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, your lovers shall go into exile. Surely then you shall be ashamed and confounded because of all your wickedness.


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 You who dwell on Lebanon, who nest in the cedars, How you shall groan when pains come upon you, like the pangs of a woman in travail!


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 As I live, says the LORD, if you, Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, are a signet ring on my right hand, I will snatch you from it.


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 I will deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life; the hands of those whom you fear; the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans.


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 I will cast you out, you and the mother who bore you, into a different land from the one you were born in; and there you shall die.


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 Is this man Coniah a vessel despised, to be broken up, an instrument that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants cast out? why thrown into a land they know not?


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 Thus says the LORD: Write this man down as one childless, who will never thrive in his lifetime! No descendant of his shall achieve a seat on the throne of David as ruler again over Judah.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.


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 I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multiply.


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 I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the LORD.


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 Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; As king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land.


text:
 In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security. This is the name they give him: "The LORD our justice."


text:
 Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD, when they shall no longer say, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt";


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 but rather, "As the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of the house of Israel up from the land of the north"-- and from all the lands to which I banished them; they shall again live on their own land.


text:
 Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, my bones all tremble; I am like a man who is drunk, overcome by wine, Because of the LORD, because of his holy words.


text:
 With adulterers the land is filled; on their account the land mourns, the pasture ranges are seared. Theirs is an evil course, theirs is unjust power.


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 Hence their way shall become for them slippery ground. In the darkness they shall lose their footing, and fall headlong; Evil I will bring upon them: the year of their punishment, says the LORD.


text:
 Among Samaria's prophets I saw unseemly deeds: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.


text:
 But among Jerusalem's prophets I saw deeds still more shocking: Adultery, living in lies, siding with the wicked, so that no one turns from evil; To me they are all like Sodom, its citizens like Gomorrah.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts against the prophets: Behold, I will give them wormwood to eat, and poison to drink; For from Jerusalem's prophets ungodliness has gone forth into the whole land.


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Listen not to the words of your prophets, who fill you with emptiness; Visions of their own fancy they speak, not from the mouth of the LORD.


text:
 They say to those who despise the word of the LORD, "Peace shall be yours"; And to everyone who walks in hardness of heart, "No evil shall overtake you."


text:
 has stood in the council of the LORD, to see him and to hear his word? Who has heeded his word, so as to announce it?


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 See, the storm of the LORD! His wrath breaks forth In a whirling storm that bursts upon the heads of the wicked.


text:
 The anger of the LORD shall not abate until he has done and fulfilled what he has determined in his heart. When the time comes, you shall fully understand.


text:
 Had they stood in my council, and did they but proclaim to my people my words, They would have brought them back from evil ways and from their wicked deeds.


text:
 Can a man hide in secret without my seeing him? says the LORD. Do I not fill both heaven and earth? says the LORD.


text:
 How long will this continue? Is my name in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies and their own deceitful fancies?


text:
 By their dreams which they recount to each other, they think to make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.


text:
 Let the prophet who has a dream recount his dream; let him who has my word speak my word truthfully! What has straw to do with the wheat? says the LORD.


text:
 Yes, I am against the prophets who prophesy lying dreams, says the LORD, and who lead my people astray by recounting their lies and by their empty boasting. From me they have no mission or command, and they do this people no good at all, says the LORD.


text:
 And when this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, "What is the burden of the LORD?" you shall answer, "You are the burden, and I cast you off, says the LORD."


text:
 If a prophet or a priest or anyone else mentions "the burden of the LORD," I will punish that man and his house.


text:
 Thus you shall ask, when speaking to one another, "What answer did the LORD give?" or, "What did the LORD say?"


text:
 But the burden of the LORD you shall mention no more. For each man his own word becomes the burden so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.


text:
 But if you ask about "the burden of the LORD," then thus says the LORD: Because you use this phrase, "the burden of the LORD," though I forbade you to use it,


text:
 therefore I will lift you on high and cast you from my presence, you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers.


text:
 The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.-- This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had exiled from Jerusalem Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, the artisans and the skilled workers, and brought them to Babylon.--


text:
 One basket contained excellent figs, the early-ripening kind. But the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.


text:
 Then the LORD said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? "Figs," I replied; "the good ones are very good, but the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten."


text:
 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, even so will I regard with favor Judah's exiles whom I sent away from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.


text:
 I will look after them for their good, and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not to tear them down; to plant them, not to pluck them out.


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 I will give them a heart with which to understand that I am the LORD. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.


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 And like the figs that are bad, so bad they cannot be eaten-- yes, thus says the LORD-- even so will I treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem remaining in this land and those who have settled in the land of Egypt.


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 I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all the places to which I will drive them.


text:
 I will send upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, until they have disappeared from the land which I gave them and their fathers.


text:
 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah (the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).


text:
 Since the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day-- these three and twenty years-- the word of the LORD has come to me and I spoke to you untiringly, but you would not listen.


text:
 Though you refused to listen or pay heed, the LORD has sent you without fail all his servants the prophets


text:
 with this message: Turn back, each of you, from your evil way and from your evil deeds; then you shall remain in the land which the LORD gave you and your fathers, from of old and forever.


text:
 Do not follow strange gods to serve and adore them, lest you provoke me with your handiwork, and I bring evil upon you.


text:
 But you would not listen to me, says the LORD, and so you provoked me with your handiwork to your own harm.


text:
 lo! I will send for and fetch all the tribes of the north, says the LORD (and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant); I will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against all these neighboring nations. I will doom them, making them an object of horror, of ridicule, of everlasting reproach.


text:
 Among them I will bring to an end the song of joy and the song of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp.


text:
 This whole land shall be a ruin and a desert. Seventy years these nations shall be enslaved to the king of Babylon;


text:
 but when the seventy years have elapsed, I will punish the king of Babylon and the nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their guilt, says the LORD. Their land I will turn into everlasting desert.


text:
 Against that land I will fulfill all the words I have spoken against it (all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations).


text:
 They also shall be enslaved to great nations and mighty kings, and thus I will repay them according to their own deeds and according to their own handiwork.


text:
 For thus said the LORD, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of foaming wine from my hand, and have all the nations to whom I will send you drink it.


text:
 I took the cup from the hand of the LORD and gave drink to all the nations to which the LORD sent me:


text:
 (Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, her kings and her princes, to make them a ruin and a desert, an object of ridicule and cursing, as they are today;)


text:
 and foreign; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;


text:
 all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other; all the kingdoms upon the face of the earth (and after them the king of Sheshach shall drink).


text:
 Tell them: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink! become drunk and vomit; fall, never to rise, before the sword that I will send among you!


text:
 If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink!


text:
 For since with this city, which is called by my name, I begin to inflict evil, how can you possibly be spared? You shall not be spared! I will call down the sword upon all who inhabit the earth, says the LORD of hosts.


text:
 Prophesy against them all these things and say to them: The LORD roars from on high, from his holy dwelling he raises his voice; Mightily he roars over the range, a shout like that of vintagers over the grapes.


text:
 To all who inhabit the earth to its very ends the uproar spreads; For the LORD has an indictment against the nations, he is to pass judgment upon all mankind: The godless shall be given to the sword, says the LORD.


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Lo! calamity stalks from nation to nation; A great storm is unleashed from the ends of the earth.


text:
 On that day, those whom the LORD has slain will be strewn from one end of the earth to the other. None will mourn them, none will gather them for burial; they shall lie like dung on the field.


text:
 Howl, you shepherds, and wail! roll in the dust, leaders of the flock! The time for your slaughter has come; like choice rams you shall fall.


text:
 Listen! Wailing from the shepherds, howling by the leaders of the flock! For the LORD lays waste their grazing place,


text:
 The lion leaves his lair, and their land is made desolate By the sweeping sword, by the burning wrath of the LORD.


text:
 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this message came from the LORD:


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the house of the LORD and speak to the people of all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the LORD; whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing.


text:
 Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each from his evil way, so that I may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds.


text:
 Say to them: Thus says the LORD: If you disobey me, not living according to the law I placed before you


text:
 and not listening to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send you constantly though you do not obey them,


text:
 I will treat this house like Shiloh, and make this the city which all the nations of the earth shall refer to when cursing another.


text:
 Now the priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD.


text:
 When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD bade him speak to all the people, the priests and prophets laid hold of him, crying, "You must be put to death!


text:
 Why do you prophesy in the name of the LORD: 'This house shall be like Shiloh,' and 'This city shall be desolate and deserted'?" And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.


text:
 When the princes of Judah were informed of these things, they came up from the king's palace to the house of the LORD and held court at the New Gate of the house of the LORD.


text:
 The priests and prophets said to the princes and to all the people, "This man deserves death; he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears."


text:
 Jeremiah gave this answer to the princes and all the people: "It was the LORD who sent me to prophesy against this house and city all that you have heard.


text:
 Now, therefore, reform your ways and your deeds; listen to the voice of the LORD your God, so that the LORD will repent of the evil with which he threatens you.


text:
 But mark well: if you put me to death, it is innocent blood you bring on yourselves, on this city and its citizens. For in truth it was the LORD who sent me to you, to speak all these things for you to hear."


text:
 Thereupon the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man does not deserve death; it is in the name of the LORD, our God, that he speaks to us."


text:
 "Micah of Moresheth used to prophesy in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and he told all the people of Judah: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Zion shall become a plowed field, Jerusalem a heap of ruins, and the temple mount a forest ridge.


text:
 Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah condemn him to death? Did they not rather fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, so that he repented of the evil with which he had threatened them? But we are on the point of committing this great evil to our own undoing."


text:
 There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah, son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-jearim; he prophesied the same things against this city and land as Jeremiah did.


text:
 When King Jehoiakim and all his officers and princes were informed of his words, the king sought to kill him. But Uriah heard of it and fled in fear to Egypt.


text:
 to bring Uriah back to the king, who had him slain by the sword and his corpse cast into the common grave.


text:
 But Ahikam, son of Shaphan, protected Jeremiah, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.


text:
 (In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah,)... this message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:


text:
 Send to the kings of Edom, of Moab, of the Ammonites, of Tyre, and of Sidon, through the ambassadors who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah,


text:
 It was I who made the earth, and man and beast on the face of the earth, by my great power, with my outstretched arm; and I can give them to whomever I think fit.


text:
 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; even the beasts of the field I have given him for his use.


text:
 All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his land, too, shall come. Then it in turn shall serve great nations and mighty kings.


text:
 Meanwhile, if any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, or will not bend its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with sword, famine, and pestilence, says the LORD, until I give them into his hand.


text:
 You, however, must not listen to your prophets, to your diviners and dreamers, to your soothsayers and sorcerers, who say to you, "You need not serve the king of Babylon."


text:
 For they prophesy lies to you, in order to drive you far from your land, to make me banish you so that you will perish.


text:
 The people that submits its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon to serve him I will leave in peace on its own land, says the LORD, to till it and dwell in it.


text:
 To Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke the same words: Submit your necks to the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, so that you may live.


text:
 Why should you and your people die by sword, famine, and pestilence, with which the LORD has threatened the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?


text:
 Do not listen to the words of those prophets who say, "You need not serve the king of Babylon," for they prophesy lies to you.


text:
 I did not send them, says the LORD, but they prophesy falsely in my name, with the result that I must banish you, and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.


text:
 To the priests and to all the people I spoke as follows: Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you: "The vessels of the house of the LORD will be brought back from Babylon soon now," for they prophesy lies to you.


text:
 Do not listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon that you may live; else this city will become a heap of ruins.


text:
 If they were prophets, if the word of the LORD were with them, they would intercede with the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which remain in the house of the LORD and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem might not be taken to Babylon.


text:
 For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, the bronze sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that remain in this city,


text:
 which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take when he exiled Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem--


text:
 yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:


text:
 To Babylon they shall be brought, and there they shall remain, until the day I look for them, says the LORD; then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.


text:
 That same year, in (the beginning of) the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah, son of Azzur, from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people:


text:
 Within two years I will restore to this place all the vessels of the temple of the LORD which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place to Babylon.


text:
 And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,' says the LORD. 'for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.'"


text:
 The prophet Jeremiah answered the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people assembled in the house of the LORD,


text:
 and said: Amen! thus may the LORD do! May he fulfill the things you have prophesied by bringing the vessels of the house of the LORD and all the exiles back from Babylon to this place!


text:
 From of old, the prophets who were before you and me prophesied war, woe, and pestilence against many lands and mighty kingdoms.


text:
 But the prophet who prophesies peace is recognized as truly sent by the LORD only when his prophetic prediction is fulfilled.


text:
 and said in the presence of all the people: "Thus says the LORD: 'Even so, within two years I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from off the neck of all the nations.'" At that, the prophet Jeremiah went away.


text:
 Some time after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:


text:
 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: A yoke of iron I will place on the necks of all these nations serving Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they shall serve him; even the beasts of the field I give him.


text:
 To the prophet Hananiah the prophet Jeremiah said: Hear this, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, and you have raised false confidence in this people.


text:
 For this, says the LORD, I will dispatch you from the face of the earth; this very year you shall die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.


text:
 This is the contents of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, to the priests, the prophets, and all the people who were exiled by Nebuchadnezzar from Jerusalem to Babylon.


text:
 This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the courtiers, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans and the skilled workmen had left Jerusalem.


text:
 Delivered in Babylon by Elasah, son of Shaphan, and by Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Babylon, the letter read:


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon:


text:
 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters. There you must increase in number, not decrease.


text:
 Promote the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you; pray for it to the LORD, for upon its welfare depends your own.


text:
 thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let yourselves be deceived by the prophets and diviners who are among you; do not listen to those among you who dream dreams.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Only after seventy years have elapsed for Babylon will I visit you and fulfill for you my promise to bring you back to this place.


text:
 For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.


text:
 you will find me with you, says the LORD, and I will change your lot; I will gather you together from all the nations and all the places to which I have banished you, says the LORD, and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.


text:
 Thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on David's throne, and all the people who remain in this city, your brethren who did not go with you into exile;


text:
 thus says the LORD of hosts: I am sending against them sword, famine and pestilence. I will make them like rotten figs, too bad to be eaten.


text:
 I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, of malediction, astonishment, ridicule, and reproach to all the nations among which I will banish them.


text:
 For they did not listen to my words, says the LORD, though I kept sending them my servants the prophets, only to have them go unheeded, says the LORD.


text:
 You, now, listen to the word of the LORD, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.


text:
 This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, has to say about those who prophesy lies to you in my name, Ahab, son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah, son of Maaseiah: I am handing them over to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who will slay them before your eyes.


text:
 All the exiles of Judah in Babylon will pattern a curse after them: "May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the flames."


text:
 For they are criminals in Israel, committing adultery with their neighbors' wives, and alleging in my name things I did not command. I know, I am witness, says the LORD.


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you sent letters on your own authority to all the people of Jerusalem, to all the priests and to Zephaniah, the priest, son of Maaseiah, with this message:


text:
 "The LORD has appointed you priest in place of the priest Jehoiada, so that there may be police officers in the house of the LORD, to take action against all madmen and those who pose as prophets, by putting them into the stocks or the pillory.


text:
 For he sent us in Babylon this message: It will be a long time; build houses to live in; plant gardens and eat their fruits...."


text:
 Send the message to all the exiles: Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah, the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah prophesies to you without a mission from me, and raises false confidence,


text:
 says the LORD, I will therefore punish Shemaiah, the Nehelamite, and his offspring. None of them shall survive among this people to see the good I will do to this people, says the LORD, because he preached rebellion against the LORD.


text:
 For behold, the days will come, says the LORD, when I will change the lot of my people (of Israel and Judah, says the LORD), and bring them back to the land which I gave to their fathers; they shall have it as their possession.


text:
 Inquire, and see: since when do men bear children? Why, then, do I see all these men, with their hands on their loins like women in childbirth? Why have all their faces turned deathly pale?


text:
 How mighty is that day-- none like it! A time of distress for Jacob, though he shall be saved from it.


text:
 On that day, says the LORD of hosts, "I will break his yoke from off your necks and snap your bonds." Strangers shall no longer enslave them;


text:
 instead, they shall serve the LORD, their God, and David, their king, whom I will raise up for them.


text:
 But you, my servant Jacob, fear not, says the LORD, be not dismayed, O Israel! Behold, I will deliver you from the far-off land, your descendants, from their land of exile; Jacob shall again find rest, shall be tranquil and undisturbed,


text:
 for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you. I will make an end of all the nations among which I have scattered you; but of you I will not make an end. I will chastise you as you deserve, I will not let you go unpunished.


text:
 All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you. I struck you as an enemy would strike, punished you cruelly;


text:
 Why cry out over your wound? your pain is without relief. Because of your great guilt, your numerous sins, I have done this to you.


text:
 Yet all who devour you shall be devoured, all your enemies shall go into exile. All who plunder you shall be plundered, all who pillage you I will hand over to pillage.


text:
 For I will restore you to health; of your wounds I will heal you, says the LORD. "The outcast" they have called you, "with no avenger."


text:
 Thus says the LORD: See! I will restore the tents of Jacob, his dwellings I will pity; City shall be rebuilt upon hill, and palace restored as it was.


text:
 From them will resound songs of praise, the laughter of happy men. I will make them not few, but many; they will not be tiny, for I will glorify them.


text:
 His sons shall be as of old, his assembly before me shall stand firm; I will punish all his oppressors.


text:
 His leader shall be one of his own, and his rulers shall come from his kin. When I summon him, he shall approach me; how else should one take the deadly risk of approaching me? says the LORD.


text:
 The anger of the LORD will not abate until he has done and fulfilled what he has determined in his heart. When the time comes, you will fully understand.


text:
 At that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they shall be my people.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: The people that escaped the sword have found favor in the desert. As Israel comes forward to be given his rest,


text:
 the LORD appears to him from afar: With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you.


text:
 Again I will restore you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin Israel; Carrying your festive tambourines, you shall go forth dancing with the merrymakers.


text:
 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; those who plant them shall enjoy the fruits.


text:
 Yes, a day will come when the watchmen will call out on Mount Ephraim: "Rise up, let us go to Zion, to the LORD, our God."


text:
 For thus says the LORD: Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: The LORD has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.


text:
 Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, The mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng.


text:
 They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.


text:
 Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, proclaim it on distant coasts, and say: He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together, he guards them as a shepherd his flock.


text:
 Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming to the LORD'S blessings: The grain, the wine, and the oil, the sheep and the oxen; They themselves shall be like watered gardens, never again shall they languish.


text:
 Then the virgins shall make merry and dance, and young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.


text:
 I will lavish choice portions upon the priests, and my people shall be filled with my blessings, says the LORD.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning, of bitter weeping! Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to be consoled because her children are no more.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward, says the LORD, they shall return from the enemy's land.


text:
 I hear, I hear Ephraim pleading: You chastised me, and I am chastened; I was an untamed calf. If you allow me, I will return, for you are the LORD, my God.


text:
 I turn in repentance; I have come to myself, I strike my breast; I blush with shame, I bear the disgrace of my youth.


text:
 Is Ephraim not my favored son, the child in whom I delight? Often as I threaten him, I still remember him with favor; My heart stirs for him, I must show him mercy, says the LORD.


text:
 Set up road markers, put up guideposts; Turn your attention to the highway, the road by which you went. Turn back, O virgin Israel, turn back to these your cities.


text:
 How long will you continue to stray, rebellious daughter? The LORD has created a new thing upon the earth: the woman must encompass the man with devotion.


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: When I change their lot in the land of Judah and her cities, they shall again repeat this greeting: "May the LORD bless you, holy mountain, abode of justice!"


text:
 The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will seed the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.


text:
 As I once watched over them to uproot and pull down, to destroy, to ruin, and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.


text:
 In those days they shall no longer say, "The fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge,"


text:
 but through his own fault only shall anyone die: the teeth of him who eats the unripe grapes shall be set on edge.


text:
 The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.


text:
 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.


text:
 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.


text:
 No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.


text:
 Thus says the LORD, He who gives the sun to light the day, moon and stars to light the night; Who stirs up the sea till its waves roar, whose name is LORD of hosts:


text:
 If ever these natural laws give way in spite of me, says the LORD, Then shall the race of Israel cease as a nation before me forever.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: If the heavens on high can be measured, or the foundations below the earth be sounded, Then will I cast off the whole race of Israel because of all they have done, says the LORD.


text:
 The days are coming, says the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt as the LORD'S, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.


text:
 The whole valley of corpses and ashes, all the slopes toward the Kidron Valley, as far as the corner of the Horse Gate at the east, shall be holy to the LORD. Never again shall the city be rooted up or thrown down.


text:
 This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.


text:
 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the quarters of the guard, at the king's palace.


text:
 Zedekiah, king of Judah, had imprisoned him there, remonstrating: "How dare you prophesy: Thus says the LORD: I am handing over this city to the king of Babylon, who will capture it.


text:
 Neither shall Zedekiah, king of Judah, escape the hands of the Chaldeans; rather shall he be handed over to the king of Babylon. They shall meet and speak face to face,


text:
 and Zedekiah shall be taken to Babylon. There he shall remain, until I attend to him, says the LORD; in fighting the Chaldeans, you cannot win!"


text:
 Hanamel, son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you with the offer: "Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, since you, as nearest relative, have the first right of purchase."


text:
 Then, as the LORD foretold, Hanamel, my uncle's son, came to me to the quarters of the guard and said, "Please buy my field in Anathoth, in the district of Benjamin; as nearest relative, you have the first claim to possess it; make it yours." I knew this was what the LORD meant,


text:
 so I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, paying him the money, seventeen silver shekels.


text:
 I accepted the deed of purchase, both the sealed copy, containing title and conditions, and the open one.


text:
 This deed of purchase I gave to Baruch, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed, and before all the men of Judah who happened to be in the quarters of the guard.


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both the sealed and the open deed of purchase, and put them in an earthen jar, so that they can be kept there a long time.


text:
 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.


text:
 Ah, Lord GOD, you have made heaven and earth by your great might, with your outstretched arm; nothing is impossible to you.


text:
 You continue your kindness through a thousand generations; and you repay the fathers' guilt, even into the lap of their sons who follow them. O God, great and mighty, whose name is LORD of hosts,


text:
 great in counsel, mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of men, giving to each according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds:


text:
 you have wrought signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and to this day, both in Israel and among all other men, until now you have gained renown.


text:
 With strong hand and outstretched arm you brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt amid signs and wonders and great terror.


text:
 This land you gave them, as you had promised their fathers under oath, a land flowing with milk and honey.


text:
 They entered and took possession of it, but they did not listen to your voice; by your law they did not live, and what you commanded they failed to do. Hence you let all these evils befall them.


text:
 See, the siegeworks have arrived at this city to breach it; the city will be handed over to the Chaldeans who are attacking it, amid sword, famine, and pestilence. What you threatened has happened, you see it yourself;


text:
 and yet you tell me, O Lord GOD: Buy the field with money, call in witnesses. But the city has already been handed over to the Chaldeans!


text:
 This now is what the LORD says: I will hand over this city to the Chaldeans, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to take.


text:
 The Chaldeans who are attacking it shall enter this city and set fire to it, burning it and its houses, on the roofs of which incense was burned to Baal and libations were poured out to strange gods as a provocation to me.


text:
 The Israelites and the Judeans from their youth have done only what is evil in my eyes; the Israelites did nothing but provoke me with the works of their hands, says the LORD.


text:
 so that I must put it out of my sight for all the wickedness the Israelites and Judeans, with their kings and their princes, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, have done to provoke me.


text:
 They turned their backs to me, not their faces; though I kept teaching them, they would not listen to my correction.


text:
 They built high places to Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and immolated their sons and daughters to Molech, bringing sin upon Judah; this I never commanded them, nor did it even enter my mind that they should practice such abominations.


text:
 Now, therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, which as you say is handed over to the king of Babylon amid sword, famine, and pestilence:


text:
 Behold, I will gather them together from all the lands to which in anger, wrath, and great rage I banish them; I will bring them back to this place and settle them here in safety.


text:
 One heart and one way I will give them, that they may fear me always, to their own good and that of their children after them.


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 I will make with them an eternal covenant, never to cease doing good to them; into their hearts I will put the fear of me, that they may never depart from me.


text:
 I will take delight in doing good to them: I will replant them firmly in this land, with all my heart and soul.


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 For thus says the LORD: Just as I brought upon this people all this great evil, so I will bring upon them all the good I promise them.


text:
 Fields shall again be bought in this land, which you call a desert, without man or beast, handed over to the Chaldeans.


text:
 Fields shall be bought with money, deeds written and sealed, and witnesses shall be used in the land of Benjamin, in the suburbs of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah and of the hill country, in the cities of the foothills and of the Negeb, when I change their lot, says the LORD.


text:
 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still imprisoned in the quarters of the guard:


text:
 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah's kings, which are being destroyed in the face of siegeworks and the sword:


text:
 men come to battle the Chaldeans, and these houses will be filled with the corpses of those whom I slay in my anger and wrath, when I hide my face from this city for all their wickedness.


text:
 Behold, I will treat and assuage the city's wounds; I will heal them, and reveal to them an abundance of lasting peace.


text:
 I will cleanse them of all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me; all their offenses by which they sinned and rebelled against me, I will forgive.


text:
 Then Jerusalem shall be my joy, my praise, my glory, before all the nations of the earth, as they hear of all the good I will do among them. They shall be in fear and trembling over all the peaceful benefits I will give her.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, "How desolate it is, without man, without beast!" and in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are now deserted, without man, without citizen, without beast, there shall yet be heard


text:
 the cry of joy, the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the sound of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, singing, "Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good; his mercy endures forever." For I will restore this country as of old, says the LORD.


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: In this place, now desolate, without man or beast, and in all its cities there shall again be sheepfolds for the shepherds to couch their flocks.


text:
 In the cities of the hill country, of the foothills, and of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin and the suburbs of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD.


text:
 The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.


text:
 In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot; he shall do what is right and just in the land.


text:
 In those days Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure; this is what they shall call her: "The LORD our justice."


text:
 nor shall priests of Levi ever be lacking, to offer holocausts before me, to burn cereal offerings, and to sacrifice victims.This word of the LORD also came to Jeremiah:


text:
 If you can break my covenant with day, and my covenant with night, so that day and night no longer alternate in sequence,


text:
 then can my covenant with my servant David also be broken, so that he will not have a son to be king upon his throne, and my covenant with the priests of Levi who minister to me.


text:
 Like the host of heaven which cannot be numbered, and the sands of the sea which cannot be counted, I will multiply the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.


text:
 Have you not noticed what these people are saying: "The LORD has rejected the two tribes which he had chosen"? They spurn my people as if it were no longer a nation in their eyes.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: When I have no covenant with day and night, and have given no laws to heaven and earth,


text:
 then too will I reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers for the race of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will change their lot and show them mercy.


text:
 This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his armies and the earth's kingdoms subject to him, as well as the other peoples, were all attacking Jerusalem and all her cities:


text:
 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: Thus says the LORD: I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon; he will destroy it with fire.


text:
 Neither shall you escape his hand; rather you will be captured and fall into his hands. You shall see the king of Babylon and speak to him face to face. Then you shall be taken to Babylon.


text:
 But if you obey the word of the LORD, Zedekiah, king of Judah, then, says the LORD to you, you shall not die by the sword.


text:
 You shall die in peace, and they will lament you as their lord, and burn spices for your burial as they did for your fathers, the kings who preceded you from the first; it is I who make this promise, says the LORD.


text:
 while the armies of the king of Babylon were attacking Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish, and Azekah, since these alone were left of the fortified cities of Judah.


text:
 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people in Jerusalem to issue an edict of emancipation.


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 Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold a man of Judah, his brother, in slavery.


text:
 All the princes and the others who entered the agreement consented to set free their male and female servants, so that they should be slaves no longer. But though they agreed and freed them,


text:
 afterward they took back their male and female slaves whom they had set free and again forced them into service.


text:
 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: The day I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the place where they were slaves, I made this covenant with them:


text:
 Every seventh year each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you; six years he shall serve you, but then you shall let him go free. Your fathers, however, did not heed me or obey me.


text:
 Today you indeed repented and did what is right in my eyes by proclaiming the emancipation of your brethren and making an agreement before me in the house that is named after me.


text:
 But then you changed your mind and profaned my name by taking back your male and female slaves to whom you had given their freedom; you forced them once more into slavery.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD: You did not obey me by proclaiming your neighbors and kinsmen free. I now proclaim you free, says the LORD, for the sword, famine, and pestilence. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.


text:
 The men who violated my covenant and did not observe the terms of the agreement which they made before me, I will make like the calf which they cut in two, between whose two parts they passed.


text:
 The princes of Judah and of Jerusalem, the courtiers, the priests, and the common people, who passed between the parts of the calf,


text:
 I will hand over, all of them, to their enemies, to those who seek their lives: their corpses shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.


text:
 Zedekiah, too, king of Judah, and his princes, I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives, to the soldiers of the king of Babylon who have at present withdrawn from you.


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 I will give the command, says the LORD, and bring them back to this city. They shall attack and capture it, and destroy it with fire; the cities of Judah I will turn into a desert where no man dwells.


text:
 Approach the Rechabites and speak to them; bring them into the house of the LORD, to one of the rooms, and give them wine to drink.


text:
 So I went and brought Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, his brothers and all his sons, the whole company of the Rechabites,


text:
 into the house of the LORD, to the room of the sons of Hanan, son of Igdaliah, the man of God, next to the princes' room, above the room of Maaseiah, son of Shallum, keeper of the doorway.


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 "We do not drink wine," they said to me: "Jonadab, Rechab's son, our father, forbade us in these words: 'Neither you nor your children shall ever drink wine.


text:
 Build no house and sow no seed; neither plant nor own a vineyard. You shall dwell in tents all your life, so that you may live long on the earth where you are wayfarers.'


text:
 Now we have heeded Jonadab, Rechab's son, our father, in all his prohibitions. All our lives we have not drunk wine, neither we, nor our wives, nor our sons, nor our daughters.


text:
 But when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded this land, we decided to come into Jerusalem to escape the army of the Chaldeans and the army of Aram; that is why we are now living in Jerusalem."


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, say to the men of Judah and to the citizens of Jerusalem: Will you not take correction and obey my words? says the LORD.


text:
 The advice of Jonadab, Rechab's son, by which he forbade his children to drink wine, has been followed: to this day they have not drunk it; they obeyed their father's command. Me, however, you have not obeyed, although I spoke to you untiringly and insistently.


text:
 I kept sending you all my servants the prophets, telling you to turn back, all of you, from your evil way; to reform your conduct, and not follow strange gods or serve them, if you would remain on the land which I gave you and your fathers; but you did not heed me or obey me.


text:
 Yes, the children of Jonadab, Rechab's son, observed the command which their father laid on them; but this people does not obey me!


text:
 Now, therefore, says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: I will bring upon Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem every evil that I threatened; because when I spoke they did not obey, when I called they did not answer.


text:
 But to the company of the Rechabites Jeremiah said: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Since you have obeyed the command of Jonadab, your father, kept all his commands and done everything he commanded you,


text:
 thus therefore says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Never shall there fail to be a descendant of Jonadab, Rechab's son, standing in my service.


text:
 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:


text:
 Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, in the days of Josiah, until today.


text:
 Perhaps, when the house of Judah hears all the evil I have in mind to do to them, they will turn back each from his evil way, so that I may forgive their wickedness and their sin.


text:
 So Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah, who wrote down on a scroll, as Jeremiah dictated, all the words which the LORD had spoken to him.


text:
 Do you go on the fast day and read publicly in the LORD'S house the LORD'S words from the scroll you wrote at my dictation; read them also to all the men of Judah who come up from their cities.


text:
 Perhaps they will lay their supplication before the LORD and will all turn back from their evil way; for great is the fury of anger with which the LORD has threatened this people.


text:
 Baruch, son of Neriah, did everything the prophet Jeremiah commanded; from the book-scroll he read the LORD'S words in the LORD'S house.


text:
 In the ninth month, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, a fast to placate the LORD was proclaimed for all the people of Jerusalem and all who came from Judah's cities to Jerusalem.


text:
 It was in the room of Gemariah, son of the scribe Shaphan, in the upper court of the LORD'S house, at the entrance of the New Temple-Gate, that Baruch publicly read the words of Jeremiah from his book.


text:
 So he went down to the king's palace, into the scribe's chamber, where the princes were just then in session: Elishama, the scribe, Delaiah, son of Shemaiah, Elnathan, son of Achbor, Gemariah, son of Shaphan, Zedekiah, son of Hananiah, and the other princes.


text:
 Thereupon the princes sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch with the order: "Come, and bring with you the scroll you read publicly to the people." Scroll in hand, Baruch, son of Neriah, went to them.


text:
 and when they heard all its words, they were frightened and said to one another, "We must certainly tell the king all these things."


text:
 "Jeremiah dictated all these words to me," Baruch answered them, "and I wrote them down with ink in the book."


text:
 At this the princes said to Baruch, "Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah; let no one know where you are."


text:
 Leaving the scroll in safekeeping in the room of Elishama the scribe, they entered the room where the king was. When they told him everything that had happened,


text:
 he sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll. Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the scribe, and read it to the king and to all the princes who were in attendance on the king.


text:
 Now the king was sitting in his winter house, since it was the ninth month, and fire was burning in a brazier before him.


text:
 Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king would cut off the piece with a scribe's knife and cast it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire roll was consumed in the fire.


text:
 Hearing all these words did not frighten the king and his ministers or cause them to rend their garments.


text:
 And though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them,


text:
 but commanded Jerahmeel, a royal prince, and Seraiah, son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch, the secretary, and the prophet Jeremiah. But the LORD kept them concealed.


text:
 This word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after the king burned the scroll with the text Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch:


text:
 Take another scroll, and write on it everything that the first scroll contained, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned up.


text:
 And against Jehoiakim, king of Judah, say this: Thus says the LORD: You burned that scroll, saying, "Why did you write on it: Babylon's king shall surely come and lay waste this land and empty it of man and beast?"


text:
 The LORD now says of Jehoiakim, king of Judah: No descendant of his shall succeed to David's throne; his corpse shall be cast out, exposed to the heat of day, to the cold of night.


text:
 I will punish him and his descendants and his ministers for their wickedness; against them and the citizens of Jerusalem and the men of Judah I will fulfill all the threats of evil which went unheeded.


text:
 Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to his secretary, Baruch, son of Neriah; he wrote on it at Jeremiah's dictation all the words contained in the book which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire, and many others of the same kind in addition.


text:
 Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, was succeeded by King Zedekiah, son of Josiah; he was made king over the land of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.


text:
 Neither he, nor his ministers, nor the people of the land would listen to the words of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah the prophet.


text:
 Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal, son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah with this request: "Pray to the LORD, our God, for us."


text:
 At this time Jeremiah had not yet been put into prison; he still came and went freely among the people.


text:
 Also, Pharaoh's army had set out from Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard this report they marched away from the city.


text:
 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Give this answer to the king of Judah who sent you to me to consult me: Pharaoh's army which has set out to help you will return to its own land, Egypt.


text:
 The Chaldeans shall return to the fight against this city; they shall capture it and destroy it with fire.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Do not deceive yourselves with the thought that the Chaldeans will leave you for good, because they shall not leave!


text:
 Even if you were to defeat the whole Chaldean army now attacking you, and only the wounded remained, each in his tent, these would rise up and destroy the city with fire.


text:
 Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem for the district of Benjamin, to take part with his family in the division of an inheritance.


text:
 But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, he met the captain of the guard, a man named Irijah, son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah; he seized the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "You are deserting to the Chaldeans!"


text:
 "That is a lie!" Jeremiah answered, "I am not deserting to the Chaldeans." Without listening, Irijah kept Jeremiah in custody and brought him to the princes.


text:
 The princes were enraged, and had Jeremiah beaten and thrown into prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they were using as a jail.


text:
 Once King Zedekiah had him brought to his palace and he asked him secretly whether there was any message from the LORD. Yes! Jeremiah answered: you shall be handed over to the king of Babylon.


text:
 Jeremiah then asked King Zedekiah: In what have I wronged you, or your ministers, or this people, that you should put me in prison?


text:
 who prophesied to you that the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land? Hear now, my lord king, and grant my petition: do not send me back into the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I shall die there.


text:
 King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be confined in the quarters of the guard, and given a loaf of bread each day from the bakers' shop until all the bread in the city was eaten up. Thus Jeremiah remained in the quarters of the guard.


text:
 Shephatiah, son of Mattan, Gedaliah, son of Pashhur, Jucal, son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur, son of Malchiah, heard Jeremiah speaking these words to all the people:


text:
 Thus says the LORD: He who remains in this city shall die by sword, or famine, or pestilence; but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live; his life shall be spared him as booty, and he shall live.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: This city shall certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon; he shall capture it.


text:
 "This man ought to be put to death," the princes said to the king; "he demoralizes the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such things to them; he is not interested in the welfare of our people, but in their ruin."


text:
 And so they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah, which was in the quarters of the guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.


text:
 Now Ebed-melech, a Cushite, a courtier in the king's palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. The king happened just then to be at the Gate of Benjamin,


text:
 "My lord king, these men have been at fault in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah, casting him into the cistern. He will die of famine on the spot, for there is no more food in the city."


text:
 Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Cushite to take three men along with him, and draw the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he should die.


text:
 Ebed-melech took the men along with him, and went first to the linen closet in the palace, from which he took some old, tattered rags; these he sent down to Jeremiah in the cistern, with ropes.


text:
 Then he said to Jeremiah, "Put the old, tattered rags between your armpits and the ropes." Jeremiah did so,


text:
 and they drew him up with the ropes out of the cistern. But Jeremiah remained in the quarters of the guard.


text:
 Once King Zedekiah summoned the prophet Jeremiah to come to him at the third entrance to the house of the LORD. "I have a question to ask you," the king said to Jeremiah; "hide nothing from me." Jeremiah answered Zedekiah:


text:
 If I tell you anything, you will have me killed, will you not? If I counsel you, you will not listen to me!


text:
 But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah secretly: "As the LORD lives who gave us the breath of life, I will not kill you; nor will I hand you over to these men who seek your life."


text:
 Thereupon Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: Thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you surrender to the princes of Babylon's king, you shall save your life; this city shall not be destroyed with fire, and you and your family shall live.


text:
 But if you do not surrender to the princes of Babylon's king, this city shall fall into the hands of the Chaldeans, who shall destroy it with fire, and you shall not escape their hands.


text:
 King Zedekiah, however, said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the men of Judah who have deserted to the Chaldeans; I may be handed over to them, and they will mistreat me."


text:
 You will not be handed over, Jeremiah answered. Please obey the voice of the LORD and do as I tell you; then it shall go well with you, and your life will be spared.


text:
 All the women left in the house of Judah's king shall be brought out to the princes of Babylon's king, and they shall taunt you thus: "They betrayed you, outdid you, your good friends! Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they slink away."


text:
 All your wives and sons shall be led forth to the Chaldeans, and you shall not escape their hands; you shall be handed over to the king of Babylon, and this city shall be destroyed with fire.


text:
 If the princes hear I spoke to you, if they come and ask you, 'Tell us what you said to the king; do not hide it from us, or we will kill you,' or, 'What did the king say to you?'


text:
 give them this answer: 'I petitioned the king not to send me back to Jonathan's house to die there.'"


text:
 When all the princes came to Jeremiah, they questioned him, and he answered them in the very words the king had commanded. They said no more to him, for nothing had been heard of the earlier conversation.


text:
 Thus Jeremiah stayed in the quarters of the guard till the day Jerusalem was taken.When Jerusalem was taken....


text:
 In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army marched against Jerusalem and besieged it.


text:
 On the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, a breach was made in the city's defenses.


text:
 All the princes of the king of Babylon came and occupied the middle gate: Nergal-sharezer, of Simmagir, the chief officer, Nebushazban, the high dignitary, and all the other princes of the king of Babylon....


text:
 When Zedekiah, king of Judah, saw them, he and all his warriors fled by night, leaving the city on the Royal Garden Road through the gate between the two walls. He went in the direction of the Arabah,


text:
 but the Chaldean army pursued them, and overtook and captured Zedekiah in the desert near Jericho. He was brought to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, where Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, pronounced sentence upon him.


text:
 As Zedekiah looked on, his sons were slain at Riblah by order of the king of Babylon, who slew also all the nobles of Judah.


text:
 The Chaldeans set fire to the king's palace and the houses of the people, and demolished the walls of Jerusalem.


text:
 Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, deported to Babylon the rest of the people left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the workmen.


text:
 But some of the poor who had no property were left in the land of Judah by Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, and were given at the same time vineyards and farms.


text:
 Concerning Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gave the following orders through Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard:


text:
 Thereupon Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, and Nebushazban, the high dignitary, and Nergal-sharezer, the chief officer, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon,


text:
 had Jeremiah taken out of the quarters of the guard, and entrusted to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to be brought home. And so he remained among the people.


text:
 While Jeremiah was still imprisoned in the quarters of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him:


text:
 Go, tell this to Ebed-melech the Cushite: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am now fulfilling the words I spoke against this city, for evil and not for good; and this before your very eyes.


text:
 But on that day I will rescue you, says the LORD; you shall not be handed over to the men of whom you are afraid.


text:
 I will make certain that you escape and do not fall by the sword. Your life shall be spared as booty, because you trusted in me, says the LORD.


text:
 This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had released him in Ramah, where he had found him a prisoner in chains, among the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon.


text:
 When the captain of the bodyguard took charge of Jeremiah, he said to him, "The LORD, your God, foretold the ruin of this place.


text:
 Now he has brought about in deed what he threatened; because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey his voice, this fate has befallen you.


text:
 And now, I am freeing you today from the fetters that bind your hands; if it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, you may come: I will look after you well. But if it does not please you to come to Babylon, you need not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think good and proper";


text:
 and then, before he left-- "or go to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed ruler over the cities of Judah; stay with him among the people, or go wherever you please." The captain of the bodyguard gave him food and gifts and let him go.


text:
 Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, in Mizpah, and stayed with him among the people left in the land.


text:
 When the army leaders who were still in the field with all their men heard that the king of Babylon had given Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, charge of the land, of men, women, and children, and of those poor who had not been led captive to Babylon,


text:
 they came with their men to Gedaliah in Mizpah: Ishmael, son of Nethaniah; Johanan, son of Kareah; Seraiah, son of Tanhumeth; the sons of Ephai of Netophah; and Jezaniah of Beth-maacah.


text:
 Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, adjured them and their men not to be afraid to serve the Chaldeans: to stay in the land and submit to the king of Babylon, for their own welfare;


text:
 saying that he himself would remain in Mizpah, as their intermediary with the Chaldeans who should come to them. They were to collect the wine, the fruit, and the oil, to store them in jars, and to settle in the cities they occupied.


text:
 When the people of Judah in Moab, those among the Ammonites, those in Edom, and those in all other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah, and had appointed over them Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan,


text:
 they all returned to the land of Judah from the places to which they had scattered. They went to Gedaliah at Mizpah and had a rich harvest of wine and fruit.


text:
 Now Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the armies in the field came to Gedaliah in Mizpah


text:
 and asked him whether he did not know that Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, had sent Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, to assassinate him.


text:
 But Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, would not believe them. Then Johanan, son of Kareah, said secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah: "Let me go and kill Ishmael, son of Nethaniah; no one will know it. Why should he be allowed to kill you? All the Jews who have now rallied to you will be dispersed and the remnant of Judah will perish."


text:
 Nevertheless, Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, answered Johanan, son of Kareah, "You shall do nothing of the kind; you have lied about Ishmael."


text:
 In the seventh month Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of royal descent, one of the king's nobles, came with ten men to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And while they were together at table in Mizpah,


text:
 Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and the ten who were with him, rose up and attacked with swords Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made ruler over the land; and they killed him.


text:
 Ishmael also slew all the men of Judah of military age who were with Gedaliah and the Chaldean soldiers who were there.


text:
 eighty men with beards shaved off, clothes in rags, and with gashes on their bodies came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, bringing food offerings and incense for the house of the LORD.


text:
 "Come to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam," he said as he met them. When they were once inside the city, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and his men slew them and threw them into the cistern.


text:
 But there were ten among them who pleaded with Ishmael: "Do not kill us; we have stores buried in the field: wheat and barley, oil and honey." And so he spared them and did not kill them, as he had killed their companions.


text:
 The cistern into which Ishmael threw all the corpses of the men he had killed was the large one made by King Asa to defend himself against Baasha, king of Israel; this cistern Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, filled with the slain.


text:
 Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, led away the remnant of the people left in Mizpah and the princesses, whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had confided to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam. With these captives, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, set out to make his way to the Ammonites.


text:
 But when Johanan, son of Kareah, and the other army leaders with him heard of the crimes Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had committed,


text:
 they took all their men and set out to attack Ishmael, son of Nethaniah. They overtook him at the Great Waters in Gibeon.


text:
 At the sight of Johanan, son of Kareah, and the other army leaders, the people who were Ishmael's captives rejoiced.


text:
 Then Johanan, son of Kareah, and all his army leaders took charge of the remnant of the people, both the soldiers and the women and children with their guardians, whom Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had brought away from Mizpah after he killed Gedaliah, son of Ahikim. From Gibeon,


text:
 they retreated to the lodging place of Chimham near Bethlehem, where they stopped, intending to flee into Egypt.


text:
 They were afraid of the Chaldeans, because Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had slain Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made ruler in the land of Judah.


text:
 Then all the army leaders, Johanan, son of Kareah, Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, high and low, approached the prophet Jeremiah


text:
 and said, "Grant our petition; pray for us to the LORD, your God, for all this remnant. We are now few who once were many, as you well see.


text:
 Very well! the prophet Jeremiah answered them: I will pray to the LORD, your God, as you desire; whatever the LORD answers you, I will tell you; I will withhold nothing from you.


text:
 And they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be our witness: we will truly and faithfully follow all the instructions the LORD, your God, will send us.


text:
 Whether it is pleasant or difficult, we will obey the command of the LORD, our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us for obeying the command of the LORD, our God."


text:
 If you remain quietly in this land I will build you up, and not tear you down; I will plant you, not uproot you; for I regret the evil I have done you.


text:
 Do not fear the king of Babylon, before whom you are now afraid; do not fear him, says the LORD, for I am with you to save you, to rescue you from his power.


text:
 saying, "No, we will go to Egypt, where we will see no more of war, hear the trumpet alarm no longer, nor hunger for bread; there we will live";


text:
 then listen to the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to go to Egypt, when you arrive there to stay,


text:
 the sword you fear shall reach you in the land of Egypt; the hunger you dread shall cling to you no less in Egypt, and there you shall die.


text:
 All those men who determine to go to Egypt to stay, shall die by the sword, famine, and pestilence; not one shall survive or escape the evil that I will bring upon them.


text:
 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my furious anger was poured out upon the citizens of Jerusalem, so shall my anger be poured out on you when you reach Egypt. You shall become an example of malediction and horror, a curse and a reproach, and you shall never see this place again.


text:
 It is the LORD who has spoken to you, remnant of Judah; do not go to Egypt! You can never say that I did not warn you this day.


text:
 At the cost of your lives you have deceived me, sending me to the LORD, your God, saying, "Pray for us to the LORD, our God; make known to us all that the LORD, our God, shall say, and we will do it."


text:
 Today I proclaim his message, but you obey the voice of the LORD, your God, in nothing that he has commissioned me to make known to you.


text:
 Have no doubt of this, you shall die by the sword, famine, and pestilence in the place where you wish to go and settle.


text:
 When Jeremiah finished speaking to the people all these words of the LORD, their God, with which the LORD had sent him to them,


text:
 Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the insolent men shouted to Jeremiah: "You lie; it was not the LORD, our God, who sent you to tell us not to go to Egypt to settle.


text:
 It is Baruch, son of Neriah, who stirs you up against us, to hand us over to the Chaldeans to be killed or exiled to Babylon."


text:
 Johanan, son of Kareah, and the rest of the leaders and the people did not obey the LORD'S command to stay in the land of Judah.


text:
 Instead, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the army leaders took along the whole remnant of Judah that had been dispersed among the nations and had returned thence to dwell again in the land of Judah:


text:
 men, women, and children, the princesses and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had entrusted to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah, the prophet, and Baruch, son of Neriah.


text:
 Take with you large stones and sink them in mortar in the brickyard at the entrance to the royal building in Tahpanhes, while the men of Judah look on,


text:
 and then say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bring him here. He will set his throne upon these stones which I, Jeremiah, have sunk, and stretch his canopy over them.


text:
 He shall come and strike the land of Egypt: with death, whoever is marked for death; with exile, everyone destined for exile; with the sword, all who are intended for the sword.


text:
 He shall set fire to the temples of Egypt's gods, and burn the gods or carry them off. As a shepherd delouses his cloak, he shall delouse the land of Egypt and depart victorious.


text:
 He shall smash the obelisks of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt and destroy with fire the temples of the Egyptian gods.


text:
 This word came to Jeremiah for all the people of Judah who were living in Egypt, at Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in Upper Egypt:


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil I brought on Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah. Today they are ruins and uninhabited,


text:
 because of the evil they did to provoke me, going after strange gods, serving them and sacrificing to them, gods which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew.


text:
 Though I kept sending to you all my servants the prophets, with the plea not to commit this horrible deed which I hate,


text:
 they would not listen or accept the warning to turn away from the evil of sacrificing to strange gods.


text:
 Therefore the fury of my anger poured forth in flame over the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, so that they became the ruinous waste they are today.


text:
 Now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you inflict so great an evil upon yourselves? Will you root out from Judah man and wife, child and nursling, and not leave yourselves even a remnant?


text:
 Will you go on provoking me by the works of your hands, by sacrificing to strange gods here in the land of Egypt where you have come to live? Will you be rooted out and become a curse and a disgrace among all the nations of the earth?


text:
 Have you forgotten the evil deeds which your fathers, and the kings of Judah and their wives, and you yourselves and your wives have done in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?


text:
 To this day they have not been crushed; they do not fear or follow the law and the statutes which I set before you and your fathers.


text:
 Hence, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have determined evil against you; and I will uproot all Judah.


text:
 I will take away the remnant of Judah who insisted on coming to dwell in Egypt, so that they shall be wholly destroyed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall by the sword or be consumed by hunger. High and low, they shall die by the sword, or by hunger, and become an example of malediction, a horror, a curse and a reproach.


text:
 Thus will I punish those who live in Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem with sword, hunger, and pestilence. None of the remnant of Judah that have come to settle in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive.


text:
 None shall return to the land of Judah, though they yearn to return and live there. Only scattered refugees shall return.


text:
 From all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to strange gods, from all the women who were present in the immense crowd, and from all the people who lived in Lower and Upper Egypt, Jeremiah received this answer:


text:
 Rather will we continue doing what we had proposed; we will burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, as we and our fathers, our kings and princes have done in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had enough food to eat and we were well off; we suffered no misfortune.


text:
 But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we are in need of everything and are being destroyed by the sword and by hunger.


text:
 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out libations to her, was it without our husbands' consent that we baked for her cakes in her image and poured out libations to her?"


text:
 Was it not this that the LORD remembered and brought to mind, that you burned incense in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: you, your fathers, your kings and princes, and the people generally?


text:
 The LORD could no longer bear your evil deeds, the horrible things which you were doing; and so your land became a waste, a desert, a thing accursed and without inhabitants, as it is today.


text:
 Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD, not obeying the voice of the LORD, not living by his law, his statutes, and his decrees, this evil has befallen you at the present day.


text:
 Jeremiah said further to all the people, including the women: Hear the word of the LORD, all you Judeans in the land of Egypt:


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have stated your intentions, and kept them in fact: "We will continue to fulfill the vows we have made to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her." Very well! keep your vows, carry out your resolutions!


text:
 But listen then to the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who live in Egypt; I swear by my own great name, says the LORD, in the whole land of Egypt no man of Judah shall henceforth pronounce my name, saying, "As the Lord GOD lives."


text:
 I am watching over them to do evil, not good. All the men of Judah in Egypt shall perish by the sword or famine until they are utterly destroyed.


text:
 Those who escape the sword to return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah shall be few in number. The whole remnant of Judah who came to settle in Egypt shall know whose word stands, mine or theirs.


text:
 That you may know how surely my threats of punishment for you shall be fulfilled, this shall be a sign to you, says the LORD, that I will punish you in this place.


text:
 Thus says the LORD: See! I will hand over Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, to his enemies, to those who seek his life, just as I handed over Zedekiah, king of Judah, to his enemy and mortal foe, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.


text:
 This is the message that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Baruch, son of Neriah, when he wrote in a book the prophecies that Jeremiah dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:


text:
 because you said, "Alas! the LORD adds grief to my pain; I am weary from groaning, and can find no rest":


text:
 say this to him, says the LORD: What I have built, I am tearing down; what I have planted, I am uprooting: even the whole land.


text:
 And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not! I am bringing evil on all mankind, says the LORD, but your life I will leave you as booty, wherever you may go.


text:
 Concerning Egypt. Against the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:


text:
 Harness the horses, mount, charioteers! Fall in with your helmets; polish your spears, put on your breastplates.


text:
 What do I see? With broken ranks They fall back; their heroes are routed, They flee headlong without making a stand. Terror on every side, says the LORD!


text:
 The swift cannot flee, nor the hero escape: There in the north, on the Euphrates' bank, they stumble and fall.


text:
 Egypt surges like the Nile, like rivers of billowing waters. "I will surge forward," he says, "and cover the earth, destroying the city and its people.


text:
 Forward, horses! drive madly, chariots! Set out, warriors, Cush and Put, bearing your shields, Men of Lud, stretching your bows!"


text:
 But this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, vengeance on his foes! The sword devours, is sated, drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts holds a slaughter feast in the northland, on the Euphrates.


text:
 Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter Egypt! No use to multiply remedies; for you there is no cure.


text:
 The nations hear of your shame, your cries fill the earth. Warrior trips over warrior, both fall together.


text:
 The message which the LORD gave to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the advance of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to attack the land of Egypt:


text:
 Announce it in Egypt, publish it in Migdol, proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes! Say: Take your stand, prepare yourselves, the sword has already devoured your neighbors.


text:
 he stumbled repeatedly, and fell. They said one to another, "Up! let us return to our own people, To the land of our birth, away from the destroying sword."


text:
 As I live, says the King whose name is LORD of hosts, Like Tabor among the mountains he shall come, like Carmel above the sea.


text:
 Pack your baggage for exile, capital city of daughter Egypt; Memphis shall become a desert, an empty ruin.


text:
 The mercenaries in her ranks are like fatted calves; They too turn and flee together, stand not their ground, When the day of their ruin comes upon them, the time of their punishment.


text:
 She sounds like a retreating reptile! Yes, they come in force; like woodchoppers, they attack her with axes.


text:
 They cut down her forest, says the LORD, impenetrable though it be; More numerous than locusts, they cannot be counted.


text:
 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, has said: See! I will punish Amon of Thebes, and Egypt, her gods and her kings, Pharaoh, and those who trust in him.


text:
 I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his ministers. But later on Egypt shall be inhabited again, as in times past, says the LORD.


text:
 But you, my servant Jacob, fear not; be not dismayed, O Israel. Behold, I will deliver you from the far-off land, your descendants, from their land of exile. Jacob shall again find rest, shall be tranquil and undisturbed.


text:
 You, my servant Jacob, never fear, says the LORD, for I am with you; I will make an end of all the nations to which I have driven you, But of you I will not make an end: I will chastise you as you deserve, I will not let you go unpunished.


text:
 This is the word that came from the LORD to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:


text:
 Thus says the LORD: Behold: waters are rising from the north, a torrent in flood; It shall flood the land and all that is in it, the cities and their people. All the people of the land set up a wailing cry.


text:
 They hear the stamping hooves of his steeds, the rattling chariots, the rumbling wheels. Fathers turn not to save their children; their hands fall helpless


text:
 Because of the day which has come to ruin all the Philistines, And cut off from Tyre and Sidon the last of their allies. Yes, the LORD is destroying the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.


text:
 Gaza is shaved bald, Ashkelon is reduced to silence; Ashdod, the remnant of their strength, how long will you gash yourself?


text:
 How can it find rest when the LORD has commanded it? Against Ashkelon and the seashore he has appointed it.


text:
 Concerning Moab, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo, it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is disgraced and captured, Disgraced and overthrown is the stronghold:


text:
 Moab's glory is no more. Evil they plan against Heshbon: "Come, let us put an end to her as a people." You, too, Madmen, shall be reduced to silence; behind you stalks the sword.


text:
 The ascent of Luhith they climb weeping; On the descent to Horonaim the cry of destruction is heard.


text:
 Because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be captured. Chemosh shall go into exile, his priests and princes with him.


text:
 The destroyer comes upon every city, not a city escapes; Ruined is the valley, wasted the plain, as the LORD has said.


text:
 Set up a memorial for Moab, for it is an utter wasteland; Its cities are turned into ruins where no one dwells.


text:
 Moab has been tranquil from his youth, has rested upon his lees; He was not poured from one flask to another, he went not into exile. Thus he kept his taste, and his scent was not lost.


text:
 Hence, the days shall come, says the LORD, when I will send him coopers to turn him over; they shall empty his flasks and break his jars.


text:
 The ravager of Moab and his cities advances, the flower of his youth goes down to be slaughtered, says the King, the LORD of hosts by name.


text:
 Mourn for him, all you his neighbors, all you who knew him well! Say: How the strong staff is broken, the glorious rod!


text:
 Come down from glory, sit on the ground, you that dwell in Dibon; Moab's ravager has come up against you, he has ruined your strongholds.


text:
 Stand by the wayside, watch closely, you that dwell in Aroer; Ask the man who flees, the woman who tries to escape: say to them, "What has happened?"


text:
 Because he boasted against the LORD, make Moab drunk so that he retches and vomits, and he too becomes a laughingstock.


text:
 Is Israel a laughingstock to you? Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head whenever you speak of her?


text:
 Leave the cities, dwell in the crags, you that dwell in Moab. Be like a dove that nests out of reach on the edge of a chasm.


text:
 We have heard of the pride of Moab, pride beyond bounds: His loftiness, his pride, his scorn, his insolence of heart.


text:
 More than for Jazer I weep over you, vineyard of Sibmah. Your tendrils trailed down to the sea, as far as Jazer they stretched. Upon your harvest, upon your vintage, the ravager has fallen.


text:
 Joy and jubilation are at an end in the fruit gardens of the land of Moab. I drain the wine from the wine vats, the treader treads no more, the vintage shout is stilled.


text:
 The cry of Heshbon and Elealeh is heard as far as Jahaz; they call from Zoar to Horonaim, and to Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim turn into a desert.


text:
 I will leave no one in Moab, says the LORD, to offer a holocaust on the high place, or to burn incense to his gods.


text:
 Hence the wail of flutes for Moab is in my heart; for the men of Kir-heres the wail of flutes is in my heart: the wealth they acquired has perished.


text:
 Every head has been made bald, every beard shaved; every hand is gashed, and the loins of all are clothed in sackcloth.


text:
 On every roof of Moab and in all his squares there is mourning; I have shattered Moab like a pot that no one wants, says the LORD.


text:
 How terror seizes Moab, and wailing! How he turns his back in shame! Moab has become a laughingstock and a horror to all his neighbors!


text:
 Cities are taken, strongholds seized: On that day the hearts of Moab's heroes are like the heart of a woman in travail.


text:
 He who flees from the terror falls into the pit; He who climbs from the pit is caught in the trap; For I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their punishment, says the LORD.


text:
 In Heshbon's shadow stop short the exhausted refugees; For fire breaks forth from Heshbon, and a blaze from the house of Sihon: It consumes the brow of Moab, the skull of the noisemakers.


text:
 Woe to you, O Moab, you are ruined, O people of Chemosh! Your sons are taken into exile, your daughters into captivity.


text:
 But I will change the lot of Moab in the days to come, says the LORD. Thus far the judgment on Moab.


text:
 Concerning the Ammonites, thus says the LORD: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? Why then has Milcom disinherited Gad, why have his people settled in Gad's cities?


text:
 But the days are coming, says the LORD, when against Rabbah of the Ammonites I will sound the battle alarm; She shall become a mound of ruins, and her daughter cities shall be destroyed by fire. Israel shall inherit those who disinherited her, says the LORD.


text:
 Howl, Heshbon, for the ravager approaches, shriek, daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn, run to and fro, gashing yourselves; For Milcom goes into exile along with his priests and captains.


text:
 Why do you glory in your strength, your ebbing strength, rebellious daughter? You who trust in your treasures, saying, "Who can come against me?"


text:
 I am bringing terror upon you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all round about you; You shall be scattered, each man in headlong flight, with no one to rally the fugitives.


text:
 Concerning Edom, thus says the LORD of hosts: Is there no more wisdom in Teman, has counsel perished from the prudent, has their wisdom become corrupt?


text:
 Flee, retreat, hide in deep holes, you who live in Dedan: For I will bring destruction upon Esau when I come to punish him.


text:
 If vintagers came upon you, they would leave no gleanings; If thieves by night, they would destroy as they pleased.


text:
 So I myself will strip Esau; I will uncover his retreats so that he cannot hide. He is ruined: sons, and brothers, and neighbors, so that he is no more.


text:
 For thus says the LORD: Even those not sentenced to drink the cup must drink it! Shall you then go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you shall surely drink it.


text:
 By my own self I have sworn, says the LORD: Bozrah shall become an object of horror and a disgrace, a desolation and a curse; she and all her cities shall become ruins forever.


text:
 I have heard a report from the LORD, a herald has been sent among the nations: Gather together, move against her, rise up for battle.


text:
 The terror you spread beguiled you, and your presumption of heart; You that live in rocky crags, that hold the heights of the hill: Though you build your nest high as the eagle, from there I will drag you down, says the LORD.


text:
 Edom shall become an object of horror. Every passer-by shall be appalled and catch his breath at all her wounds.


text:
 As when Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors were overthrown, says the LORD, not a man shall dwell there: no one shall visit there.


text:
 As when a lion comes up from the thicket of Jordan to the permanent feeding grounds, So I, in an instant, will drive men off; and whom I choose I will establish there! For who is like me? who can call me to account? What shepherd can stand against me?


text:
 Therefore, hear the counsel of the LORD, which he has taken against Edom; Hear the plans he has made against those that live in Teman: They shall be dragged away, even the smallest sheep, their own pasture shall be aghast because of them.


text:
 See! like an eagle he soars aloft, and spreads his wings over Bozrah; On that day the hearts of Edom's heroes shall be like the heart of a woman in travail.Concerning Damascus:


text:
 Hamath and Arpad are covered with shame, they have heard bad news; Worried, they toss like the sea which cannot rest.


text:
 Damascus is weakened, she turns to flee, panic has seized her. Distress and pangs take hold of her, like those of a woman in travail.


text:
 But now her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her warriors shall be stilled. On that day, says the LORD of hosts,


text:
 Of Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, thus says the LORD: Rise up, attack Kedar, ravage the Easterners.


text:
 Their tents and herds shall be taken away, their tent curtains and all their goods; Their camels they shall carry off for themselves, and shout from upon them, "Terror on every side!"


text:
 Flee! leave your homes, hide in deep holes, you that live in Hazor, says the LORD; For counsel has been taken against you, a plan has been formed against you (Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).


text:
 Rise up! set out against a nation that is at peace, that lives secure, says the LORD, That has no gates or bars, and dwells alone.


text:
 Their camels shall be your booty, their many herds your spoil; I will scatter to the winds those who shave their temples, from all sides I will bring ruin upon them, says the LORD.


text:
 The following word of the LORD against Elam came to the prophet Jeremiah at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah:


text:
 I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four ends of the heavens: I will scatter them to all these winds, till there is no nation to which the outcasts of Elam shall not come.


text:
 I will break Elam before their foes, before those who seek their life; I will bring evil upon them, my burning wrath, says the LORD. I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely made an end of them;


text:
 The word which the LORD spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:


text:
 Announce and publish it among the nations; publish it, hide it not, but say: Babylon is taken, Bel confounded, Merodach shattered; her images are put to shame, her idols shattered.


text:
 A people from the north advances against her to turn her land into a desert, So that no one shall live there, because man and beast have fled away.


text:
 In those days, at that time, says the LORD, the men of Israel and of Judah shall come, Weeping as they come, to seek the LORD, their God;


text:
 to their goal in Zion they shall ask the way. "Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD with covenant everlasting, never to be forgotten."


text:
 Lost sheep were my people, their shepherds misled them, straggling on the mountains; From mountain to hill they wandered, losing the way to their fold.


text:
 Whoever came upon them devoured them, and their enemies said, "We incur no guilt, Because they sinned against the LORD, the hope of their fathers, their abode of justice."


text:
 See, I am stirring up against Babylon a band of great nations from the north; from there they advance, and she shall be taken. Their arrows are arrows of the skilled warrior; none shall return without effect.


text:
 Yes, rejoice and exult, you that plunder my portion; Frisk like calves on the green, snort like stallions!


text:
 Your mother shall be sorely put to shame, she that bore you shall be abashed; See, the last of the nations, a desert, dry and waste.


text:
 Because of the LORD'S wrath she shall be empty, and become a total desert; Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and catch his breath, at all her wounds.


text:
 raise the war cry against her on all sides. She surrenders, her bastions fall, her walls are torn down: Vengeance of the LORD is this! Take revenge on her, as she has done, do to her; for she sinned against the LORD.


text:
 Cut off from Babylon the sower and him who wields the sickle in harvest time! Before the destroying sword, each of them turns to his own people, everyone flees to his own land.


text:
 A stray sheep was Israel that lions pursued; Formerly the king of Assyria devoured her, now Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gnaws her bones.


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as once I punished the king of Assyria;


text:
 But I will bring back Israel to her fold, to feed on Carmel and Bashan, And on Mount Ephraim and Gilead, till she has her fill.


text:
 In those days, at that time, says the LORD: They shall seek Israel's guilt, but it shall be no more, and Judah's sins, but these shall no longer be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.


text:
 Attack the land of Merathaim, and those who live in Pekod; Slaughter and doom them, says the LORD, do all I have commanded you.


text:
 How has the hammer of the whole earth been broken and shattered! What an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations.


text:
 You ensnared yourself, and were caught, O Babylon, before you knew it! You were discovered and seized, because you challenged the LORD.


text:
 The LORD opens his armory and brings forth the weapons of his wrath; For the Lord GOD of hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.


text:
 Come upon her from every side, open her granaries, Pile up her goods in heaps and doom it, leave not a remnant.


text:
 Slay all her oxen, let them go down to the slaughter; Woe to them! their day has come, the time of their punishment.


